Kickin' Tofu in Yasaka: Little bits of life

Did you know that you can predict how many slices will be in an orange? You simply peel off the green stem bit and count the points on the white fleshy starburst underneath (the points are not always symmetrical so squint hard, and count carefully). Nature has a pretty good designer.

I was appalled yesterday by a certain public service enforcement branch (don't want to be deported for slogging off on the Japanese police on my blog...oops). They were running a speed trap on a long, fairly steep downhill stretch of road where the posted limit is 40kph (25mph)!? Are you kidding me? I flashed my lights at all the downhill bound cars warning them, one of the few common courtesies Japanese drivers exercise that I agree with. One courtesy I cannot get used to is motorists' ability to tolerate people who stop their car in the middle of the road, put on their flashers, and go into a store or a nearby house. Again, are you kidding me? Park your car in a safe, out of the way place, and then run your errand. Thank you.

Craig and I were thinking about sounds on our drive home yesterday.

Some sounds I like:
-the heavy quiet of a black country night
-a bird called the uguisu (bush warbler), singing in the bamboo forest. in japanese it says "ho-hokekyou". Watch and hear the UGUISU
-rushing water
-drum beats you feel in your chest
-belly laughs
-the muffled, pillowed silence after a heavy snow
-my husband's voice, calling that he is home
-words that contain double letters like noodles, bubbling, oozing, bedazzle (fun to say too)
-acoustic guitar and a melodious man's voice
-my families' voices on the other end of the phone
-piano music

Some sounds I don't like:
-the blaring bad pop music in the local book store
-the trucks that troll around our neighborhood collecting broken appliances
-3pm Radio Taiso blaring when I am trying to nap on a Sunday afternoon
-ambulance sirens
-election vans spouting one too many "Yoroshiku Onegaitashimasu" es
-wind rushing in my ears (generally anything involving my ears I don't like...)
-the squelch noise the toad made on Sunday when the shovel nicked him (we are sorry Mr. Toad!)

All our neighbors have begun prepping their rice fields for the year. Deep tracks through the mud and puddles of water are a common sight.

As is the stellar biomass recycling everyone does by digging up hardened turnips and radishes or frost bitten Chinese cabbages, chopping them up and spreading them across the field.