My dad saw that I enjoyed Barely Used so much that he said he would take me to some place better.

This used books store is linked with the Keller Public Library and donates its proceeds there. (I think.)

My father showed me around. It’s actually MUCH larger than it looks. Imagine a labyrinth of bookshelves, twisting and turning until you get lost. Yeah, I know. Sounds glorious.

They have lots of different sections: YA, kids, picture books, romance, mystery…and so on.

Kids’ books in this area

books for grown-ups

I ended up finding a few books here. Or quite possibly the books found me. They opened their pages to me and I gave them a home. We’re happy together now, my books and I.

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.

One thing we can not buy easily in Japan is Tex-Mex food. (read-made, like from a restaurant or fast food joint.) (One can make it oneself. I can buy taco shells, seasonings, tortillas, etc. in Fukushima City.)

Here’s what we can get where I live:

The above “taco” is the sort of thing we may be able to buy ready-made in Fukushima City.  The above photo is the Nan Taco, and it’s on Nan bread. (Bread usually eaten with Indian curry.) Right now it’s on sale at Mos Burger Fast Food Restaurant…for a limited time only. Tacos like the Nan Taco disappoint me because it’s a far cry from what I would eat in the United States.

So anyway, this photo is at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in Southlake, Texas. (My sister was driving us home from the movies and from Barnes and Noble.)

Very cute.

Photos from the local high school.

Lots of choices. I know it’s not authentic Mexican food from Mexico……but I guess Tex-Mex is its own cuisine.

Award-winning!

I was trying to eat healthy, so it was the taco salad for me.

Time keeps ticking into the future except when one gets bored and then it reverses itself and kind of flatlines for a while. But luckily, for moments when time has ceased, we have Ghibli.  Ghibli knows no time, no boundaries, no age.

Jiji!!!!!

Something that is great about Ghibli–and separates it strongly from Disney–is its strong female characters.

Oh, Totoro!

I wanted to buy this mug, and asked if I there were any left. Alas alack, it was sold out.

Gudetama is not Ghibli…but this display is authentic and makes me feel I am in Japan! I think Gudetama is an egg and so I never buy Gudetama items for my son because he hates eggs.

Time has flashed into the future! Star Wars is for when time is speeding up and the world is whizzing by.

Before my regular post about my summer trip to my home in the United States, I want to update you all on the controversial “Sun Child” statue in Fukushima City. Many people did not like it, or did not like it in its location, and the news today is that it indeed WILL BE REMOVED.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180828/p2g/00m/0dm/094000c

My opinion?

I think the removal is a good thing. I like the statue–it’s art and it says something. But I think it is art meant for adult eyes. Therefore it should be moved to the Culture Center or an art museum.

The article above does not say EXACTLY where the statue was placed. It was placed right in front of a recreation center (called Comu Comu) for children. It’s a city-run building that houses an area for babies, a small science museum, a planetarium, a children’s library, and more. I love the Comu Comu Building. I rarely go there now, but when my son was young, I often went there.

Placing the statue in front of Comu Comu was a huge mistake. The Sun Child may be a statue of a child, but it’s not art for children. It’s horribly frightening, not something a three-year-old needs to see. (And the statue is HUGE so it’s impossible not to see it when entering either entrance of the building.)

I’d like a statue that is made FOR the children of Fukushima. FOR them and them only. (Many versions of the “Sun Child” statue have existed in the years prior to 2011. It was NOT created for Fukushima.) I’d like to see a statue of love and hope and peace and joy. Not fear and bandages and worry, which is what I think when I look at the Sun Child statue.

Moving on.

At this point, I think, we left Barnes and Noble and walked next door to the movie theater. We sat down and waited, and I wondered why nobody was there for the movie. And then my son figured out we were a full hour early. Yep, that’s what happens when you’ve got jet lag. Time has no meaning.

So we walked back to Barnes and Noble.

When the 3/11 quake hit, at that very moment, I was reading Butler’s Kindred. That’s what I was doing.

I looked at the calendars very carefully–finding the one I wanted. Finally I decided on the TEXAS calendar. (I purchased it for 2019. It’s not easy to get TEXAS calendars in Japan, even using the internet.)

I also purchased this Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market 2018. I can buy it on the internet in Japan, but I wanted to support a brick and mortars bookstore.

Next, I chose (and purchased) the Birds of Texas Guide. I myself am not a bird person. However, I needed to know some information about birds for my current manuscript. I’d researched online in Japan already, but I wanted the more trustworthy guide. And indeed, I looked through it upon arriving back in Japan, making sure the information in my manuscript is correct.  I really like this guide. I recommend it!