To see what I can see...

(Original post and comments here.)

Apologies for the first two incomplete incarnations of this post, especially to any of you who have (thank you!) subscribed to hear about updates. I very nearly promise not to make any more superficial nitpicking changes to this post.

Here's a fun one from Nara I took in late 2004. It was a small poster for the spherical rice cake things in bags at the bottom of the photo that you could probably kill a small elephant with if you got one right between the eyes. We tried nibbling on one, but imagine trying to get a start on a rock-hard sphere the size of both your fists placed side by side. Well, actually, my fists, which are sort of medium to large, just so we're all on the same page. Since we were in Nara anyway, we tried giving it to the deer, a few of whom tried gamely at it before moving on to easier fare. I should mention that I don't advocate feeding wildlife, but 'wild' no more applies to the deer in Nara than 'actor' does to Ahnuld. Those things are so tourist friendly they'll friendly your hand right off if you don't let go of their crackers quick enough.

In any case the nose-picking is a reference to one of the famous Buddha statues in town. The statue is huge, and in the temple there is a massive wooden pillar beside it with a hole cut out that's the same size as his nostril. If you can get through it's said to give you long life, or good health, or intimate knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System, or some such crap. Anyway, I made it through, but the only photo I have is really really blurry. Blew the minds of all the school children waiting in line to try it when this huge gaijin got in line with them, and I don't think they thought I could understand Japanese because they were all going on about how there's no way on earth I'd make it through. Suckers! I'm tall by local standards, but built like a pen. Goes to show you how acute their spatial reasoning was. Man, 8-year-olds can be so dumb sometimes. I should have started taking bets. "Pay up, kid, or your goofy yellow ball cap might have an accident."

Okay folks, enough of that tangent, who got me started on that anyway? For my next trick I'm going to climb Mount Fuji - next week! Not the next week of procrastination fame, but August 14th (15th if the weather forgets to cooperate). Only 38 billion people a year do it, so I gotta start shaping up. No more donut and beer breakfasts for this little fitness buff, for the next week I'm a lean, mean, climbing machine.

Of course once I've had that awesome high of seeing the sunrise from "so much closer" and pushing my body to its limits and what have you, I'll be right back down in the comfortable lows again. Hey, if they're all highs you forget how good you've got it, right? Gotta keep the average low so that the highs are more spectacular, that's what I always say...but in most contexts it makes no sense. hyuk hyuk.

Also, the 43rd annual Kiryu Yagibushi Festival was this past weekend, pictures of me doing an awful butchery of the traditional dance alongside 500 other people will fit right here shortly, but until I get them from Jon or whoever was taking the pictures while I decided to make an ass of myself, here's one I took of some of my coworkers having a shot at it - er, not making an ass of me, just, oh nevermind. Interestingly enough, not all of the Japanese people knew it, and I think maybe our presence there shamed them into giving it a shot. Whatever the reason, once we had a decent grasp of how it went, each of us at various points had to teach a newcomer or two.

Oh, and I have to put a link to this joke on here. Have a look at the rest of the Jumbo Joke site as well, it's damn funny and well-laid out. Start with the Quick Sanity Test.