Date: November 11, 2003

Konbanwa my dear friends and family,

I hope this email finds you all well.

My life in Japan continues to be nothing short of amazing. The last month has been filled with flying fish and costume parties; bike rides through what seems like Austrian countryside and soirees taken straight from a Jane Austen piece. I feel as though 4 weeks have flown by in the space of what should be a single day. I'm constantly worn out. But, it's the sort of fulfilling tiredness felt after a long day's hike or a good work out...a feeling merely to reaffirm all that I've accomplished...because I've done so much that maybe my mind would forget if my body didn't remind me.

At the beginning of the month I took a trip to Tokyo to meet up with Josie and Craig, two friends from Duke. When it comes to entertainment and architecture, the city trails London, Paris and NYC by miles; yet, Tokyo has an undeniable lure that envelopes even the most devout fan of cathedrals and theater. Maybe it's something in the juxtaposition of an outrageously enormous population and a culture of quiet orderliness. Peace and patience reign over what could be noisy chaos. Maybe I'm just in disbelief that a beast this big can be tamed...and yet not killed...Tokyo is ALIVE, MOVING...but almost with a mechanical perfection. I've never seen so many people in my life...I mean people EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE. It's Time's Square on steroids...truly something to see. It had me wondering whether Japanese culture (to be reserved and quiet and polite) is merely a product of the environment here...that is, are they screaming colorful individuals locked in by the necessities of survival on a tiny island?

In any case, I had a ball. I visited the fish market where I was besieged by 8 billion little carts - like something out of the Jettsons. I was terribly concerned about losing a limb to one of the little beasts. Then, just as I was learning to fend those off, I stumbled into the tuna area where I was nearly decapitated by some big ole grandpa tunas. The tuna were frozen so they bore more similarities to gladiator's clubs than to Flipper or Nemo or any other finned friend.

After one near death experience, I figured why not try another. So I headed for Shinjuku station, the world's busiest train station, at rush hour. Over one million pass through the station every hour during rush hour. Luckily I escaped "the people pushers" (yes, they hire people to push people into trains at rush hour) and arrived at my destination feeling like quite a navigational pro.

Craig, Mika and I were even lucky enough to attend an AMAZING festival in a suburb of Tokyo. As we exited the train station we were swept away by an endless artery of lights, drums, dancers, and floats. They marched up to a mountaintop temple as if marching straight to heaven. Inside, the temple shook with the sounds of people throwing money, clapping, bowing, drumming, and chanting. Every ounce of air was charged with life and energy. I can't begin to explain the intensity of it to you.

Besides that, I visited a number of temples, ate every non-Japanese food under the sun (Mexican, Thai, Indian, Bagels, chocolate-chip pancakes...), won $200 playing Pachinko (slots), wandered the "old town," sang karaoke, giggled through some Kabuki theater (traditional - read in ancient - Japanese theater), and even spotted a traditional Japanese wedding.

So, the weekend after Tokyo I craved some "Wide Open Spaces"! And, off I went with my dear friend Laura on a bike ride out to the nearby cosmos fields. We ran and jumped and twirled among the 100,000,000 flowers. Three different families asked to take pictures with us. I was certain we must have been teleported to southern France. That same weekend we went biking around a village called Mikata, which is surrounded by five lakes. The ride meanders along tree-canopied paths and terminates at tall coastal cliffs with a glorious view of the sea. As we were biking we passed by a restaurant that was playing tunes from "The Sound of Music" and, admittedly, we sang for the rest of the ride.

Fast forward another week. I was invited to a sweet potato digging party hosted by a Japanese friend of mine with whom I often hike. She's a teacher at the school for the blind and an amazingly strong, freethinking woman. It's so refreshing to be near her after listening to thousands of Japanese women with their false voices and stilettos and Hello Kitty obsessions. Anywho, she hosted a party and had quite a crowd over to help her harvest the potatoes and then enjoy lunch. The highlight was her brief harp recital in the middle of the party. I was honestly in tears it was so beautiful and I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't having another of my "Sense and Sensibility" dreams. I sat there and thought: this is how lazy autumn days are meant to be spent - eating, chatting, singing, and rejoicing in good friends and good food.

I think I celebrated Halloween with more gusto here than in any of my previous years. In fact, I attended three parties. The best of which was hosted by the International Club of Fukui on a moving train. I dressed as Artemis and, for some reason, the Japanese people LOVED my costume. I must have had my picture taken with at least 15 random people. And, that's not to mention the entire roll of film that my Japanese admirer wasted on me when he didn't think I was paying attention. Then he sent me the following in an email: "Hi, brandon. How are you? Then, I sending some picture of Halloween party. You are very beautiful. What's doing your cloth next year? I'm looking forward to see your cloth. See you." Priceless! So, Halloween was spent dressed as a Greek Goddess, speaking Japanese, dancing to Latin music, and watching rice fields pass by the windows. What more could a girl ask for?!?

Ok - one last thing and then I promise to leave you. So, the highlight of school life over the last month was when I read "Mina no Unchi." Now, when I say "read," I mean I read the phonics of the Japanese alphabet. But I'm fairly clueless as to the meaning of anything I read. So, I finished lunch early, no surprise seeing as I don't eat most of it, and decided to read a book so the kids could help me with it. When I choose this book the kids were giggling, but what else is new. So, I'm reading and all the sudden it hits me - this is a book about pooping. I'm reading about crap while these kids are trying to eat - well - crap. Apparently there is a translation in English (Everybody Poops). In any case, it wasn't that bad of a book (obviously, since it was a book at school), but you all know my propensity for blushing and this was no exception. I turned the color of a tomato, which only made the kids laugh harder. Of course this was compounded by the fact that it looked as though I'd wet myself because I'd split my soup all over myself only a few minutes earlier. For the rest of the week the only response I got to any question was "dodo," "poop," or "mina no unchi."

Alas - there are so many more highly entertaining things to tell, but my pillow calls. So, as to continue the trend of leaving you on a funny note, please check out the "Your mama..." work done by some Fukui students. I've typed it up and posted it on my website at: www.duke.edu/~bhl/japan . Everything on the site after Oct. 8th should be new. There are some new pics up too. Enjoy!

Oyasuminasi (goodnight!),

Burandon-san

**************

Brandon Little

Fukui-shi, Fukui-ken

Japan