{"id":21,"date":"2007-03-03T14:50:41","date_gmt":"2007-03-03T13:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morbidcornflakes.ch\/thduggies_blog\/?p=21"},"modified":"2007-03-03T15:01:56","modified_gmt":"2007-03-03T14:01:56","slug":"housesitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/2007\/housesitter","title":{"rendered":"Housesitter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>February 26\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I left most my luggage at Oyumino Christian Center, where I got to spend the night.\u00c2\u00a0 With my backpack, camera bag, and a few plastic bags I made my way to work.\u00c2\u00a0 We went through the leads we&#8217;d garnered from the exhibition, I sent off those of out-of-country customers, and we made sure the box with all the exhibits was well packed.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I headed around the corner, grabbed a Wendy&#8217;s (<a title=\"Wendy's Japan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nihon-wendies.co.jp\/\">uendiizu<\/a>)\u00c2\u00a0Double Cheese Curry burger, and phoned Tim.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tim, I need to add, lived with my sister Cornelia and four others in Vancouver for two years, and was in Japan for a few weeks house-sitting for a befriended family.\u00c2\u00a0 The mother and the youngest daughter had been in England for three weeks with a kimono dyer, and Tim had been taking care of the other two kids.\u00c2\u00a0 When I arrived at the station, Tim picked me up with the youngest, Natasha, on his bicycle back seat.\u00c2\u00a0 Natasha goes by <a title=\"Natchan!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.suntory.co.jp\/softdrink\/natchan\/\">Natchan<\/a>, which always reminds me of the Japanese tangerine drink.\u00c2\u00a0 She and her mother had just arrived that day, with a broken glass of Marmite in the suitcase.\u00c2\u00a0 In contrast to her tired mother, Natchan was dealing with jetlag by going through short-cycle mood swings.\u00c2\u00a0 We adults sat, talked, nibbled snacks, and played with her, as much as that was possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Then we headed out, me back to the train station, Tim to do groceries, and Natasha to play with her sister Misha and her friends.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Once again, the sunset atmosphere on the train got to me.\u00c2\u00a0 On sunny days at dusk, I always feel like if I boarded that other train on the other platform, it would take me away into some fairy-tale country, the light slowly fading out of the world and leaving behind a spangled sea of neon pinpricks, distance and dimension made a patchwork blur by the train&#8217;s motion, much like the warp imagery in science fiction, except that behind most pinpricks hides a person, an uprooted friendly ghost floating past my submarine train.\u00c2\u00a0 I know that most likely that other train on that other platform would only take me to yet another rural train station of exquisite ugliness, but there&#8217;s no suppressing that longing.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When I changed in Ikebukuro, I smelled cinnamon and asked the girl at the bakery (called La Pop-po) for whatever it was that smelled of cinnamon.\u00c2\u00a0 The girl pointed to a\u00c2\u00a0pie about eight inches in diameter, far too much for me.\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately, below it smaller ones sat on display, so I ordered one of those.\u00c2\u00a0 Only after ordering did I realize why I hadn&#8217;t been able to make out cinnamon on any of the labels: the\u00c2\u00a0pie was labeled PotatoApplePie.\u00c2\u00a0 And yes, it consisted of a hard lower crust, a semi-sweet filling of mashed potato, and a glazed covering with apple bits.\u00c2\u00a0 It was enough for a whole dinner.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Gifu, I found <a title=\"Brio Blu\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brioblu.com\/\">sparkling water<\/a> on the way to the <a title=\"Toyoko Inn\" href=\"http:\/\/www.toyoko-inn.com\/\">Toyoko Inn<\/a>, where the room I got looked exactly like the room I&#8217;d had a year ago at the Shinjuku Kabukicho Toyoko Inn.\u00c2\u00a0 the only difference lay in the welcome gift I chose for having reserved via internet. I chose the following:<\/p>\n<p>Hand-Pressing Flash Light<br \/>\nSimply Shake to Recharge<br \/>\n1. The product is a new science and technology product and made with high and new science and technology.\u00c2\u00a0 It can illuminate only placing it in rhythm.\u00c2\u00a0<br \/>\n2. No need any power or environmental pollution.\u00c2\u00a0 Low noise and health.\u00c2\u00a0 Comparing with common torch it can be several times on lit.\u00c2\u00a0<br \/>\n3. Constantly using this health torch, it can benefit to your palm, arm and shoulder stretching and blood circulation, so as to set your hands relax and brain clever, hand and brain coordination and promote your brain memory and health composition.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So here I am, relying on a flashlight to make me smarter.\u00c2\u00a0 I think when I have kids, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ll tell them to get them to do chores.\u00c2\u00a0 &#8220;Sweeping improves your hand and brain coordination!&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0 &#8220;Shining shoes makes your hands relax and brain clever!&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 26\u00c2\u00a0 I left most my luggage at Oyumino Christian Center, where I got to spend the night.\u00c2\u00a0 With my backpack, camera bag, and a few plastic bags I made my way to work.\u00c2\u00a0 We went through the leads we&#8217;d garnered from the exhibition, I sent off those of out-of-country customers, and we made sure the box with all the exhibits was well packed.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I headed around the corner, grabbed a Wendy&#8217;s (uendiizu)\u00c2\u00a0Double Cheese Curry burger, and phoned Tim.\u00c2\u00a0 Tim, I need to add, lived with my sister Cornelia and four others in Vancouver for two years, and was in Japan for a few weeks house-sitting for a befriended [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}