Today I'm trying a new internet locale called The Heartland Cafe. It's quite intruiging, and really says alot about the Japanese obsession with privacy. The cafe is quite huge and quiet; when I entered, all I could see were racks of manga and graphic novels and dvds to the ceiling. No-one seemed to be about, but a hostess emerged from behind a curtain. I began in my usual way, "gomen ne, watashi... nihongo... sukoshi desu," (tranlation: Sorry-me-Japanese-little) and she was quick to say, "Oh, is it first time?" Yes, indeed. First time. She quickly registered me and pointed me in the direction of my booth; behind the racks of books and movies there was a deep stretch of little individual media-rooms. Mine is about 4' X 5', I have a big leather chair, a lamp, a dvd player, headphones, slippers... and free coffee. All of this for 105 yen for every 15 minutes.

Privacy is taken to extremes here-- I have yet to see a clear-glass window at street level. Every entrance is a door within a door within a door. Japan is a world of sliding secrets and veiled implications. I love it.

Ahhh... some good news. My room-mate is a dream. She's quite intelligent and funny, also a creative soul (journalism was her major at university) and she seems to have her head on straight. Joanna, I know you'll read my blog eventually, so let me say this to you here: THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU! She's from Newcastle, and has a bit of a Scottish lilt to her accent, which is quite pleasant. My first impression when I saw her at the train station was utter relief... "Oh, you're normal!" I exclaimed. She must have wondered what she was getting into... Anyway, everyone here at Nova is happy to have her. She's off doing her training in Osaka right now, so I have the place to myself again for a few days, which is nice, especially since there's no dread attached with her re-appearance.

Now for some strange things I have encountered and found the answers for: 1) Why do some Japanese guys grow one pinky-finger-nail long? Norm's response to this was, "You wouldn't ask a Canadian guy why he has a mullet." True, but I needed to know, so I asked Bubu-san, who told me that it was in part for 'fashion' (hence the equation with mullets), and also for practical reasons-- the one long fingernail can be used to peel the wrappings elegantly off of expensive cigars. 2) Why do people put bottles of water at either side of the end of their driveways? At first I thought it might be to keep bad spirits away; businesses frequently put bowls of salt on either side of their entrance doors for this purpose. The truth turned out to be much stranger; at the end of university, all of the students who kept cats as pets routinely "set them free" (which seems terribly cruel to me) and the cats run amok in the neighborhoods, using gardens as toilets and what-not. So, apparently bottled water scares cats away. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this. 3) Why do the statues of tanuki (racoons... but they look more like obese bears wearing funny hats) have such enormous testicles? Ume said that the tanuki is a famous shape-shifting spirit who is lucky, but also a trickster; he can change into a man and convince other men to get drunk and spend all of their money on booze, so that tanuki never has to pay for himself. (We all know one or two tanukis, don't we?) Anyway, that was very interesting, but it didn't answer my question, so I approached Bubu-san again. First, he declared me a skebe (pervert) for asking, and then explained that testicles are a man's gold. Yes, gold. So, I don't really get that one either, but you can only take a query so far...

All is well with work and life; I'll be hiking a stone-buddah trail with my friend Brian on thursday, teaching an art lesson on friday, and cooking dinner for Bubu's extended family on saturday (send all of your positive cooking vibes my way; I've never prepared food for so many people).

Keep well, stay happy,

Endrene