The nearby tree stump and the more distant earth formation made this kind of cool macro-tree shape. The Oregon coast is just packed with scenes like this. Sometimes I think back to when I was in high school and I had a vague desire to live in the Pacific Northwest. I’d never been there or known anyone who’d lived there; it just seemed like it *must* be a great place to be. Coastal, but not tourist-gravitatingly warm. Beautiful, but relaxed. Now I’m here; that’s another item on the long list of things I’d surprise myself with if I could go back in time and say “guess what your life is going to be like in 10 years!”
Before we left, Andrew said that he really hoped to see some pelicans on this trip. We went out to a scenic lookout, and when we turned around there was a big flock of pelicans flying around. Between Andrew’s fancy Canon SLR and my tiny Casio point-and-shoot, I somehow ended up with the better photos. By the way, I’ve been keeping another blog over at Vox, where I post more frequently (and more frivolously). If you find the pace of this journal slow, maybe you’d enjoy keeping up with [Heta no Yokozuki Sekai 2](http://jetfuel.vox.com).
More from the air museum; here’s an aircraft with some history and some character.
This is at the Tillamook Air Museum, a huge old blimp hangar where they’ve got dozens of old restored aircraft from various wars.
We checked a bunch of camp sites, but they were all full. Several of them were just ruggedish bars and restaurants with a bunch of motor homes parked nearby.
Andrew and I took a long weekend to drive down the Oregon coast. We hoped to camp at least one night, but all of the campsites were full up so we stayed at motels, where we hooked up my iPod to the TV and watched Dae Jang Geum. I finished up some books and comics, including Toume Kei’s Hatsuka Nezumi no Jikan, which brings me right back to when I was immersing myself in his comics four years ago.
Hiroko and I have long lamented the state of bottled drinks in the USA. The main bottled drink in Japan is tea: not *tea and high fructose corn syrup and flavoring and preservatives*, but just *tea*. Here it’s difficult to find a bottled drink (other than water) that’s not sweetened to high heck. But at Whole Foods, my new grocery store of choice, I came across Teas Tea, made by Japan’s leading bottled tea company, Itô En. It’s just tea, and I won’t complain that they add some vitamin C. First NIS America announces that it’s bringing Ar Tonelico to the USA, and now I can buy Itô En tea at my local grocery store. Good things are happening in my home country.
My new apartment is all right. It’s aesthetically a pretty nice place to be, and Green Lake is less than 2 blocks away. I can walk to work in 25 minutes, along the lovely Ravenna Boulevard. But my upstairs neighbors are often ceiling-rumblingly loud. One time I went out on my balcony and looked up to see what was the matter, and someone very drunk was punching his friend as hard as he could for fun. And as someone who grew up in a rich Chicago suburb, it unnerves me that less than five blocks from my home is a highway where homeless people beg for money at the offramp and sleep under the overpass. Here’s an informative sign at my building, made from what could quite well be a pizza-slice container. I keep imagining the guy writing **WET PAINT**, looking at it, deciding it’s too ambiguous, and then adding **GREEN**.
