Missing in Action

Stefnee is back in Stefnee, Kansas now, getting readjusted to her world. It is never easy to go away for a prolonged period of time and then slip back to the old routines, because once you get out, and see a broader perspective of the worlds around you, you change. You grow. You expand. You really do begin to see things differently.

I hope that she doesn't run into a phenomenon that I and several others I know have experienced when talking about Japan... at first people are interested, but then they start to go glassy-eyed. Why is that? I think that it's just because the stuff is so far removed from their own lives, that they simply have trouble relating. And that is understandable, because every time you get OUT of your environment, you begin to see your world from the position of the observer, rather than just the actor, or reactor. And for those who are just "running the program" and not observing themselves in their world, it can be a bit of a difficult pill to swallow.

We made 55 videos during Stefnee's two weeks here. Some of you may have watched some of them, a few may have seen many of them, and I bet a teeny number of you have watched them all. But whatever you have or have not watched, I just want to thank each and every one of you for the time you spent with us over here in this Shangri-la.

You can visit Stefnee's YouTube Channel, or Cam's YouTube Channel to watch them all if you like. I highly recommend watching #55, or the Sayonara video where we briefly recap everything on the way to Osaka for the last night before Stefnee flies home. I also highly recommend watching the Globalized Rug video if you have not yet seen it. It ties in a project that Stefnee began with all of you for me, and her, collecting material and clothing from you all so that she could weave a rug for me. I commissioned a rug from her a couple years back. Little did I know that it would turn into such a Globalized Love Venture covering a huge amount of geography, and filling my world with all of your love. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I also put about 400 photos up on Cam's Flickr Channel for you to see if you like. Here are the three sets that encompass everything:

1. Cam & Stefnee in Tokyo
2. Stefnee & Cam in Japan
3. My Fave Photos of Stefnee in Japan

Just click on the Details Link to see them in a larger format and feel free to leave any comments there that you like.

I was thinking about some things that Stefnee may miss now that she has headed back home to Stefnee, Kansas. This is a short list that comes to mind:

• The Washlet System - She was very ... hesitant about a system that washes your bum (and other parts) after you go to the bathroom, and resisted my "charms" during all of my "toilet videos". But I think she is a convert now.
• The Japanese Bathing System - I know Stefnee LOVED soaking in my deep tub where the water came all the way to her neck with ease, and I also recall her talking about how cool it is to have an entirely enclosed system where you can move about freely and not be confined to the narrow bathtub when you want to shower. Everyone hates how those stupid shower curtains glom to you when the air pressure inside the shower, and outside changes, right? No worries there! And the kids can splash away all they want without any worries of water damage.
• Hot Canned Coffee - She simply fell in love with the ability to purchase a large variety of delicious hot canned coffee pretty much anywhere, and any time. In fact, she once proclaimed (on our "Stefnee Vs. Japan 34: Automatic Bartender" video that if Coca Cola brought canned coffee to her part of the world, she'd stop going to McDonalds all together! That is a HUGE statement for a woman who visits McDs once or twice a day!
• Smaller Portions - Of everything. Instead of having the huge American sized portions, everything here is smaller, and just about right. You don't need to go away stuffed to the gills.
• Less Sweet Sweets - This is another thing that Stefnee really liked; how the sweets are less "sugary sweet" and more subtly sweet, allowing for all the variety of flavours in the foods to come through instead of being masked by "SWEET!!!"
• Zeniya - This was her favourite restaurant, and no wonder! It's mine, too!!
• Futon Kansoki - For those cold winter nights, even though she told me she loves getting into cold beds, she sure did love cuddling up to the futon kansoki hot boy in her bed the couple nights I put it in there to take off the chill of the near freezing temps in the unheated part of the house.
• Suntory Old Whiskey - This is also my dad's favourite whiskey it seems, and both Stefnee & Scooter concur that it is very smooth, and quite tasty. Since we cannot ship alcohol to the USA, I guess I'll have to make a delivery at some point in the not too distant future.
• Japanese Mayonnaise - This was another very pleasant surprise for Stefnee, and Scooter, and a few of the kids. I always talk about J-Mayo being different, and delicious but nobody really gets it... until they taste it. And now Stefnee gets it. I CAN send tubes of kewpie mayonnaise to them, and I think Scooter is already begging for some!
• Slightly Slower Lifestyle - Slightly. She actually didn't have to sleep with her runners tied up. Just on. Sigh... I gave up on trying to show her the merits of taking the shoes off when coming in the house...
• The Genkan - This is a great system for leaving your shoes at the door, stepping up to a clean, dry surface and not tracking in the outside dirt which really does accumulate much more slowly when you take your shoes off by habit. If you don't do this you may not truly understand the dramatic difference it makes. My uber shiny hardwood floors are testament to that.
• Cleanliness in public places - The first thing Stefnee noticed when she hit native soil was that things are so much messier back home than they are here, even in public places. That makes a huge difference.
• Water Bottle Testing @ Airports - Instead of making you throw away your pet bottles of water like they do in America, here, they have a little machine that simply tests the specific gravity of the liquid. If it passes, you can take your bottled water on board and not have to throw it away. Why don't they do that in America?
• I'll let Stefnee add anything else that comes to her mind, as I am sure there are things.

I know of some things she will NOT miss:

Pork - We ate too much of it, but simply because beef is not nearly as accessible here as it is in Beefy, Kansas. And it is much more expensive. And the cheap stuff is Aussie beef. And I'm sorry to say, but Aussie beef does not taste good (except maybe to Aussies).

• Lack of Central Heating - This house is cold outside of the heated LDK area. I hate it. She hated it.
• Sleeping on Concrete Driveway Beds - The bed she slept on while here (and in the hotels, too for that matter) is much harder than her beloved bed and she was stiff and sore for a good chunk of the time here. My bed is even harder than the guest bed.
• Rock Hard Pillows - She prefers the giant smooshy American pillows to the spaceage memory foam ones that I prefer. I got her a smooshy pillow while she was here so that helped some.
• Lack of Awareness in Japanese Men re. Manners - Stefnee was shocked when she had to drag her suitcases through the train station in Fukui while I had to go and park the car. When she got to a door that was not automatic, she struggled opening it and getting her luggage through. And not a single Japanese man (or woman) offered any assistance whatsoever. That is a big embarrassment of this culture, and I have disliked it the entire 20 years here. Japanese men seem to have been raised NOT to help others. It's too bad because I would like to think that would be a good trait across ALL cultures: assisting your fellow human. This by the way, is not just a generalization... it pretty much runs across the entire culture, unfortunately. Those who are aware, and care are very few and far between.
• 6:45am Morning Announcement - The PA system coming on at that "ungodly hour" drove her nuts.
• 7:00am Morning Chimes - Still too early for our Fabric Goddess, though she was up at 6:30 most mornings (groggily I must admit, and very very grumpy until she woke up completely)
• I think Stefnee may come up with more, but hopefully not too many more, because I'm hoping the "misses" will outweigh the "not misses" by quite a bit.

