I have been gobbling the Herdez hot salsa like this for the past two days.

Despite my pro-Democrat tendencies, I can see how US citizens who don't follow politics very closely could think the two major parties are "two houses both alike in dignity" and therefore write them off equally …

I flipped through TV recently. The Oreck vacuum guy is badmouthing bagless vacuums (by extension this is a negative ad against Dyson) (extension! ha!) as "unsanitary" since dust comes back into the room when you …

I'll post about various depressing world events/phenomena soon. If anyone who reads this journal would care to cheer my day by posting some entertaining Zell Miller/Alan Keyes quotes in their own weblog, I'd be much …

Oh yeah, back in the US you tip at restaurants.

13 Going On 30 is actually a fun movie. I cried several times during the 3 or 4 times I watched it over the Pacific. Man, I am so dehydrated. The mayor of Hiroshima has …

That's "Pardon me, I'm sorry" in Japanese. Probably the first phrases I learned here. Just back from Hiroshima, where I used them and felt them more strongly. The typhoon cancelled my train and rerouted me …

Steve has only seen a few minutes of The Daily Show, ever, and hated it. And he thought Jon Stewart was a preening fratboy. Aieee!

"Kawaii" is "cute." "Kowaii" is "scary." Take care! If you are afraid of heights, don't go on the world's largest Ferris wheel. Just in general, "oh no, this action had this totally foreseeable consequence" feels …

Surprisingly, I now know about twenty words of Japanese. Two or three "excuse me"s and "please"s each, "me," "one," "ticket," "you go ahead," and so on. Steve pushes me, gently, to do the polite meeting/parting …