Grundge Mat

Okay, okay, i know. This picture is really cheesy. This is the picture in the backflap of your spiritual self-help book that says something like:

¨RIVERDREAM ATKINSON lives in Papua New Guinea with her three dogs and seven parakeets. When she´s not writing, she spends her time loving life and basking in the glorious warmth of the dharma.¨

hahar. But really, this is actually a very peaceful spot. It´s at the Yungang Grottoes near Datong in China, a huge industrial city that pumps black smog at the Buddhist sculptures and deteriorate them. The World Heritage UNESCO people declared it a world heritage site, so the government redirected traffic nearby to help with pollution. That´s great, what about the FREAKING COAL MINES NEXT DOOR? duhr!

¨But Norah, aren´t you in Japan?¨

So I´m a little behind. I was writing a paper last night about imperial patronage and the influence of Buddhism in state policy. I slept at 6am. Except I had drunk 3.5 cups of coffee and 5 cups of black tea, so every three minutes my leg would twitch and wake me up. So I basically pulled an all nighter. Ew, the toy poodle of my host family just farted in my lap and it smells like the worst thing ever. They don´t feed him much, so I wouldn´t be surprised if he munches on something inedible and smelly when no one´s around.

Anyway, Japan! I´ve been going to aerobics classes with my host mom. That´s funny because I just made a typo and wrote ¨hot mom¨ which is actually accurate, because she is probably pushing 50 but looks 35. No wrinkles! Yesterday when I was looking for dog food (trying to feed poor Guffy who probably ate a shoe out of desperation) I opened a cupboard FULL OF TINY PINK BOTTLES of collagen! I mean, Full. Like in the cartoons when you open the closet and the kitchen sink falls out. I think there were easily 100 bottles in this cupboard. So I came to the obvious conclusion which is that she must be a witch. A Collagen Witch.

She´s actually really great. She´s been taking me to this aerobics class and every time I mess up (as in, the instructor raises her hands and says ¨Skip to the front!¨ and everyone skips to the front and I raise my hands instead. Who the heck knows the word for skip? I was just doing what the instructor was doing...some wavy arm thing...anyway) the mom CRACKS up and man she has a big mouth. She really likes me because I do the laundry and walk the dog (and feed him, sssh!) and speak to her in Japanese. I am still slightly terrified of her. If I didn´t know that she was a nice person, I would think she would make an really good Evil Stepmother for some modern day fairy tale movie. You know, really put together and what not. But still kind of scary. Gosh, I don´t know why this is coming out like she´s evil. She´s nice...I promise..!!

A few days ago I walked the dog and i missed a little turd when I was picking up his poop (i honestly didn´t see it, it was NIGHT TIME) and the owner of the street (? i mean really, this was like in the street) was nearby and ran over and said (in Japanese): ¨HEY! HEY! WHAT´S THAT? Don´t you pick up after your dog in your own country? What country are you from!¨ and I said ¨Canada.¨

(I also apologized a billion times for not seeing it, but finally I just walked away because it looked like he was going to poop a small Guffy). I don´t feel bad for not saying the U.S., because this guy is going to think that no one in the U.S. picks up dog poop For The Rest of His Life and I just couldn´t have him think that.

That being said, I plan on leaving him a flaming bag of Guffy poo on his doorstep tomorrow.

(Not.)

Last week I was on the train and a sad looking, tiny little boy (almost 2 yrs old) was sitting with his mom facing me, and I started playing peek-a-boo with him using my scarf. He sort of looked curious, but his eyebrows were still all furrowed and so i put the scarf on my head and wiggled the ends like big floppy ears and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. It sort of looked like he was smiling! I mean, this kid was a TOUGH AUDIENCE. The mom was very happy that I made him smile, and when the man next to her got up she gestured for me to come and sit with her. So I did!

She was really sweet...apologized for her little kid because he had a cold and she had to drop him off at his grandma´s before she went to work. I mean, I´ve seen little kids with colds before, but this kid looked SAD. In a sort of detached, jaded, adult-on-a-long-commute kind of way. I think he may have had mild autism...just from what you´ve told me, mom, and you know. He just wasn´t acting like a normal kid does...wasn´t acknowledging any stimulus. When I saw him sitting there, I decided I had to make him smile. It literally took me 15 minutes. His mom seemed so sweet....I hope he turns out okay..

Gosh what a downer of an entry! Japan really is a lot of fun and goofiness..but some entries will be more somber than others, I suppose.

Allison and I are making tortilla soup for the fam tonight (Allison is the other exchange student). I hope they like itttt! She found an avocado! Yay.

To be continued!