Happy New Year from Japan!

To Blog, or Not to Blog...

...that is the question.

This always happens around this time of year. 

M.

Miyazaki-Ken

Just a short note for those of you wondering about our progress with Japan.

I have received my location placement: Miyazaki-Ken

It was not one of our choices, but close. 

We are still waiting on Matt's placement...but if he ends up with the same one it looks like we will have seafood and surfing to look forward to.

Matthew Moment #1

Matthew: Hey! Why did you log off my facebook?

Me: Sorry. I didn't know you were using it and I wanted to check mine.

Matthew: Grrrr. I was in the middle of a survey, now I have start all over again.

Me: Was it really that important?

Matthew: Yes! How else am I supposed to find out if I'm a Jedi or a Sith?

How Not to Sell Newspapers

A representative from the Star Tribune called me today asking if I wanted to sign up for a weekly subscription to the newspaper. I was honest with him and said that we don't really read the paper at all. When we do feel like catching up on local or world events we use the internet. Then I added that we would be moving in a month anyhow, so it didn't make much sense. 

"Where are you moving to?" asked Newspaper Man. 

I knew right away that he was going to  try and sell me the whole 'We Are Available In All Parts of Minnesota' schtick.

So again, I opted for the truth. 

"Actually, we're moving to Japan. I'm not even kidding."

"Really?!"

"Really."

"Wow" he replied. "That's great! Hey, here's an interesting fact for you. Did you know that Japan has a population of 1.3 billion people compared to the US population of 300 million?!"

For a moment I thought to myself that I would let that one go, that I wouldn't be that jerk, that idiot, who calls you on something brilliant that has just poured out of your mouth. 

But I couldn't resist.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that it's China that you're thinking of. Yeah, China. Japan's population is only about 120 million people."

"I don't know" he said,  "I'm pretty sure I heard the official statistic during the last Olympics."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was China that had the Olympics last year, but Japan has hosted them as well a few years back." I added that last point to make sure that Newspaper Man didn't feel too embarrassed. 

We proceeded to chuckle over this quaint conversation we were both having, and in jest I bet him that I was right.

He told me that when I get to Japan, I should drop him an email to let him know.

"How 'bout you just google it" I said to Newspaper Man.

"That's not a bad idea! It would be much faster than waiting for you to fly to Japan. Hey, maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is China that has 1.3 billion people. It's still a lot of people though. They must be all crammed into little huts and living like animals."

He didn't actually say that part about the animals. I added that in there for effect.

The 'huts' comment though is totally true. 

"Yeah....soooo...we won't be needing a newspaper. Really. We get pretty decent information over the internet. But thanks anyhow. I totally appreciate your time."

Lesson to be learned from Newspaper Man:

If your going to try and sell a product, use it yourself and make sure it works.

Zoo-topia

Weekends at our house are ridiculous.

Matt works hard all week and by the end of it, he just wants to come home and spend a couple days resting, reading and relaxing. I, on the other hand have been pulling the three R's all week long and by Friday night I am ready to do something...anything...so long as it is out of the apartment.

This past weekend I was starting to go a little stir crazy and I let Matt know with some subtle gnashing of teeth that I needed out of our cave. 

So he took me to the Zoo. 

The Como Zoo is free, so it totally fits into our recreational budget. 

It also fits into just about everyone else's budget too, so the place was packed out with crazies from all around town. 

Yes, the Zoo was a bit of a Zoo, busy with kids and moms and dads and other random unidentifiable family members.

Like any Zoo I suppose.

When we were in India, we visited the local zoo's. They were pretty sad. Small cages and stir crazy animals pacing around their quarters with wide, crazy eyes. They had these signs up all around the property that would tell people not to make loud noises to try and catch the attention of the animals. Of course no one would obey the rules (It's India for crying out loud, you can't tell a billion people to be quiet!) 

I thought our experience at Como would be different because it was a western zoo, with western zoo principles. That was not the case. The only difference I could tell was that there were no signs telling people to shut up and stop roaring at the tiger...so of course, there were lots of roars, and even some meows. Poor tiger. The cages were only a smidgen bigger than the Asian Zoo's we'd frequented. The park itself was almost identical in layout and structure to one we visited in Trivandrum. So much for western progress. It also looked like the animals here were suffering from the same type of dementia we'd seen in caged creatures abroad. They would pace around their quarters looking for a way out. They seemed desperate to leave. So what do we do? We roar at them. 

There were a couple moments of inspirational awe.

The first were the two silver-back gorilla's. What was shocking about them was how human they were. Large, powerful beasts with hands, just like us, picking grass with their fingers, sitting on rocks upright like they were sitting on chairs, munching away. They mostly kept their backs to us, and I felt that they did that very intentionally. Their body language spoke volumes: " We know you are there, but we really don't care much for you. Why won't you just go away?" Occasionally, the male would glance up and look straight at you. You had a feeling that you should be looking away, but all I could do was stare at his massiveness, straight into his eyes and think "this gorilla could rip my head off without the least bit of effort."

The other inspirational moment I had was at the snow leopard cage. There were 2 of these cats and they were SO gorgeous and incredible. What made them even more amazing was their rarity. There must be less than 5000 of them in the world. When Matt and I were in Pakistan, we would often hear about the elusive creature, native to the mountains, who was slowly going extinct because of poaching, but also because of the Taliban. I'm not even joking. The war in Pakistan and Afghanistan  has encroached on this animals natural habitat and it is slowly losing its home. We even met a Pakistani trekking guide who became excited at the thought of having seen one alive in his lifetime. This was a man who had been leading treks through the mountains of his country for decades, and the only one he'd ever seen had been captured by a research group. He had never seen one in the wild. 

Back to the zoo. 

I was having a special moment with the snow leopards. They are different from the rest of the cats in the joint. They have a peace and calm about them and are the only animals I observed who weren't pacing around their confines looking for a way out. I think they are smarter than that. They know there is no way out. So what were they doing instead? Eating grass, licking each other and one came over and took a piss right in front of us. Incredible. And as I was sitting there, watching these majestic animals doing their thing, I was rudely interrupted by "Hey Ricki! Come on over here and get a load of the Cheetah's!!"

Cheetah's?

Cheetah's!

I wanted very badly to turn around and yell:

"For God sakes woman, it's a SNOW LEOPARD not a cheetah! Have some respect, will you! There's only 5000 of these guys left, so the least they deserve is to be correctly identified! I mean, can't you read the sign...it says right here in large bold letters SNOW LEOPARD!"

But I didn't. I didn't want to become part of the human zoo that was gathering around us. Kids screaming, beer guts jiggling, moms getting pissed off at dads, and all of them roaring at the poor tiger.

We zipped through the rest of the park quickly and breathed a deep sigh of relief to be out and away from all the people. I'm sure that's how the animals feel around closing time. 

They are probably very happy to be rid of us.