Oh yeah... I forgot one other teeny little thing that I think she might miss:

me

Enjoy life, gang, and don't forget to breathe.

I love you!

Cam

P.S. Who's next?

Globalized Rug: Coming Home

Well, Stefnee is back in the USA (stuck in San Francisco due to flight cancellations into Kansas [snow and ice storms]) and I miss her intensely already.

But, as Scooter wrote to me in a Kmail to me when I updated him on Stefnee's travel (after saying goodbye at the airport and not wanting to let go of her in my hug... *sniff sniff*),

"You get to back to your "real life" now... but with the extra added bonus of the past two weeks' experiences under your belt to help you move along (into the future)... so it is kind of "back into the mirror", but it's kind of like in Harry Potter 5 where Sirius gave Harry that little mirror so that there would always be a connection... that's what it is... 'through the mirror', but you also HAVE the mirror with you too."

I miss her intensely, but I also have her with me always now.

Thanks, Scooter! That is an EXCELLENT way of looking at it. I love you!

Stefnee, thank YOU for the amazing two weeks you gave me, for giving me a piece of the mirror so that I can carry you with me in MY shangri-la for the rest of my life! I did my best to express my gratitude while you were here, but in truth, what you saw was only a sliver of the appreciation I really wanted to share. I'm sorry you had to eat so much pork and not enough beef... believe me, I KNOW what that feels like! I laughed so hard when you told me that in spite of eating meat for three meals a day you felt like a vegetarian, due to the lack of COW!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! And I hope that now the two brief weeks you spent here, will turn into a bazillion dreams for your children, for Scott, for your parents, for your friends, and for everyone whose soul you touch as you move through your continuous stream of NOW moments into the next stage of the various phases we call life.

I LOVE YOU!

Here is the final installment of the Globalized Rug, where Stefnee delivers it to me!

Thanks to each and every one of you who made this penultimate globalized love venture come true. WE could not have done this without YOU!

And

I

Love

Each

And

Every

Single

One

Of

You!

Life

I've gotten into the habit of heading out the back door to the sunroom to sit, sip my coffee, and ponder life. When we moved in it was just a plastic wall with a mud floor and all the rain splashed up against the house. I didn't find that very useful so I made some conversions, put down a slatted floor, closed off one end with corrugated clear plastic sheets, and put in "Tug's Door" that we had custom made for Tug in the old house. Now (unless it rains... the stupid thing leaks and drips the way it was originally installed) it is a dry space away from most of the elements (most rain, unless it is hard rain) and a great place to go when you want some fresh air, sunlight and a "getaway" from being cooped up inside all day.

I usually have a rug on the floor that I just use out there to keep the drafts from coming up, but when it rains, I roll it up and put it in a corner. It has been sitting in the corner since I left for Canada, last December. Today I thought I would unroll it, lay it out and let it air.

As I started to unroll, I suddenly found this little salamander in the carpet! It was alive... blinking... breathing (shallowly)... but not running away from me as they all do. I realized that it must have been there for some time, was stuck, and probably dehydrating to death.

So I picked it up (it didn't squirm at all), put it on my hand, took it out to the garden, and before letting it down to the moist soil, looked it in the eye (it looked back at me with the most beautiful reptilian eyes), stroked it's back for a while, told it that everything was going to be OK now and that it was free to replenish it's life sources, and move on in life.

And then I let it go.

And I went back into the sunroom... and contemplated...

LIFE.

I love you!

Cam

I Thank You Universe for Today

As some of you may have realized by now, the global economy is not doing too well. In fact the economic meltdown that is dramatically affecting everyone in the world has pretty much washed away my business from underneath me. So... knowing that I need to start again, I decided it was time to let the Universe know in no uncertain terms that I NEED to and WANT to begin again fresh.

I linked to many business people and joined several groups on LinkedIn. I put my resume out on Monster.com (they just spam me now with IT jobs... no THANKS!) I also am looking around a bit here and there, but still don't really know what Microsoft used to ask, "Where do YOU want to go today?"

At the end of January I found a job posting at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. It is a Consular assistant job and pretty much everything they are looking for I can do with my eyes closed. Only one glitch: they need someone proficient in French. Well... for any of you who were in the sciences in University and took an "honours" degree, you will know that there simply is no time for the fine arts. Which means, that even though I really DID want to continue French (since Canada is officially bilingual) I had absolutely no time. I came to Japan and Japanese became my second language, pushing any vestiges of French that still were there after six years of study, out my other ear.

If you wish to work as a Civil Servant for the Federal Government of Canada you need to have a proficiency in English AND French. It makes sense, considering Canada is officially bilingual.

I applied for the job anyway, and put my languages as English and Japanese (Fluent and Proficient), then submitted my resume with a great coverletter telling the truth about my skills, ability, knowledge. I didn't think anything would come of it. I forgot about it, actually.

The other day I got a call from the Embassy telling me they would like me to come in for a written test. I could choose Tokyo (too far, too expensive) or Nagoya so went for Nagoya. In the past three days I have been filling my brain with all of the political, economic, social news about Canada I could glean. And what I learned was that the econonomy there really is in as dire straits as the American economy. It was depressing.

So today I took my adventure to Nagoya. I left home at 9.30, caught a 10.37 train, arrived at 12.44, had some lunch, killed a bit of time, then went to the Consulate at 2.30 and waited for 3pm to arrive.

The receptionist took me to an office, and gave me a folder which had three pieces of paper in it. On each paper was a "situation" that I was asked to respond to. They were basically "emails" with inquiries from Canadians asking for various kinds of assistance.

The first question was in Eglish, and I was asked to reply in English. I had to think hard about this reply because I don't know the exact policies of the Embassy because I have never worked there! But I wrote my reply to the question.

The second question WAS IN FRENCH, and I was asked to REPLY IN FRENCH!!! I wrote at the top that "I do not speak French, but will reply in English" (because I was able to read and understand it). So I wrote a pretty good response (according to me) in English. That should give them a chuckle seeing as how I could read it, understand it, but not respond in the same language.

The third question WAS IN JAPANESE and I was asked to REPLY IN JAPANESE!! Well... I am fluent in spoken Japanese, and do all of my work here ON THE COMPUTER in Japanese no problem. BUT because I never really studied the kanji characters, I cannot write Japanese by hand. I just can't. I can read it, I can respond to it, but I cannot write it because my mind doesn't see the kanji in my head. I know that seems strange, but when you realize that Japanese has a newspaper level of over 2,000 kanji characters, if you don't practice them, you can't write them. For this one, I wrote (in English) that I am sorry but cannot hand write in Japanese because I use modern technology to do all of my written Japanese. I then did my very best to hand write in Japanese the response to the question. I used my dictionary a lot.

