I was digging through my stacks of paper today, trying to sort the garbage items from the keepers, and I turned up this quartered sheet of newsprint. It was a profile that some students from Matsuyama Central High School did of me when I visited their school to teach physics. When I went to their summer camp a few weeks later, they had compiled some random conversations we had (in an interview process) into these little summary tiles. I think they’re great. 
Especially the non-horrifying doodle of me. Those are rare. Click on the thumbnails and enjoy.
Deas Customary Drivel, Humor, Media, Photos, Unsolicited Commentary
Here’s a video of the fireworks show from the annual Shimamatsuri in Hakata. It’s cut down to about 4 minutes from the outstanding length of 45 minutes. Now THAT is a fireworks show. This year’s local “Island Festival” took place at the Marine Park again on the evening of August 13th. I wore a yukata for the first time in public, and was told it suited me. Probably just polite lies. But unfortunately, in any event, I have ZERO pictures of myself. Brilliant planning, no? I know. My mind was elsewhere. The 14th and 15th were Matsuyama Orientation days, and I had presentations on both days. Then the 16th I had to hop on the express train to Okayama and the Shinkansen from there to Tokyo for a week. Craziness. Needless to say, the only thing that captured my full attention was the fireworks display. Enjoy the video – the shot of me watching turned out way more full-faced, sweaty, and creepy than I intended. Whoops. Ha ha ha. Make sure to watch for the 2 specialty fireworks – the phoenix / bird shape (which was spectacular), and the Doraemon (which was barely recognizable, except that they played his theme music over loudspeakers while they shot them).
Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Video
Check it out! I found a special Hakata Salt version of the classic Hello Kitty cellular phone charm. The first one I bought for my phone this time around in Japan was an Ehime Iyokan Kitty. (An iyokan is like a mikan. It’s a type of mandarin orange that’s famous locally.) It really doesn’t get much more localized than this. Neat, huh? Now if only they sold it ON my island. You see, I bought it in a Sanrio gift shop in Tokyo’s Ginza. What gives?
Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Photos
