Fri- and Weigh- Day

I stepped on my home scale this morning--though 3:00 a.m. would be more middle of the night than morning--before having breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised. This is my first at-home weigh-in and I'm down about six pounds from my last doctor's weigh in. I don't think it's the diet, actually; it's only day three and I'm not doing any crazy cabbage-soup, lose 10 pounds in two days kind of diet. I expect it's more about having been working the pilates angle for the last two and a half months. Anyway, I'll take success where I can find it, diet-wise.

After I had my breakfast (a cup of last night's vegetable soup and an egg white omelet sandwich on whole wheat toast with tomatoes), I fixed some Greek yogurt and straw- and blueberries for Dave to take for his lunch. After that exhausting task, I went back to bed (I had been up all night) and fell asleep just as Dave's alarm was going off. I slept for a couple of hours, waking at 7:30 a.m.

I got up and made a cup of coffee. I thought I might try to caffeine my way through the day in an effort to make it to a more "normal" bedtime and right my sleeping schedule, but after having my coffee and a bowl of strawberries and Greek yogurt, I went back to bed for a couple more hours.

Kelly called a little after noon to announce the arrival of our worms! She was acting as worm fairy (or worm ferry, really), bringing worms from one of her co-workers and my former biology instructor (from when I was in my early 20s, so about eighty years ago, give or take a half-dozen decades), Shawn. In the last few years, Shawn has become the Johnny Appleseed of worms, so he sent along a bag of red wrigglers for us to put in our newly established worm composter.

Of course I waited until Dave got home to retrieve the worms. (He's talked about nothing else since we set up our worm composter.) While I waited, I had a shower, did my makeup, got dressed. I also had some fruit (a banana and a Bartlett pear) as a snack and another cup of coffee.

I had started watching another episode of Begin Japanology on youtube, this one about sumo.

When I lived in Tokyo, I lived in a neighborhood (Higashi Mukojima) near Ryogoku which is commonly called Sumo Town because the stables (yes, they call them that) where the sumo wrestlers live and train are concentrated there. There is a huge arena in Ryogoku called the Kokugikan where the Tokyo sumo matches are held each year. (The others are held in Kyoto.)

It wasn't unusual for me to see sumo around, either on the train near my neighborhood or while they were out and about in the city traveling, picking up fast food, or even viewing the cherry blossoms in spring.  Sumo wrestlers are easy to spot because, yes, they are often enormous and of course they dress traditionally in yukata (the robe-like clothes as in the photo below). But even when they're in Western-style street clothes, they have that distinctive and unmistakable sumo topknot.

Yes, that's me in the center! (Kokugikan, Sumo Town, Tokyo)

So, yes, there were sumo out and about in the city. But I don't think I ever told you about the time I saw one of the most famous sumo wrestlers, did I?

I was drinking in Ginza one night with a group of people. The bar where we used to drink was one of those little hole-in-the-wall places, ubiquitous in Tokyo. The bar was about halfway down a long, very narrow alleyway, too narrow to drive a car down. The wide glass doors at the front of the bar were thrown open that night and several of us were sitting at a table just inside. The place was crowded and it was just late enough that people were starting to get red-faced and a bit loud from drink. All at once the bar went quiet. Usually when that happens, the next thing you see is people looking around for something--a hanging plant or lamp--to check for swaying. Once spotted, they'd announce to each other, "Jishin" (earthquake). But that night, there was no swaying. It was not jishin. Everyone's attention was drawn by something coming down the alleyway. People at the back of the bar rushed forward toward the doors. The entire bar was silent except for excited whispering, "O-sumo-san! O-sumo-san!"

Coming down the alley, in a dark, sharply tailored (and strictly verboten) Western suit, was Asashōryū Akinori. He was followed by his tiny, Chanel-clad wife or girlfriend (make no mistake, he had both) and a small entourage of traditionally-dressed men. They walked past the bar and turned in at the door of a tiny boutique hotel across the alleyway. Even after he was gone from sight, people sat there, stunned.

Of course I had no idea who Asashoryu was, but later I came to realize that he was the sumo wrestler, the only yozukuna at the time, in Japan. He was the first sumo wrestler in history to win all six of the big tournaments in a single year and, beyond that, everyone believed there would be greater accomplishments still. But Asashoryu was also a trouble-maker. Not only was he so rude as to wear Western clothing in public, over the years he also drank in public, brawled with civilians in restaurants, and defied his coaches. He skipped matches and left the country without permission. He was even accused of fixing matches for financial gain and, though the charge was ultimately found to be libelous, the damage to his reputation had already been done. His bad behavior, true and false, was widely reported in the press. The Japanese have their idols, yes, but they expect a certain behavior in return for their idolatry. Asashoryu ended up retiring early, dishonor nipping at his heels--though many felt he had been forced out of sumo before he could become the greatest sumo wrestler in history. Why? Asashoryu was not Japanese at all, he was Mongolian.

So that was my daily trip down memory lane, courtesy of Begin Japanology.

As far as the rest of the day: Dave came home from work really early. He was going to Seder dinner with his mother (she's not Jewish, but one of her good friends is), so he had to get ready. He was home early enough though, that we could retrieve our worms and run a couple of errands before he had to leave.

First, the worms!

Sorry it's a bit blurry, but with all the excitement, I couldn't keep the camera still!

Some of them anyway, clumped together and already wriggling their way down into the compost. And, even better: Baby worms!

Baby Worms!

Look! You can see the cork-screwy digestive tract of that little on in the lower left. These little babies stuck to plastic bag they were in and had to be coaxed to join the others.

We put them in the bin, took a few pictures, admired them a bit, then put the cover back on the worm bin because they don't like light and we wanted them to feel welcome in their new home.

Yay, worms!

After greeting our new worm friends, we decided to make a run to a nearby local nursery to see what they had in stock. It's been warm enough that we were hoping for some vegetable transplants, but they had nothing except catnip and some walking onions, both of which we already have.  We ended up with a couple of perennials for our patio.

We came home via Flying Star Cafe, where we ordered lattes to go and I picked up a salad (mixed greens, jicama, tomato, onion, mushrooms, carrot, avocado, egg, and blue cheese) for my own dinner. I also got an iced sugar cookie for dessert.

Dave went off to pick up his mother and I sat down to eat my dinner and write for a bit.