Hunkabutta Archives
08.26.02

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Today's pictures were taken on Sunday in Koma, a rural area just north of Tokyo.f

We went there because a local, foreign-owned organic food distributor (Tengu Natural Foods) had a mini-festival and we wanted to check it out.

It was invigorating to get out of the city. The first thing that we noticed when we stepped off of the train was how good the air smelled -- like warm leaves and soil. We had never realized how stinky our neighborhood was until we left it.

Beside the festival, which consisted of the organic food distribution center and its adjoining cafe, was a ravine with the Koma river winding through it. The stony banks of the Koma are used as a park by families with young kids and by teenagers with cases of beer.

As I lay stretched out on our tarp near the beach edge I thought about how similar it all seemed to a certain small-river beach called Tidehead, in New Brunswick. I spent every summer from the age of 7 to 13 in New Brunswick visiting my mother's family and we would often go down to Tidehead. My cousins and I would build small pyramids out of the rocks, and catch bugs, and wrestle in the water, basically all of the same things that the kids were doing in the Koma.

Its funny how you take these places from your childhood around with you for the rest of your life as reference points to gage each new experience, as metaphysical yard sticks that you use to measure reality. Although unlike a real yard stick (or maybe not so unlike a real yard stick) our experiential reference points color, shade and filter how we see each new thing.

It's strange to think that someday the places and things that I am most familiar with here in Japan right now will become experience filters in a new locale. One day I might be sitting on the floor in some African hut, or some Australian ranch, and I'll think to myself, "Man! My legs are getting all cramped up just like at our dinner table in Minami Senju."

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08.23.02

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I went to an exceedingly fun work party tonight. It was in a big 'beer restaurant.' Surprisingly, the food and atmosphere were quite nice also.

We got an all-you-can-eat-and-drink-for-two-
hours package deal. These deals seem to be pretty popular here in Tokyo.

I really love this kind of bottomless time-limit party arrangement, not because you get to drink a lot, but rather, because you never drink too much. If you just eat and drink at your normal pace, you come out full and nicely drunk. There's never any staggering back to the apartment at 2 a.m. wishing that you never had those last three drinks.

I don't think that we could have these kind of deals in the West. Actually, I'm pretty sure that if you advertised an all-you-can-drink-
for-two-hours party anywhere in Canada you would have half the town lined up outside your restaurant with funnels and step ladders in there hands. We tend to be a gluttonous culture.

I met some Irishmen who were here for the World Cup and they had heard about these kind of restaurants back in Ireland and wondered if they could really exist. They spoke about them in hushed tones, like the were some type of drunkards Valhalla. In the end, they decided that they just couldn't possibly exist.

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Also, I'd like to say congratulations to Stephanie (Hunkabutta regular commenter 'Schteph')and Chet back in Canada who are getting married tomorrow.

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08.21.02

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The beach that you see in today's pictures is in Kamakura, a small town just outside of Tokyo. Kamakura's claim to fame is that it was at one time (1192 - 1333) an early Shogunate capital.

We used to go to this beach often our first couple of years here in Japan. We needed to escape the hustle and intensity of Tokyo and go somewhere where our eyes could focus on the horizon in the distance.

We would have picnics on the beach with our friends Irish Mike and Brian, Australian Mike, and our friend from Canada Nicole. There would be these hawk-like birds that would hover over the beach all day long and they would swoop down and snatch food right out of you hand as you were putting it in your mouth.

Karen and I used to go to this beach before we got married and walk up and down and collect pottery shards, the beach was full of them. I know it sounds weird, but we were archaeology majors, what can I say?

This was the first time that we went to Kamakura with Jack. I think he liked it. He certainly ate enough sand. I think he'll be carrying around a bit of Kamakura with him for the rest of his life now.

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08.19.02

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Do you find yourself becoming overwhelmed by the sheer number of blogs that are now online? I know I do.

With so many links to click, pictures to see, and lives to read about I find myself turning to my old favorites more and more. I spend less time seeking out new blogs.

This is a bit of a shame because there are a lot of good blogs coming out all the time, and I think that generally the quality is improving as the genre begins to mature.

I would like to see a site that attempts to categorize blogs in some kind of meaningful way so that you can easily find the ones that you're interested in. I know that there are sites that rate 'cool' or 'good' blogs, but they generally just lump all the blogs together, and the blogs are chosen based on the taste of the site's editor.

I'm thinking along the lines of a site that categorizes blogs by criteria such as family life in the US, American living in foreign country, German living in foreign country, photo-centric, prose-centric, etc.

I'm sure that everyone would come up with different categories, but I think that you see what I'm getting at.

Does anybody know if there already is such a site out there?

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Today's pictures are more from the matsuri that we went to last Saturday.

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