Like a kid at Christmas, starry-eyed and full of joy

This story begins a few days ago when we met in Shibuya; she was looking for some sheet music and a CD, I was blowing off steam with some retail therapy after a visit to the US embassy (not to worry; I am not being deported). I bought a delicious smelling oil which improved my mood a lot; my mom's endeavor was fruitless. But, the next day she proudly told me that she had bought the sheet music on-line. Apparently I wasn't satisfactorily amazed because she said it again. "I ordered it. On-line. By myself. With a credit card." I suppose it is a feat.

Anyway, I then asked her if she had looked for the recording she was looking for, but she hadn't. So I opened ye olde iTunes and searched for the Mozart piece wanted and lo and behold! if several don't pop up. She was interested in one of them, so we downloaded it - it was a "Masterpieces" compilation from Vanguard and coincidentally had 2 pieces she'd recorded with the Yale Quartet in 1968! She has the LP but thought she'd never listen to it again, so was super excited that it was on the collection. I told her I'd burn the CDs as soon as they were done downloading.

"Will it take 2 hours to burn?" she asked. I assured her it wouldn't be long. I think it took 10 minutes for the 2 CDs. "Where did you get 2 hours from, anyway?" I asked. "That's how long it would take to play the pieces, so..." was her answer.

Epilogue - She listened to the CDs and her eyes shined like a kid beholding a magic candy machine or something. "It's soooo amazing!" she said, "It sounds as good as if I'd bought the CD at the store!" I could attempt to explain to her what digital means, 0's and 1's, but why ruin the magic, right?

Sometimes thinking ahead isn't at all

It was raining and I had asked for a ride to the train station. As I was putting on my jacket and bag, I noticed my mom putting an English muffin into the toaster. I asked her why she was doing that when we're just about to leave. Here was her answer:

"So that I'll forget that I wanted toast by the time I come back from dropping you off and will discover them later when I get home from school, all dried and hard in the toaster."

Really, it's that she wants to remember that she even wanted toast, but she recognizes that this scenario is much more likely. Probably based on previous experience.

Head of the Crass

It was a good way to start the day.

I went down for a quick bite before heading off to work this morning. As usual, my mom was already downstairs and was reading her email. I got my breakfast and sat down at the table, sipping coffee and trying to get ungroggy, when my mom turns to me and says, "Seizo's assistant."
I sat, eating, drinking, waiting for more, but nothing was forthcoming.
"You know that's not enough information," I told her.
"Well," she said, "I was gonna say 'fucked up' but I didn't think it was very nice."
It was a proverbial 'milk-out-my-nose' moment, though coffee and toast was decidedly more painful.

Event two happened just moments after this one, when the cat was whining and meowed his super high and lady like meow even though he's really an old-man kitty. "It's because he has no balls," my mom informed me, "Like the castrati, you know?" This I knew, but still it seems remarkable that his voice is so clear and high. To me, he'll always just be the Gramps, the Queen.

'mfa≠job steve' has it right: Yoko you so crazy

Last night my mom was talking about this kind of light, orchestral music that is not really classical but not really pop and as such is extremely popular among many Japanese. She couldn't remember the name of the composer and so started to try and describe the music to me. She didn't even make it through one sentence.
Y: It's really soupy...
N: You mean, sappy...
Y: No, SOUPY. You know, light and not really very serious, sentimental.
N: Yes. Sappy. Cheesy.
Y: Soupy.
N: I don't understand. You are telling me that the music has the quality of soup? I have no idea what that means. I think you are using the wrong word.
Y: No, I've used it for years and no one has said anything before.
N: That's probably because they thought you were meaning 'sappy.' But, please, explain to me exactly how music can have the quality of soup, and what that means to you.
Y: (laughing) Well... (long pause)
N: (laughing) You don't even know, do you!
Y: Yes I do! It's nice and it's sort of runny...

She couldn't get any further than this though which told me enough, not that I would have heard her over my cackling. I can't really give her any grief since I'm sure there are a million things I know how to use but probably couldn't give a definition if my life depended on it. Actually, I've discovered I have this problem with many idioms. I guess adjectives are to Yoko what idioms are to me.

Move over, Ono - there's a new Yoko in town

I should submit my mom's house as conceptual installation piece to represent the Japan pavilion at the next Biennale. Here are some detail shots from the current installation.

If my ego was a zeppelin, it'd the Hindenburg

So, today when I went down to have some lunch, the housekeeper was just getting ready to leave. She's in her 70s, the one who is fast. At any rate, we were making small talk and just as I was reaching in to the fridge, she says, "I always thought you were skinny, but you're not really so skinny, are you." I froze. Yes, I've put on a few since I've been here (and yes, sadly in Japan they use the metric system); also, I don't think she meant it as a criticism, but rather some weird post WWII-type compliment in my granparents'-era-style. Needless to say, I reached past my original lunch item and grabbed for the plain, low fat yogurt. Anyway, later when I got home, I told my mom this story and she laughed with me about it. As we were laughing, the cat started to beg for more dinner, and my mom says to him, "You can't have any more. You're fat, too."
"Fat, TOO?!"
"Well, you just said it," she started to back-peddle, "We're all kind of getting fat..."

Anyway, I can't say much because, well, the scale doesn't lie. Also, I think my mom confuses empathy and sympathy sometimes (I guess they do sound alike...) and she wasn't trying to make me feel like a whale. Needless to say, I think I'm going to go on a diet. Failing that, maybe just a day long 'cleanse.'

an admission

My mom's prior student was here with her baby when I got back from work. We were introduced and made some small talk in Japanese. She said it was strange to be speaking in Japanese with me and asked which was easier for me. I said, English (obviously) and my mom told her that I was definitely American.

"And what about you, Sensei? (all her students call her this and it kind of makes me laugh because I'm an American, who, like all of my generation, grew up with The Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off) Are you American or Japanese?"

My mom paused for just a half-second before she answered, "Alien." (it was kind of wordplay in Japanese: America-jin, Nihon-jin, Uchuu-jin). It all makes such sense now! Of course, that makes me half-alien, but I think I might be okay with that. In any case, maybe it's the answer to many of my queries.

those little throw away moments

"If I see it, I want to stop it." This declaration was made with gusto today as we drove to the cemetery. What heinous offense is my mom so against? Nothing. She was telling me about a little farmers' market kind of place and, while I had a good laugh, it was just a case of pronoun/adverb confusion: it, there, whatever. These are the little moments that don't get shared but happen daily, sometimes hourly. Let me tell you, the scowling abounds each and every time.

The moral here is that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and you'll just have to experience her yourself someday to fully appreciate what I get to enjoy every day.