where cider meets condensed milk: Chasing the Happy (Mart) Rainbow

where cider meets condensed milk

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Chasing the Happy (Mart) Rainbow

Forced mirth: Happy Mart bathed in the glow of a rainbow. I saw a CareBear or two, sliding down to get their Happy groceries.

What's better together than Ritz and peanut butter? Always, anywhere, CRACK.

Huge castle, sugoi chiitchai na gaijin. Saw the best ("top 3") castle in Japan on trip to Himeji with the boy toy. This castle puts Okayama castle to such ridiculous shame that it's like comparing the actual pyramids to a child's Lego statue of such. Then again, Himeji-jo wasn't burned down and rebuilt like our local one. It's 7 stories high, still in its original glory, and amazing. There is an entire courtyard designated for seppuku (samurai ritual suicide), with a well to "wash the beheaded". (Do they wash the head or the body? And why?) I didn't feel any spirits, but that might have been due to a traipsing horde of rambunctious office workers on a field trip. I wonder if they all remembered to bring a signed permission form and a brown-bag lunch.

Reason for loving inaka schools: rice planting day! There is no better way to spend an afternoon than knee-deep in mud. Through my schools, I have now planted and harvested rice, and eaten the products as lunch or mochi, which is more plant work than I've done in my entire life. Many of the families around here have a rice plot at their house, but most of my teachers are from the city, and have to learn what to do. All of my schools have rice plots, and the primary schools also have vegetable gardens, chickens, and rabbits. Last month one of the school rabbits gave birth to stillborns and then ate half the litter. It was disturbing because I was only told "Baby rabbits!" (without the "dead" or "chewed up" modifiers), but the kids were fascinated to learn about death nonetheless.

posted by Raychaa @ 10:11 PM

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