July 22nd, 2003
Two for five, one for ten!
Yes, two for one (…day that is)!
Well, the weather here is probably several orders of magnitude more enjoyable than back west…it can’t be more than 66 degrees outside now, tops. I’d say it’s more like 64. It’s wonderful. This is a far cry from last summer, whenever I was here it had to have been 90 with humidity bad enough to make the Snuggle Bear look like a drowned rat. The only thing one could gripe about is that it has been Pittsburgh-esque overcast nearly 24 hours a day. The sun breaks through every now and then. During yesterevening’s run in the park I got to see the golden rays streaming through the cracks peeking through the financial skyline of west Shinjuku, about 6 kilometers or so away.
So the weather was brisk today, just the way I like it. Happy as a clam I got off the train at Shinjuku and strolled through minami gate and the Takashimaya area for the long (15 min) walk home. To take advantage of this self-inflicted 130 yen windfall I bought a weekly businessman manga for 100 yen from a street vendor. Always cheaper than the mini-mart kiosks….it didn’t occur to me until this evening that it’s probably because these are the same guys I’ve seen digging discarded issues out of the paper recycle bins at the train platforms. Not that I really mind. I’ll pay a fraction of the price for someone else to do the unseemly chore of rummaging through the paper rubbish. Of course, I almost always pay a fraction of the price for everything if I can help it, so it’s no big surprise. They’re a great boon, businessman manga. Each one is a worn, pulpy treasure-trove of learning. I get a) reference material for my drawing, b) practice reading the more colloquial language, c) an insight into what appeals (or the media thinks should appeal) to most men 17-60, and d) the occasional glimpse into the understood conceptions of sexual expectation (fantasy or actual). All that for 83 cents? Who says Tokyo is an expensive place to live?
So, like another of my financially enabled brethern, I’ve started planning little trips with my money. In the next two months I have lined up: (1) weekend rave in the forest about 3 hours away, (1) trip ‘home’ to my native Nara for summer vacation via the incomprehensibly-hip 200mph bullet train, and (1) concert in an amphitheater for a local feathery-voiced songstress whom I’m quite fond of. But that’s just the stuff I have tickets for now. I think the secretary at work told me I should take the single guys to the beach in Yokohama and pick up some chicks. And I have a rave and club list a mile long so I’m sure I’ll be doing that often. Now if only dog chew-toy quality rubber footballs didn’t cost 25.00$….
I’m not quite sure, but it is entirely possible that I love living in this city more than my job itself. That may be biased though only because I can’t really think of any drawbacks to living where I do. Some might say “…but you’re paying 700$ a month for 49 square feet!!” Ah yes, true. But as I taught myself a long time ago, if you don’t know what you’re missing (or have a deep rooted desire to live simply and close to your art), you can be quite pleased with low expectations. I haven’t really been at any kind of home in the last two years other than to occasionally get drunk and make an ass out of myself in front of friends, so this whole “being away from work and having a balanced life” is kind of a foreign thing to me.
May fortune favor the foolish.
PS – Today’s recommended dosage of enlightenment is DJ Tiesto – Nyana.
