Snippets

Why does no one but me find it strange to be shopping in the very mild-mannered grocery store among the very mild-mannered Japanese patrons, listening to very mild-mannered Japanese easy listening on the grocery store system, and suddenly the next song is by Lil' Kim and there is a whole lot of booty being shaken and junk in the trunk being sung about but everyone continues looking at mikan and tofu and natto?

My pants are all baggy on me again. Even the pair that were tight when I bought them are two inches too big on my waist now. This happened last year when I lost a bunch of weight and it's happening again now that I've been going to the gym. Losing weight is expensive. I'm going to have to buy new stuff again soon. Luckily I like shopping. But I think I should hold out a little longer because I'll probably lose a couple more inches in the next month. I've already lost more than that in the past two. It's so odd how the body changes so quickly once you activate it and use it consistently to burn away all the excess. I may try to wait it out till I get back to the States to get new clothes this time, although I do love Japanese fashion.

I think it is wonderful that the hip hop exercise class at the gym is full of everyone from youngsters to oldsters, skinny types to overweight types, all getting their freak on. It makes that movie Shall We Dance seem boring. There should be a hip hop version of that movie now, with little old Japanese men and women wearing headbands and snapping their fingers in each other's faces saying, "hmmph," then wagging their fingers in the air afterwards and dipping into a lunge and twirling back, flashing their fingers in front of their faces and jutting their elbows behind their backs before kicking it forward, backward, forward and then bam, walkitout... walkitout... walkitout my Peeples.

Tofu is the true food of the gods. Who knew???

You recognize you have a problem when you search through your jacket pockets and find coupons for a free hour of karaoke at three different karaoke parlors in your own town and also in the next one over.