Ramen

I debated for a while on an essay to write for a graduate school program: the point of the exercise is to judge your ability to write, analyze and organize your thoughts on paper--or via electronic means.

The major problem was that I did not know what I wanted to write; there were plenty of subjects that came to mind, but none of them fell into the "I feel like writing about this subject today." A night at Yokohama Stadium during a Baystars-Giants game came to mind, but I rejected that idea along with anything related to my current career or anything else relating to my past experiences. I felt, and I felt this most of the time when writing essays for my other applications, that these topics were either trite, irrelevant and that my writing style felt forced.

All of these ideas were slowly bobbing in my mind as I stirred in the ねぎ and チャシュー in my ramen at my favorite ラーメン屋 in the area when inspriation hit me. Why not write about ramen? Everyone in the US thinks of ramen in the form of the instant noodles in a package, not the dish that I know about, not the dish where artists constantly hone thier craft to create another delicious bowl.

And of course, I'm sure this essay will make little to no sense to whoever reads it.

I went running

I never realized how much fun is possible when running 12 miles. I am a bit worried since I was feeling weakness on the outside of my outer left ankle. It dissipated after a few miles, but it did scare me early on. There's the good ol' shin splints on the inside of my legs-and again, I'm too lazy to ice it down after a run. There really are no excuses for that. I'm looking forward to my ice foot bath later today. As much as one eagerly anticipates getting punched in the face by Mike Tyson, circa 1991.

But, although I feel drained and dead to the world, I still have the stoke burning for tomorrow--when I get to test drive my new booties I bought yesterday in Hayama and re=introduce my body to paddling out into the line up. I don't care if it the waves are less than epic (kind of hard since Typhoon season is over), I just need to paddle out.

I saw around reading "Fire Bret B," and realized one idea, when thinking about surfing, "who cares about a football team that much?" I don't anymore, knowing that I can strap my longboard to the top of my car and look for a decent break in 鎌倉、七里ケ浜 or either of the beaches in Fujisawa.

I do need to buy some new wax and probably gloves depending on how cold it is outside, but, that can wait until I get to location X tomorrow.

Stoked.