Yesterday I ate a ton of pizza at Conan’s with my friend Scott so I was looking forward to a long evening run in the neighborhood. But when I went out, it was too cold! It was about 50ºF and windy.
I told myself that I should at least run the first leg of my normal route and see if I warm up. I ran a couple of miles, but my face was so cold I decided to cut the run short and try again during the day. (Maybe I need some winter running gear?)
Looks like it will be lovely weather for a lunch run today!
This past “bachelor summer” I bought an inexpensive classical guitar for myself to play. I haven’t really played guitar before (I’ve played keyboard and bass a bit), but Koa has taken a year of lessons and it looked so fun and sounded great. I thought I could have some fun noodling around on the guitar too. And yes, after watching a bunch of YouTube videos and practicing a bit, I could actually play some chords that don’t sound half bad!
I realize that with my current level of commitment I won’t ever excel at guitar, but even at my beginner/hobbyist level there is a lot of value for me in playing my ~5 chords. Look out, here comes a list!
Playing my guitar:
exercises a new part of my brain
improves hand-eye coordination
stretches out the fingers
is relaxing!
I also like to goof around on my bass guitar which is also fun. The problem is that I need to plug into an amp, and I don’t have a proper bass amp anymore. It just doesn’t sound right going through a tiny practice amp.
But what is neat about playing both guitar and bass is that you can sort of piece things together between the two instruments, and when things click and make sense, it’s a nice thing. It’s kind of obvious since they are essentially the same instrument, but it is still really satisfying to make the connection.
Satisfying enough to bring a huge smile to my face.
Just returned from a 4.4 mile run. There is a huge storm coming tomorrow so I wanted to get a run in this evening. When I left the house it was barely drizzling but after about 5 minutes, I was running in the rain. I splashed through a few puddles and got my feet soaked. I thought it would suck.
One common thought that enters my mind as I am running my daily route is a kind of fun way to think of how my mind and body are related. In Haruki Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Vintage International), he compared the human body to a beast of burden, in that if you stress your muscles, they will complain at first but then eventually comply to the extra effort. I have for a long time thought of my body as some kind of machine or robot, sort of like one of those Japanese giant robots, where my brain is the pilot of this running machine, and I have to keep watch on the functions of the different parts of the machine.
The pilot keeps tabs on the status of my knees, ankles, leg muscles in general, breathing, and hydration level. For the most part, I let my body run on auto-pilot, never needing to actually adjust my speed (except when crossing intersections), and just monitor the statuses. My breathing also never really changes except when I go on a long uphill. It’s actually fun to notice that my body requires more oxygen, and imagine the “pilot” order the body to inhale and exhale with more force and more speed. Then at the top of the hill, the body goes into a “recovery mode” and the heart and breathing rate drop back down to normal.
Since I have been nursing a sore knee the past month or so, the pilot’s control center is a little more lively in that his status displays show some damage to the right knee. I am visualizing a picture of my body as if it were viewed by a heat-sensitive night-vision-goggle type of thing or MRI. When my knee hurts, that part of the scan is glowing red. And sometimes my shoulder would get a little sore before it loosens up, and I’d imagine the pilot in my brain having to monitor that part of the machine as well.
It’s really bizarre what goes through my mind sometimes! But I think it’s actually kind of fun too, and just another aspect of running that makes it so enjoyable to me. I never know where my thoughts are going to take me, but I always end my run feeling way better than at the beginning.
Last night I visited my friend Mikey for our eagerly awaited “Idol Nite”. It’s well-known that Mikey is a HUGE Morning Musume fan – he’s traveled to California and NYC to see them in concert, owns so many DVDs and CDs and is generally super Momusu Otaku. On the other hand, I don’t know much about Momusu, but I do love SCANDAL, which is sort of like an idol band, in that they also have their legions of groupies. Mikey likes SCANDAL as well, so we decided to get together and geek out and watch videos and variety shows starring Morning Musume, SCANDAL and whatever else Mikey had in his iTunes library.
Sparkling Saké
Of course it’s also a great opportunity to enjoy some saké, so we had a variety to drink. Plus beer and snacks and we were all set. When I arrived at Mikey’s house, I was surprised to see his livingroom was all prepared with Momusu photobooks to peruse, Sayumi fans diplayed on the tables, and even glowsticks at the ready! I used two of the glowsticks for mood lighting in the Fuchiko photos as you can see below. Yes, I had to bring over Fuchiko (フチ子) for the festivities! I’m glad I did because we had a lot of fun taking photos (before we got too drunk).
Sayumi + Fuchiko
I had two favorite shows of the evening. The first one was of an elaborate prank played on Morning Musume, where all the girls spent the night in this small room, but it was actually a fake room built on a stage of an outdoor concert venue. The girls were brought there late at night, and it was so dark, they just thought it was a regular hotel type room with tatami. The next morning, Morning Musume fans filled the seats and then when everyone was ready, the walls of the fake room fell away, and all the girls woke up to a huge surprise. It was a little awkward but really funny. Then the music started playing and they had to sing a couple of songs while still half asleep and in their pajamas! They actually got into it pretty quickly and did a good job.
The second show I really enjoyed was of SCANDAL revisiting the old neighborhood where they used to hang out before they got big. It was funny to find out that they had to buy their outfits at Daiei, and their budget was 1,000 yen per outfit! They said they spent most of their money on studio time. They also stopped by the hostess bar, where they took their name from. The manager of the club came out and they confessed to him that they took the name for their band from the club, and apologized. The manager said he already knew! It was pretty funny. I really want to check out those locations where they hung out and even get a picture outside Scandal club!
Anyways, besides Morning Musume and SCANDAL, we watched some AKB48, some other HP! spin-off groups, and even some older Morning Musume when the girls were all different. It was so much fun, I learned so much, and there is so much more to watch that I am looking forward to Idol Nite 2!!
Fuchiko and Glow Stick
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
