kappa no he

Hell Temple

2009-11-12T14:29:00.015+09:00

While in Osaka this past weekend reading for Four Stories, my friend and I visited an odd little temple called Senkouji in an area called Nakano.Here's the sign that greeted us at the gate. It says, "If you tell a lie, I'll pull out your tongue."Lovely.Once inside the temple grounds this little fellow was there to direct us. Wanna go to the Land of the Buddhas or maybe Hell Hall?The temple had a

Dog and Hand--Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T17:24:00.004+09:00

So there is this terrible rustling sound. The dog knocks something off the shelf and then runs away with it. He stole something! I grab the camera. Here he is making a run for it.Figures he's safe on the couch.What is this thing? What's inside? Mmmm, bone marrow.

Messin' with imovie

2009-10-20T10:24:00.001+09:00

Re-embedded link. Let's try this again. Fingers are crossed.

Writing Space

2009-10-14T14:33:00.013+09:00

One of my favorite books is Writer's Houses by Francesca Premoli-Droulers. It's a big coffee table book with beautiful pictures of 20 different authors' houses, desks, gardens, you name it. In it you have Faulkner's southern mansion, Sackville-West's abandoned castle, and Virginia Woolf's sprawling cottage. To see where the greats wrote their books and poetry is awe-inspiring. As for me, on the

Temple Visit

2009-10-07T19:47:00.010+09:00

These days visiting local temples to me is like going to Disney World. I get all giddy and can't sleep the night before. I guess that's pretty lame when you think about it. Shows my age. So here are some pictures from our last visit. Interesting temple things. My husband freaked out when I took this picture. It's called a munenbotoke. I'd never seen one before. Basically, they are graves that

Mountains Goblins are Cool, Too

2009-09-23T18:34:00.021+09:00

You know, it's not only about the kappa. There are all these other creatures lurking out there. Recently I've been enamored with one fellow in particular--the tengu/mountain goblin. Mmm, doesn't he just sound sexy? See, my next book will have some (quite a bit?) of tengu folklore in it. So I've been researching like a mad woman. I've even started visiting temples in the prefecture dedicated to

A New Level of Motherhood

2009-09-20T17:41:00.007+09:00

I've been making obentos since before J was born. But it's only been since he was born -- since he started school, actually -- that I've had this sort of competition going. When he comes home he gets the third degree, What did everyone else's obentos look like? Was there anything that looked really delicious in your friend's lunch? Did anyone comment on your obento?But he's a dude and really

Interview with Me

2009-09-12T21:00:00.006+09:00

There is another Terry out there. And he lives where I used to live. We think we are each other's evil twin. Evil are not he's a sweetheart. Look what he did right Here!See the Happy River Beagle. He's waterproof!

A Doggy Story

2009-09-07T14:47:00.009+09:00

The curmudgeon that lives across the street -- the old man who washes his car in the rain and wipes down his trees with rags -- hardly ever talks to me. We'll both be outside checking our mail at the same time and he won't even say hi. Or in a store, he'll just walk on by and ignore my attempts at greeting. But if we are out walking our dogs he becomes the friendliest guy in the world. He pets

Sending Great-Great Granny Back Home

2009-08-27T16:50:00.021+09:00

My absolute favorite part of summer is something called okuribi (Sending Fires). What happens is that in the middle of August family altars are decorated, family graves are visited, and little ceremonies are performed to call all the deceased ancestors back from Beyond for a visit. It's all fun and games until it's time to send those same relatives back home. Some people float paper lanterns down

Flash Fiction Carnival--Light

2009-08-15T06:28:00.003+09:00

This was written in a flurry (what's up with this font?). It's a flash fiction piece, 200 words, it's super flash! The theme was light. Light Left over right, a length of beryl-colored cotton tucked and straightened until the hem falls straight across my feet. The design is simple, butterflies painted in pastel pink and plum flittering across the sky, the sea? A wide obi

Earthquake

2009-08-11T18:28:00.013+09:00

Yesterday morning I woke up yelling "Earthquake!" And I was right. We were bouncing around on the futons to a 6.5 magnitude quake, the epicenter a little off our coast. It was around 5:00 am.Here's a record of some of the damage around the house. My lead crystal vase, the one I filled with rocks (yeah, rocks) fell off the bar. Didn't break though. Still picking up them pointy, nearly invisible

Ninja Diet

2009-08-03T18:56:00.008+09:00

One of the perks of living in Japan is everything "ninja". There once was a day when I thought of snack food as salty chips, chocolate bars, and the occasional rogue carrot. But then my son brought home these:Ninja Food. To the untrained eye they might be extremely hard gummies. And, well, maybe that's what they are. But that's also what all the modern day ninjas nosh on when they're feeling a

Continuation on a Theme...

