Another day in Japan

CSU webmail is back up, ya'll.

I was raring to go at 4:30 a.m. again after an interesting dream in which I spoke Japanese. The fuzzy kitty at home also had a bunch of fluffy kittens, and I was the proud owner of Atsuko's car. Having a dream in Japanese was a landmark, I suppose I could live here now.

Today I searched for a better reserve pool, and found it in shibire. Prep number one pulled out a record 3 pins, but number two was nice and had a few nice bright boutons. Not as many as I expected, but Atsuko believes I should change from the fancy incubation hot-plate to the 34 degree incubator and at last I will see the reserve pools. Just in time for me to decide that actin must be involved in endocytosis. Ah well. I have to keep reminding myself that it does not matter where research takes me as long as it is publishable truth.

I was lucky to get such a clear morning a-top Mt. Fuji. I had lunch with "the guys" today and Saito-san has climbed it twice in the cold and rain. Ueno-san and Tamura-san have not climbed it because they have Ph.D.s and they are smart. Only today could I walk without pain, stairs excluded.
I visited my fun Japanese Bible study again tonight and enjoyed finding more life/science parallels. When one can focus on the facts and turn off the imagination for a while, one can creep closer to the truth. As unbelievable as it may seem from the context of our clogged minds. If only I could be paid a dime for every philosophical thought. The pastor's wife gave me some eggplants and cucumbers last week and I've enjoyed experimenting with eggplant spaghetti sauce. Very good, I am proud of myself. Not sure what to do with the cucumbers. It seems that cucumber plants just make too many cucumbers, even in Japan. There was an entertaining moment at the end of our study when Timiko-san (I think) leapt up from the table and tore into the next room hopping on one foot while pulling off her other green house slipper, yelling something in Japanese, and chased a cockroach without a chance across the room to a very stomped and smushed death. Atsuko was right, they just don't like them over here. I think the major horror of the cockroach is that they eat garbage, and garbage is thought of as very gross here. Many Japanese think the wild cats are just as gross as the cockroaches because they dig in the garbage. If they knew I dig around in it sometimes looking for my driver's license or lost phonecards I think I might share the fate of the cockroach. To me, it's just a bug.

I think it's bedtime. I have to kill more maggots tomorrow. In Japan.