At 4pm I handed in my paper, and told the receptionist I would like to add my publication to the test answers for Human Resources to see... It was my way of giving myself a little extra "sales" because my application was only a cover letter, and a resume via email to the Embassy. (yes, I'm published with an article on Knowledge Management in a well-known journal for that field of business).

I left, went to Starbucks, killed some more time, caught a train back at 6pm, got to Fukui at 8pm, got my car out of the public parking garage, went grocery shopping, came home about 9.30, ate dinner and now here I am.

Honestly I'm not expecting anything from that because I don't speak French, but I gave it my best shot, had a good time getting ootnaboot, meeting totally different people, and doing something completely different!

That test was totally unexpected! I spent the past three days learning a LOT about the current economic situation in Canada, and all they wanted to do was test my language skills!

What a great adventure! I'll keep looking for other job opportunities of course, and I think that this opportunity has kind of sparked my desire to get off my ass and start being a bit more proactive regarding that. In these very unprecedented difficult economic times, a career change is going to be a very difficult challenge, but keeping my postive attitude, my love, appreciation, gratitude energy flowing out to the Universe, I know that it will come back to me magnified exactly how I need it, exactly when I need it to come.

Thank you, Universe!

I love you!
Cam

P.S. Yep... those are my very first pair of Chucks. Worn with my "suit" (blazer & slacks). And you know what I call that? STYLE. And being true to me.

Phkkkd by the Pharmas Again

Attached is the Jan / Feb 2009 edition of the Health by Science Newsletter: Jupiter Falling - Scientific proof that the pharmaceutical companies areonce again misleading us softly with their statins (PDF Format) by Professor Brian Peskin.

You can get it at the above link as well, and sign up for delivery when they come out.

This newsletter is a wee bit technical, but it shows you beyond the shadow of a doubt to what ends the pharma companies will go to, in order to profit from their dangerous drugs. It is disgusting.

And this is not a conspiracy theory!

I love you.

Cam

Welcome to Washi Urushi

Welcome to Washi Urushi, the new Etsy store for Max & The Yoshida Artwork Gallery!

I spent the day creating Masaki's new Etsy store. I hope that Etsy lets me keep it as there are other stores on Etsy that are run by one person, and the goods are created by another. I am doing the exact same thing.

The difficulty in setting up this store is that each individual item is of a different size and weight, and I need to pre-package everything in order to determine shipping.

Today I set up nine (9) items with some temporary text. I am looking for some inspiration for these items regarding a more attractive sort of "wordy thingies". I know it will come to me in due time *wink*, I just need to be patient.

It took pretty much the entire day to come this far. We will see how things go.

I plan to list all of my eto, as well as my bonsai. If we get orders, then Max will create something "similar but not identical" to what is displayed. It will take some time to add their art, but because it IS art, I don't foresee what we have listed, or will list, flying off the shelves!

But for now... a year or longer project has come to as close to completion as I can achieve in this NOW moment. I want to sit back and see how well we are received.

Welcome to Washi Urushi (Paper Lacquer)

I love you!

Cam

Obama On Food

The Japanese sure do seem to LOVE President Obama!

Look what they have created now: Obama-maki zushi.

You take a square of nori (seaweed, lay down rice, insert various meats, fish, vegetables, roll it all up into a big cylinder, and cut off slices. I guess they used brown rice...

Can you imagine the minds of the people to have thought up how to lay this all out so that when cut, you have the face of Barack Obama?

For anyone who thinks Obama is HAWT, now is your chance to dive right in and take a big bite!

I love you!

Cam

P.S. Not for the carbohydrate-weak-at-heart.

Note: Image lifted from: http://gawker.com/5156001/obama-sushi.

Special thanks to Dunnster for always finding the most insane stuff!

An Awesome Opportunity!

Does anybody want in on this UNBELIEVABLE deal?!?...

Dear Friend,

I am Mr Smith Kujor a citizen of Togo in Lome in west Africa, I am 40years of age with two children, now living in Cotonou Republic of Benin West Africa, during my staying in my country I worked with one of the biggest company name Alkali group of companies owned by a Saudi-Arabian man called Sheik Mohamed Sheriff who is residing in Riyadh state in Saudi Arabia before is death in two years ago.

After the family shared the properties and companies, I was lucky to transfer to our Financing &Bureau De Exchange as a stock keeper of which I worked till end of this December 2006. Before I resigned, there is a fire problem in my office and our office complex is five-story building with different offices. I was in the office when this fire started and I rushed down to second floor where their is a trunk of box of money that contains the sum of ( 45.5millon DOLLARS) that my office want to transfer to our correspondent office in Belgium.

All effort to off this fire prove abortive till the building burnt to collapsed. None of our staff or officer knows that the ( 45.5million DOLLARS) is in my possession they all believe that it as burnt together with the building.

After our office conclude their investigation on what may cause the fire problem, the management decided to sack all the top officer including me as a stock keeper we are all suspected but there is know trace of this money, immediately I transferred this trunk of box of ( 45.5million DOLLARS) to a Security & Vault company to my neighboring country for safekeeping and I did not declared the content as money to the vaults company workers, what I told the security and vault company that is inside the trunk box I brougt to their company is jewelries and costumes accessories belonging to a foreign investor for security reason.

Furthermore, the only assistant I need is a reliable and honest foreign partner that can be able to come down to Cotonou in republic of Benin in west Africa to receive this money together with me and open a transit account /domiciliary with ECO BANK in Cotonou in your name and deposited this money by cash before onward transfer to your nominated account in your country.

I will offer you 30% of total amount of (45.5millon DOLLARS) for your assistance to act as a beneficiary of the fund and your time to come down to Cotonou for final transaction, 60% will be my own and 10% for any expenses that may be incurred during the transferring of this fund. So this is a risk free transaction, is not a drug money or government money it's a divine from God. If you are interested as a foreign body kindly forward to me your full information as follows;

{1} Your full home /office address
{2} Your direct telephone/fax number
{3} Your scan copy of your international passport or driving license.

All this information is needed to secure your identity card from the Security &Vault Company in Cotonou in republic of Benin in West Africa where this fund was kept as the owner.
Immediately I hear from you I will forward the certificate of deposit of this trunk box to you for assurance.

Regards,
Smith Kujor,
+229 97 08 69 51.

NB, THIS TRANSACTION IS FREE FROM ALL PROBLEM , NOT GOVERMENT MONEY, NOT DRUG MONEY , NOT BANK OR MINSITRY MONEY OR ANY CONTRACT FUND, THIS IS A DIVINE GIFT FROM GOD AND DOESNT NOT INVOLVE ANY UPFRONT PAYMENT

... I wonder how many people actually get sucked into this shit??!?!?!

Food for Thought

Hi! It has been a while since we posted any new content here. I had such a delicious breakfast that I just thought I would share it with YOU! I'll be posting this on the LowCarBlog that Stefnee and I work together as well because there it is health related, and that is where we keep these kinds of things as a repository so people don't have to sift through all the naked pictures of me dancing while washing my mountain bike.

