I am not going to post about my trip to the States today. A lot has been happening in Japan, and I wanted to discuss that.

First, there was a typhoon that was, I think, the strongest in twenty-five years. It affected mostly the southern part of Japan. In Fukushima City we got heavy rain during the night, but that was all, I believe.

The rain woke me around two–it was extraordinarily loud. Our window was closed, but I wondered, “Is that the noise of our air conditioner? Or rain? Could it be raining that hard and that loudly?” (It was the rain.) The rain last a while, but was gone by morning. It had woken me up, and I am an early riser, so after four a.m I went down to the living room to get dressed and so on.

Then I sat on my sofa to read a book about earthquakes in Japan. It’s called “When the Earth Roars” and it is by American Japan AND Japanese quake expert Gregory Smith. I was mostly about the history of quakes in Japan. I recommend this book. I learned a lot from it.

Anyway, as I was sitting there on the sofa reading it, we had a small quake here in Fukushima City. Small, but we haven’t had any for a long while. And I thought, “How ironic. I am reading a book about quakes when a quake hits.”

But then: early today in the morning, Hokkaido was hit by a very destructive quake. This has just happened today, so I don’t have a lot to say. Just telling the news of it. Here’s a link with ongoing news translated from the original Japanese to English:

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1djGXnORZPvxZ

Furthermore, the news came out that a Fukushima nuclear plant worker has been confirmed to have died from radiation from the nuclear power plant. He was in charge of measuring radiation.

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180905/p2a/00m/0na/004000c

Okay, sorry for the very serious post. (No humor today.) Have a nice day. 🙂

My dad took me to a shop in Keller called Barely Used. He said all the books were marked down to 25 cents. Yes!

I didn’t even look at this other stuff. Apparently everything in the store was marked down, and my dad has his eye on a HUGE HUGE HUGE bag of cat food. (LIke HUGE!)

I bought “Tomorrow’s Alphabet,” a fantastic alphabet book. Normally I do not like alphabet books at all, but this one has a unique spin that keeps read and child interested. (It’s a guessing game.) And I love George Shannon and Donald Crews!

I bought this, and have since read it. I really loved it!!!!! So original and so cute and so fun. I also love Gail Carson Levine!

Some VERY high quality books here!

omigosh, I remember this from when I was a kid.

I still remember McBroom’s eleven kids’ names: Will Jill Hester Chester Peter Polly Tim Tom Mary Larry and Little Clarinda!

My dad never got his cat food. It turned out that even though everything was marked down….cat food wasn’t included!

When Kitty not happy, nobody happy.

My mom had mentioned that there was a Buddhist temple near her house. A Buddhist temple in Keller, Texas? I was super surprised. My cousin (who also did not know it was there) and I drove to see it. Mom was right–it’s VERY close to her house. Practically just down the street.

It’s a Thai temple.

My cousin and I

Little temple kitties

My son and I

As you know, I’ve been showing photos of our time in Texas visiting my parents. When I was there, I was paying attention to a few little things because they appear in my manuscript (set in Texas.) Of course, I know Texas pretty well—but I don’t live there, I live in Japan. So I wanted make sure my manuscript really felt “Texas.”

Cicadas are a symbol of deep summer in Japan. And in Texas, too. In Japan, I had listened to the cicadas.

To listen to the Japanese cicadas:

Fukushima Peaches!

So next is a video I took of the cicadas in Texas. Do they sound like Japanese ones?

LOL The dog knows I’m not his mom.

Shopping with my mom again! Big Lots….

Okay. Now time for some nostalgia. Back in the day, these types of cakes were what we ate. Moms stuck twinkies in lunch boxes as desserts. If a kid was hungry for a snack, that kid rummaged around in the kitchen until he/she found the dingdongs.

The taste? Pretty bad! LOL

More candy from the olden days……..Cracker Jacks were awesome because there was a prize in every box!!!!!!!

More old-fashioned snacks. My mom actually put the circus peanuts in her cart and I saw her ringing them up. So I said, “Agh! You’re buying these?!” She said, “I like them!” And then the clerk–who was older, like my mom–agreed. She liked them, too. They explained to me that snacks like Circus Peanuts were what they ate back when they were kids. (The nineteen forties and nineteen fifties.) I have to admit, I find that interesting.

My mom is a triplet, so I once tried to write a middle grade novel about fictitious triplets, born in the forties. The forties were an interesting time for multiples, because any multiples births were automatically natural, which meant there were way, way fewer of them. (The Dionne quints were pretty much abducted by the Canadian government and exhibited like zoo animals. The five Dionne girls were roughly the same age as my mom and her sisters.) My mother gave me lots of information about life back in the forties, but I couldn’t finish the manuscript, mainly because I couldn’t think of a story arc. I drawered it, but I don’t think I’ll ever finish. It’s too weird to write fiction about my mom and her sisters. I think maybe non-fiction would be better, but that is something she would have to write. (And she doesn’t write.)

Today I’ll show you the taco joint near my parents’ house. It’s a fast food chain in Texas and Oklahoma. My cousin likes it, and he is a connoisseur of fast food. Tacos, pizza, burgers. He’s one of the few people who has visited Japan and didn’t eat any Japanese food at all. (My cousin: “Where do you buy your tacos? WHAT? NO TACOS?!?! I couldn’t live here.”)

friendly staff

The um..the something. I don’t remember what it is.Tortilla bread, seasoned meat, veggies and cheese.

Refried beans? Oh gosh, sorry don’t remember. But it was all yummy. And so much better than Taco Bell or Taco Bueno or Taco Can’t-Remember-The-Name-but-it-was-a-national-chain that put tons of rice in my taco salad and then covered it with a layer of lettuce, meat and cheese. Ugh.