Our apartment building in all its massive entirety has been scaffolded and wrapped with gauzy tarp - we have been cocooned in here, cut off from the light, the trees, the sky, the rain. We're at the very end of the building, and have all three sides of our apartment curtained... until March. Ugh. We're not sure what they're doing to the place, but it looks just fine to both of us. Anyways... so I finally got a few things crossed off my list yesterday (no job yet, mrrr) - I went to the Canadian Embassy and then, at Meguro Library, got a library card! Yippee! The embassy first: there is an opening in the embassy's E.H.Norman library for an assistant who speaks Japanese, so I though, since I sure don't speak Japanese, I'd look into the possibility of volunteering. The building is beautiful - of course I didn't bring my camera, but the architecture is neat, very modern, lots of natural light... very nice. The library is a bit small but still a very nice space. The librarians there encouraged me to apply for the job anyways, so I did. Upstairs I went to inquire about Remembrance Day events; I'd looked online but came up with nothing... there has to be something going on in Tokyo, no? I waited and waited, and finally someone from the Defence department came down to see me with information about a ceremony at the Commonwealth Cemetery at Hodogaya, along with driving directions. Right. So, it appears that there's nothing going on in the city today (sadly), but we'll try our best to get out to the ceremony on Sunday. And, of course, today we will remember - our thoughts are there.
And the library! Oh, and the fitness class... Steps ZUMBA. I figured that I'd mix things up workout wise, and try out another fitness class, one that's advertised as "a program that can be enjoyed like the party." Alright... So I signed up for my card, browsed the small section of English books and couldn't resist - I checked out three books even though I JUST started A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book and am loving it. (The other books I checked out: The Book Thief (Marcus Zusak), The Island of Lost Maps (Miles Harvey) and Japanese for Busy People.) The library closed, I went to the gym and, along with 31 other fitness steppers, stepped and zumba-ed. Step class is a nice change from running or swimming but I still can't totally get into it; the enthusiasm, the stepping, the moves... meh. That part - the first part - of the class was standard, but the second part, the zumba, was NOT. Spastic, out-there, crazy world dance, led by spastic energy-bomb instructor - it made my eyeballs bulge. This woman was infused and enthused - she was in the jungle-dancing to crazy energy beats music (and... she kept yelping!), and leading us (sort of) through moves that my brain couldn't even comprehend. It was basically 30 minutes of spaz shake rap dance world dance - kind of fun, but not something I think I'd go back to. Maybe better than running? Meh. It was interesting.
Over the course of the last couple of days I've been making my way through a wide range of different websites that shed light on libraries, the future of books, the future of learning, the future of community learning, and more, and came across the Beloit College Mindset List. "It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college," a set of statements about the perspectives and realities of students entering say, the class of 2013. Here are a few excerpts from that list:
They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
The European Union has always existed.
McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
Women have always outnumbered men in college.
We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
There have always been flat screen televisions.
Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
Someone has always been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”
There is much more - the lists are interesting. It would also be interesting to look back at my high school yearbooks and look at some of the same sort of compilations. Anyways, my point here is that we remember - always; that we remember veterans of wars present and past, from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Great Wars.
Lest We Forget...
Steve's mom and dad sent us a link to this video, filmed and recorded locally (Belleville), by a local artist.
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