Here is one of my many similar breakfasts that I cook daily. It is an ordinary breakfast to me, but it could be lunch or dinner to anyone. I know full well that most people don't have the time in the morning to create what I do, cooking a full meal (working from home has its definite advantages).

This meal consists of meat fried in olive oil, then a citrus soy-juice drizzled over, a salad with lots of tomatoes (fruit carb), two Stefnee-style steamed eggs with melted cheese on top (fried in real butter, not plastic margarine) and some salt-pickled daikon radish. I also had yogurt with frozen blueberries, and now jus realize that there is a bowl of defrosted, steamed fresh spinach still sitting in the microwave. Damn, I always do that!

When I create a meal, I don't think of creating high/low carb meals, I just make what my body wants. In most cases it tells me it wants meat, meat, meat, with some eggs, cheese, vegetables, water, and some yogurt.

By the way, in case you didn't know this, vegetables are pretty useless to humans since we can't digest cellulose (plant cell walls), unlike cows, goats, and those with five stomachs. Many people believe (brainwashed we have been) that we need the vegetables for the vitamins and minerals, but from a truly biochemical viewpoint (which nutritionists and doctors seem to be blind to, and refuse to recognize), vegetables are cellulose, and all of the "goodness" is locked up in the cell walls of the plants. And since we cannot digest the cellulose of plant matter, we can't get at the majority of those "good things". BUT, meat-based animals can. And they absorb and integrate into their cellular structure all of that goodness (vitamins and minerals) that we cannot access. Then when we eat the meat, because we CAN digest meat and proteins, and amino acids, we get all of that goodness into us. It is the natural cycle, one that nutritionists and doctors and lobbyists for agribusiness have tried to make us forget.

I won't even get into the talk about fiber and its total uselessness for us in spite of what we have been brainwashed to believe otherwise. Science has shown, and published, but not talked about in the news (of course), that high fiber leads to a LOT of complications, one of them being mineral LEACHING (i.e. taking away) from our body as the fiber absorbs and passes through unusued. The other minor annoyance is the increase of intestinal cancer, but what the hell, right? We're all going to die of cancer anyways, so it's no big deal.

Did you know that cellulose is the exact same thing as sawdust? Yes. But, I will say this: having vegetables is a nice way to break up the meal and add some other flavour, colour, shape and texture to the plate. It's really too bad that we are not designed physiologically to digest plant matter...

The only other thing I added (because I had it in the freezer) that I don't usually have is the frozen blueberries. But I saw them, and I thought, "I want them today!" So I did.

And that, dear friends, is the power of our amazing NO DIET eating lifestyle.

So, my question to those of you out there who say that "low carb meals" are too difficult to maintain is this: Is a meal like this undoable? Because it sure tasted damn good to me!

Come for a visit and let me cook for you! You won't be disappointed, and you most definitely will not go away hungry, I promise. (And I have a lot of bourbon and whiskey sitting in my liquor cabinet that I don't drink, so you can sip your way to happiness should you so desire.

I love you!

Cam

The Phoenix Has Risen

A phoenix is a mythical bird with a tail of beautiful gold and red plumage (or purple and blue, by some sources). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible — it is also said that it can heal a person with a tear from its eyes and make them temporarily immune to death. The phoenix is a symbol of fire and divinity.

Many years ago I found the jeweller, James Binnion, on the web. How I found him, I remember not, but I fell in love with his rings that were made with a very special traditional Japanese metal forging technique called mokume-gane (metal with woodgrain patterns), that blended several kinds of metals which then melded with one another to make the most amazing patterns.

I ordered a pingpong ball sized mokume-gane ball from him for Masaki to use with one of his dragons, and it added such amazing depth to Max' art work that the customer was very impressed. I was impressed! We are still impressed, years later!!

I kept in touch with James over the years, and had him design a few rings for me, but we never actually made anything because nothing grabbed my soul. If I am going to wear rings, they need to either reach out and take possession of me, or must have a special meaning to me. This one does (as do the others I wear now).

Most of you know how I absolutely LOVE the amazing texture, and feel of titanium and all of it's characteristics. I bought my first titanium ring and bracelet from another fellow in about 2001 (lost the bracelet in an international flight and miss it terribly!). I just love how titanium becomes one with the body; no other jewellery I have owned does that. I have stainless, sterling, gold, but nothing feels as perfectly in harmony with me, with my body, my soul as my titanium.

Recently I found out that James and his partner had started a new business in which they create the mokume-gane patterns out of blends of stainless steel, and some with titanium/zirconium (to give a grey, black pattern). OMG I loved his designs, so I ordered one!

Well, it turned out that the one that James told me was titanium was actually NOT titanium but stainless, and they had never done anything like that. However, since he took my order, and I paid up front for the ring, he knew he needed to make that ring. So... he and his partner developed an entirely new "know how", technology, to be able to make the mokume-gane pattern in titanium/zirconium! And guess what? They created it on MY RING!

I decided to call this ring my Phoenix Ring because this year is the year of new beginnings, the shift, the rebirth, the BEING. It describes the amazing transition I have gone through the past year with my spiritual studies and meditation, and it expresses my "rebirth through fire" as one might say. I absolutely LOVE this ring! It feels so natural and good on my (shaved) finger, that it really has already become a part of my soul.

I asked James to take photos of the process so that I might share them with you when I tell you the story of how "The Phoenix Has Risen". It is a little complicated, but still... amazing to behold. If I ever meet you, I promise you I will let you see, touch, feel and wear the ring. THEN you will understand why I love titanium so very much! I have semi-retired my other titanium ring for now as I don't have another finger to fit it on because I have my "Eternity" ring from artisanimpact (on Etsy) on the middle finger of my right hand.

God, this ring is gorgeous and just feels so.... NOW!!

Here is a message from James Binnion of www.mokume-gane.com:

That ring is quite special as it is the first one of the Ti/Zr (titanium/zirconium) rings to be made in that way. When you chose that pattern I thought it was one of the Ti/Zr rings but my partner told me after I took the order that the one you chose was a stainless steel ring.

That pattern is actually the end grain of the extrusion. It is what you see when you slice through the bar. So to make the ring I had to convince the end of the bar to become the side of the bar. This is done by making a washer and inverting it. It is forged to make it a conic section , then further forging to bring it in to a tube form. Then trimmed and put on the lathe.

In stainless it is easy to do this and in fact is done cold, but if you try this with the Ti/Zr rings they crack with the extreme distortion that is required. However if you can keep it above 898C you can move it fairly easily. The trick is there is so little mass in a ring blank you have no time to do anything to it before it is too cold. So fast work and lots of reheating to get it to final shape.

