Music

The nearby elementary school has changed its morning welcome song to 'Sleigh Ride.' It's 30 degrees in June and all I have running through my brain is,

"Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling you-hoo!"

I think I may be going crazy.

Does anyone actually call 'you-hoo' anymore? Did anyone ever really call 'you-hoo' outside of a song or a sitcom?

Yep, I am crazy. But many of you already knew that.

Also, in other music news, my new favourite web site:
www.pandora.com

How's the weather today?

So I may have been a bit overzealous in my estimation of the amount of rain we were going to get. Already there have been brief hours of beautiful blue sky. But the heat is always lurking. Sucking up the moisture into the sky to release it onto us again. So that when it rains it feels inevitable. Like it's always been.

Everything feels wet. Like it will never be dry again. But still you hang your towels out to dry, offering them to the cloudy sky. Bringing them in the next day not damp, but not dry either.

You urge to shower is constant, even though the feeling of wet is everywhere. Your sweat clings to your skin like magnets, and it feels like it draws other water towards you, like a reverse shower of some kind. Sometimes it feels like you're in a bath on the street. That somehow everyone should be naked because we're living and walking in one giant onsen. Luckily, that is not the case.

Everything smells wet. Not moldy, wet. Like stepping out after a rainstorm when the world feels fresh and you think ahh, yes. Spring, clean. And really that's what it smells like. Nothing is covered with the same layer of dirt and pollution. Everything smells like itself again. The water just helped you find that.

So obviously not everything about rainy season is bad. Despite perpetually wet feet, I much prefer it to the rest of summer. Well, except for festival season, which I hope to enjoy more of this year. Yukatas and fireworks and 4 am ice cream runs. Something to dream of when you're trapped on a train in a suit.

Wet, wet, wet

"Which color umbrella do you want?"

"Why, is it raining?"

"Rainy season started today."

"Just because it's rainy season doesn't mean it's raining."

"..."

"Black umbrella, please."

Rainy season was supposed to start today and at 6am the heavens did indeed open and begin to drip. And will continue to do so for the next 2-4 weeks. I love the fact that even the weather runs on schedule here. I hate the fact that rainy season is part of the schedule. I predict 2 weeks of steady rain and 2 more weeks of intermittent rain. Then the real heat begins. Oy. Only 3 more months of running this weather gauntlet. Then we're home to struggle through the Canadian winter.

In other news we experienced our first earthquake. Very minor. If you weren't awake at 5am, like we were, you wouldn't have even known it happened. Even if you were awake you might not have noticed it. Just a slow gentle swaying of the buildings.

Also we just spent some money on a cool camcorder. Very nifty. However looking at the receipt makes me feel a little bit sick. But maybe we'll be adding movies to our picture site soon. Check out our updated photos with pics from Koyasan and karaoke, stories to follow soon.

Food Fights

Gah! I've finally done it. I've voluntarily added cornflakes to my salad. Granted it was poor quality fruit salad that needed a little extra something. And they were chocolate cornflakes (don't judge me!!), but I've finally joined the food insanity.

But I REFUSE to eat risotto pizza...yikes!

TV

Back in Osaka life continues as normal as it can be in the Bishop household. Today I was going to write about bums, I really was. And I don't mean those cute little homeless people, I mean honest to goodness rear-ends. Even though the subject has been written about numerous times it really is a topic that cannot be easily exhausted here. However, today I have to mention Japanese TV. Again a subject that has been written about numerous times but as I write today I'm watching NHK, Japan's public television channel. Apart from the interesting subscription payment plan, (They don't send you a bill in the mail, they send a person door to door collecting cash instead. This is because while it is said to be mandatory there is no enforcement for non-payment. In fact there have been many article written about how to dodge the NHK man. Strangely, we've never been home when they've called asking for the $600 fee. (We can never avoid the Jehova's Witnesses though, dang Jovies.)), and apart from the scandals over said payment plan (apart from the obvious logistical and logical conundrums, several NHK executives have been convicted of fraud and embezzlement), NHK is a great channel. It's specialty seems to be educational TV for young and old alike. There are interesting exercise shows, great dubbed news programs for us foreigners and lots and lots of language shows. In the evening many people sit down to learn English, Chinese, German, French, Italian and Spanish. In the afternoon they even have a Japanese program for the more conversationally challenged among us.

I have to say I love the other "how-to" shows the most. How to play (insert instrument of your choice here), how to take pictures, how to wear a kimono, and my favorite, how to swim. I'm still trying to figure out how to practice at home while watching TV, but watching the lower level rheumy businessman student struggling to stay afloat is a lesson in perseverance if nothing else.

Not that I've been watching TV. We've both been working too much to do much of anything lately. But the perfect accompaniment for the English lessons has finally been released, and we bought copies the other day. That's right! CD's for the young English learner in your life, complete with chants and songs performed by yours truly. And some guy named Matt. They didn't have auditions for the male part, so Carl isn't on them. If you want I can send you a copy of these strangely catchy tunes. But NHK doesn't have a "how to sing" show so there's no quality guarantee.