Langston Hughes, one of my favorite poets from the Harlem Renaissance, wrote a poem called The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Wanna hear it? Here it goes: I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the [...]
I do something really sadomasochistic to myself. What I do is, I punish myself for not doing what my mind and body knows it ought to do, which is quit smoking. How do I do it you wanna know? What is this sick, twisted S&M thing I do to myself? No whips, no chains, or [...]
Manhattan, and the other 3 boroughs of New York City, I could take or leave. But I ♥ Brooklyn… I spent the better part of my life there, and learned a great deal about who I am in that amazing community. …and more importantly, I loved ME in Brooklyn! After thirty years of [...]
I’ve grown quite passionate with my street photography. It’s one of the few things I look forward to every day in Japan. I tend to shoot the everyday things I see, so my photographs seem, at a glance, to be repetitive. But, unlike people, to me, each photograph is, indeed, a unique and special snowflake. [...]
One of my favorite places in Japan is actually right here in lovely scenic Yokohama. Sure, the ramen museum is there, but after you’ve had your ramen foreplay, what’s on tap? Well, you could take a trip over to Shin-Yokohama, for it just happens to be the best place in Yokohama to get your freak on [...]
Spring is a time of renewal, rebirth and re-invigoration. The blossoming of Cherry Blossoms symbolizes this in a most awesome spectacle. All winter you see these trees looking eerily derelict, for in your mind you know what they’re capable of in their fullest glory; how they will look come late March, early April. I’ve never [...]
Woman walks by a shop window and stops to check herself in her reflection. Amid a few adjustments she notices something in her peripherals. Something startling. She turns her head fully and takes it in. She’s aghast! She turns away quickly and begins to walk faster than before. She glances over her shoulder every 4 [...]
One of the things that makes living in Japan less trying is the food. Just knowing that at the end of that xenophobia-plagued train ride is some Osaka-style or even Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki makes it almost worthwhile. However, Japan has one dish that’s simply to die for. Yeah, you guessed it: Ramen! Some ramen is better than other ramen. [...]
Shit, I forgot to put some money on my Pasmo…and I was in a rush to meet a student, so I didn’t stop when the little swinging doors on the turnstile slammed into my thighs. This was not the first time. Usually I would stop, go back and fill it up. Sometimes I keep it [...]
When I was about 10 years old, and a student at a private school (I’ve touched on the nature of the school I attended several times in past posts) we had a protocol for answering questions. The teacher would pose a question like, “What is the product of 5 and 5?” (Yeah, they would word [...]
...cuz we all need defense against the dark arts!
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Raw Like Sushi
