entry nº 1 // 20160822
Place a houseplant.
–notebook inscription found in a stationery store
I spent time with my friends.
I take a walk.
just basically gotta get this thing going already, i guess. it’s very easy to not keep a blog or take any photos or write anything down. oops! i work on this thing like 6-8 times a day in my head, probably. basically just words and paragraphs and stuff. in the interest of my actually updating somewhat regularly here, i’m going to keep it loose. think i’m gonna post photos just kind of raw with no commentary or anything. too cumbersome otherwise. maybe there’s a great online web log service out there just for me? very simple + streamlined? doubt it, bro. as if. nice try though.
anyway, wow, japan is neat, huh? great country. neat country. very cool. you guys should come visit sometime. no jokes. bonkers out here. fukuoka is all oceans and mountains. the train ride downtown from imajuku (where s+i live) feels like some sort of sightseeing train ride they would have a brochure for in the brochure stand zone at a highway rest stop. that’s probably exaggerating it b/c come on, printing costs, etc., but still. it’s really pretty. i almost wiped out the other day because the train bucked for a sec and i reached for one of the dangly handhold rings and totally whiffed it and missed the second grab too. big public stumble. i love it.
hot as fuck here and humid to the max. i rocked a rugged heat rash for about 4-6 days a little ways in there. felt like gross rash man. i was like, “this is not who i am” but really it is, when it comes down to it, b/c you can’t fuck w/ the facts of life, of which there are many. anyway, yeah. got some topical ointment for that and we’re pretty much good to go now. still kinda itchy, though. okay?
i seem to be the only guy wearing tank tops and short shorts around here? it’s cool. i don’t understand how anybody is wearing anything more than that given how much of a constant scorcher it is out here. every day i wake up, step out on the porch, and say to myself very quietly, “welp, it is a scorcher out there today.” just kidding, i don’t actually do that. but still. people out there are all wearing, like, pants and long sleeves and stuff. seriously? apparently a couple years back the mayor of tokyo introduced the “cool biz” initiative, which encouraged businessmen to wear short-sleeved button-down shirts rather than long-sleeved ones. [not sure about my hyphen game in that last part, there – oh well.] which is great but also makes all the salarymen out here look like computer programmers from the late 80s or something. white short sleeve button down shirts.
big towel culture out here, though. i love it. people just walk around carrying little towels to wipe themselves off. i love it when a place embraces heat+humidity + the sweatiness that comes along with it rather than trying to pretend it doesn’t exist or whatever. guys with towels around their necks, towels over their heads. it simply doesn’t matter. as a man who has been carrying a small towel in his bag for years to use as a sweat wipe, i feel very much at home here. like i found my people or something.
huge wet nap/moist towelette culture here, too. everybody’s got em. little hand wipe before a meal? no problem. something to swab the sweat from your brow while you saunter down a sun-scorched lane in the middle of the afternoon? no problem. just can’t get enough of the things. they also make these special “kool” wipes that make you all tingly and fizzy. shoko got these super strong ones that were so tingly it was almost painful. a minute or two in, my arms were so cold from the a/c at the restaurant that i actually wanted to put a hoodie on. no way that’s good for you? like, what’s the active ingredient in those things?
cicadas out here are nuts. basically the size of hummingbirds. they seem to have quieted down in the last couple of days but the first week here they were so loud outside it was almost hard to hear anythings else. you really feel yourself moving through the entire mid-hi range of the frequency spectrum when passing by. very aggressive, too – they will come at you if they sense that you are thinking uncharitable thoughts about them, which is why people here carry around miniature katanas in their handbags in order to fight back. i’ve seen certain older people using more traditional weapons, as well – nunchaku, sai, bo staff… i’ve even heard rumors of those who fight back with their bare hands…
big shopping center culture out here in japan. downtown fukuoka is all connected underground by passageways that are also malls, which connect to other big multi-level shopping centers. stores and stores and stores. tons of people. i guess people like to go out to the stores or something? i don’t get it. i want to zip through there as smoothly and efficiently as possible. might i stop, from time to time, to peruse something that has caught my eye? maybe. just maybe. but still. walking etiquette seems to be all over the place, especially down there – no clear left/right distinction, people stopping mid-stride to turn around, people buried in their phones, etc. if i were president i would construct a parallel universe so that anybody who is walking while looking at their phone just gets zapped into the alt-universe where they can take their time with that until they’re ready to rejoin the group. like, pull over for a sec, bro. not a big deal. of course, might you perhaps see me from time to time looking down at my phone? yes, maybe – but guess what app i’m using? COMPASS.APP, of course. otherwise phone is in the bag along with anything else that would normally go in a pocket because it’s too hot for pockets around here. really regretting not bringing my hip pouch, i have to say.
anyway, what am i, ranting or something? nothing like a good old 2002-style web rant. </rant> haha right guys maybe? or?
but yeah, that mall zone – extremely confusing. great way to beat the heat, though, i have to say. still trying to nail down my geography + overall sense of direction in those areas just because it’s so labyrinthine at first. but very exciting to start to figure out the connections. absolute worst thing overall – and this extends to the maps above ground at bus stations, etc. – is that north is not necessarily north, i.e., the map’s overall orientation changes depending on what map you are looking at, which blows my mind real hard. fucked me up the other day when i was trying to go to the inkan store (inkan is a personalized stamp you use on official correspondence, etc – coming at you hard with the ラバ stamp soon so hold onto yr papers) and i went north instead of east and ended up in some sort of no-man’s land type of area. i’m sure there’s some good rationale behind it that i have yet to discover (maybe it orients you towards which direction you’re facing on the map?). any tips?
anyway you must be so like “TL;DR” lolololol right?!?! suuuuuper sorry about that. you’re probably like “yeah but what have you been UP to kevin” which i haven’t even really gotten around to writing about at all. next time though, right!
sincerely,
KEVIN LABA
