Pasghetti fiction

In Tokyo, walk into any restaurant with an Italian menu out front and you're bound to get a plate of spaghetti. It's not that spaghetti is necessarily your favorite Neapolitan fare, but it's all too often that this is the only thing on offer here.
If you're lucky, the chef went to Rome on his honeymoon. Now his wife takes your order as you sit at the table along the wall with decorative plates hung on it depicting Mediterranean life that might have once been a happy reminder to the couple of their brief foray oh-so-many years ago, but which now look cloudy under the dust that has congealed with the cheap olive oil in the air.
You venture against all odds and scan the menu quickly looking for the katakana characters for penne or maybe even ma-ka-ro-ni-i, but to no avail. You push images of tortellini far from your mind and order tomato on su-pa-ge-tei it is, and the once hopeful fiance of a cuoco Italiano jots down the code for what she imagines is bolognese on her notepad.
The waitress used to be a bit playful and repeat the order to her husband saying "paa fo'vaa", and once in a while a customer would comment on how wonderful it was she spoke such beautiful Italian. She would insist that was really all she remembered now even though she was able to ask for directions when she was in Rome.
The spaghetti comes in a bowl with a fork wrapped in a thin napkin remenicent of a cafeteria. There's a dented green canister Kraft parmesan cheese on the table that could be easily mistaken for Comet if it were under the kitchen sink and you shake out as much as you can before the waitress flashes you the evil eye. You think to remind her you had also requested a glass of water but think better of it. You hope she'll get bored and bring it later.
Another patron is a few tables away eating the 'spaghetti calbonara' while he reads about Dice-K's pitching record in the sports section. You notice his ice water is sitting in a puddle next to the cheese on his table.
You finish the last bit of pasta in your bowl, politely decline the house blend "after-you-eat" cup of coffee and get up to pay the check. The chef is the one to shuffle over to the register and he rings up the bill, giving you your 300 yen in change. There is still a sense of pride in the man's eyes. You thank him and he thanks you. Moments later, the door closes behind you and you walk over to the vending machine outside and get a cold sports drink.

The 7-54

This is sort of random, but after about 6 months of catching the train in the morning, I now celebrate riding the 7:54.
In Tokyo, where trains are the mode of transportation for the majority of commutes, there are plenty of trains; some lines run a train literally every 2 minutes during peak times - usually the morning rush. So I never really tried to catch a specific train, knowing that there's a 7:56, an 8:01 and so on, that will still get me to work with about 5 minutes to spare.
Getting the 7:54, however, means one less transfer on the way. It also means I probably got up in the morning without hitting snooze too many times and didn't drag my feet getting out the door. So getting the 7:54 having had a bit of breakfast and a cup of coffee is a good sign that I'm going to have a fairly good day.
So here I am, relaxing in my seat 6 stops down the route on what might be someone else's coveted 8:08.

NPR

The past month or so I've been listening to weekly installments of the Chicago Public Radio show "This American Life". I have to say, it's been a refreshing way to start the week (they air on Mondays), and the shows are always entertaining and engaging.
This week the story is about a 19 year old Iraqi who worked as a PR agent-slash-diplomat for Sadam before the war, and then became a news correspondent once the war began. Listening to the interview and his story, it gives you a very vivid sense of what was going on in the country in the days leading up to "the insurgency".
The week before was a show about summer camp and all the quirks and in-jokes that go along with the people who attend annually. They didn't limit it to summer camp for kids though, in addition they interviewed a guy about his mandatory service with the Israeli army growing up. It was actually a funny story about a stage performance they put on, but it went into the subject of group mentality and wanting to fit in. As a kid, I didn't go to the same camp year after year, but I had many chances to go to camp, build bonfires, learn the songs, go star gazing... the whole nine yards.
I'd certainly recommend NPR to anyone now, particularly This American Life, although I also started listening to their newscast on Environment, which is also intriguing. It always goes into depth and gives you a full story instead of the snippets you get on regular news. Ultimately, it makes you think, which is what is really missing from CNN or other sources. Particularly if you have an mp3 player, like an iPod, definitely check out the NPR shows available for Podcast. The best companion for any commute to work... aside from a cup of coffee, that is.