2009-07-26T05:17:00.010+09:00

There are many reasons to go for a walk: the obvious health benefits, the pleasant way it gives you space to think, and if you live near me the sheer excitement of not knowing what the heck you're going to come across. Let's see, there was the time I ran into the Poop Lady, then that once when I tried to save the fish (that weren't really drowning, as it turns out), and of course there was the

Drop

2009-07-15T09:04:00.007+09:00

I finally found one! Okay, Koji Suzuki -- the horror author of Ring, Spiral, and Loop to name a few -- has just come out with a new tale called "Drop". It's a horror story printed on toilet paper. It's a horror story about a public toilet. It's a horror story to be read while sitting on the, you guessed it, toilet. I know, this has probably been blogged to death, but I wanted to wait until I

Freak Out!

2009-07-03T08:50:00.004+09:00

This is going to freak. you. out.Well, it did me.Okay, so Neil Gaiman had an apocalypse party when he reached 666,666 followers on Twitter. That was clever. And he made it fun for everyone who follows him by making this page, the Apocalypse Party Page. Here you can post a picture of yourself (with a balloon was the idea but a lot of people didn't). So anyways, I saw this and clicked

I'm in Love!

2009-06-28T17:00:00.010+09:00

I'm in love!Yeah, he's 72-years old. Yeah, he lives on a mountain and has these far out wild-man vibes that make it impossible to imagine him under a roof or sitting in a chair or even eating with a fork and knife. But, damnit, I don't care. He's got this Alpha Male energy that's way cool.Meet my rock carving teacher.I have to drive an hour into the mountains on these thready thin roads to get

My Superpower, My Retirement Plan

2009-06-21T07:09:00.011+09:00

This is an aeonium, a kind of cactus-like plant that originated in the Canary Islands. It grows green in the shade and turns dark purple in the sun. My mother-in-law gave me a small cutting of one many years ago. She made great efforts to explain to me how expensive that cutting was. This single sprig would cost me hundreds of dollars at a flower shop. I thanked her profusely, went home and stuck

Pointy Food

2009-06-07T18:39:00.004+09:00

Today's theme is pointy food. Let's take the goya or as it is more widely known, the bitter melon. It looks like nothing anyone would voluntarily eat. All warty and all.And the taste! It's so bitter that I still can't fathom the bravery of the first humans who tried it and then instead of declaring it poisonous continued to eat it. In Okinawa they stir fry it with pork, tofu, and eggs and it's

Trip Home in Three Chapters

2009-05-28T17:47:00.012+09:00

(Man, settling back in is more work than I remember. And learning how to resize photos on the Mac isn't as easy as I'd hoped. I must be doing something wrong. )Here goes...the trip home in three chapters. Chapter One -- Week OneMy usual strategy for combating jet lag involves much late night TV and plenty of naps. As you can guess, there are some serious flaws in that methond, but discovering

Typhoid Terrie

2009-05-18T19:15:00.000+09:00

Well, we're back in Japan. Our plane landed in Narita last Friday only to be immediately boarded by twenty people in hazmat suits. We were ordered over the intercom to remain seated with seat belts on, no getting up for anything. And just to make sure not a single possibly-infected person hid out in a toilet they locked all the bathrooms. An hour later and the passengers were starting to get

Angel Feathers!

2009-05-09T22:11:00.004+09:00

Wow. Two weeks down and one to go. The last half of visits home invariably become this slippery slide of insane busy -- meeting people, eating good food, and last minute shopping for everything I can't buy in Japan and may be able to squeeze into my suitcase. Today is my first ever book signing at 13:00 at The Bookworm in Omaha. There will be green tea, Japanese snacks, and a funky gift give away

Timing

2009-04-28T23:07:00.003+09:00

No one can ever accuse me of good timing.About eight years ago I flew back to the States within two weeks of the 9-11 disaster. Last time there was an enormous blizzard that wiped out half the mid west. And this time I arrive only to wake up the next morning to find everyone excited about this Swine Flu. The Pandemic Level has been raised to 4 and my dad says airports are closed at 6. Which means

Dog Walking 101

2009-04-16T20:49:00.008+09:00

I'm doing a little happy dance. This coming Thursday I get to go home, back to the States. It's been two years! The next time I post here I'll be sitting at my dad's computer a margarita in one hand, a fist full of BBQ ribs in the other. I'll type with my nose. If you know me you realize this is indeed physically possible.It's always a trick to make the big trip across the pond. One of the

Blossoms, Ascetics, and Don't Pee Here

2009-04-04T14:06:00.013+09:00

It's cherry blossom time. Yesterday we woke up early and drove to our local Lotus Park to catch some blooms.There are the two guys standing on some planks. I yelled obscenely loud for them to turn and look my way. They're mumbling something about my sanity. Here's a closeup of some blooms. Then we had an early obento lunch. Some fancy sweetmeats.Walking around we came across this old man in his