My Tokyo only lives in the past, my Tokyo has a merry-go-round in Toshimaen, called El Dorado, that had been made in 1909 in Germany, was exported to Coney Island, and finally ended up in Tokyo. I sat on El Dorado’s chariots with little babies, and ate soft serve ice cream on a bench with […]
MoreThere is a certain grace to being in exile, a certain élan, a kind of style. There is a kind of balance that has to be found within the separation from your tribe and your cultural context that plays itself out in a constant struggle between safety in your exile and your discomfort in your […]
MoreL.A. is set apart from other cities: it is a city of extremes. I was meant to fly on to Seattle to meet with a member of Mr. Charming’s family. Instead I left the airport in Los Angeles with my kids, three bags and a guitar. I was running away. We were leaving. It was […]
MoreI occasionally pull out Kerouac’s On the Road and open it up randomly, much as I have seen people do with the Bible. What does Jack have to say today, I wonder to myself. “I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived […]
MoreTanabata is not the only excuse for a festival. New Years, various temple days over the year, are all reasons to bring out the stalls, and go have some fun. The street matsuri in my local area would take up entire thoroughfares, lined with stalls selling knickknacks. There would be little games of throw the […]
MoreI never got to see a hanami fireworks festival in Japan. The first year it was so hot and I wasn’t used to the heat, so standing outside in the humid hot night air getting bitten by mosquitos didn’t thrill me. Summer arrives in packs of fireworks in the shops, origami crafts for Tanabata in […]
MoreI can’t remember a time when I wasn’t scared. I am scared most of the time. In the camper, I was scared of cops, of doors being knocked on by people telling us to move on if we were boondocking, or else random people who would seek to disturb my peace, of my husband finding […]
MoreI had no idea that different areas of the USA had different flavors to the extent they do. Even within a state there is such variation in geographical identity as to render these sub communities almost different countries. Driving up the 101 towards Aberdeen, Washington, there are many little coastal communities. The sky is greyer, […]
MoreI wake up. Make a cup of tea, grab my biog on Warhol that I am reading, think about what I can eat for breakfast. THe answer, to be frank, is generally…not much. My celiac doesn’t like me eating oats, not even the fancy ones that have never seen a glutinous field or shared equipment. […]
MoreTownes Van Zandt sings from the tinny boombox: living on the road my friends, is gonna keep you free and clean. I laugh. Since when has anyone stayed clean on the road. Still, Townes was part right, I was free. Free of Mr. Charming, free of everything that entailed. I thought I was free of […]
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