A Novel

I did it! 51,774 words and then... The End.

Almost done!

1687 words left and its only 3:00 pm. You know... that means I will finish my novel Today! With a day left to actually finish the story. "Huh?" you say? Well for Nanowrimo the goal is 50,000 words, but turns out I was a bit wordy and I've not been able to wrap up yet. I'm guessing I have another 10,000 words to go to finish the story. BUT, I will have reached the goal... and a day early. Yee-haw for me!

Untitled

I just realized why I couldn't get to sleep last night. I don't have a title! I was trying to think of something that sounded a bit prettier than "Up and Down" because that's all I've come up with so far. Lame. Without having read the story, I can't exactly pin the chore on someone else, but if anyone has any ideas for a book about a foreigner hiking through Japan.... shoot 'em over!

Ps. Don't worry, I had no trouble waking up since my family was kind enough to call and wish me Happy Thanksgiving. Nothing like starting the day off both homesick and bitter for not being on vacation like everyone else!! (just kidding, it was nice to hear from you guys, I'll be there next year, I PROMISE!)

The Homestretch

I just broke 40,000 words in my novel. 10,000 more words and I can actually introduce myself as A Novelist. My challenge in the next, the last 20% of MY BOOK (oooh that feels cool) will be to actually reach The End. Knowing my personal tendencies to completely ignore a project without a deadline or another form of external motivation, I will drop this project like a garbage bag full of moldy potatoes on December 1st. Okay, maybe not that bad... but do you remember my Econ paper?
*
*
*
*
(whispering...) I haven't mailed it in yet. (ducks, trying to hide from the barrage of an internet full of family and friends throwing bananas). I know, I know. Tom's on my case and has done everything BUT coming over to my place and stealing it out of my laptop. I'm just lazy. And I don't have a printer. That's my excuse and I know it doesn't cut it.

Back to the current project though. My fabulous heroine is still on her jaunt and has less than a week's worth of writing to wrap up the trip of a lifetime and head home. What to do? Obviously.... all of it!

Here's the latest excerpt (can you tell I've shifted gears? I'm now writing about 1,000 words every half hour which is double my original pace... and probably cut the quality in half!).

Ren was not a morning person though. He completely missed breakfast and Jenna had to go back to the sleeping area to shake him awake before they missed the last of the beautiful sunrise. He’d been easy to find, the only sleeping bag left in the entire room. His shaggy hair was sticking up in several different directions and when he finally looked over at her it was obvious he was struggling to focus.

“Jenna....?” he groaned. She smiled.
“Ohio Gozaimasu!” she used her most cheerful teacher voice. Without a word, Ren retreated deeper into the sleeping bag and drew the drawstring closed at the top. Jenna began poking at the outside of the orange sleeping bag until Ren hollered and popped back out. “Come on, Ren-sama! We’ve got go to climb a mountain!” she still used the sunshine-y voice and spoke right into his hair. “And then we get to go DOWN!”. At this, he finally rolled over and opened his eyes again.

“Oh... yeah”. He yawned, stretched, and finally sat up.
“Come On!!” she jumped up and down like an eager four year old. He glared at her. “Ok, I am going to be out front getting my stuff together. You’d better meet me there in fifteen minutes... or I’m going to leave without you!”. She put emphasis on the fifteen minutes and pointed her finger at him. He might be a goofball, but he knew she was serious. They’d gotten along well enough to keep hiking as a team, but on a number of different occasions they’d offered to let the other go on their own. She knew he’d be probably be just as happy on his own and that was part of what kept them on an even keel. She was beginning to suspect Ren had developed something of a crush on her though, and if she had to tweak that attachment in order to get him out the door, that was all right with her. Jenna hoped she was wrong, but he’d already asked an inordinate amount of questions regarding her love life and her plans for leaving the country. He had teased her several times about staying on as a hostess in a Roppongi bar and other similarly sketchy ideas. None were plausible, not to mention likely.

They hiked all morning, reaching the top of the vertigo inducing peak well before lunch. Ren struck a monkey pose in a photo at the top and laughed at Jenna for her standard peace sign. On the way down, they passed a valley filled with steam vents. The air was heavy with the smell of sulfur and Jenna debated with Ren about stopping for another bath. Jenna wanted to stop and enjoy another natural bath, certain it would feel like heaven on her exhausted muscles. Ren just wanted to hike straight down to town.

“Jenna, we just had a bath!” Ren argued. Jenna couldn’t believe she was arguing with a Japanese person over having baths too frequently. She finally gave up, also eager to get to the bottom and fill up on some real food. They’d still need to find a couple of rooms for the night once they reached town, as neither one of them had made reservations this far into their trip. They hiked the last couple hours in relative silence. She’d been glad for Ren’s company over the last week, but they were both over tired and hungry. When they reached the bottom, Jenna wanted to collapse on the ground, but she was frankly too sore to move that quickly.

