A tribute to Nagano, home of the 1998 Winter Olympics, the soon-to-be 2005 Nagano Marathon, and the hill and its accoutrements responsible for 100% of the bruised flesh located on my knees, elbows and backside. Ow. Further possible explanations of bruised flesh, in power-point form:

• 
  Snowboarding
  
  Desire to confront Nagano's hills in novice snowboarder fashion.
• Two hours of discouraging*, ignorant, pre lesson, pain inducing boarding.
• Two hours of quasi-translated (by my buddy for the day, Emil) instruction, requiring finely tuned calf muscles and acute toe-flexing ability.
• (Same two hours as above) Watching our flexible, limber, pliable novice Japanese counterparts acclimate to the sport like fish to water.
• Excitement upon realization of the immediately apparent effects of the lesson and our subsequent ability to gain enough speed to seriously maim ourselves on the hills.
• 5 total hours of bus-riding and Ben Gay.

Cho fun, though -- I think I'm hooked. It was a lovely day.

In Japan-related news, North Korea schooled Japan last night in soccer, which we briefly watched, sandy-eyed and sleepy after the long day, on a computer screen in Bic-Camera -- Tokyo's largest, most popular gadget-related venue. Don't be fooled, though -- no ball-points to be found within a 100 meter radius of the b-c. And in other Japan-related news, there has been a proliferation of dolls plaguing storefronts windows lately. Allegedly they're here in celebration of "girls' day," whatever that is. I wish I could elaborate, but after inquiring I've discovered little of interest.

Love,
Eliz

* The dirty secret behind my initial discouragement is actually the fact that my rental coat was orange. Ew. It was the closest I have ever been to wearing an orange body suit and/or looking like Tom-McGee-as-Big-P, and I found that experience to be a little bizarre. In orange-induced rage I was forced to seek out a poison ivy salad to ease my woes.