Happy thanksgiving everyone. I have to say, that it just isn't the same having roast tofu and eel farts for thanksgiving. I mean, don't get me wrong, eel farts are delicious and all, but turkey is better around the holidays for some reason.

I was talking with my boss on the way to a class last night (in a different town, we were driving) and i asked him if there were a lot of fires in the winter here. You see, everyone uses these big, dangerous kerosene heaters to heat their drafty houses. They're pretty cool in the summer, but likewise, pretty damn cold in the winter. They keep these heaters running, supposedly only when there are people around, but apparently every winter you'll read in the paper about old people getting burned or killed by exploding, spilling or burning heaters. This led directly into the discussion of mochi which are some sticky glutinous rice balls that are popular around newyears. Just as with the exploding heaters, many old people die every year by choking on these sticky balls of death. Tomo related it like this, "It's terrible, the old people eat them fast, they are so hungry, so they take too big bites and then... ack...ack...ghasp! It's terrible!" All the time he was giggling histerically. What a guy, i really like him. Apparently last year someone saved himself by using a vacuum cleaner to suck the mochi out of his windpipe.

Jeez, in the US old people die of heart attacks, cancer and normal things like that. Japanese old people apparently don't die unless you choke them or burn their houses down.