Blog Entries from Iain Aschendale

  1. Missing the Cat

    So the Mrs. is out visiting family this weekend and I'm at home, free to run wild. Took a bunch of naps this afternoon. Almost went to Kyoto but didn't have the energy. And it's after midnight and I've got a tumbler of brandy, watching something or other on cable and missing the cat. Back 25 or more years ago I was living with my dad, working the midnight shift so I found myself awake in the middle of the night with a glass of something sitting in front of the cable in the basement and...
  2. The Men from 7-11

    So last night Mrs. A and I stumbled drunkenly into a 7-11 in search of snacks and more booze. Among the things that I grabbed was the last pack of donuts. 7-11 donuts are pretty good. Especially when you're drunk. But when the cashier scanned the barcode there was an error, so he went to check the shelf. The donuts were expired. Yes, convenient stores in Japan register when the shelves were stocked and have a time barrier beyond which the baked goods can't be sold. Because...
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  3. Don't Let the Shield Slip

    Late August 2008, wife's phone rings around 8am. She's asleep. It rings again. Then mine rings. Mother-in-law asks to be put through to Mrs. A. I tell her she's asleep. “Nobunaga (the little dog's nom-de-morte for this post) is died.” I wake up Mrs. A and put her through. We have a proper Buddhist funeral for the dog at a veterinary (?) funeral home and I learn the forms I will need later. Mid 2014 Mrs. A's mother goes to hospital. Mid-2015 I get the message from Mrs. A. “Mama died.” It's in...
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  4. So, how did it go?

    I know that this is a form of denial, but I've got this weird habit whenever someone emotionally close to me dies where once all the social forms have been carried out, the funeral has been had or not, the body has been buried or burned or fed to the vultures (not a practice anyone I know has managed to arrange, and in decline, but I kind of like the idea) I get this instant urge to call them or message them or whatever and ask what they thought of the whole thing. Y'know, like a Yelp!...
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  5. The Lady Sharrow

    So I belong to a Facebook group for my hometown. It's a place I ran screaming from repeatedly and will probably never live in again, but there was a Dorsai short story about the most beautiful place in the world that some might recognize. And a 98 year-old woman from that town recently passed away. Preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her sister, and one of her children. And her entire high school class. She was the last living member of the class of '41. I have friends who...
  6. Melancholy

    So today is the twenty-first anniversary of my arrival in Japan. 42% of my life spent here, but who's counting and I'm just a little overwhelmed with it all. Paths not taken. Castaway, Lost in Translation, Sliding Doors and this fucking thing comes up and reduces me to tears. I noticed right off the misuse of "cool," but what I don't think the filmmakers would have spotted in their own work was the sounds of barking dogs and insects being not quite right. No, the dogs would be fine. A dog...
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  7. Beware of Stobor (political nonsense)

    So there are two trials going on in the states now where armed men claimed that they had to kill unarmed men because if the unarmed men took their guns, the lives of the potentially unarmed men would be in danger. If you're so scared of the gun that *you* brought to the fight, you're definitely doing something wrong. Kind of shades of "Tunnel in the Sky" where the MC was warned against bringing a big gun with him because it would only give him the illusion, not the reality, of safety....
  8. One of Those Weeks

    So a friend of mine recently laid down his bike, breaking his elbow in the process. He's had his surgery, got his pins installed, and it's actually a good thing that his bar was already closed down by the state of emergency; his days were going to be "off" anyway and he's getting a government subsidy for the lost business. An old schoolmate of mine just finished paying his debt to society for the sort of thing that Gordon Sumner wrote a hit song about. He'll still have to register for the...
  9. Olympians

    Unlike a lot of what I write, this is in no way tongue-in-cheek. A little bit late, but serious. Mrs. A and I watched a bit of the Tokyo Paralympics these last couple weeks. It was on directly after the news, and we seem to have reached that age where watching the news feels important. The progress of the pandemic and state(s) of emergency directly impact how and where I'll be working, so I like to keep abreast of things, but this post isn't about that. Fuck the Olympics. The IOC is an...
  10. Behind the Wheel (a fragment)

    Sometimes I realize that in the 34 years (roughly) since I learned to drive, I've really only been "a driver" for about ten of them. Four in the Corps straight out of high school, then 20+ here in the land of nod, with two-week driving opportunities set a year or more apart. And I really enjoy driving. Back when I lived in the world I'd head out of an evening to "beat the bounds" of my dispatch area, or touch Lake Shore Drive for a few blocks and back to the burbs. Another life, a...
  11. Tech Support

    Some years ago— <you the man dog> never mind how long precisely— <pound the keys!> I had a problem with my computer. I was sitting there on a warm summer's day, burblsmacking along at something or other when I heard a sharp, physical <SNAP!> from the tower of the desktop. No smoke, no fire, no clue. I shutdown and restarted, and life continued as usual for... a while. A year? Six months? I never really noted the initial noise. Maybe it had been a sound effect? So a while later it...
  12. Cast Away

    That was one of the last movies I saw before I self-exiled, but it's not the topic today. I took the bus to the center of town. Mid-day, not too crowded, so I was able to find an empty two-person seat towards the back. I dunno your public transport, but ours is pretty well endo-caged. Lots of padded bars at levels convenient to both sitting and standing riders of all heights, so the seatback in front of me had a handhold bar, covered in cushioning foam. And there was a person in the...
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  13. What New Word, or A Tale of Mt. Fuji

    This started out as a "What New Word Did You Learn Today" post but the Muse hit me and it got out of control. QC is low to non-existent as I'm slightly above the legal limit to drive but I'm pretty sure I've caught all the slurs and insults. Well this is odd. I have a new word that I unlearned today, or rather learned the correct meaning of, only to discover that what I thought it meant doesn't have a specific term. Early in my time here I climbed Mt. Fuji. Our bus took us to the fifth...
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  14. Challenge Accepted

    It had been an ugly night from the get-go. The stars were wrong or something and they ended up... She asked him if he knew where the nearest restroom was and when he pointed, headed the other way out of spite. The bar made quite a bit of money that evening, so at least someone came out ahead. And when things came to a head and she shoved him against the wall, slapped him across the face, screamed that she wanted to kill him he pulled out his blade, pressed the handle into her hand and...
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  15. Tired

    There's an informal sniper motto that goes: "Don't bother running, you'll only die tired." I often apply that to the folks who bolt out of the one train I take, hoping against hope to make the two-minute distance fit the one-minute connection time. But today...today today today.... the train I was going for, when I was at about the halfway point, decided to be just ever so slightly late. So I ran. I fucking ran. Through the second rush-hour crowd, through the connecting station, down the...
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