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  06.09.04
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I haven't mentioned this yet, but we here
at Hunkabutta central are going on a vacation
to Canada in July. This 'summer trip back
home' has started to become a bit of a tradition.
As a matter of fact, our stay here in Japan
seems to be winding down. It's still fun
to live here, but not like it used to be.
It's only natural that you start to take
things for granted after a while. So, part
of this vacation to Canada will be spent
in house hunting, or more specifically, 'town
hunting', as we're not sure exactly were
we want to live when we eventually move back.
While we're gone we're going to sublet our
place to a Dutch guy named Derek that Karen
found by placing an ad in the classifieds.
Although it seems kind of odd to let a stranger
occupy your home for a month, it actually
makes a lot of sense given our current living
situation. Our rent in Tokyo is very high,
so it's no small amount that he's paying
us. Also, because we've always been planning
on moving back to Canada, we've never bothered
to buy anything nice for our apartment. Consequently,
there's nothing of value that he could steal
or break. The worst thing that he could do
is wrack up a huge phone bill, but I guess
we'll just have to trust him on that one.
However, we took a copy of his passport,
just in case.
I must admit, the thought of a stranger staying
in our home, sleeping in our bed, gives me
an unsettling feeling, no matter how decent
and honest he seems at first meeting.
Have you ever let a stranger stay in your
home? How did it go? I'd be curious to hear.
 06.05.04
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Today's pictures are from a day trip that
Jack and I took down to one of the many sets
of docks in Tokyo. For those of you who know
Tokyo, these pictures were taken near Shin
Kiba station.
The crappy thing about docks is that looking
at them from the train they seem like they'd
be great to photograph. But when you actually
go down there to take some pictures you find
that the whole area is fenced off and you
can't even get near any of those cool giant
cranes and ocean vessels.
This weekend my neigbourhood is having a
matsuri (festival), so expect some pictures of people
in yukata (summmer kimono) tossing around portable
shrines in the near future.
 06.01.04
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The other day I mailed a letter for Karen
and it struck me how grand the mailboxes
here in Tokyo are. They're big, red, metal
boxes placed atop stout little pillars that
are cemented into the ground. They feel really
dense, as if they were made out of cast metal.
But the best part is that they have two slots:
one for regular domestic mail, and one for
international and express mail. What a good
idea. It saves all of that sorting down at
the post office depot.
As I stood there admiring the design of the
Japanese post box, a long-forgotten memory
floated up to the surface of my consciousness
from the distant past. I recalled a piece
of advice that my best friend Kevin gave
to me back in high school regarding the sending
of postcards. Kevin's older brother David,
an angry and depressed man in his early thirties,
worked for Canada Post. Apparently, David
always said that if you go on vacation, the
last thing that you want to do is send home
a postcard with a beautiful woman in a swimsuit
on it, because there's a huge chance that
that postcard will end up taped into the
locker of some mail sorter down at the distribution
depot.
David knew this, of course, because it's
what he used to do all the time.
It's funny how simple things like mailboxes
can bring back unexpected images from the
past.
 05.27.04
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Yesterday I went to the video store with
my son Jack; he'll be three in July. I was
standing there reading the back of the movie
box for Patton, with George C. Scott,
when Jack walked up to me and handed me a
pair of fuzzy leopard-skin handcuffs.
"Where did you get these?"
I asked.
He kind of grunted and pointed to the
front
of the store; Jack doesn't speak much
yet.
So we walked up together and I saw that they
now have a fine new display of quasi-adult
toys on a set of shelves right beside the
main exit. There are things like strawberry-flavoured
oil, bath soap "with pheromone to make
anyone succumb to your desires," and
these strange nuts (an aphrodisiac?) that
come in little bags of about five each. Mixed
in with all of this masturbatory erotica
for the young and desperate man is an odd
assortment of seemingly innocuous and out
of place items, such as a set of candles
that spell out the words 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY'.
It's kind of a family place, although they
do have the obligatory porno room hidden
behind a curtain, so I'm not sure what they
were thinking with this new display.
My guess is that some absolutely amazing
traveling erotica salesman came in there
one day and convinced the manager that his
store would not be complete until he was
able to offer his customers the latest in
fuzzy leopard handcuffs.
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