My Urban Eyes

Moving On

2008-12-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

It was inevitable. This blog got old. The code got more and more convoluted. I love the color scheme and design to no end but sometimes you just have to move on. Not to mention that I'm moving to Japan and I want a blog to reflect that. This blog will still act as an archive but all of my new adventures will be posted at

http://japanese-me.com

Thanks for reading, and see you on the new site!

Thinking Ahead

2008-12-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

So, this blog is old. Very old. I mean, just look at the nav bar on the left. With my move to Japan I'm going to start a new blog, running into the age old problem--what to call it? I'm asking you guys for suggestions. Guidelines:

1. It has to be something my mom, i.e. any normal person, can spell. As much as I like the name kawasakidreaming.com, I'm not sure any non-Japanese can spell that correctly on the first try. Not to mention I'll get all kind of false hits from motorcycle lovers.

2. If the name has something to do with Japan, great. If not, that's okay.

...that's it. Let me know your ideas, and if I like them one may become the name of my new blog! That's like taking your own little slice of the web and making it your own! -_^

The Downward Sprial Continues

2008-12-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Is the bad news ever going to end? Unemployment at 6.7 percent. Many thousands are underemployed or simply gave up looking. Beyond the numbers I'm starting to see the effects at work--30 and 40 year olds are applying for part-time jobs at coffeeshops, and every last one has a look of desperation on their face. A friend in the sciences has been job searching for months with no avail. The only jobs she can find are below her degree level and she's so overqualified they don't take her seriously.

This stinks.

And here I am, willingly giving up my steady job to jump ship and head to Japan. Luckily I have a wide and deep safety net, but it's still unsettling to jump so far when the footing is so unsteady.

But if I don't do these things in my 20s when will I ever get the chance to do them?

Black Friday - Convo of the Day

2008-11-29T00:29:00.000-08:00

Customer: So, what time did you guys open this morning?
Me: Five am. But we get here at four.
Customer: Wow, extra early for Black Friday, eh?
Me: Nope, we get here at four every day.
Customer: What???
Me: ...we're a coffee shop.

Your baristas wake up at ungodly hours each and every morning to make sure that you can get your cup of joe. Show them some love.

Suit Shopping

2008-11-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

Why do things always have to be so difficult?

I have a job interview coming up on Saturday so I thought it would be a great chance to get my first proper suit. A trip to H&M proved fruitless, as everything was too trendy--skirts too short and necklines too plunging for conservative Japan. Macy's had a better selection, though, and a half-off sale to boot! I rooted around until I found the perfect suit--plain and black, no ruffles or sparkles, and a skirt that brushed my knee. Perfect! Ken said it was just the thing.

I love two piece outfits because I'm sized differently on top and bottom. I think a lot of women have this issue, with bust not matching hip perfectly. We're human, for goodness sake. I'm just backwards, with my hips being smaller than my bust. By two sizes. Yah. I know.

So I ask the nice lady if they happen to have the jacket in size x. Just the jacket, she asks? Yes, as I take different sizes. Oh no, these are sold as sets, with size y skirt matching size y jackets, she replies. Separates are one floor down.

We head downstairs. Separates? Where? I saw three suit jackets, and only one of those was black. Not to mention ugly. Bah.

Retailers--please understand that real women come in all sizes, and may even be "mis-matched". Let us buy nice coordinating suits, even if our sizes are little "off". I ended up with a suit jacket from H&M. It's a little cheaper than I wanted. I'm going to pin the neckline so it doesn't gape too much.

But they were willing to sell me my size.

Photo by stillburning

Utter Happiness...

2008-11-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

...is this. A walk to Japantown hand in hand, with the requisite stop for coffee. Sitting near the pagoda, watching kids of all ages play hide and seek in its legs. Reading books in Kinokuniya without the intention to buy (today, anyway). Discovering in horror that Safeway has already sold through its churros and buying two old fashioned donuts instead. Stocking up on juice and croquettes at the Japanese market. Walking home in twilight, rating the cuteness of each passing dog. And now, writing a blog entry in bed while my love dozes next to me. The soft sound of his breathing.

A golden moment in time.

I Voted

2008-11-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

Have you?

