Today’s soundtrack: Little girl, with hair so blue
you’ve got to find the future in you
Today at 8:02pm: Exhausted and trying to retain my balance in the dojang shower.


Trying to type this with bandages on my fingers. Very difficult.

Something is definitely wrong with my Sabumnim/Master. I felt I might die after the first ten minutes of class today, but he continued the grueling workout for another 30 minutes. During back-fall practice I noticed blood on my white uniform but had no idea where it came from.

I wished someone else would notice the blood and ask me about it, just so I could say “That’s not...my blood” with a faraway look in my eyes.

During the pushups I realized it was my blood. I’d somehow punctured one of my fingers (probably from my own fingernail) and blood was oozing from the cuticle of another. Although a bleeding cuticle is gross, it’s hardly a manly injury so I kind of felt like a sissy for noticing.

Alice just came over. It seems like people come by our apartment every night. This has little to do with us being popular and a lot to do with us being centrally located. Actually I take that back; Shady’s pretty popular. At one time I, too, commanded something like social relevance, but now I’m 31 and I’m getting tired. I won’t take meals with people unless they’re both smart and funny. It sounds like snobbery but it’s just exhaustion.

Anyways Alice is one of Shady’s friends. She’s a pretty cool chick, a CPA by day and a bartender at night. She’s Chinese and hot so I was hoping Shady and her might hit it off, but so far they just seem like good friends. I was about to type “I’ll keep you posted” but then I realized I won’t, ‘cause it’s none of your business.

I just came back from dinner down at Yuka’s. Years ago there was two Chinese, one Japanese and one Korean living down there. Then one of the Chinese moved out and another Korean moved in. Now there’s no Koreans, one Chinese and three Japanese. Yuka is consolidating her power.

Anyways Yuka has two new proteges--two extremely young (17ish) boys from Japan, ‘Ji and Ken. They’re really nice kids, best friends with each other and one of them lives there so they’re both always around.

The thing is: These kids can cook like a motherfucker. I don’t know how they learned but the shit is just ridiculous, it’s better than a lot of the Japanese restaurants around here.

Tonight Ken whipped up mabo tofu and shockingly good okonomiyaki. See Ken’s from Hiroshima, and they make okonomiyaki differently than they do in Osaka; it’s lighter, kind of like two crepes with a layer of noodles in between. If you’re a food fan put it on your checklist.

So I get down to Yuka’s and there’s a whole grip of us. Five Japanese girls, me, Shady, and Streetwear Jane. Ken was cranking out food like a fucking factory, it was amazing.

Yuka has cable, too so it’s like a fucking amusement park for Shady and I. I was tired from Hapkido so sat at the corner of the table, eating but not talking much. The band-aids gave me the chopstick skills of a German so I had to use a spoon.

Music videos in the background and the familiar chatter of Japanese girls. The occasional passing siren. Pignoli cookies for dessert (my contribution), then I made a pot of coffee and did the dishes. I have a much better time of things when it’s dark outside.