Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone. Once again today I went through my annual ritual of explaining what a groundhog is, and what this day is all about, to curious Japanese coworkers. And once again I got the usual confused stares and questions... "So it's like, a big rat?" "Do Americans have any other strange holidays like this involving animals?" (to which I had to respond, "Easter", and then go through the entire explanation of why it has the name Easter, and what rabbits, chocolate eggs, baskets of fake plastic grass, and the resurrection of Christ have to do with each other. I even described the Cadbury Creme Egg commercial with the bunny making clucking sounds and laying an egg. And after all these contradictions and mixed metaphors, the only thing they thought was odd was the fact that people put the hard-boiled eggs in the same basket as the candy!)

Haha, like they have any right to say our holiday is weird. Tomorrow is Setsubun, which was eloquently and succinctly described to me by one of my students as "the day we hurl beans at ogres".

But on to today's T3A list, this time in reverse chronological order:

#3 - Rediscovery of an old familiar story: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
This book has played such a big part in my life. I remember seeing my parents watching the TV series when I was too young to understand it - all I remember is Then I spent endless hours playing the text adventure game in middle school, and reading the "trilogy" over and over so many times in high school that I wore out books 1 and 2 to the point where I had to buy new copies! My senior year of high school I managed to find copies of the original radio episodes from 1978, and I listened to them in the car every day while commuting to school. I've recommended the story to many of my good friends, and I've memorized an enormous amount of the dialogue.

Today I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the radio series was continued! Starting in 2003, they recorded a third, fourth, and fifth series, apparently following along with the corresponding books. Several of the original voice actors appear in the new series, although unfortunately three of them passed away in the 25 years since the original series was recorded. I really miss Peter Jones's voice... They feature some clips of his narration in the first episode, and just hearing those few words brought back so many memories...

Anyway, I've only listened to two episodes so far, but it's absolutely great. The sound effects are really good and add a lot to the story... I love the bubbly voice of the mattress talking with Marvin!

#2 - Earlier today, I checked my Myspace account, and I had a friend request waiting from my old friend Danny! He was only in like 4th or 5th grade when I graduated from high school, but now he's a big international businessman about to do an MBA in Brazil! I'm really glad he found me... There aren't so many people from my hometown I stay in touch with, but it's always wonderful to hear from them and see how everyone's doing.

#1 - This morning, like most mornings, I stumbled groggily down to the station, plugged in my super-cool headphones and zoned out for half the train ride. It was just another usual morning as the train went into the long tunnel under Ikoma Mountain. Darkness, darkness, tunnel lights whipping past in a blur, and then at long last, we surfaced again on the other side...

... to a world full of dazzling white snow! All around me, everywhere I looked, thousands and thousands of snowflakes whirling and churning with the wind. Big snowflakes, too! They floated forever in the air, sailing up and down with the currents of the wind. Then they hit the ground like little snowballs, breaking apart and sending little clumps of snow skidding along ahead of them.

For the rest of the train ride and my wait for the bus, I couldn't close my eyes... I was mesmerized by watching the snow fall! When I was a little kid this was no big deal, but here, where it never really snows much, it was really exciting. That brightened my whole day!