Describe Yourself in 600 Characters or Less

2008-10-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

If it were just a "hey, how are ya" introduction it would have been fine, but a company in Japan I just applied to wanted my resume in 600 characters. Not words, characters. Letters. I managed to get the (insanely long, now that I look at it) name of my university, degree, titles of two jobs, and some info on my Japanese ability in there. Nothing on volunteering or any substantial details about my responsibilities. It's what they wanted so it's what they'll get, but I can't help but feel short changed.

FYI: This entire post, minus the title, has 598 characters. Imagine a resume here.

Traditions

2008-10-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Some traditions have humble beginnings. So humble, in fact, that we don't notice they've become a tradition at all. Case in point:

Ken and I have a habit of buying three churros whenever we go to Safeway. We each eat one on the way home and save the last for a midnight snack. There's no real reason other than that we tried them one day and liked them. A sugary snack also gives the boost of energy we need to walk home with our heavy load. I usually finish mine before we're out of the (big) parking lot.

Traditions don't have to be big. It can be as simple as visiting the same Wendy's before each hockey game or a cup of herbal tea shared at the kitchen table. (Yes, I'm big on food traditions, why do you ask?)

In Japan I'm looking forward to setting up new traditions that I can't do anywhere else. Maybe going to see the fireworks in Yokohama or wearing a yukata to a summer festival. Stopping by the supermarket after work to pick up ingredients for that night's dinner (again with the food). Maybe we'll be lucky enough to make a summer vacation or weekend getaway a regular occurrence. I'm sure whatever the traditions end up being they'll emerge before I even realize they're there. In a good way.

Photo by framboise

Ah, the Downward Slide

2008-10-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

Photo by Duo de Hale

Whenever I have a printer problem I think of the movie Office Space. ("PC Load Letter? What the f$*k is that?") The last few weeks have brought the film to mind for different reasons.

Peter Gibbons: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.
Dr. Swanson: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Dr. Swanson: Wow, that's messed up.

For the last two weeks I've thought, "Well, it can't possibly be worse than last week." A bank going under, massive drops in the stock market, things that can't possibly be matched. And every week the headlines in the New York Times indeed get worse and worse. (Have you seen the increase of boring graphs on the front page? This stuff is so important aesthetics have been thrown out the window.)

Being on the West Coast has been odd time-wise. The New York Stock Exchange's closing bell usually rings while I'm at work, locking in the day's loss just after lunch. I have a front seat watching Japan's market, catching the first few hours of trading on the Nikkei. My schedule goes something like this: arrive home at two, click on npr.com. Jaw drop. Go to Japanese news website. Jaw drop. Look at the current USD/Yen exchange rate... lather, rinse, repeat.

I think the most frustrating thing is that I'm helpless. There's nothing I can do to fix the problem. It's not a size issue--presidential elections are huge and I'm calling swing states to do my part (go Obama!). It's not that the problem doesn't affect me--I'm paying higher prices for groceries than ever before. Who would have thought that milk would become a luxury, to be bought in small quantities and stretched into as many cups of tea as possible? Good thing I'm not looking for an apartment, as rents in my part of San Francisco have gone up by more than 25% in the last two years. If I had to get a studio today I would be in an outer neighborhood like the Richmond or the Sunset, a half an hour or more from downtown.

Things are getting worse and I can see it. I don't have anyone I can blame. I don't even have a victory garden to plant. All that's left is to watch and wonder just how far we can fall.

Japan-bound

2008-09-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

This may seem sudden... but that's because it sorta is.

I'm moving to Japan.

The whole story:

My boyfriend, Ken, is Japanese. He'll be finishing up school this December, giving us the opportunity to move someplace neat to start the whole adult/life thing. And where better than Japan? The chips really fell into place--his dad dabbled in real estate during the Bubble and bought an apartment, hoping to make money on it. He picked an awesome location--a five minute walk from two different train stations, a half hour from Shinjuku, Tokyo, on the 21st floor of a modern apartment building with views of Mt. Fuji on a clear day... the works.

Well, the Bubble crashed and now the apartment is worth half of what it was in the early 90's. The mortgage was finally paid off and the last renters left long ago, leaving a nice, furnished crash pad for Ken's flight attendant sister and business-tripping dad.

