Last posts a little negative? Alright. Let's lay down some cool shit. The list:

Bicycles. My chrome is shining, just like an icicle / I ride around town on my low-rider bicycle. It feels like blood flowing through veins, these bikes moving through the narrow streets. Its so organic. There's no real rules to the flow, you just kinda sense where those two girls riding on that bike are going and you move around them. And quiet. I take this long-cut to work that goes through the park. A lot of others do too and we make this silent parade each morning. Through the park with and the green grass and the standing stones and that guy with the stick thats always getting ready for martial arts and all those old people walking their little dogs.

Trains. I've gone on about them long enough. They rule. Nuff said.

Students. OK. Despite what I said the other day, I love my students already. They're so cool! I sit in on this calligraphy class, and slowly I'm fading out of the spotlight, so I see these kids acting at least kinda how they would normally. i watched while this one kid tried to throw bits of eraser into this other kid's mouth while that kid slowly opened and closed it. Finally, a bit went in and he swallowed it. He was choking and coughing. And laughing at the same time. They go to Namba station to by Claws or Pantone Kubrics. Or frickin action figures of famous tag artists. They drive crazy vans that look like a shark crashed into an plasticine brick of tremendous size at high speed. They're rad.

Style. I see guys and chicks over 40 rockin trip five soul and x-large. Girls done up faux-punk and pincushions. Guys in beduin robes. Middle school eighties fashion. I love it. And when you find something you love here, you become it. Outside Himeji castle was this dog show, I told you, right? At the end of the regular competition was the doggie fashion show. And guys, young guys, had dressed their dogs in costumes that obviously required a great deal of time and effort and then dressed themselves to match.

Food. Oishii! I've gone on about this enough. Working the takoyaki stand! It was like a mini burning man popcorn palace adventure.

The JK. A cup of joe to look at the jazz band over, and a good book. There's two baristas here. One's like, I don't know, a story book barista guy with balding head and mustache. Quick to smile but not much to say. The other guy, I swear to God is Jason Glass's japanese counterpart. It reminds me of the old Pneumatic days. That afternoon sun comes in the door like a cat and lights the steam thats mingling with the cigarette smoke. It smiles off the counter in that late afternoon way and lights people's faces up from below. A quick tune up and the band swings into "India". Oh.

Kids. I even love the way the Japanese say "children". They love their kids. And they're wild animals! They run screaming through the park in search of bugs. They stare vacantly at stuff. They hold hands. They breathe out life just like trees oxygen.

See? I like stuff!