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In more pleasant news,
14 years ago
I was able to go to a blood drive a few Tuesdays ago (the first Tuesday after that disaster in and around Tohoku) and got the results back from the tests they ran: my liver enzymes apparently are still higher than average, but in an acceptable range so they were able to use the blood I donated. That makes me feel better... of course about my own health, but also for whomever it was able to benefit.
The Japanese Red Cross is more strict in some ways, including about how much -- 400 ml as opposed to the 473 ml that make up a pint -- and how often one is allowed to donate, especially with the full/red blood cell donation. According to my card I won't be able to go again until summer, even. At least until then, though, I'll continue to abstain from sake. I mean sake 酒 in the Japanese sense: meaning all alcohol in general and not just Nihon-shu 日本酒。 When the cherry blossoms come, I'm really going to miss ume-shu 梅酒、the plum wine. Overall, quitting cold turkey was -- reassuringly! -- not as difficult as I wondered at first.
All that aside, I was also able to attend some graduation ceremonies. (School years in Asia begin and end in the early spring.) Made me a proud -- former and present, depending on where I was -- instructor ^_^ They're good in Japan about making these ceremonies both formal and touching, and everyone is so lovely dressed!
The most recent news is this nice new icon you all have seen by now,
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5478439/
thanks to, how should I call him, The Known Kadath. Those of you who haven't been: do check out the comic series he's been doing lately. It's cute and it's free!
--:=)
The Japanese Red Cross is more strict in some ways, including about how much -- 400 ml as opposed to the 473 ml that make up a pint -- and how often one is allowed to donate, especially with the full/red blood cell donation. According to my card I won't be able to go again until summer, even. At least until then, though, I'll continue to abstain from sake. I mean sake 酒 in the Japanese sense: meaning all alcohol in general and not just Nihon-shu 日本酒。 When the cherry blossoms come, I'm really going to miss ume-shu 梅酒、the plum wine. Overall, quitting cold turkey was -- reassuringly! -- not as difficult as I wondered at first.
All that aside, I was also able to attend some graduation ceremonies. (School years in Asia begin and end in the early spring.) Made me a proud -- former and present, depending on where I was -- instructor ^_^ They're good in Japan about making these ceremonies both formal and touching, and everyone is so lovely dressed!
The most recent news is this nice new icon you all have seen by now,
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5478439/
thanks to, how should I call him, The Known Kadath. Those of you who haven't been: do check out the comic series he's been doing lately. It's cute and it's free!
--:=)
(Well, about as "small" as California, with about half the population of the US. 'Got nothing on Tuvalu!)
They're happy to see people donating, though... though I can't say how much being Type O+ has helped me with that. (Theoretically, O- would be even better, but I'm told almost all ethnic Japanese are Rh Positive anyway.) Anyway, at each blood drive I've been to, folks were plenty patient with me even when I had trouble answering some of the questions with specific medical terminology, for example.
Hell, as I mentioned in the previous journal, my batch in November was rejected and there was nothing to blame but my own decadent lifestyle --;=) Your case is different.
On a more nostalgic note, Nihon-shu and ume-shu are my favorites, but chu-hi is good -- I recommend trying as wide a variety of flavors as possible while you're on this side! I have a friend who swears by the standard lemon, lime, and Calpis flavorings. My favorites tend to be more like ume (plum; sounds similar to the slang umee for 'yummy') and ao ringo (sour/green apple). Grape and cassis (black currant) are OK, too. But then again, I do like mead and other sweet drinks, and I don't really care how many folks at home make fun of that --;=)
Also: just read your own journal entry, and I agree that the northeast doesn't need any more of the bad kind of jishin right now! That ceiling lamp-shaking sort of tremor you mention is indeed really common here, and almost indistinguishable from a large-enough truck driving past. They're also reassuring in a way, since at least they mean that seismic tension's being let out in a steady manner.
Have you tried any yakitori places, for example? And izakaya in general, which really are more like pubs than bars. In addition to the conbini like Lawson, I mean.
Very sexy pic by kadath. Wonder who it is you're looking at XD
The shock from that probably powers what you generously call 'resolve' --;=) Let's just say I'm running a six-month experiment on my own liver and removing the independent variable 'alcohol'. Sadly, I can't get ahold of one single sake-drinking alternate universe version of me to use as a control in the experiment --X=D
Who? Indeed, you might have been expecting a different shape of penis *^_^* This uni stallion is, to quote -- and utterly ignore the context from -- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, "a creature of chaos. It may take many incarnations." Pippy and her father are about the same, in some ways.
(My Google-fu proved strong enough to find the origin of that quote -- yes, I did spend too much time on that PSX game and a few others in the late 90s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRODL-4z218
from about 2:20 to 2:45.)