When Ken's family heard that we were interested in moving they said, "Why don't you stay in the apartment?" Rent free. O_O

So, we have a place to live, he's searching for a gaming company to work at (he's an illustrator), I'm doing the whole job search thing to find a nice English language school to teach at... and my life will be changing significantly come 2009. I can't wait. ^_^

Pastel by Ken

2008-09-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

Ken wasn't very happy with the last drawing of his I put up, ("You picked that one??"), so he offers this hand picked piece. ^_^

Instant Natsukashii

2008-09-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

All of my "Japan" friends, listen to this--it will bring everything right back. I'm doing a little dance and dreaming of cheap pineapples even as I write this. ^_^

One Step Closer

2008-08-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Test date: December 7th. Mad studying has been going on for a while and will only continue. Wish me luck!

PS - Even though the Japan Foundation is in LA, the test will be in good ol' SF. ^_^

The Bridge

2008-08-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today Ken and I finally went to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Part I: Signs

Ken: "You want to take a picture of this sign? Really??" Yup.

Issues with this sign:
1) Is a missile not an object?
2) Were they having so many missile problems that it deserved its own listing?

Part II: The View

Foggy in SF... go fig.

Part III: The Bridge

In case you ever wanted to know, the bridge is painted in International Orange. It's a color that goes well with the surroundings while remaining (more) visible in fog.

We had a great day, topped off with Ken's first In-N-Out burger. I got fries "animal style" for the first time--they add cheese, spread (kinda like thousand island dressing), and grilled onions... there's a reason they give you a fork with it. Really good.

The last shot is always the best.

The Real Deal

2008-08-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Dim Sum on Clement--yum.

You know the place has got to be good when it's packed with Chinese people and you hear Mandarin every where you turn. I tried a bunch of stuff where I didn't even know what it was... and it didn't matter. It was all delicious.

Yan here was a tour guide of sorts, telling us what was in each dish. "Who wants chicken feet??"

"Um... we'll pass."

Leslie, Susan, and Cathy. Totally going to eat here again.

A Golden Week

2008-08-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday I never go to work
On Tuesday I stay at home
On Wednesday I never feel inclined
Work is the last thing on my mind...

- They Might Be Giants

Re-injuring your wrist sucks. But taking off a week with pay to heal it? I can do that. I'll be singing that song to myself all day Monday... yea San Francisco Sick Pay!

I do plan to do some non-wrist things during the week (along with my occupational therapy, natch). Ken and I would like to walk the Golden Gate Bridge (two years and I still have only driven over it... sad) and there are some walking tours I'd like to check out. What I'm looking forward to most, though, is getting enough sleep and keeping a more human-like schedule. No alarms at 3:30 am, no coming home at noon after eight hours of work, exhausted. I get to sleep in until 8, woo! -_^

Have I Ever Mentioned...

2008-08-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

...that my boyfriend is an artist?

I'm a bit biased, but I think he's pretty good. ^_^

Karla Meets the Pacific Ocean

2008-07-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

Pics courtesy of Susan.

And the Winner is...

2008-07-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

...Japanese. At least for now. A radio internship application is off in the mail and what is done is done. Time to get cracking on the second language.

Pages and pages, solid with characters, or 漢字　- kanji.

To be considered fluent in Japanese you need to be able to read and write roughly 2,000 kanji. To be prepared for the JLPT level 2 I need to know 1,000. Over 700 of them are on these four pages. I've been working on it, but I'm not there yet. Thank goodness the test is in December. ^_^

When Chasing Rabbits...

2008-05-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

Learning a second language is hard. It makes you realize how much common knowledge, common sense stuff is assumed in everyday speech. For example,

When in Rome...

If you're a native speaker of English those three words alone convey a lot of meaning. You already know what the second half is. Now step into the shoes of someone learning English, someone who is decent in grammar and vocabulary and pieces things together as they go. "When in Rome" carries no meaning for him. Maybe the phrase continues "beware of pickpockets" or "don't forget to wear sunscreen". And when you explain the entire phrase to him he asks, why is it Rome? Why not Paris or London or Moscow? You have no answer. He gets frustrated.

Learning a second language can be like that. But for every frustrating idiom an enlightening one comes along.

二兎を追う者は、一兎も得ず。
If you chase two rabbits you will catch neither.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what kind of job I want to pursue. Would I rather work in radio or in something Japanese? How do I want to spend my life?

