Cancer Roadmap (a new site)

My friend Ali recently unveiled her great new website called "Cancer Roadmap". (link at left) She is an amazing young woman and her voice is much needed. Her support of me this past summer was such a comfort in own scary bout with the disease. Check out her site!

Orange

It occurs to me that I've never posted pictures of my sweet orange folding bike. I bought it used, from a foreign dude in Sapporo, for about $50. And IT FOLDS IN HALF! I can take it apart, put it in a duffel bag, and bring it on the train or camping or whatever. So fun.

The bike has been especially appreciated this spring. I couldn't ride while the sidewalks were packed with ice and snow, and it was a painful 20-minute walk to and from work each day. But now that I'm back on the bike I can take pressure off my still-fractured foot. Relief.

Here are pictures of my favorite elementary-age girls playing on my tall bike.


And in front of an old locomotive in Furano.

Flair

What is this god-awful mess, you ask? A dead bird fallen from a tree? A kindergartner's art project? A fraggle? (Yes, Tesars, that was a pop-culture reference!)
No, my friends. This bundle of putrescence is CLIP-ON FLAIR on my new shoes. Wonder why the shoes were on sale? Neither do I. Lucky for everyone, the flair clips off leaving no damage to my cutest new sandals. I must note that the color of my sandals is blue, further proving that this flair is not only horrifying ugly but also entirely mismatched.

Some attempts at Japanese creativity can only result in my feelings of pity. Shoes give many examples here.

In men's shoes, it is popular to wear contraptions that look like dead snakes. Multi-colored ones with pointy toes. I worry they might jump up to bite me.

Thank goodness for MY protective glittery sandals sans flair.

Almost Seven Billion!

The info on this website is so crazy-cool:
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

Watch the population clock grow before your eyes!

Thoughts

Thoughts, comparisons, jet-lagged reflections:

Americans are DIVERSE. There are so many different colors/ethnicities/sizes/opinions/persuasions among our people. The word "diversity" doesn't even exist in the Japanese language. Because of our diversity of people, the products and services available in the USA is so diverse: so many different kinds of foods and services!

Americans are tall! And many are shockingly obese. We each gained about 5lbs in the 2 weeks we were there. Most of those who are fit have memberships at gyms in order to compensate for the typical American beef-bread-cornsyrup diet.

Americans are friendly, verbal, and generous. Rural-Nebraskans are particularly open and generous. It was wonderful to be with such gregarious people!

Transportation in Nebraska is auto-centric. Buses and trains are rare. Nebraskans don't walk for transportation.

Omaha is flat and spread out. There appears to be no city planning to reign in overzealous suburban-sprawl developments. Houses are HUGE. Mansions are not unusual. Americans might think they are being squeezed financially due to increased charges for gas, but citizens of the USA live like royalty (is it all on loan?).

America is violent. I was shocked to watch the Omaha evening news and watch reports of multiple recent murders. There are signs on the doors of clinics, jewelry stores, etc declaring that people must not bring handguns into these facilities. People lock their doors and watch their belongings. In Japan violent crime and theft are shocking rarities.

American foods are familiar and yummy. I LOVE WHOLE FOODS. And I loved being able to recognize everything on the shelves. We returned with a suitcase full of lentils, split peas, garbanzo beans, organic peanut butter, yellow mustard, 'reeses' peanut butter cups, Mexican 'pulparindo' spicy tamarind candy, and oatmeal.

It was so good to be home surrounded with love and friendship and familiarity. Other than driving on the other side of the road :D, it didn't feel like much of a challenge to re-acclimate to home. Perhaps we will experience more reverse-culture shock in August when we return for good, but this wasn't difficult.



Tomorrow we return to work, to test our re-acclimation to Japan.