Back to the lap top....!

Lagging

I'm 1400 words behind tonight and I'm too tired to stay awake. That means I will be 3,000 words behind by the time I wake up tomorrow. Good thing Wednesday is a holiday. Tomorrow starts the final week of this whole novel thing and for the first time, I'm really finding it tough. But like I said, I've got Wednesday off and even though I'll spend a large part of it running and drinking with the crew, I also have next Tuesday off. Tom will more than likely be out of town for that one, so it will be my chance for a final push to the end. At 33,000 some words (of 50,000) now and only about a third of the way through the outline (oops?!)...stay tuned and start cheering loudly!

Turkey Time

I've survived a very long and busy week (Tom's birthday, a flu shot, and almost 10,000 words of noveling were highlights) and am now heading out to Tom's for the opening of Thanksgiving weekend. No, its not the same as at home but we will have all the fixings: veggies, potatos (in various stages of mash), cranberry sauce, stuffing, pies and TWO turkeys. Of course, all of the above needs to be cooked... and that is basically all I'll be doing this weekend, with breaks to write and run (my two other major priorities this month). Cheers!

The Latest

Here's where I left off on my novel this evening. I'd try to find a "better" section of it for you all, but I'm trying not to go back and read much of it. If I do, then I just start editing and at this stage... editing is dangerous. Therefore this is what you get.

Not only am I caught up after a few days of being behind, but I'm now writing the first exciting part. My heroine, Jenna, is meeting Mr. Kumai... my second major character in 20,000 words of writing. How exciting, eh? I kind of want to stay up and write more, but I have most of tomorrow night to write too (after running). Here's to avoiding burn out!!

Chapter 6: More Yari
But Jenna was just too cold. Her muscles wouldn’t relax and she couldn’t stop shivering. She rolled over in her sleeping bag and reached for the jacket. Careful to keep the wet side up, she placed it over the sleeping bag, hoping to keep more of her body heat inside. If it made a difference, she couldn’t tell. She waited, desperately willing her body to warm up. The wind was angrily blowing the rain against the sides of her tent. Jenna laid there listening, shivering, and praying for sleep as the sky finally became completely dark. Without leaving her sleeping bag, she ate some of her trail mix. The motion of eating warmed her slightly, but as soon as she finished she was cold again. She cursed the rain, the mountain, and herself for this whole idea. She thought about the treats she would give herself when she finished this section of trail. Visions of pizza, hour long hot showers, and her thickest college sweatshirt flashed behind her tightly shut eyelids. Suddenly she heard footsteps in the gravel approaching her tent.
“Sumimasen...Jenna-san?”.
“It must be Kumai!” her eyes opened widely. She didn’t know how to respond. “Um... hai. I’m right here...” she trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Surely he didn’t expect her to come out of her tent? She never wanted to leave her sleeping bag, in spite of the fact that she’d still not managed to warm it.
“Jenna, It’s Kumai” he said in a way that made her felt she was supposed to do something. She wasn’t sure what. In the absence of any sound from Jenna, he tried again. “Daijoubu desu ka?” She’d already been asked that too many times since they’d met and she gritted her teeth. Kumai should know by now that she really wasn’t okay at all.
“I’m a little cold, but yeah, I’m all right” she answered instead. Silence. She figured he wasn’t sure how to respond but then he surprised her with his bluntness.
“Is it okay if I come in?”. Jenna shot up to sitting inside the tent. Her first instinct was to tell him no, but then it occurred to her that he was there because he knew she’d be cold out here. She was, in fact, cold. She reached for the wool hat, turning the damp section to the back and jammed it down over her messy ponytail and then reached over with one arm to open the zippered door. Kumai was bending over at the waist and his face was level with hers as she pulled the tent flap open wide for him to enter. He muttered some Japanese phrase that was used when entering another’s house as a guest as he awkwardly lowered his backside into the door. She shook her head at the silliness of it. The tent was as far from being her actual home as he was to being a real guest. His boots off, he slipped his legs into the tent and closed it to the rain. He sat cross-legged, obviously uncomfortable. He was parallel to Jenna in her sleeping bag and facing the opposite wall. Jenna stared at the foot of her “bed” to avoid meeting his eyes.

ps. No, Mr. Yuk does not live in Japan. Sadly, neither does the Tooth Fairy. I've explained both in the last month. Can you imagine?? And then can you imagine trying to explain them? I think the Japanese teachers think I'm crazy. Good thing I have Erik to back me up.

