For the past couple of days I’ve briefly mentioned my recent encounters with the Japanese postal system. Today you get the complete report. Or as complete as I can make it given my chronically sleep-deprived state. This is a rant of sorts, but a mild one.
The short version of the story is that according to Japan Post, Canadian customs regulations are the strictest in the world so they require extremely detailed declarations on all shipments.
Yesterday I hinted at things like a lost wallet, postal rules of rigid interpretation, and other stuff that I’ve forgotten and am too lazy to look at my own blog to find out about. Actually, it seems that curiosity has won out over sloth yet again, and that in fact, the things I’ve described in the previous sentence are pretty much everything I hinted at yesterday.
So, dear reader, here’s what’s in store for you if you decide to continue reading:
And more, if I get distracted. For those of you thinking of skipping this post, I really can’t blame you. But it is more interesting that it sounds.
Way back in late April, in a bid to get more people to comment here, I offered up some random prizes. Then last week I finally got around to taking pictures of them. Today I actually figured out the winners, and wrapped up all the packages. It was a bit like preparing for Christmas, except that the recipients are, in general, people who don’t usually make it onto my Christmas list.
So, who are the five lucky winners?
It’s been really tempting to go back to my usual ways and post another series of photos about quirky Japan or interesting-to-me internet oddities. In choosing images to write about, I seem to be reliving a phenomenon I experienced in the first weeks of art school. In the early days of my introductory drawing class we did an exercise where we were told to pay attention only to the negative space—everything but the object we were supposed to be drawing—but in trying to look at the background, the foreground object came into focus. Last week while I was digging around for photos of weird stuff, all I was finding was picture-postcard traditional images. Now that I’m trying to skip over the oddities, oddities are all I seem to be finding. I guess it’s like trying to listen to the sound of one hand clapping while a tree falls in the forest with no-one around to hear it. Or is it like counting to ten without thinking about pink elephants?
I dunno, but I’ll try to stop mixing koans and metaphors now. You’ll have to wait at least until tomorrow—probably longer—for all the strange I’ve recently unearthed in my photo library. I’m committed to keeping it—playground frogs, muppets, battle aprons, and general misuse of English in the name of fashion—at bay while for a few days. Today I’ve got one measly picture of a Buddhist monk. In the rain, no less.
Today marks a return—of indeterminate length—to photos of the picturesque and serene Japan that you’d expect to see if you were to spend all your time leafing through coffee-table books or travel guides. Buddhist temples, zen gardens, mysterious shrines, statues, women in kimonos, and the like.
Today’s photo is of a statue we found on an out-of-the-way path behind a wonderful restaurant in the ume (Japanese plum) groves behind Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine in Dazaifu City.
Today was yet another day of exhaustion. We had the first day of our class match at school—all of the homerooms compete against each other in various sporting activities—plus I revised a recommendation letter that another teacher wrote for one of his students, and did some coaching for an interview exam that a few of my students will have on Sunday.
And that was just the morning. I took the afternoon off and, among other things, dealt with a whole bunch of moving-related logistics. Is this interesting? I think not, so I’ll give you a couple of photos to look at.
If there was ever any doubt about the connection between physical discomfort and aesthetic refinement, today you’ll see proof. As usual, it’s photographic evidence found on the streets of Japan. Not fashion photos, nor shoes. What am I talking about?
A quickie photo post today, so that I don’t have to think too hard about how to pick random prize winners. Yes, I know it’s not that difficult, but I’m that tired.
The dogs at the local Buddhist temple are making a big ruckus—their barking is echoing off the concrete building and creating a feedback loop—which means it must be nine o’clock. This random bit of trivia has nothing to do with today’s post topic but is part of the nightly reality of Kannonji-machi.
I only just remembered my promise about sending out random gifts to commenters. Well, that’s not exactly true, but I’ve only just had time to make good on the promise. Today, you get to see some of the wonderful prizes that I’m going to put into the care of the Japanese postal system later this week.
In which I briefly mention American white trash during a tangent about a fashionable hat, but mostly talk about a day spent shopping, visiting friends, cooking, and packing.
Today we spent some time with Lia’s friend Yoko. We did a little shopping, ordered a couple of inkans—Japanese name stamps—and had lunch with Yoko’s parents. Later, I cooked up a storm, and we had a fabulous supper.