It was quite a challenge to make, and while we will offer it as a special pattern it will be quite a bit more expensive (than we had planned) to cover the time involved. So it was a real learning experience for me.

I hope it brings you a new beginning and a wonderful new year.

*****

I love you!

Cam

P.S. If you would like to see the rings up close, please visit my Flickr Page.

Experiment 3258.6: Duelling Squeegees

I am always trying to find the perfect squeegee to clean the moisture off the walls, ceiling and floor of the bathroom in order to prevent mold buildup in this very humid climate. It keeps the walls amazingly shiny as well, and prevents that white calcified buildup that forms when water sits and dries of its own volition.

This one has worked well. Better than the second one, but not as good as the first one (which wore out) and far better than the 3rd one which I threw into the outside tools bin and haven't touched since. I picked this baby up at a car shop. This is the 4th one in the history of this experiment.

This squeegee, the fifth one, purchased at Komeri Home Center, sucks! The polymer used for the blade is waay too soft, it bends, doesn't slide the water well at all, and screams like a squealing pig heading for the slaughter house! You'd think it would be the cat's meow by the marketing they splashed all over the packaging! Unfortunately it's more like the cat's demise.

Actually it sounds identical to the screams that Tug used to make whenever I would take him for a bath. For some reason he loved swimming in rivers and streams, but despised (yes, that strong a word is appropriate) the shampoo bath. Washing Tug was a "joy". I always worried that the neighbours might call the police thinking we were torturing baby bunny rabbits or something...

I won't be going into the past three squeegees and digging up past failures. What's the use? All you have is EN OH DOUBLE YOU.

I love you!

Cam

P.S. I'm not kidding about the difference it makes in your bath! Even Dunnster swears by it now. It really makes a huge difference! It really really does!!

P.P.S. I wasn't dressed like this in the shower... of course... But I figured I had better not try taking any "strategic photos" with me the way I WAS in the shower, because well... you can imagine the results should they go awry.

Teaching Engrish in Japan

I remember my years of teaching Engrish in Japan... as if it were yesterday! The whiteboard markers the kids would run across my dress shirts, how they would slide their hands up my shorts and grab my bum when I was reading to them (yikes!), and of course, the wearing of the jockstrap to prevent doubling over in pain as some curious boy or girl would come up and punch straight out at their eye level...

You may laugh when you see this... but the guy on the video trying to study engrish? A HUGE number of students are really like this! One of the big reasons is that they study to perfect the written sentence, and expect the students to be able to speak. The way of teaching when I was an AET on the JET Programme was totally in conflict with what the Board of Education said they wanted to do. In conversation, even in native language, we ALL make mistakes! That is part of the language, but we keep pushing forward because getting the message across is more important than getting a perfectly formed coalition of grammar out of your lips. Unfortunately, that's not quite how it worked...

I love you!

Cam

A "Farrah Lee" Faucet Majors Job

As I wrote in my previous blog, my attempts to repair the kitchen sink were to no avail. Even new packing didn't do the job. Apparently after 15 years the unit just seemed to have given up on the inside, where I cannot fix it. (Ed: photo taken when everything was apart.)

So, I went to Komeri, the home center that uses a cock as it's logo (why? I don't know) and purchased this new system. The faucet itself cost JPY 17,000 (about $153 at current exchange rates). I also decided to put on this $20 filtration system since I drink a lot of water and prefer it purified than straight from the tap, although I have been drinking it "tapped" for the entire time here.

The water runs smoothly, the faucet rotates well, and most importantly there is NO LEAKAGE. That is a good thing; a very good thing indeed. Now I can relax knowing that if the house is empty for a few days I won't come back to water everywhere. I seriously worried about this when I went to Canada, and the three dishtowels I had wrapped around the base were soaked when I returned three weeks later.

I'll see if I can get the owner of the house to reimburse me; he is usually very good about that so I'm not particularly worried. And even if he says no, it's money well spent.

*****

Note the can of Kirin Beer in the background. Let me tell you a little bit about the mythical beast known in Japan as "kirin". It is an amazing animal, and one we can all admire for many reasons:

The kirin is a mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creature known throughout various East Asian cultures, and is said to appear in conjunction with the arrival of a sage. It is a good omen that brings serenity or prosperity. It is often depicted with what looks like fire all over its body.

Although it looks fearsome, the kirin only punishes the wicked. It can walk on grass yet not trample the blades and it can also walk on water. Being a peaceful creature, its diet does not include flesh. It takes great care when it walks never to tread on any living thing, and it is said to appear only in areas ruled by a wise and benevolent leader (some say even if this area is only a house). It is normally gentle but can become fierce if a pure person is threatened by a sinner, spouting flames from its mouth and exercising other fearsome powers that vary from story to story.

Some stories state that the kirin is a sacred pet (or familiar) of the deities.

Japanese art tends to depict the kirin as more deer-like than in Chinese art. Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd. is named after the animal, and the word kirin has also come to be used in modern Japanese for a giraffe. It's depicted as a dragon shaped like a European-style unicorn, only with a horse's tail instead of a lion's.

Now THAT is a mythical creature your children would surely love!

I love you!

(back to my second beer...)

Cam

Blow a Gasket

In May 2005 we moved into this house from the old 14-room (small rooms) home that we lived in about a km from here. The old place, as most of you know was bitterly cold in the winter due to the mud and thatch walls drying, and "gapping" where the major vertical support beams met the walls. The wind would whip through the house, water in a glass left by our bed would have a rime of ice on it in the morning.

I used to do aerobics in the early mornings, wearing a toque and socks on my hands until I (ME) warmed up from the activity since the house sure as hell wasn't going to warm up. It used to be -8C (about 20F) in the back part of the house where the TV was.

We would use massive industrial-strength kerosene heaters to heat the front part where we spent almost all of our lives (kitchen, bathroom, and a room where my computer was), but for the rest... well, other than going to get something (hands freezing as we dug around in boxes or through drawers), or to watch a movie, we didn't heat it.

Then we moved to this place and it is infinitely better, though the unheated parts of the house (hallway, bathroom, restrooms, second floor) still drop to +3-4C (about 40F) when it's really cold outside (by Japanese standards). The insulation in the walls is a blue styrofoam (1" thick?), and the windows are all single pane so the heat still escapes quite efficiently in winter while the heat seeps in during the summer quite un-nicely bringing the inside to +38C (about 100F). This is not an "eco-friendly" home, and very few Japanese homes are. I hope the new ones are much better than this generation of homes, but something tells me probably not...

This house is probably about 15 years old now, which would be quite new by N.A. standards; however by Japanese standards, when houses are buit to be rebuilt every 35-40 years, it's getting on in age which means that...

Since stuff changes here so quickly, most of the fixtures (toilet, sink, etc.) are no longer supported by the company who built the home and those who installed this stuff. Things change really fast here (like fashions).

