An afternoon in Japantown

So after our quick grocery shopping trip yesterday morning, we drove into Japantown for lunch, perhaps some shopping, and a movie. This definitely one of our favorite neighborhoods to hang out in, as there's all sorts of fun stores and things to see. The elevator from the parking garage dropped us off right in front of the Sanrio stores (OMG the kawaii ^_^' ), so we of course had to pop in to take in more bright pink than was humanly possible. Luckily we didn't stay too long before my teeth started to hurt, so we headed next door to Japan Video...

...where the young woman behind the register, complete with Sailor Moon hair buns, had the Japanese customer service act down to an art form. Bowing every other sentence, handing the credit slip to me with two hands (and offering the pen to me, holding it in one hand and resting it on the back of the other, and so on...it was so over the top and cute it was hard not be amused and impressed at the same time. Suffice it to say...the dvd we bought there was the complete collection of Azumanga Daioh. (If you're curious, or if you dare, this is one of the silliest scenes in the series and a good example of how goofy it can get.) So yeah...the first half hour at Japantown could definitely be considered the most overly kawaii moments I've ever encountered there.

After a quick stop at Daiso (aka "the dolla-fitty store" as we call it) and lunch at Izumiya (next door to the Kinokuniya bookstore) (I did good and did not order the okonomiyaki, which has become my default--I got a tasty pork/egg/rice dish instead), we made a quick detour to the bookstore where I got three more issues of the Naruto manga, and then headed off to the Kabuki next door.

So what did we see? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 of course!

( cut for spoilers, feel free to skip if you haven't seen it yet )

As for today...? Not much...Emm's feeling a bit sniffly so we're probably just going to hang out and watch football and try to stay warm, even if it is a nice looking day out there. :)

Writer's Block: That's good eats

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Spaghetti, of course. My mom would make it once a week for dinner and I remember in the autumn and winter it would steam up the big kitchen window. And yes, Italian food remains my all-time favorite food to this day. :p

Leslie Nielsen RIP

We'll miss you, funnyman!

15: Downtown

Downtown was such a huge place when I was a young kid
Full of traffic and life and community
Walking the mile there with my mom felt like forever
But I looked forward to it every single time

I knew every inch of the sidewalk on the way there,
Every crack and bump and crumbling corner,
Every front stoop and concrete wall I'd climb
Until we hit the tunnel street, head under the train tracks

That was the boundary between my neighborhood and downtown,
A sure sign we were downtown where everything happened
Past a pizza house and the packie that sold nightcrawlers
Up South Street, past the bike shop and the restaurant.

Sometimes we'd head down Exchange, past the empty lot,
past the furniture stores and the bank and the penny store,
Up to the one stoplight in town, where everything met up--
another bank, the hardware store, the old and empty hotel.

Turning right down Main we'd pass all kinds of amazing stores--
The insurance office, the stationery stores, the flower shop,
The former bowling alley and the restaurant everyone went to,
Until we hit my dad's office across from the clothing store.

Sometimes we'd continue up South, past the bald and sandy hill
That once held another hotel, across from the gas station
And the former train station, past the community clubs and the Y,
Around the corner and down Main until we hit my dad's office.

In my dad's office I'd stare longingly at the geoditic maps on the wall,
Or at the map of the hundreds of towns that made up Massachusetts,
Or play in the dusty back room on the long metal shelf
Where they'd collate the newspaper sections for the delivery boys
Or sometimes I'd stand in the front window, watching the world
The cars and the trucks and the kids and the parents and everyone.

So many former places, so many past lives in this town,
Once a thriving miniature metropolis where you went to be seen.
Taken away once by the bypass, taken again by the country's economies,
Leaving dusty and faded storefronts and saddened memories.

And yet each time, each and every time, sooner or later,
Something new comes by and replaces the old memory with a new one,
Giving fresh memories for new kids in town.
Stores replaced with stores, lives replaced by lives,
Continuing on in one way or another,
The cars and the trucks and the kids and the parents and everyone.

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