Rx Bandits at Bonaroo...Makes me wonder what I'm doing in Japan.

The other day I had dinner at Manami's aunt and uncle's place in Tokyo. We ate delicious yakiniku and nikujaga. I love that Japanese people love feeding foreigners till they're about to burst. Score one for being foreign. Anyways, her uncle and I once shared a connection over classic rock, so he had 80s pop playing on iTunes radio. We're sitting there enjoying our dinner when what comes on? "Turning Japanese." The irony was thick and I savored the moment, but no one at the table had ever heard the song. Weird, right? The night finished as many nights in Japan end- with the family all busting out their Nintendo DS Lites and challenging each other.

On a related note, "Mr. Roboto," which in case you don't know, prominently features the lyric "domo arigato," is as unknown to Japanese as enka is to Americans.

Enka sucks, by the way. I've met a couple Japapnese people not too much older than me at bars who tell me they are into enka. It's at this point I either a) make fun of them or b) walk away. Enka is kinda like older-people pop music. Heavily influenced from Japanese traditional folk music, it was the country's pop music before the mid 80s or so, when J-Pop started taking over. Anytime there's an instrumental break in enka songs, everyone claps. It's ridiculous I TELLZ YA!

Today, I worked elementary school. It was easy. The first period the kids asked me questions for literall 35 of the 45 minutes. Some funnier questions that I've never been asked before like "what's your favorite dinosaur" (but dammit, I forget how to say dinosaur now) and "why is your favorite color green." It was also the first time someone guessed my age correctly on the first try. It's not unusual for the kids to guess i'm in my late 30s or early 40s.

I will be home in Rockford from March 23 until March 30th. Manami's coming with me. We bought the tickets today. Arrange your flights to Rockford now.