The last couple of years the faucet in the kitchen sink has been starting a slow leak up top. When the water is turned on, it seeps out around the base of the spigot. It's getting worse. When I went to Canada at year-end I was really worried about this because I was unable to actually turn the water OFF under the sink, even though I had turned off the taps down there!

I tried last year to get someone to come and look at it, but the plumber who lives in my old neighbourhood said that he works on different unit systems (Inax) and couldnt help me. He suggested I call the toll-free number on the door of the system kitchen unit. I tried and tried but nobody answers. So I started asking the neighbours... and true to Japanese form, nobody knows. And that's all I'm going to say about that aspect of "Japanese awareness".

Since coming back from Canada (I left lots of towels wrapped around the base of the faucet, and they were soaked when I returned) I have noted that the leakage has increased. I have to squeeze out the towel I leave there permanently once or twice a day. This concerns me.

I went outside and turned off the water to the entire house because although I could turn off the cold water pipe under the sink, the hot water one keeps running (conclusion: cracked, or rotted rubber washer in system, or rust preventing complete closure).

Now I am working under the sink tightening everything up in hopes this will stop the water from coming out on top.

If that doesn't work, since nobody around here seems to know anything at all about who made these houses in this neighbourhood 15 years ago, and who to contact for maintenance (even the owner has no idea and asked me to ask around the neighbourhood *rolls eyes*), I am going to have to take a big chance, take it all apart, go to the home center and PRAY that there will be rubber washers there to replace the ones that are in here.

I know what the problem is (thanks to studying my "fix anything ever built by humankind" Dad as I grew up); but since I'm not a plumber, although I have far too many tools for my own good, I don't have plumbing tools on hand (who does?)

What a wonderful adventure! I'll let you know if my tightening of the connections underneath solves the problem (temporarily I guess), or if, when I go back outside and turn the water on, everything comes shooting up into the kitchen!

I think I just may wear my shoes inside the house and come running back in, be prepared to run back out again in case that is what happens. I know I'll probably get another black mark in the neighbourhood black book for doing this (shoes on in house), but you know what? I don't give a phkkk! At least I'm being proactive about it, which is more than I can say about everyone else who lives in a house built about the same time, in the same neighbourhood, by the same housing firm!

Here we go....

I love you!

Cam

P.S. I better go for a pee first.... oh yeah! I can't flush! Well, there's always the great outdoors!

Eat the Yaki Imo Man

The Yaki Imo Man came up my street so I decided to catch him on video and get a yaki imo. It was a wonderful stone roasted sweet potato from the southern most tip of Kyuushuu, Japan, in Satsuma, near Kagoshima where a very big active volcano, Sakurajima, resides.

These things are so soft and buttery, and ... they just melt in your mouth! The outside skin is crispy and delicious. It is just such a wonderful treat to have in the winter when they come around. This is a Japanese tradition.

(Of course I've been suffering from massive carbohydrate overload all evening, and now thanks to that giant carbobeeste I am so starving I could eat a wooly mammoth, hair and all!)

I love you!

(just don't touch my dinner! grrrrrrrr)

Cam

The 4th Process: Managing Your Emotions, Phase 2

Phase 2...

So much has happened through 2008... so much. One of the biggest changes is accepting that the financial crisis in the USA has killed my business in its current state, and learning to live on less than 1/3 of what I was making before (which was not huge, but with no debt, still acceptable when living a simple life in the countryside). It has taken me the entire year to adjust, and come to grips with the fact that I must move on, must close this chapter of my life here, close the work I have been trying to do, accept it with gratitude that it fed me and clothed me and allowed me to love so much, so many. Time to move on...

Another huge change was when I began to meditate with the seven processes that I purchased while studying at the seminar in North Carolina. They have helped me so tremendously in my life. Oh My God they have been transformative! I have grown so much from my meditation, my studies, my talks with those I love and who love me, that my spirit seems to be a completely different entity from that at the beginning of that year. It took me an entire year to be comfortable with the first three processes, practicing them one by one until I was comfortable with one and could move on to the next. One entire year to become comfortable with 90 minutes of meditation. One entire year. A long time in our NOW time, but a drop in the Multiversal Cosmic Buckets of Now. But, still, it was an essential drop in my life. Huge. Stunningly huge. Transformational.

I am so grateful for all of these changes, these shifts, these opportunities to grow and expand, and improve myself. Even though it has been one of the most difficult years of my life, it has also become one of the most transformational. And for that, I have the utmost gratitude and appreciation for the Universe giving me exactly what I requested: opportunity for growth.

And now that we have moved into (Chinese) spring, a time for new beginnings, my mind says it is time to learn Process Four. I am READY for #4! Let me tell you a little about it...

I love you!
Cam

to be continued, with gratitude...

The Fourth Process, Phase 1...

Phase 1...

It has been just over a year since I came back from my business/pleasure trip to North Carolina, took a "leader management" seminar (which I raved about and say was sooo much more than anything I ever expected for my LIFE), met the absolutely wonderful Sheila (Sheila, I know we have not been much at all in contact since last July, but I love and appreciate you so so so much, and I thank you from my heart for your returned love. I love you.), a woman we all know and love dearly.

I visited Jenny in NYC and enjoyed delicious deli food and wonderful walks about the city (I love delis!! I wanna go back and pig out on bacon and coffee!!! I love Jenny!!! I wanna go back and pig out on Jenny! Ooops.... hehehe... Jenny, I also need to thank YOU for your love and support, your friendship over these years, found through Tug, and grown through Cam2PR. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you.)

I met Linda! Wow! I absolutely LOVED traveling to Snogger-Tease, and Woody-stalk to meet with Linda. I love her! I love the way she hugs and snogs!!! (Linda, thank you for being such a dear friend, for coming close to me in love, and appreciation, and friendship. I look forward to expanding our friendship more deeply through the years and sincerely hope we can cross paths again. I love you).

I visited my absolute best friend in the Multiverse Stefnee and her amazing family of six (total)! We did so many things in the lovely June heat, had so many belly laughs ate so much meat (got Scooter sweating with the food bills, I think), cleaned places never before thought of cleaning, and just enjoyed the utter, and total peace for an entire week of love, connections and bonding with Stefnee, our Goddess of the Fabric, and her amazing family, and wonderful friends. (Stefnee, you are the bestest of the best of friends I have ever had... and words cannot describe the gratitude and appreciation I feel each and every waking day I have for you.) At the same time I got to meet HER best friend Rachel for a few hours before I left for home and I had so much fun with Rachel and her husband and kids. It was sooo much fun. (Rachel, I made you a promise and I will keep it, because you and Gary really are that special to me. If you ever need me, seriously need me... ask. I love you.)

I have loved each and every physical connect I have made in 2008; they are the highlights of my year, the joys, the things that brought such happiness and love INTO my life, and allowed me to share the Love Energy I have with those of YOU who have wanted, or needed me. And I thank each and every one of YOU, those of you whom I didn't have the opportunity to meet yet (but may do so) for sharing your lives with me.

