Right now, I’m sitting at my laptop eating Ritz crackers (courtesy of Daiei grocery store) and Jif peanut butter (courtesy of my mom’s first care package) and enjoying every minute of it.  Today has been a day of stress and contemplation.  I have recently realized that my body’s acidity level is out of whack…partly because of some headaches, trouble sleeping, but mostly because of these two little friends in my mouth…canker sores.  They hurt, really hurt.  They are contributing to my headaches…so whenever I get a canker sore, I like to analyze why I have one.  Sometimes it’s just from biting my cheek…but the worst one is way down between my cheek and my gum…not a fun location…you can’t even look at it from there.  So, this could be the result of two things, probably both being connected:  my diet has become too acidic and I’m stressed out. 

So the remedy, for the first, is to eat more “basic” foods and drink.  My last beverage adventure was an orange fruit/vegetable drink which, much to my chagrin, included bell pepper…BINGO – acid.  hah, yeah…that was no fun.  So today, I drank some Coke, hoping the carbonation will help out.  I will research some more basic foods…I think broccoli might be among that, but I’m not certain.

The remedy for the first is…well…more difficult.  There are things in my life that I cannot control right now, so I will have to do my best.  But, it got me to thinking about some “grander schemes”.  In my Wednesday night class, only one of my students showed up…one out of four…Maki, who is 19 years old.  She’s pretty fun.  She has her own band, and she plays the drums.  She was teaching me some good Japanese slang…and then the Japanese English teacher I work with afterwards quickly told me not to use any of them.  Heh…the joy of slang.  🙂

  I decided to be bold and ask a daring question…daring both in content, but also daring because it might force a Japanese person to say something bad about me.  I asked Maki if there was still any anger in Japan over what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki about 60 years ago.   Maki, in true overly-polite Japanese form, said that the young people don’t really think about it and so are not angry, and older people might have been angry still several years ago, but they are not angry with America anymore.

  It got me thinking though…thinking about America and the country holding grudges.  I can understand some things and I probably embrace some prejudices against certain nations…but America tends to harbor hatred for other countries who have, in the past, wronged us.  Take France for instance…I’m not altogether sure what France did in the first place, but Americans have not always liked France.  When 9/11 happened and we wanted to go into Iraq, France would not back us up.  Thus the birth of “Freedom Fries.”  C’mon…seriously?  Freedom fries?  What comes next?  Freedom braid, and Freedom kissing?  geez.  But despite that…how many of you still harbor ill-will to the country of love and honey dijon?

  Prior to deciding to come to Japan, whenever I heard about Japan, it was always with reference to four things: cars, nintendo, Karate Kid, and Pearl Harbor.  What a legacy to give our children in America…all you need to know about Japan is that they make great cars, Mario, wax-on wax-off, and suicide bombers.  What about Germany?  They have such a vibrant and beautiful culture as well!  We have a ton of amazing classical composers that have come out of Germany.  Yes, we have a tumultuous past, but get over yourselves…how many terrible things have we done in the past?  I think the only country we’ve ever remotely resolved issues with is England…and even then, when they do something that gets our tails tied in a knot, we call them redcoats.

  Now I will close and prepare myself to be branded a hippy, calling for “free love”.  or better yet, “freedom love.”  That has a great ring to it.