Japan Journifications, Ear/Eye Hustles & Such

All Sense Hustle

Ever wonder why a comforter is called a comforter and not a bulky, pretty, warm, soft, extra-extra blanket? You got it. Because it is designed to make you feel good. Make you feel safe. Make you feel comfortable. And this is how I felt when I spent a miniscule moment in time in the lovely Okinawa. Each corner like its own kaleidoscope. Each person a parts of speech trinity embodying person, place AND thing (simultaneously.)

As soon as I got off the plane Okinawa said, “Baby girl, come let me comfort you.” The voice (Barry White meets Frederic Fracncois Chopin) was in Japanese but I knew that’s what it said. I am learning that each person’s definition of comfort is as multilayered as ones definition of, let’s say, love. One person may say that they love shoes. One person may tell a complete stranger they love them. One person may theorize that they love life and everything in it. Another person may clearly make the dividing line between love for self and love for ants. Everyone is different.

As a spoiled brat—i.e. a feisty feminist who is a wimp about not having her comforts…I started to fade away in a bit of funk. Okinawa Japanese voice also told me to open my eyes and get back to the business of being a student of life. (Yes, in Japanese. But I knew that’s what it said.)

Thank you Okinawa for ocean, shrines, temples and believe it or not, super thank you for some of the best Jamaican cuisine I’ve had in months. And for the stern rejuvenation of my spirit via words I could somehow understand. 

Ps. Do check out the history/herstory of Okinawa.

Japan Journifications, Ear/Eye Hustles & Such

Random Random’s in Japan: All Sense Hustle

Fire hydrants are underground, I get all spiritual woo-woo every New Year, afro’s are popular in Japanese pop culture, I can pierce any part of my body without seeing a piercer and my facial small fuzzy hair is unattractive. And none of this is connected and all of it fits together perfectly.

When the New Year rolls in I always ask myself to look for signs. The thing is sometimes I can’t tell the difference between a sign and a random-random. Somebodies random-random is somebodies coveted sign. For instance, one person walks down the street and gets pooped on by a bird, her reaction, Are your friggin kidding me? Ewww. Another person walks down the street and gets pooped on, her reaction, Something wonderful is about to enter my life! Yippee!

I know it’s not that simple and the lines we draw around what we deem sacred and what we deem sick and what we deem random-random and what we deem sign sometimes seem to cross and uncross daily. And do you remember those connect the dot puzzles when you were younger? When you started out with 1-8 the dots made total sense and you felt like you were on the right path but by the time you got to 22, you wondered if you messed up somewhere and cheated and saw the complete picture in the back of the workbook. And this is my grand checkitout revelation: life is a series of random-randoms AND coveted signs.

Japanese fire hydrants are underground; how they work underground I have no clue. What this means? There are no dogs pissing on fire hydrants, there are no children secretly opening them on sweltering days, teen agers aren’t using them as seats while they swig on Red Bull and wait for school busses. But they exist. It’s an unseen safety net. An underground fire hydrant says you don’t need to see the safety but it’s there.

The woo-woo in me wonders if this is an omen? A sign for my internal make-it-happen-ness that says, you don’t need to see how all the good stuff is coming and/or it has already arrived. Underground fire hydrants mean we don’t have to show you anything for you to know we exist. Underground fire hydrants say faith. Or—someone’s reading this thinking, underground fire hydrants are just a way to simply store an object used to put a fire out. We live in a world where random-randoms and signs peacefully coexist. Whether we see them sitting together or not.

Below, a couple of random-randoms in Japan.