I love you!
Cam

to be continued, with love...

Releasing Passion and Talent

I am reading "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness" by Stephen R. Covey. It's a good book, and it's a boring book. If you have read any of his other "Habit" books you will likely understand. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" book... I had trouble with... too much focused on business when I wasn't interested in understanding business, economics, or world affairs. I read half, put it away for a couple years, then read it again. The "7 Habits Family" was much better as there were excellent examples that were much more applicable to real life, and not just the workplace.

The 8th Habit is more along the lines of the 7th Habit.. very business oriented, with some personal examples. After reading many of my other "NewAge Wackhead Shit" books, this one just feels... dry. This is not to say there is nothing good in it. Not at all! There are many important gems in this tome; however they are, once again, difficult to extract, translate and apply to "real life"... MY real life situation. And this is even after I have studied business extensively, and gotten very much more interested in economics and world affairs!

Here is one gem that I want to share with you. It is in Chapter 13, entitled "The Empowering Voice - Releasing Passion and Talent".

There may be some family people out there who can really relate to this example. And if you are struggling, then perhaps what the speaker in this example talks about may (or may not) be of benefit to you! Either way, since this is NOT about business, it should be of interest to those of you who have ever needed to work with the differences that occur in the family unit.

If you find this of value, I highly recommend you order this bood for yourself, support the author, and enjoy learning from ALL of the gems he provides. You can get it at Amazon or probably anywhere else.

I hope you enjoy. I love you. - Cam

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

'Carrot and sticking' -the Jackass theory--is the best form of motivation. (Old Paradigm)

'Carrot and stick' motivation is animal psychology. People have the power to choose. You can buy someone's back, but not their heart and mind. You can buy their hands, but not their spirit. (New Paradigm)

The first alternative to the empowering role of leadership is trying to get results by controlling people.

The second alternative would be to set them loose, to abandon them. In other words, preach empowerment when, in fact, you're really into abdication and ignoring accountability.

The third alternative is both tougher and kinder; it's directed autonomy through win-win agreements around cascading line-of-sight goals and accountability for results.

I (Covey) believe most organizations, including our homes, are overmanaged and underled. Because the friction in our relationships with our children is a painful reminder of this reality, as is the rebellion that often ensues, and because the family setting is so universal, I'm going to begin our discussion of the challenge of empowerment with the true story of a friend and partner of mine who, with his wife, worked to overcome a challenge with their children:

I noticed a "dark cloud" forming over my wife one day. So I asked her, "What's wrong?" "I'm so discouraged, " she answered. "Mornings with the kids before school are awful. I feel that if I were not here telling them what to do next, nothing would ever happen. They'd never get to school. They'd never get ready. They'd never get out of bed! I don't know what to do."

So I decided to observe the next morning. She went into each room starting at about 6:15, gave each child a gentle nudge and said, "Honey, it's time to get up. Wake up." She returned two or three times until they were all rousted out. Then she turned on the shower for the one who has the toughest time getting up. For the next ten minutes my wife returned to the shower repeatedly, tapped three times on the glass door, and said, "Time to get out." "I will!" came the defensive answer. Our daughter finally turned off the showier, dried off, went to her room, curled up into a little ball on the floor, and covered her body with the towel to warm up.

Ten minutes later, "Honey, you've got to get dressed. Come on." "I don't have anything to wear!"

"Wear this."

"I don't like those clothes. They're ugly!" "What do you want to wear?"

"My jeans - but they're dirty."

The emotional scenario continued until all three were called downstairs at 6:45. My wife continued to prod the children from one thing to the next, warning that the car pool would be coming any minute. They finally got out the door with a hug and a kiss, and Mom was exhausted. I was exhausted just having watched her all morning.

I thought, "No wonder she's miserable. These kids don't know they're capable of anything themselves because we're always there reminding them." That tapping on the shower door became a symbol of how we had both unintentionally enabled their irresponsibility.

So I called the family together one evening and suggested a new approach.

"I've noticed that we are having quite a time with our mornings." Everyone started laughing knowingly. I said, "Who likes the way things are going?" No one raised a hand. So I said, "I want to tell you something that I want you to really think about. Here it is: You have within you the power to make choices. You can be responsible."

Then I went through a whole series of questions. I asked, "How many of you can set an alarm clock yourself, and then get up on your own each morning?" They all kind of looked at me like, "Dad, what are you doing?" I said, "No, really, how many of you can do this?" Each raised a hand. "How many of you can be aware enough of the time that you can remember how long you have to shower, and then can turn off the water by yourself?" They all raised their hands. "How many of you can go into your room, choose the clothes you want and then get dressed yourself?" It was getting to be fun because they all thought, "I can do that." "If you don't have the clothes you want, how many of you are capable of checking out what clothes you have the night before, and if the clothes you want are dirty, can do a load of your clothes in the washer and dryer?" "I can do that." "How many of you have the power to make your own bed and get your room cleaned up without being asked or reminded?" Everyone raised a hand. "How many of you can be downstairs at 6:45 for our family time and breakfast?" They all raised a hand.

We went on through every single thing. In each case they agreed, "I have the power and capacity to do this." Then I said, "Okay. What we're going to do is write all this down. We're going to create and agree to a plan for our mornings."

They wrote down all the things they wanted to do and worked out a schedule.

Our daughter with whom we were having the greatest struggle was the most excited. She wrote a schedule down to the very minute. We became their source of help on some things. There were a few guidelines. We decided on how and when they'd be accountable and what the consequences would be. The positive consequences were that everyone would be a lot happier in the morning - especially Mom. And we all know that a happy Mom means a happy family! The negative consequence to not getting up on time and completing all their responsibilities on their own was that they would go to bed a half an hour earlier for a few days. This seemed fair, since lack of sleep usually makes it more difficult to get up. Each child signed their agreement, ate a bowl of ice cream, and went off to bed. So we thought, "Okay. We'll see what happens."

The next morning at six o'clock my wife and I were lying in bed. We heard an alarm go off and the light click on in one of the kid's rooms. Before we knew it our daughter with whom we had the toughest time ran to the shower, turned on the water, and got in. My wife and I smiled at each other in mild amazement. We had real hopes it would work with her-but fifteen minutes early? Within fifteen or twenty minutes, she had done everything that usually took an hour and a half, and she even had time to get her piano practicing done. We had a great morning. The other kids did the same thing.

After the kids were out the door my wife said, "I am in heaven. But the real test is, will it continue? I can see them getting really excited about one morning, but will it go on?"

Well, it's been over a year now. Though we' haven't always had quite the enthusiasm of that first morning, with only occasional exceptions (which were followed by earlier bedtimes for a few days) they've all gotten up and done everything on their own. We've also found it helpful to come together every few months to evaluate how we're doing and to renew our commitment.

