A couple of comments asked about the corneal scar I mentioned in a previous post. Well, it isn't as dramatic as Onigiri might imagine--no, I did not get stabbed in the eye like your cousin. Whew! Now that would be a story to tell. My story is much more mundane, but the effects of this "malady" are much more amusing... well as amusing as a handicap ( Read more... )

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M's home. I'm so happy, I kept playing Ayaka's song, Okaeri, in my head all day long.

Go to my main blog to hear Okaeri by Ayaka, the theme song for the J-drama Zettai kareshi
I spent all of Wednesday cleaning the house, but I guess I had let the house go too long unattended. I didn't pass the white glove test.
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I haven't mentioned this, but for the past 5 weeks, M has been in Japan. Her mother was diagnosed with Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, a kind of lung cancer located in the small vessels of the lungs that function in the oxygenation of our blood (I think). Apparently it is most prevalent in nonsmokers, elderly women and Asians. This makes M's mother ( Read more... )

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The other day was Father's day, but I guess I have no standing as a father anymore. I occasionally e-mail my daughter in Japan, but she hasn't responded in over a year. I have't seen her since 1999--the last time I went to Japan--when she was 12 years old. Now she has graduated from a vocational school 専門学校, moved out of the house and is living in ( Read more... )

I love tomatoes. So the current outbreak of salmonella is very disturbing. Then I heard what it is that spreads salmonella to the tomatoes: fecal matter. One possibility is that feces can be directly spread by animals when they step onto infected droppings, then tread through open fields. Indirectly, animal waste is used to create manure, and while ( Read more... )

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We age in different ways: physically, mentally spiritually. Fortunately for me, I think I age a bit slower than many others. I don't know if it has to do with being Asian, or if it's because I chose a profession in which I am surrounded by younger people, or simply because I allow stressful situations to slide off my Teflon-coated teenage mentality ( Read more... )

もう一度布団にもぐる窓の雪

Once more
I crawl beneath the comforter.
Snow at the window

TH 1956
Unfortunately for me, there is not enough snow on the window sill to justify more time in bed, as Dad imagined back in 1956. If there were a few more inches on the ground, a few more clouds threatening to disrupt traffic, then there would be a chance for school to call ( Read more... )