Cheap fish with short lives

I heard another story that made me think, "Only in Japan." I was talking with someone who bought some cheap goldfish. They died a few days later. He went back to the shop and asked why they all died so soon, and the shopkeeper explained that these fish are supposed to die after a couple of days. Huh? And why would you sell fish that die after a couple days? The answer: to teach children about death.

Naturally the next question was, "Why would you sell these fish to me?" The shopkeeper replied, "I thought you needed to learn about death, too."

Thankfully I have never had this experience of being sold fish that were meant to die. All my fish died from poor water conditions and from eating each other. Here are some pics of my dear ones that have passed on before their time.

My expensive blue and beautiful. He turned out to be a bully and had to be dealt with. To my dismay, the smaller tank I transferred him to had poor filtration and he didn't make it.


I don't know why but Apple's shell got thinner and thinner until he had nothing left to live in.
African Aphyosemion - a $60 birthday present. I didn't notice the filter had stopped up and ammonium nitrite levels skyrocketed. He got a bacterial infection and puffed up like a balloon. By the time he saw medical treatment, it was too late.
My lovely albino medaka . . . One night I woke up to a frantic splashing occurring in the tank. The Aphyosemion had one halfway in his mouth and they were thrashing in unison. The few survivors were promptly separated.


Golden loaches. They were scared of the other fish and wouldn't come up to eat. Poor things died of starvation.



Sadly, I have no photographical record of the many others that are no longer with us. And what happens after they pass on? Some make their way underground via toilet. Others head for cremation mixed in with the "burnable garbage." When I was a kid, we turned them into dried fish mummies and put them in a plastic ziploc bag. We had a nice collection of dried corpses. Until the cat ate them.

Concert in the middle of nowhere

Malcolm's been playing in a band called Baobab for the last couple years, and today was their last gig as a trio. It's hard to believe he'll be moving back to New Zealand and we'll likely never meet again (Malcolm's on the drums in the middle).

The other two members - Mirai and Maika (brother and sister) live out in the middle of nowhere on a hill surrounded by rice fields, a really good venue for concerts. Their music is a relaxing mix of violin, guitar, and percussion, and fits so well outdoors with all the greenery. Kind of like Irish folk songs with Japanese lyrics. Here's a pic of the surrounding rice fields. What a beautiful place!

When I showed up one of my favorite high school students (in the red) came up to say hey. I was like, "What are you doing here???" She simply replied, "I live here." Huh? It turns out Mirai and Maika are her brother and sister. I had no idea she commuted to school every morning from such a rural place! She was pretty busy the whole time dishing out curry, selling cookies, and making drinks.

I've known Midori (on the left) practically the entire time I've been in Japan and the strange thing is we've never exchanged phone numbers until now. She's one of the few people around that can speak Italian. Unfortunately her teacher moved back to Italy and she's in search of a new one, so if you're Italian and living in Oita, I know someone who'd love to meet you.

I love these guys. They live miles away but always come to hang out. I've never met brothers that were so inseparable. Hiro (up front) just got a mohawk and is the only person I know that wears traditional wooden clogs wherever he goes. Yusuke's a fireman in the town where they live. Two cool guys, and it's a wonder they're single.

Baobab will go on without him, but it'll never be the same without Malcolm in the middle.

The Japanese are kinky.

Yes, I'm sure you already know about Japanese comic porn and slave clubs and hostess bars. But I heard about something new today!

Some friends were talking about something called "NyoTaiMori" which is sashimi (slices of raw fish) being served in a restaurant. Pretty normal, right? Except instead of the sashimi being served on a platter, they're served on a woman lying on the table. Supposedly this was pretty popular in big cities a few years back, but one friend was talking about how her brother works in a sushi restaurant and this was actually ordered, so that's how they served it. Which means they have women on-call to do that sort of thing?
The girl on the right with sunglasses on her head is the one who started talking about NyoTaiMori. She's constantly increasing my vocabulary of naughty Japanese.

The one behind her has the brother that serves sashimi. I haven't met her brother yet, but when I do, you can be sure about me getting all the details on this sushi-on-a-lady thing.