It's been wonderful to see the children grow in their sense of "I can do this. I have the power. I am responsible." We try not to remind. It's been a profound lesson, and it's totally changed the nature of our family life in the mornings.

You can see that the parents were initially trying to work from the mind-set that says the kids needed to change, but gradually came to the awareness that they needed to change. The mind-set was that kids need reminding. You've got to check up, hover, and follow up. Maybe you've worked for someone like that. It's classic management/control thinking.

But then the parents reflected on their children's worth and potential - particularly their potential. They knew the children had tremendous worth, and they loved them unconditionally, but they had fallen into the typical trap of looking at their children through the lens of misbehavior. They had also not yet clearly communicated to the children their potential. They did this by asking some simple questions about whether the children believed-if they had the mind to - that they could do the basic things of getting up, doing their jobs, and getting ready to go to school. Because the children so identified emotionally with the parents, the communication took. Commitments were made and kept; potential was released; responsibility was taken; growth took place; mutual trust and confidence increased; and peace of mind and peace at home resulted. It's a beautiful, powerful example of empowerment.

Even though this is a simple little family problem, most people can identify with it. Sometimes in organizations, as well as families, people believe in the potential of others but not in their worth, so they're not patient, persistent, long-suffering, trust-giving, and self-sacrificing. It's just not worth it to them; it becomes a cost-benefit analysis and they perhaps unwittingly conclude that the cost is too great. In fact, unless people have a sense of their own personal worth, they will not be able to consistently communicate the worth of other people.

Modeling principal-centered trustworthy behavior inspires trust without "talking it." Pathfinding creates order without demanding it. Aligning nourishes both vision and empowerment without proclaiming them. Empowerment is the fruit of the other three. It is the natural result of both personal and organizational trustworthiness, which enables people to identify and unleash their human potential. In other words, empowering enthrones self-control, self-management and self-organizing. If this co-missioning takes place, ... it taps into passion, energy and drive - in short, voice.

February 1st was a Shopping Day

This afternoon I went out to do some shopping. We always grocery shop on Sundays, and today was no exception. The weird thing was that the supermarkets were jam packed full! That was weird...

Before I went for the groceries, I stopped by Second Street, like I often do, just to see what is there of interest. I bought a new/used watch (I'm a watch whore... it's Mayu's fault); it's a Fossil, but a special edition one. I tried to find it on the net to get the new price because it has scratched crystal, and they still wanted JPY7000 for it! But the last time I was in I tried to negotiate and they wouldn't. That bothers me a bit because I KNOW they buy these things for 1/10 their selling price... therefore cutting it back even 1500 yen would have made me happy and they STILL would have made a HUGE profit on it... Nope. I guess when you are just an employee, you don't have the authority to do that kind of stuff.

Anyway, it has a thick leather band, and the face numbers are in kanji. I went back twice to see it, so obviously I like it. It kind of suits my new fashion style of rings, jeans, runners and an earring. I'm tired of khakis and leather shoes.

There was a casual zip up sweater I almost got... it was JPY 8000 and then was on sale for 30% off. Grey, zip up, made in Turkey and 30% wool, 70% acrylic. It felt a teeny bit tight across the back, though, although I liked the simple style of it. Maybe it was meant to fit tight, I'm not really sure. IF I could stretch the arms out a bit more I would be happy, but you know what? I bet I could considering it's wool/acrylic blend.

Then I went grocery shopping at Serio Garden (just an ordinary supermarket). I spent JPY 5,500 there and didn't really get any meat because nothing was on sale. We don't like to buy the meat if it isn't on sale, so I didn't.

I then went to Marushin to get some big stuff. They are a "bulk" store that sells to restaurants and the like, so quantities are a bit larger, but not huge like Costco. I always want to go in there, but it is on the day I go to the gym. It is not cold enough to keep frozen stuff in the car for several hours and when I come out it's always closed. So today I went. And I bought JPY 10,000 in frozen meats and stuff like a bag of 25 frozen hamburgers, a bag of 10 frozen chicken breasts, a bag of XXX frozen kara-age, a block of 1kg pork (for only JPY 1300 which is WAY cheaper than the supermarket) a 500g frozen dashimaki (premade egg) to try, a 1kg bag of pizza cheese, a 500g block of salted butter... things like that; stuff that you cannot get at a supermarket.

It sure had better last more than one week! I can't imagine eating 25 hamburgers in one week! It was an expensive shopping, but the quantities are a lot more, too, so the unit price makes it more worth while. The problem is always that Serio Garden never really has any good deals on meat, and even the veggies are more expensive than the Kajiso in Katsuyama across from Katsuki Books on the bypass... I guess it means that if we want to save more money, we need to drive around more to two or three different towns to do our shopping, sigh...

I DID find this fantastic 2kg (4.5lb) can of chunk tuna and I just HAD to get it! Finally, a can of tuna just the right size for moi! The last time I was in there (before I went to the gym on Friday), I was eyeing it... thinking about whether I should get it and find a way to store it in the fridge after opening it... because I certainly don't want to eat 2kg of tuna in one sitting... well, maybe I do... with kosher dill pickles cut in... and Kewpie mayonnaise, salt and pepper... on a big bed of lettuce with tomatoes... mmmmmm...

After that I went to Starbucks and I tried the new honey orange latte... it's terribly sweet, and the orange tasted rather chemically. Don't try it, you'll be disappointed. I actually went into the bathroom, threw the last half of it out, and rinsed my mouth out. Yuck. Even with an extra shot of coffee it didn't help.

There was a folding bike sitting against the ramp to get onto Hwy 8 by Starbucks. It has been there almost a year. I talked to one of the longtime guys who works there, asked him who rides to work every day. He told me that somebody left it last summer out front so they moved it there, hoping the owner would come and get it. Nobody did. Well, I told them I was taking pity on the bike, so I brought it home. When I have good weather I will fix it up, get the tires Un-flat, get all the rusted parts working again, and then eventually take it to the police (after enjoying it for a while if I can, considering it's not made for Gumby Legged beestes like yours truly). I tried to fold it... but it was rusted open so I had to fit it into the car with all the groceries just like that. I'll take a look at it in the light and see what happens.

I also left my card with Maki-chan at Starbucks (my eyeglass girl who has been working there since they opened) and told her the story. I said that if anyone comes for it, to please tell them I'm taking care of it so it doesn't get more damaged and they can contact me. If the police come, please give them my card, I asked. I gave her my card so they'll probably leave it there. We will see what happens. In the meantime, it gives me a fun project to work on.

I thought I'd go to the sento tonight, but changed my mind. I'm enjoying a coffee mug size full of warm wine (my coffee cup) and fiddling with some material I bought at Second Street also. It's a project I have been working on for some time, and FINALLY the perfect materials came into my hands so I could not turn them down!

Anyway, that's it. Time to make some dinner. This warm wine is good (it's just not warm anymore)!

Welcome to February, 2009.

I love you!

Cam