I: an introduction

Hello students. It seems I am going to be joining you soon. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you and, before I arrive, I would like to let you know a little bit about myself. I am originally from Los Angeles, California, though I have spent the last several years living in San Antonio, Texas, where I received my B.A. in English Literature. I have actually lived in just about every region of the United States, and have developed a deep appreciation for the various peoples and distinct beauties of my home country.

I love music, and I am excited to spend some time getting to know the pop-music scene in Japan, as well as exploring the more traditional sounds. I play guitar and sing a little, but I am not bringing my guitar with me. Perhaps someone will show me where to get one in Furukawa.

I have been looking at pictures of the city, and the whole Tohoku region, and it is beautiful. But, being from Texas, I am used to a much warmer climate, and I'm certain you will see me shivering like crazy until I get used to your winters.

I am spending a lot of time these days thinking of fun and interesting ways to approach our English classes. We are going to learn a lot together, and I hope we will also have a good time.

I will see you all soon.

Warmest Regards,

I

Dates and Places

On November third my training will commence in Tokyo. I will be given curricula, practice sessions, contracts to sign, insurance papers, train schedules, vacation procedures, recruitment strategies, and a place to lay my head.

From there I will make my way to Furukawa, in the Tohoku region of Japan, known for good rice and bad winters. And I will teach.

I expect to be overwhelmed. I even welcome it. By the end, it will feel like home.

I have a little time left to say goodbye to the people I have come to love here in San Antonio, but as I have considered it, I have come to realize that I do not know which words to say. I'm certain I will be forgiven this silence, but I'd like to go out with spectacular theatrical speeches, always recalled for their particular poignancies, that personal touch, a few words, the true meanings of which can only be detected by their intimate audiences, all waiting for my return...

More likely, I will just go. And after I arrive, all my hesitancies will be forgotten.

when coffee complicates my night, tomorrow's just one of those days

Caught a bit of swimmer's ear, so I took some antibiotics and Advil. If you know me and antibiotics, we don't get along, which is fine, but I had a telephone interview coming up at 9 P.M.

Stupid Japan and it's stupid time difference.

Very well, a sacrifice must be made. Wake up at 8 and drink a pot of coffee. Interview comes. Interview goes.

I'll not be sleeping again for a while.

Perhaps John would have a few words about paying out one's debts.



(Bob, if I goad you any further to comment I will feel like I am begging)

It's Today's New Thing

It’s today’s new thing!! That’s right, a NEW THING for the people who want TOMORROW TODAY! It’s the latest in modern ingenuity. Your grandmother won’t be able to work it. You’re going to have to come over on a Sunday and help her program/wire/adjust/tweak/set the clock/explain the remote/re-explain the remote/plug in/reprogram. A minor headache, but won’t you feel so young and vibrant and “with it”?!! There’s nothing like it anywhere! It will make life simpler in just three easy screens and twelve focus keys and limitless preprogrammed voice-command responses. It changes shape! You’ll never lose it! It never breaks! And you can be the proud owner of one of a LIMITED RELEASE. Only three million units are shipping in the first run, so ACT NOW!!! If you wait too long, you might miss the opportunity, and nothing better will come along, EVER, until we release version 2.0, and there will be NOTHING LIKE THAT! EVER! Love yourself. Today’s new thing is for you!!!


[from the people who brought you Atlantis Vacations]

things that are not there

I sat in The Coffee Tree for a week, reading europeana, and then gave birth to Leonard. And Leonard has existed only in partial sentences and placeless paragraphs. He has even shown up at restaurants and in dreams. But he has no story of his own. He touches the edges of the stories of others. He is my self in this way.

Every morning I sit with empty pages, blank screens, and I hope that I will fill them with something beautiful.

And every morning I fill them with only words and punctuation. There is nothing to get beneath, to bury a heart inside. I have once or twice in reading forgotten that I am reading lines, and have drifted into the words and could not even hear a voice, like when a book is narrated in a film, but have entered into a dream state. And it was terribly jarring to recall that I was only reading words.

I am less and less alone. It is because of the written word on durable materials that I know that a man three thousand years ago lost as much as I, or more. Even the dead will not leave me alone with their misery and complaining.

Four swans give a song to the sons of a king, something to convey to their grandfather: our sorrow is endless, our misery and torment are great, our tears do not cease.

Why not that they are at least together. That the sight of the sons gave them joy. Are lamentations better than psalms. Perhaps it is so. I require more time to decide.

an opportunity to kill

At twenty-nine, Miyamoto Musashi retired, undefeated, as a duelist. More than thirty years later he would write that a person should think of every movement as an opportunity to kill. I imagine him eating a ball of sticky rice and brushing some dust from the table, and thinking, I must let them know what they are about. If it is not killing, then what? And in each line of the Earth Scroll, he must believe that every stroke, every word, is an opportunity to live. If not living, then what?

R.I.P. VW