Running in Circles

Today was my last chance for a long run before my half-marathon in two weeks. Next weekend Tom and I are doing our annual Tokyo Thanksgiving day cooking extravaganza and besides, it would be a little too close to race day to go very far. I've done all the other long runs with Tom which has been really nice. I've previously always trained alone, which was really my only option, and been fine with that. But this fall, having someone along to help decide the course and to distract me with conversation has been really cool, too. So, I was really dissappointed when Tom pulled out today with a sore groin. I was on my own. Once I got myself out the door I really enjoyed myself, which was a relief. It was a beautiful fall day in Tokyo. It probably was in the 60s and really sunny. The trees on the path circling the Imperial Palace were all yellows and oranges. It was beautiful, I wish I'd been able to take some photos to share. I did three laps, which is about nine miles, and then ran from the palace back to my apartment which is probably another two. It felt really good although by the third lap of the palace I was getting a bit bored of the scenery.

Not that I could really complain. There were some other crazies out there running a FULL Marathon! My jaw dropped when I read the bib of a guy running/stumbling forward ahead of me. That would be about 10 laps around the palace. Ten of the most annoying laps on Earth, in my humble opinion. Running around the palace is lovely, but it isn't the best running course I've found (it can't even touch the lakeshore running trail in Chicago). For starters, the mileage (or kilometer-age?) isn't well marked (ok its marked for a while... but then it never ends?). But the worst part is that it isn't really a dedicated running trail. We have to share it with the tourists (gasp!). It sucks, because tourists have this ingrained tendency to spread out as completely across the path as possible and are utterly oblivious to the fact that there might be other (faster) people coming up behind them (or in some cases, Right Towards Them!).

Another case in point: on Sundays, they shut down the major road that leads around half of the palace, so people (families, biking athletes, etc. etc.) can use the street for biking. Such a fun idea, but (typically) they have squeezed all the fun out of that one, too. Bikers must be on the correct side of the (divided!) street and they have to stop at the red lights, even though there is NO traffic since the street is Closed. Pseudo traffic cops whistle and yell if any biker attempts to break these rules, or if a pedestrian tries to cross without a crossing signal (even if there are no bikes), or (this is my favorite part) a runner or walker wants to run or walk on the emptied street. Thanks! Even more fun is the fact that though pedestrians aren't allowed on the street with the bikes, the bikes are still allowed on the path/sidewalk... and for some reason many of them still choose to bike there. Between the tourists and the bikers there is NO WAY IN HELL I would ever, EVER want to run 10 laps on the thing. Kudos to them though, I hope each and every one of the brave souls are tucked in with a keg of beer tonight.

I did really enjoy my run though, tourists and bikers and lack of company aside. I'll let you know how the race goes in a couple weeks.

******************

The novel is going well. I was getting bogged down in details of all the hikes, so I've fast forwared to a major outline point that sounded more interesting than the intro to the story. I'm enjoying the writing process still. I've fallen in love with my new (as of this summer) Vaio laptop and its 2kg weight. This weekend I typed in a park while the running group ran (I was watching their bags... and productive!) and on the 29th floor of Tom's office building with a spectacular view of downtown Tokyo below me (he was working... I was writing!). It was pretty neat. I've now cracked 20 thousand words. I expect to make it to the halfway point sometime this week!

******************

Tom and I went to see Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" last night. I love Tim Burton and I love Johnny Depp. Together, they are pure magic. I loved them in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and had been waiting for "Corpse Bride". It was worth the wait. I highly recommend both of these movies. Then again, my favorite of all time is still "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Anyway, it was a really cute flick with great music.

Yuk

Another terribly traumatic Thursday is in the books. Not only do we have the worst mix of dysfunctional, canNOT be trusted to do anything by themselves toddlers on Thursday but today was an Open School morning, so we got to be all dysfunctional in front of their parents and video cameras. I do believe (and it really is kind of a haze at this point) that there were several fathers in the crowd and at least one grandma. It was mass-freaking-chaos.

Do mothers in America still discipline their kids? I may just be a twenty something idealist teacher with hazy recollections of my own days in school... but I do believe with some amount of certainty (and I know she'll correct me if I'm wrong) that if I (as a child....well probably as an adult, too) hauled off and smacked another small child or a teacher...RE-PEATEDLY... my mother would have set the video recorder down and hauled me into a corner and had some eye to eye stern voice time. I'm not saying my mom was a crazy scary lady (well maybe at that moment she would have been to me as the two year old), I'm just saying that it was really akward and hopeless to be sitting less than 3 feet away from two rows of seated parents while children (belonging to aforementioned parents) were beating each other and myself until other children were crying. Now, these are two year olds... so maybe they just thought it was all fun and games but... as a teacher and NOT a parent of the violent children, there is really only so far I can go with discipline when I'm literally Right In Front of parents. At some point, the LINE needs to be drawn folks! How about the daddy who's precious princess is a complete, and I emphasize: The Worst Kid of the Bunch, spaz. He's got video camera in hand taping us as we motion desperately for his daughter to join us (for the millionth time). His daughter is sitting at his feet. He is video taping US. Anyone see a discrepency here?

