The Vacupack

It's Sunday night. I'm printing 23 environmental short films to tape as I type for the event here in Sapporo on 5/30, 5/31, and 6/1. It's a free outdoor screening held at 2Chome Odori Park （大通公園二丁目）at 7:00pm. I expect to see all of you there. 

Here are some photos... the first one is the view from Moiwa Mountain to the back yard of Sapporo. 

The second, a photo of the Garden at Hokudai University. 

The third photo with the guitars is a sweet coffee shop with bitter coffee...

The forth. Now this one's interesting. I decided I would try a lot of things(food) I haven't tried before, so I tried some of this stuff. Chicken liver sashimi. Yep. Raw chicken liver. You dip it in sesame oil, or soy sauce... it's actually not too bad. People here generally really like it. 

The fifth!! My favorite. This backpacker decided to walk around with nothing but dirt, dust and hair to her name. Quite funny actually. Here is the end of the vacuum that dreamed of fulfilling more than just its own destiny, but also of their funner relative. The back pack. It's a bit hard to see, but that is definitely a vacuum turned back pack. It makes sense, it's useful, it's logical. 

Bye everyone!! woohoo

Four Eight Winds

Hey everyone, it's me!

The photos are up there. I want them down there. 

Nevertheless, this is what Sapporo looks like. The top photo is my room while I'm staying here(till 6/3), then a photo for my pops(never seen a guy playing a shakuhachi in a park before), the third is a guy dressed up as a sake bottle bringin up the rear in a marathon, a tulip or two, and some delicious corn. That's all for the photos!!

So I woke up today in my tatami mat weekly hotel room, (say that fast ten times) and I noticed it was raining and real windy. It barely ever rains in Socal, so I figured, whoa, that's awesome!!

I walked down my fourth floor room and asked the lady at the hotel if I could use one of their umbrellas, and she was like, of course! So I grabbed a cheapo clear umbrella but she stopped me. She said it had a broken rod. How could I ever survive with a crippled umbrella in the windy rainy day out there? I looked at the others: I had the choice of tiny bright yellow kid's umbrella, clear cheapo umbrella with broken rod, pink with blue flowers umbrella, or really old antique looking umbrella. I stayed with the cheapo.

Now, the wind in Sapporo is not normal. Lemme just throw that out there. Wind normally blows in one direction or not at all. Sapporo wind breaks both those rules. It blows gusts in one direction, then suddenly stops and all the tree limbs that were pushed in one direction will slowly drift back down to their normal spot. Then it'll blow in an entirely different direction and make ripples on all the puddles on the ground. Fascinating.

In Japanese you would say, 四方八方から風が吹く。Which means, wind blows from four, eight directions. Basically all directions. How could there ever be more than 12. 

So it got too crazy at one point for my poor disfigured umbrella and I decided to put away my loyal Umby and brave the rain on my own. I looked around and saw that there were about four people with completely stripped umbrellas, the plastic or cloth that was once shielding them from the elements gone without a trace. And they were all laughing at each other and tinkling as they walked along. It was just so funny. But my umbrella, of all, survived!! I felt so proud. My Umby the broken umbrella survived better than all those other umbrellas. That's my story. That's my hero. Let us all learn something from Umby. No matter what the odds, persist. And if you're going to run a marathon, run it with some style. 

Dixie Cups

I was thinking about how my friend Lacey in America was so proud that she told me what Dixie Cups were. I didn't know the plastic red cup I was holding in my hand was indeed called a Dixie Cup, I just thought it was a red cup. I was glad we could take a moment and have that cultural exchange, and I received infinite wisdom on the name of this party favorite.

But let us ponder.

What's American? Does that just mean you have citizenship there? Cus' I do. But I don't think you could call me a true American. Inside I'm more Japanese.

I was thinking about this as I was riding the train from Narita airport to Tokyo, looking at all the dog-walkers and wishing I was walking a dog of my own.It's so amazing. Just meandering through those great bodies of water called rice fields. They sure are pretty. It brought back great memories.

But I was listening to Cold War Kids. Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome song called We Used To Vacation, and I love the Cold War Kids. Still, it clashed with what I was looking at. I didn't know whether to be American Dave, looking at Japan from an American standpoint, or Japanese Dave, listening to some foreign music as he looked at his homeland. The weird thing is, I felt like I had to choose.

Why?

I'm not sure.

I think it's because everyone tries to label themselves. It's an easy way of saying: This is who I am, and this is what I'm all about!!

I act differently in each country. In Japan, I act pretty Japanese for the most part. In America, I act American. But now that these two worlds are becoming closer and closer, I'm being forced to act like "me". It's a weird feeling. But a necessary one.

I think it's time everyone started getting rid of these labels and just being a person. I don't feel completely Japanese or American, so by default, I become an alien from Neptune. Right? It's just logical.

No, I think it's better to say we're all people.

Who cares if you're Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, white, black, green, blue(like me), or brown? People, people, people, people, people, people(maybe alien if blue), and people, right?

Does anyone get this feeling? I know everyone acts differently in front of their parents and in front of their friends, right? So what if your parents started hanging out with your friends? Would you know how to act? I just realized that what I just wrote may be a very Japanese thought. Do people in America act differently in front of their parents? I know some do.

You probably see my dilemma now.

I just don't know where my ideas come from. So in conclusion, they come from "me". What am "I"?

Just a person. (even if I'm blue and from Neptune)