I am France

It's almost March. Crikey!

Mizuki and I went to the Yushimatenjin Shrine to see the plum trees in early blossom. First the white, then the pink. There was a man performing a show with a trained monkey. Dark thoughts. Piles and piles of wooden boards inked with the dreams of a million schoolchildren; addressed to the God of Learning. One I saw was a manga character with a sad/cute face thinking: "Will I ever be famous?" My fortune, given me by a mechanical lion dancer bobbing and weaving and cackling in glee, read; Chukichi, or Moderately Auspicious.

Hip-hop you don't stop. You don't stop.

I'm at this club Face where Ritsuko's mates Tada (Dr Peterson) and Hiro (Language Mic) are DJing and suddenly these two freestylers start asking me questions in RAP. Japanese Rap at that.

watashi wa nippon, namae ja nai
anata wa doko, bokutachi kikitai

[I am Japan, it's not my name
Where are you, we want to know]

This was all a bit too much in the heat and noise and smoke, and so I splutter around my beer:

ore wa lance
[I am Lance]

Which was heard as [I am France]

So I am answering questions about French culture for the next 30 minutes. Fun!

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sickness of snakes. sleepless. lauren's b'day. troy and his stds. painless. red. sleet. underbar. early morning denny's. beck. mexican religious art. key largo. peppered steak. the prose edda. blood of the iron fist. failed keizai. aquarium. kingsblood. just good friends.