Tokyo 2008 - An Excerpt from the Current Playlist.

Ame ame fure fure kaasan ga
jyanome de omukae… konakata
Osanai atashi no kokoro wa harou chuui
doujyou suru nara kasa wo kure

Kyou mo ame… asu mo ame…

Ame ni utaeba, sora ni utaeba,
kono mune no naka no kumo mo itsuno hi ka hareru kana
Ame no hi blues kaze no hi blues
utaitsuzuketa nara ame agari no niji wo mieru kana…

The rain the rain was pouring pouring, and mother
didn’t come to meet me with an umbrella.
My childish heart is in danger of a surge;
if you pity me, let me have an umbrella.

Today it’s raining… tomorrow it’ll be raining…

If I sing to the rain, if I sing to the sky
might not the clouds in my heart one day turn to sun?
Rainy day blues windy day blues;
if I keep on singing, might I not see a rainbow after the rains have stopped?

雅-miyavi-, Ame ni utaeba (If I sing to the rain…)

And Then She Discovered Japanese Candy.

It used to be that when I came over here I ate nothing but healthy stuff (minus the rice crackers, to which I am hopelessly addicted). But then I discovered traditional Japanese sweets: the Japanese red bean paste stuffed truffle (shouro), the sugar-coated komadori no suzuyaki that makes the American donut hole look pathetic, the cream-filled milk cakes, and melon bread, and so on. I have since been eating said delicacies with a frequency that would make those who knew me before grad school (when I wouldn’t touch a sweet with a ten-foot pole) blush.

But they are so darn good.

I take them to class with me to share (because things taste better when you share them), and everyone declares that I am their favorite person. But I can tell you that it’s a good thing I exercise regularly. Lord have mercy!