Ok, so Happy Mothers' Day, to likely the only mom who reads this blog (though if there are more, the same to you). I got rid of the picture . . . not so interesting.

I was recently trying to think of aspects that really struck me when I first crossed all those time zones and landed in Tokyo, and I've decided that one of them is the smells. Maybe I've mentioned it before, but let me just detail my thinking a bit more.

So, because many of the sounds in Tokyo mean essentially nothing to my American ears (though I'd like to think some of them are starting to make some sense, maybe), I think my nose perks up a bit more than usual; you know, they say folks with sensory impairments (mine being self-inflicted, I guess) are often able to increase keenness in the remaining 4 senses. Well, regardless of the reason, I notice smells . . lots of 'em. Some smells in Japan that don't exist anywhere I've been in the U.S. include: decaying vegetable smell (it's always in maybe a 20 meter radius of a veggie stand, which is essentially everywhere, and in my first months it made me queasy every time I smelled it -- now it's just another city aroma), over-populated train car smell (ew), different seafood smell, matcha (powdered green tea) smell, and sweet bean smell. If I can think of any more I'll update. There are plenty.

Recently, though, I've experienced some familiar smells -- the smells of *NATURE* in the form of the Tama River. Oh, the poor Tama -- cemented on every side and dried to a tepid trickle, it's reminiscent of the Patoka in both its lack of briskness and the quantity of gnats and populate its banks. It has a humid, borderline fermentation+industry aroma, the kind where one wonders just how many three-eyed fish are swimming beneath the surface.

In non-olfactory news, I taught myself to both read and write hiragana and katakana in six hours over the past two days, and I'm now as literate as a Japanese five-year-old. Hurrah! It's a whole new world. Literacy is awesome. I feel born again. You, too, can increase your Japanese literacy by clicking here. Bonanza!