Hills of Hayward

Our kitchen remodeling project expanded to “home” remodeling project and it is finally coming close to an end. We purchased all the special items ahead of time and left out the most common item, a microwave oven. We needed a 23.5″ wide black microwave oven to match our oven. How hard it could be?

It started with a simple after-dinner shopping trip. We hit the Lowes in Union City first - there was only one model with the right dimensions, but there was only the white version left. Next stop, Home Depot - nope, all microwaves on the shelves were small ones. (Are small microwaves more popular than large ones now?)

Pulling into Walmart, Harrison started ranting about the dirty parking lot and lousy Walmart customers who coveniently forget traffic rules. Walmart also stocks only small microwaves ( < 1.3 cubic foot ). Is it a small microwave conspiracy? We continued to drive across 880 back and forth to hit all the remaining stores at Union Landing - Target (small microwave heaven), Circuit City (no microwaves for sale), then finally Best Buy where we hit paydirt. We got the last Sharp 2.0 cubic foot black microwave left in the store.

At this point, Harrison stopped ranting and smiled.

Naruto is a hot Japanese export to the US. It is not a new cell phone or some sort of electronics, but an anime series. I have to blame my friend Sam from getting me hooked on this anime series. When I visited Sam in North Carolina, I noticed him transfixed on YouTube doing searches like “Naruto Episode 1″ and watching each and every episode. Last I talked to Sam, he has watched all 200+ episodes twice.

It should be no surprise to most of you that I have a mild case of being an Otaku. Having watched countless hours of bad anime, when you stumble upon “the good stuff”, it is almost like achieving enlightenment for a couple of weeks. For women, I equate it to maybe like stumbling across a perfect dress on a 70% off sale rack or when you hear a new song on the radio that speaks directly to your heart.

What makes Naruto series unique is that it brings the mysterious world of the Japanese Ninja into everyday terms. The conception of a ninja here in the US is laughable and borderline idiotic. We have… lets see… Chris Farley in Beverley Hills Ninja, Ask a Ninja, and an assortment of late-night low-budget ninja and martial arts movies.

Instead of making the ideals and the nobility of the Ninja inaccessible or godlike, this series celebrates the ninja craft with plenty of humor and humanity by following the lives of Naruto Uzumaki and his friends as they grow to become and understand the nature of a ninja.

Naruto has taken US by storm. Take a look at these kids in full cosplay (costume play) of a scene in Naruto. You can catch Naruto on the Cartoon Network, but both Christine and I (yes I got her watching as well) recommend the original japanese language version with subtitles on YouTube. The english voice actors do not work with the people that write the script, and do not correctly capture the mood or portray the characters.

One of the endearing facets of the Naruto character is his penchant for eating Japanese ramen every meal. In one episode the Naruto character and a friend, Choji, explain the proper way to eat and critique ramen similar to the ultimate ramen movie, Juzo Itahi’s Tampopo.  It is gratifying to see the writers of the Naruto series pay homage to this quirky but brilliant and underappreciated movie.

My favorite quote in the series is: “There are no bad people among ramen lovers!” On the surface this is a simple quote of a naive child; however, an ongoing theme of the series is that even the most evil of people are human, albeit tragic. I hope to remember to share the joys of life even with people I disagree with.

There are so many places in the world that I have never been nor have the time to. Acknowledging this, I have been subscribing to interesting blogs from all over the world. If I cannot be there, the next best thing is to read about it and imagine from the comfort of home.

One place I wish to understand better is China. I subscribe to a couple english-language blogs written by foreigners in China.

• China: A Pastey White Guy’s Perspective - social satire by a businessman
• Sinoed - a interpretor working in China
• Violet Eclipse - an english teacher in China shares her stories

This is one of the more interesting blog entries in the last month:

From: China: A Pastey White Guy’s Perspective

Last night I had dinner with an employee of mine who informed me that he would be resigning within the next two weeks. It made me sad, but I understood his reasons.

Or rather I should say reason (singular).

The reason my employee gave me was that the Chinese owner treats his employees worse than animals, and I gotta tell you, from what I have witnessed over the last nine months…

(THE STORY GETS BETTER…READ MORE HERE)