Ice Fishing & Ice Cream

Bigger hair!!!

BIGGER POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m really sorry about what happened to your friend—that’s pretty scary.

I think it’s really going to depend on where you’re moving to in the US and how old you are. I’d talk to your mother about your concerns and try to make sure you’ll be going to a school where there’s racial diversity and less tolerance for racial abuse. Hopefully you’ll end up where nothing like that will happen to you.

                                         Midori Ito Watchpost

1983/1984: SP  LP

1984/1985: LP (Ice Castle)

1985/1986: SP (Tyrolean fairy) LP (Magical City)

1986/1987: SP (Nine to Five OST)  LP (Indian Rhapsody)

1987/1988: SP (Yotei no Matsuri)  LP

1988/1989: SP (Fantastic Tango)  LP (Frank Mills Selection) Special mention: 1988 NHK LP, the first 3A landed by a woman in international competition. Still better than some of modern male skaters’ axels;)

1989/1990: SP (Jazz Selection)  LP (Sheherazade)

1990/1991: SP (Warsaw Concerto) - the Worlds’ SP when she collided with Laetitia Hubert during the warm up, then, during her performance, she placed her combo too close to the corner of the rink, fell into yhe opening in the boards and immidiately came back. Need guts to do that, you know.                    LP (Beethoven+Rachmaninoff+Sibelius)

1991/1992:  SP (Jalousie+Espana Cani)  LP (Rachmaninoff Selection)

1995/1996: SP (Firebird)  LP (Cinderella)

Some exhibitions and performances as a professional: Rain Story,  Rose of Pain, Memory (from Cats)

What was really happening on the podium at the World Championships medal ceremony.

First, fight with “myself”.

Then, results will come later.

I think it is true that a lot of expats come to Japan with a ridiculous fantasy projection of what they assume Japan to be like and how they will be treated.  Then when that idealized image falls apart they sink into some pretty bad culture shock, some of whom never recover, which leads to so many leaving within their first year or less here (though I don’t know what they are basing the “over half” on either, exchange students? English teachers? non English teaching professionals?).  I’m also not so sure about the “sacrifice many parts of their lives” bit, but a lot of folks do seem to expect to be catered to and will blame all of Japan and all Japanese for why we don’t match their ridiculous expectations instead of critically examining their own fucked up perceptions as the root of their problems.

I know folks who have gone to Japan on year-long university programs only to leave within the first semester because they “hate how Japanese food tastes” having never really had Japanese food before arriving in Japan, and threw fits that even things like McDonald’s and KFC/Pizza Hut/etc. “don’t taste right” and why weren’t there more places that offered foods they were used to from back home.  You’re in a different country, what sort of entitlement do you have to expect that your country will be well represented for foods as opposed to local foods?  I also have known folks who moved here not speaking any Japanese and refused to learn Japanese while they were here.   Guess who progressively threw more and more fits over communication issues because they expected they would be able to get away with English only?  Or like with the English teachers who come here, many hope they will be placed near Tokyo or Osaka or close enough to the big cities via public transportation and then throw fits over being in “backwards inaka” towns and how dare those places not be anything like the super advanced and everything available Tokyo with public transportation available whenever they want, etc.