entry nº 3 // 20160909
want to get punched in the face, hard, by a stranger in japan? here’s how: sneeze while on public transportation. wow. found this one out the hard way :/ psych! just kidding. i actually have a congenital disorder that causes me to sweat profusely from the feet instead of sneezing, so i don’t even have to worry about it. psych! everybody sneezes, you know.
i live by the ocean, now. it’s a whole different thing, living next to a big open area full of water and fish and stuff. the horizon is visible out my window at all times, except when it’s not visible because of clouds, fog, mist, unidentified toxic events, etc. you just don’t really see the horizon if you grow up in new hampshire, unless you get above the treeline (which, thankfully i was able to growing up because my parents took me hiking), or if you go out to the coast. seeing the horizon makes your body feel different: i’ve been noticing it more and more whenever i’ve been out in PHX in recent years. big open skies make you breathe differently. or something.
anyway, that ocean, though, huh? you could pretty much just stare out at that thing forever. not to mention listen to it. not to mention run out there and splash around in it. way warmer than the atlantic, that’s for sure. sea of japan? no problem. just watch out for those jellyfish though.
a week or two i watched a pineapple wash up onto the shore. just one single pineapple in the universe. a couple days later shoko + i came across a ginger root floating among the waves. big world out there.
by this time you’re probably like, “but kevin, what about… innovations?” well, i’ll share one with you right now: little metal placards that say “reserved” on them that you can pick up when you come into a coffee shop and place down on your table to make sure nobody snags it while you’re waiting in line or ordering. it’s incredible.
want a great iced coffee out here? just pop on over to 7-11. except you won’t go there, because it’s not called “7-11,” it’s called “7 & iHoldings.” not joking. or, some of them are, and some of them are just called “7-11,” or something like that? i mean, the big sign on the one in my neighborhood says “7 & iHoldings” but the sign on the front of the store says “7-11.” not sure what’s going on there. i intend to kind of just blindly speculate about it in an uninformed manner for the remainder of my time here. anyway, they have these top-notch instant coffee machines that grind the fresh coffee beans right then and there and dribble it over the ice in the pre-packed ice cup you grabbed from the freezer section, NYC bodega-style. quite delicious. no pods to be found out here, man, no way. fuck pods.
want to know what is the worst thing about japan though? i bought this big puffy white spongey chocolate chip sweet bread thing at the grocery store thinking i’d have a great little snack the following day. except it turns out it was RAISINS in there, not CHOCOLATE CHIPS. very disappointing. thing is, i even had that feeling when i was in the grocery store that i was probably going a little bit too fast and needed to slow down, but i didn’t really listen to it because grocery stores make me very unfocused.
ok bye!
–kevin