Obviously this isn't a question you can answer in one night, or day or week or even month. I'm working through it. In the meantime, though, I'm spending half of my energy on radio pieces and the other half on Japanese study. At this rate I'll neither get an internship nor pass the JLPT Level 2 exam in December. It's not like I have a deadline, but the sooner I sort this out, the better. Which rabbit shall I chase?

Moving - Thing - Park

2008-05-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ken and I went to the 動物園 (literally to move - thing - park in Japanese) or zoo on Thursday. Some animals made fun of us:

While others posed for us:

And still others swam:

...and then there was just plain ol' cute.

The zoo was big and good enough, with lots of variety in animals. There weren't very many of any one thing, though. No monkey house teeming with monkeys. No groups of anything. Just a few gorillas over here, an ostrich over there, and a couple of lemurs hanging in that tree. That and we seemed to only hit the icky food stands/cafes. Even so Ken got some great pictures to use for drawing references and we both had a lot of fun on our "date", so it was totally a success.

Afterwards we thought we'd go and see the Pacific Ocean, a mere two blocks away. We should have known when we saw the drifting sand piling up on the sidewalk (we had to walk in the road for 15 feet, it was so messy and deep) that it would be a bad idea. The wind was howling right in our faces, blowing sand into our eyes, our teeth as we talked, and found its way into our shoes. It stuck to my face, which I had put sunscreen on four hours earlier. We crossed over the Great Highway, went yup, the ocean is there alright, and turned back to tamer land. I would have taken a picture but I was really afraid that the fast-as-a-bullet sand would scratch up my lens. Another day.

Woot

2008-05-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

I finished a pair of socks in a week!

Who said they have to match?

If It's Free, It Fits

2008-05-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a great day--free museum day! Two friends and I went out for some free culture. We started the day at the Conservatory of Flowers, which is like a greenhouse on steroids. They have different rooms for different climates--tropical, mountain highlands--that are brimming with flowers.

Their special exhibit was about butterflies, which is a yearly thing, apparently. The coolest thing is that they're not in cages--they just flutter around the room as they please. You can watch them feed from pretty flowers and feeders or just plain ol' hang out.

This guy might have been my favorite.

Then we went to the de Young Museum and went up it's observation tower to get a look at the city and the bay. Didn't go through the exhibits, though. We took our time walking about of the park, and found this lake while we were at it:

It was huge. There were people in rowboats and peddleboats enjoying the weather. Really neat. Then it was off to the Legion of Honor. We arrived about an hour before close and realized that the Annie Leibovitz exhibit was there. We only had to pay five dollars to get into the special exhibit and man, it was amazing. We spent most of that hour in awe. So cool. We bought our postcards in the museum shop and were greeted by this happy sculpture on our way out:

First of all, San Francisco is one of the few places you could have this thing outside. (There was another one inside.) Number two... how cool is that?

Whirlwind, Calmly

2008-04-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

So, a lot's been going on. Something I couldn't mention in my last post--I'm transferring to a different Starbucks. There's a new store opening a block from my old store (I know, I know) and I'm going to help them open it smoothly. The location is wonderful, the manager is awesome, and I'm going to love the challenge. We open next week, and this week is setup. I also took four days off for myself, which has been really really nice. There's actually seven days here where I don't have to wake up before 4 am. It's wonderful. ^_^

Before I forget, here's my latest FO:

Comfort Socks
Pattern: My usual Plain Jane over 60 sts
Yarn: Trekking in color 62
Needles: US 1s/2.25mm
Cast on 4.13.08, cast off 4.26.08.

A fairly quick turnaround on these, and it would have been even faster if another project didn't distract me between the first and second socks. Trekking is my go to yarn and my current favorite. This isn't one of my favorite colorways, though--I like something with a little more punch and variation. I'll still wear them lovingly, of course. ^_^

And on a completely unrelated note, the other day I wrote a beautiful Japanese character, and I was so proud.

Can you see it? In the middle of all those hastily written, lopsided, still being learnt kanji there's a glimmering textbook example of penmanship, shining like the star it is. ...no? Can't see it? Okay, let me highlight it for you:

There. That is a, dare I say it, a perfect ki. The two horizontal lines are at exactly the same angle, the bottom swish is just as swishy as it ought to be. As soon as I wrote it I looked back and wondered how it even came from my hand. I mean, look at the rest of the page. I wasn't trying to write neatly, and yet still I am graced with this ki. My heart is still aflutter. ^_^