inside

These nearly naked Venezuelan pro-Ahmadinejad protesters/exhibitionist may seem far afield from Tokyo. But if we’ve learned anything in this time of instant image access, it’s that the potential for moe in our daily lives is increasing in every Twitter/Facebook millisecond.

I wonder who came up with the brilliant idea of placing their hero on their crotches. This loving tribute to the Iranian leader reminds me of the funeral of daddy Assad with a public mourner who had the deceased daddy tattooed on each of his (male) breasts.

I guess if the dicatator were inside you, it would be impossible to exhibit to others. The image also makes me wonder what the view from behind the protesters must look like. Thanks Hooman!

Despite (or because?) of my Japanese husband’s objections, I must share my deepest fascination with Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel, “American Wife.” It describes the life of a slightly ficitonalized Laura Bush. The book was published the day after we left San Francisco for Tokyo, but miraculously I found a copy at the SFO airport bookstore.

I love almost all first ladies, first lady candidates, and even VP candidate husbands. However, I’ve never much liked Ms Bush because of her probably Rx-induced vacant presence. Ms Sittenfeld, a confessed fan, has written *the* novel about this first lady and her unique contributions to femininity and country.

In the first section, “Alice” not only kills her high school friend and would-be boyfriend in a car accident, a fact that is documented. She also loses her virginity with the dead boy’s brother, and receives an illegal abortion performed by her grandmother’s lesbian MD lover. My favorite line, which I had to translate for my husband: “Andrew died, I caused his death, and then, like a lover, I took him inside me.”

I already anticipate the sadness I will feel when I reach the end of this massive tome of unexpected vulgarity and sympathy. No doubt it will provide many lessons for me to become a better American wife here in Tokyo.

Is anyone else reading this book now?