It was wild. Just wild. And yes, my expectations are probably high for two and three year olds but even IF I were two or three I still don't believe I would have enjoyed being stabbed in the face with a chopstick (as I was today... this time not in front of a parent, but Yui-chan thought she was hilarious. Where do they get that idea?). And finally... why in the hell has it been hard-wired into humans the world over that when their nose is stuffed they should insert a finger and then dispose of the crud By Eating It. Why, God, Why? I just don't understand.

Urgent: Ideas Needed!

No, not for my novel, I'm still doing just fine on that front. I've reached and surpassed my first 10k, in fact.

No, perhaps since I've been dumping all of my creative energy into the novel instead of work... I am completely stuck trying to think up a kids snack for next week. I am desperate for new strokes of genius! Please lend me your minds!

Here's what I need:

A snack that relates to either a) Nature or b) sport/outdoor activity.

It has to be something the kids can make and eat (and clean up) within 30 minutes. Age group: 4-7 years old.
Available equipment: cutting board, refridgerator, toaster, hot plate, juicer, ice cream maker, sink, anything I can buy at a grocery store. No stoves or ovens!

Examples: English muffin pizzas (we made faces on the cheese with the veggies), rainbow toast (we made 6 colors of milk then painted it onto toast before toasting), pancakes (made in different shapes), ice cream (in different flavors). I also did watermelon this summer- didn't really take assembly but then we colored watermelons and glued on the actual seeds from the slice they'd just eaten... so it could be a combo snack/activity too.

Please, please help me out here! Thanks a million! (Feel free to post to the comments, maybe your ideas will inspire me or someone else).

Fire! Fire!

(If you read the title in a Beavis or Butthead voice it is entirely due to your own corruption, not mine).

Today was Culture Day, a national holiday. I'm not sure if there are actually more holidays here or not, but as my dad remarked "The Japanese sure love their holidays". Well, I suppose they must play sometimes too, given how much they work. Tom and I used the time off to do some research for the running trail he will be leading for the Wednesday night hash on his birthday, November 16th. As we headed out the door though, we smelled smoke and became more aware of the fact that we'd been hearing sirens for a few minutes...awfully close by. He stood in the doorway and the two of us stared as a sheet of black ash the size of my head floated down between my building and the next. "Must be a fire somewhere, huh?" one of us stated the obvious. We walked to the side of the building (no hallways here, once you walk out of my apartment door, you're outside. We could see some people standing on their rooftop looking at something, but we couldn't see the something. We took the elevator up to the top of the building and were greeted with the sight of billowing smoke about a block away. I went back to my apartment and took my comfortor off the veranda before it started to smell. The smoke was wafting past my window now.

When we exited onto the street, the couple that owns the restaurant in my building was standing outside. The woman saw us and exclaimed, "Kaji da! There's a fire!". A person with even an elementary grasp of Japan's space shortage and history with wooden buildings and subsequent city destorying fires can appreciate the excitement with which I heard this phrase. My first Japanese fire! Tom and I looked at each other and without really pausing, headed straight for it. There were more firetrucks arriving every moment, all with sirens blaring and announcements being made. Mysteriously, there was no one responsible for crowd control. We kept expecting to be turned around, but we walked right up and between the mass of firetrucks parked up and down my closed off streets. Long adventure story short, a house burned. We didn't get too much closer, but by the time we (and most of the fire engines) arrived, it had already collapsed. The other houses on the block are probably all smoke damaged. Yet as we walked away there were still more fire engines arriving, still no crowd control. As we reached the train station, we spoted a fire helicopter. Hum... this is probably one of the side affects of too much government spending on lowering the unemployment rate (thank you macro paper!).

So, after all that excitement, we wandered all over the place and covered a lot of interesting territory. I intended to post some photos, but the blogger photo posting tool is all screwed up again, so that will have to wait. Sorry! (Edited: Fixed!) Here's some photos I took during my walk yesterday. The first is at Todai: Tokyo University...one of the only pretty spots we could find on the campus. The next is at a temple we walked through. I'll post later when Blogger's not so buggy.



Finally, I am happy to say that I am ON FIRE as I write the opening of My Novel. I have over 5,000 words and am mid-way through my second chapter. According to Those Who Figure This Stuff Out, I must shoot for 1,667 words a day. For today, my goal was a total of 5001. I'm at 5,300 something and still have an hour before I sleep. I kind of hoped to get further ahead today since I wasn't working, but decided that I should also bank some hours with my boyfriend before he thinks I'm choosing my laptop over him (that will probably come later this month). Anyway, just wanted you all to know that its going well and so far, I'm enjoying this project more than I expected to. Awesome!