denbushi.net

…if you want a pet in this city. This little kitty will set you back about a thousand bucks (!!!), and that doesn’t even include kitty litter.

Kusatsu Onsen lies deep in the mountains in Japan’s Gunma prefecture, two-and-a-half hours by express train northwest of Tokyo. Rie and I spent a couple of days there enjoying hot springs and fabulous weather. We stayed at the Hotel Ichii, a mid-range ryokan located in the center of the town proper, and where you can [...]

  I broke up with my girlfriend, and after a few tearful weeks of coping and transition did the next logical thing: place a personal ad in the local weekly.   Sure, I mean, hey, of course I can get a date on my own. It’s Tokyo, for God’s sake. Any upright-walking caucasian with vocal [...]

[Note: this latest missive contains nary a word about the events in New York. Instead, I’m keeping with the standard format of these things, which means assorted minutia about things here and related photos. I have a half-written essay on the subject languishing on my D: drive, but I don’t know where I want to [...]

I’m a consultant. I consult for a living. That’s what I do, and this is what it usually looks like, presented in a metaphorical and readily-accessible idiom. The Setting: a meeting room. Seven or eight people are seated around a large table. Broad windows look out over Tokyo in all it’s gray and brown splendor. [...]

At five p.m. the bells start to chime. The dull notes echo amid the buildings of Tameike-sanno as if to say, “It’s five o’clock.” They play an old children’s song called Yuyake-Koyake that’s supposed to remind schoolkids to high-tail it home for dinner. Why they broadcast it every afternoon in the middle of a bustling [...]

The simple two-position switch on the front of my rice cooker has been a little flaky since I moved back here. Something related to a fierce denting it enjoyed en route somewhere between Seattle and Tokyo. I press the switch down (the Cook That Rice setting) and it forgets to pop back up into the [...]

Two girls sit talking a few feet away in First Kitchen. The place is a kind of second-tier fast food chain whose name, when spoken by teens like these, sounds just like “fucking.” They play with their food and cell phones absently, passing the time in idle chatter. “So which do you think is worse, [...]

As a wee sprite of thirteen or fourteen I would often pull out one of the many Rush albums I owned, place the needle in the groove, and spend the next hour or so furiously drumming air to the likes of Red Barchetta or The Spirit of Radio. Pretty sad, I know, but it was [...]

The first quarter of school has come and gone, and I finished up classes a number of weeks ago. I had been fretting about final exams, but the fates were kind and didn’t produce even one. This made the transition from School Time to Summer Vacation much different than it had ever been in the [...]