Is Samsonite the new Eastpak?

College campuses are beginning to look like airport terminals. Maybe it's all the "nontraditional" (read: middle-aged) students attending WSU Vancouver, but something is happening here. Backpacks (Eastpak, Jansport, Invicta, what have you) have gone the way of the do-do. SUITCASES ON WHEELS have replaced them! Students no longer shlep their load on their backs like noble donkeys--oh, no--they pull them along like RadioFlyers. Will businesspeople, too, soon toss their briefcases aside in favor of this softer, gooier mode of baggage? I doth protest. Buck up, people, and try to look the part. This isn't progress, it's laziness.

Longing for 'Flushing Sound'

**TMI Warning** Since returning to the US, I've become a lot more...er, regular. Those of you who know me (too) well can attest to my less-than-ideal gastro-intestinal system. Well all that fortified cereal I'm eating seems to be paying off! The downside of this is what many of you fellow office workers might recognize as the midday poop. Every day I find myself in one of those public restroom stalls, surrounded on all sides by my co-workers, trying to keep a tight reign on the sounds of my turd(s) plopping.

This is where Japan's ubiquitous "flushing sound" toilet feature would definitely come in handy. I for one think most Japanese ladies overuse the flushing sound button, pushing it automatically upon entry into any stall, whether Nature is knocking at their back door or not. Though I seldom had cause to use it myself, it was always there-- like a crutch. How I miss that babbling stream!

Hisashiburi

OK so I haven't had a whole lot of time to suck in the last month, hence the lack of posts. Too busy readjusting to life in the States, which wasn't all that difficult until I started my job at Washington State University-Vancouver. Frankly the most uncomfortable part of working in an office is wearing my shoes all day! It was so nice just to slip on my ratty purple slippers I kept under my desk in Tokyo... so I went to Wal-mart (don't hate me) looking for a replacement pair, but all of theirs were fashioned as huge furry animals, sometimes with flourescent polka dots. Yikes.

In what was probably an attempt to make me regret my departure, my old boss Yoshi sent me this link to the Memoirs of a Geisha trailer. My old company has resumed English training with several of the actors, in order to prepare them for press junkets. No doubt staff are in store for invites to some super-glam premiere party. Zannen, neeee.

Memoirs of a Geisha Trailer