As I was walking around town today, I stopped in at the corner store to buy a snack. I really do miss the convenience stores in Japan. I miss looking at a pop cooler and seeing a dozen different kinds of iced tea.
Shortly before I left Japan, I was asked, "What are you going to miss the most, Mark?" I took a deep breath and said, "The convenience stores." She laughed at me and said, "But we've got 7-11 back home!" I said, "Yeah, but you can't buy clean underwear at the stores back home."
I briefly did attempt a sub-series of columns called "What I Like About Japan." Convenience stores was on the list. I only wrote two editions before the catastrophic failure of my laptop. I keep wondering if I should go back and attempt to write the rest of the series; depend on my fading memories.
Tomorrow's the last day of my reading week. I'm hoping I can pump out a couple of columns. At the very least, I should try to finish my column about going to the Studio Ghibli museum. It's a 2-part affair and I've had part I in the bag for 6 months.
Speaking of columns, this week's is posted. It's a fairly mediocre piece called Idol Worship:
"Quick! Name five people you admire in your field. Pretty easy, isn’t it? I ask this question to someone like Mr. Anderson, who wants to write and draw comics, and he can rattle off five names with no problem. But, sadly, it is a task I have great trouble doing in my chosen profession. An upcoming assignment sounded rather simple at the outset. We have to do a profile on a DJ we like. Naturally, this means talking to said DJ. The instructor asked us which DJ we each were going to contact. She didn’t want us all swamping the same one, after all. She went around the table, and each of my classmates proudly yelled out the name of the DJ they were going to talk to with nary a thought. And then she came to me, and I was left struggling to find a name."
As always, please read the whole thing!
Next Issue...Vacation's End
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