Welcome Back NYC

Back from a 2-month pleasure trip to Japan and a weekend excursion to Southern California for a weddng, I'm finally able to spend large amounts of leisure time in my apartment without having to worry about taking a plane trip anywhere in the upcoming weeks.

The past few weeks I've spent trying not to look for employment; a considerable amount of cash remains from the tranche I deposited from my savings account. With that being said you might do well to consider me part of that elite group known as the 'idle rich', since I spend most of my time daydreaming and night-owling. After all, the idle rich are responsible for the world's most creative and sometimes lucrative forms of artistic expression. Without them, we wouldn't have things like Modern Art, or Curb Your Enthusiasm for example. Once I do exhaust this first installment of my hard earned cash, I'll be begging just like the 9-10% of our nation's actively job-seeking workforce.

In other news I'll be starting grad school next week, my first class in Mathematics for Economists on Thursdays. I've also got a few going out stories to tell, but I'll wait until I receive some photos for better visual enhancement.

Random things that make me happy despite living in NYC:

1. Coming back to an unfamiliar spot where I locked my bike and still having both wheels and the frame intact.

2. Going to a bar on a random night and hearing the bartender tell you there is a 2-for-1 drink special.

3. DJ's that play any song by Prince.

Hagi Digs

My friend who put me up for 3 weeks in his home in Hagi just sent me some pictures. He thought it was funny that as he would rise in the morning to make his cup of tea, I would be getting back from a long night of drinking. Then as he would lay down to take his afternoon nap, thats when I would wake from my gentle slumber and prepare for another wild night.


This is Juko Nakamura aka "The Artist". He is the best-known maker of these medium sized traditonal Japanese figurines that are put on display during a traditional Japanese wedding. They sell for about $200 bucks a piece, and he makes dozens per day. He busts his ass during the Fall and Winter making hundreds of these things, and after he sells them off he can relax during the spring and summer months. During his time off he also paints. One of his works was shown in the Louvre during a special exhibition, but he wants to have his own museum featuring his own works, and those of other artists he admires.

This is Juko's apprentice, Mio. She's from Osaka.





This is the bedroom where I slept. This is was Juko's basement where he kept all of his paintings when he did not have any open exhibitions going on in some part of Japan. I slept next to a replica of Duchamp's Fountain.



You should've seen Juko's face twitch when I innocently pointed towards the "Fountain" after he asked me if I knew where the bathroom was in his house.

I thank Juko for his incomparable hospitality. The first night I slept here, the mosquitos gorged themselves on my blood, and I had to buy one of those machines that creates a mosquito forcefield with a radius of about 25 feet. I have no idea how it works, but on the second night when I plugged it into the wall and switched it on, I slept as soundly as a ladybug in an amber paperweight.

Carbonite Hangover

You may or may not remember a trip to Europe that I took last year to watch the soccer championships. While I was in Austria pounding Bavarian beers at our hostel in Vienna I met a Japanese guy who is from a town not far from Hagi. I rang him up one day and told him I could come visit for the weekend to catch up and that sort of thing.

Shimonoseki is the largest city in Yamaguchi prefecture so I was pumped that we were going to make a wild night out of it. After Yuichiro picked me up, I noticed we were slowly drifting into the country. He told me we were going to eat dinner at his house which is unfortunately not located in the kind of night locale I was expecting.
At his house however, there was beer by the kegload and he told me that we would be going scuba diving the next day, so my mood had certainly perked up a bit.

What I didn't predict was the quantity of beer and wine I would consume in one night, and after waking at 6 AM sharp to drive to Nagato I felt about as good as Han Solo just after waking up from his carbonite sleep.



While coping with what I call a "Carbonite Hangover", the scuba diving had certainly tested me, but I fought bravely against the urge to reverse my bowel movements into the mouthpiece of my oxygen tank.

Here is a photo of me losing the battle against the Carbonite Hangover. While everyone was eating lunch I passed out in the grass in this uncomfortable position while my newly acquainted friend Taka mocks me.



Here is a photo of me in better spirits after napping for a bit. Yuichiro is the fellow on the far left. Some other girl in our diving group was celebrating her 50th dive.



There was a moment when Taka led me into a cavern about 15 meters deep, where the suns' rays could not penetrate, and the temperature had noticeably lowered. We reached a dead end and I got a feeling for some reason that Taka might rip my oxygen tube from the tank like Roger Moore does to that dude in Never Say Never again. I had to turn around just calm myself down. Another symptom of the Carbnite Hangover is paranoia.

This is Taka and me posing for a photo.



Then Taka said he wanted to be cool like me and pose with his shirt off too.



On Thursday I leave Hagi for Fukuoka, and Taka and I are going drinking for what will be the last time before I head home on Friday morning from Fukuoka Airport. It is impossible for me to describe how much fun I've had the past two months, so I won't.