"World Music"

The past year or so I've been listening to more and more "world music". It's funny, in music stores here in Japan, the sections are titled: Japanese pop/rock (aka J-POP), International (which basically means North American and some British music), Jazz, Blues, Classical...
and then "World Music". What IS that?! (for more on that subject, read this text by Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil: http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/sec_textos_view.php?id=1&language_id=2)

I've discovered that it means a lot of genuinely excellent music that hasn't been overproduced, over-promoted or overplayed. The challenge is finding out what suits your taste, and the second challenge is finding it; Tower and HMV have pitifully small sections, and Jeugia is only slightly better. I have found Amazon (online) has a good selection, and you can even listen to a lot of music online first.

My Recommendations:
Tarkan (Turkish)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=118478859

Gilberto Gil (Brazilian)
http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/index.php?language=en

Cesaria Evora (African - Cape Verde)
http://africanmusic.org/artists/evora.html

Vera Bila & Kale (Romany music)
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/67743
http://romove.radio.cz/en/print/18527

Tété (French)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=140228429

Antonio Carlos Jobim (Brazilian)
http://bjbear71.com/Jobim/interview.html#Biography

Serge Gainsbourg (French) http://sergegainsbourg.artistes.universalmusic.fr/1024/push/netsc1024_.html
http://www.francevision.com/nsltr/vf14/gains.htm

Iva Bittova (Czech)
http://www.musica.cz/bittova/

Zuzana Navarova (Czech) (who sadly died in 2005 at age 45)
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/61087

Andrea Bocelli (Italian) (pretty popular actually)
http://www.bocellionline.com/

Also, under 'dance' or 'club', but not American:
Gotan Project (Argentinian)
http://www.gotanproject.com/

Talvin Singh (Indian)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/441762.stm

Table Topics

This past Thursday at Tokyo Toastmasters I took the role of Table Topics Master. This role is basically to present topics to the floor and and assign a member to speak for about 2 and a half minutes on the subject. The idea is to encourage quick thinking "on your feet" and the ability to make an impromptu speech. Quite a few people gave me positive feedback on the topics I presented, so I thought I'd post them here to all to ponder. :-)

1. According to a recent article in Newsweek magazine, "scientists
have made a billboard that can tell when you're bored and when you're
paying attention". This means public advertisements in digital format
(a computerized "LCD poster") that would have cameras that recognize
if a person five meters away is looking toward the screen or away from
it, signaling the content of the ad to either launch into a
promotional video or change to a new product to try to "catch" your
attention. Do you think this is a "fair" way of advertising? Is this
invading a person's privacy to have a camera monitoring their every
move so they'll buy a certain brand of breakfast cereal or fly with a
particular airline?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18754460/site/newsweek/

2. I have a problem. I really like the taste of Pringles potato chips
(http://www.pringles.com/). The problem is the canister in which they
are sold is not recyclable; the bottom of the can is steel, the body a
coated paperboard tube and the top is foil and plastic, (the container
can not be disassembled). I care about the environment. So, in your
opinion, what should I do?
(for more detail about the container, look here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmenvfru/385/385a40.h\
tm)

3. Cell phones are an ubiquitous item in Japan and it's common to see
people use them in such places as trains. Cell phones are also
becoming technologically advanced to handle video and even view PDF
files on their 2+ inch screens. Do you think using cell phones for
school work is a viable idea, say for internet-based, correspondence
learning? Would this be a good way for teachers to require high
school students to submit school work? Explain.

4. Car radar detectors that are able to alert drivers to a police car
in the vicinity should be banned. The purchase of such a device
indicates that the person is openly planning to break the law by
driving over the speed limit. What do you think?
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-28-200\
7/0004536725&EDATE=

There were quite a lot of interesting responses to these topics, including an anecdote given by one member on getting caught speeding despite having installed a "fuzz buster", criticism of the Internet intruding on positive teacher-student interaction, and an imaginative suggestion to modify a Pringle's canister into an Australian didgeridoo.