Astro Boy, Astro Boy...

Astroboy
Originally uploaded by Yasashisa.

Hello everybody. I don't know if many of you are still out there. Maybe my readership dried up due to the ever-increasing gaps between posts and the fact that the stuff I have been posting is several weeks out of date. The problem is that this blog exists to describe our experiences in Japan. Lately, there hasn't been too much to report. I could start being all political or philosophical like some of the other blogs I've come across on the 'net, but I don't really want to go that road. First of all, no one really wants to hear my opinions and thoughts. Most of them are not particularly unique and those that are probably shouldn't be made public. Secondly, I find many of those blogs are so pretentious and misinformed that they're painful to read, not to mention boring as heck. Thirdly, if I start ranting and raving online for the whole world to read, I likely will regret it. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but someday, and for the rest of my life. No, I won't go all political on the two or three of you who do check this from time to time. For the time being, this blog will remain what it is: a report on our doings here in Japan.

Like I said, though, little has been going on. We've been teaching, planning for our return for Canada, and doing a little sightseeing. A few weeks ago, I went to a museum near here in a town called Takarazuka. Takarazuka, besides being the creative headquarters for a famous cross-dressing dance revue, is the hometown of Osamu Tezuka, the cartoonist who created, among other interesting and cool characters, Astro Boy. When I was a kid, I loved Astro Boy cartoons. Those of you that know me well know that there is very little in this world I'll wake up early for. Nevertheless, I would wake up at 7:30 every morning when I was a kid just to tune in to the Prince Albert station to watch Astro Boy. It was a very cool cartoon show in its day. I enjoyed my trip to the museum, although most of the displays were entirely in Japanese. They had a large selection of Tezuka manga (Japanese comic books) that I could read in English, which I spent a little time reading.

Let me see... What else is new? Oh yeah. And a while back, I saw the guy with the van and the life size Pooh dolls in the back seat again. He's for real. He wasn't just taking them to his girlfriend's house or whatever. He really drives around playing loud music with giant, stuffed teddy bears in his back seat for company. Crazy. That's almost as strange as the gull-wing Volkswagon Beetle I saw in Mexico that one time.

I should go to bed. Sorry for the randomness of this post. I'm tired and things haven't exactly been terribly exciting around here. Take care, everybody, and God bless. Later.
-Joe.