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Feeling American

It is easy to forget many of holidays that we celebrate in America when you are over seas. Holidays for the various presidents, Memorial Day, MLK Jr. Day, and even Easter and Thanksgiving have all passed unnoticed by me at one time or another. To be fair, it is really hard to get the necessary ingredients to make traditional holiday foods (Turkey, pumpkin pie mix, etc...) and if you do happen to get your hands on them, finding what you need to turn the ingredients into a proper feast (like an oven) can be an even larger pain in the ass. Mexican food has been made the de facto fare for all of the major holidays that I have celebrated with Justin (hey, pass me another Christmas taco, chingaaaado!).

One holiday that I have observed without fail since coming to Japan has been the 4th of July. I think all Americans should spend an extended time away from America so that they can truly appreciate how good we have it back home. It's easy to list off the areas in which other countries are better than America when you haven't experienced first hand the areas in which other countries are not. Eating cold fish and natto for breakfast would put most Americans in the right mood to appreciate the good things about our country, especially after having to eat it with some rude bastard blowing smoke in your face (it is the non-smokers who are generally put into the special areas over here, often not the other way around).

Although I can't celebrate the 4th properly (meaning going out to a bar with Matt, the Fingerhuts, Joe, etc... to go sing some true American karaoke), I think I'll go out by the Yodogawa river and shoot off some fireworks after I finish work, unless this miserable rain continues. In any case, I will be thinking about how much I really do appreciate being an American through out the day. Happy 4th of July.

Comments (5)

Happy 4th Adam, I am about to walk out the door to meet Joe. We are gonna play some frisbee golf at Ninomaru with some beers, then probably meet Jason and maybe a few others for a very special Zila tabehodai. What a way to remember our independence!

YoMama:

Missed you,Adam, at our Summerfest Gathering where we got to see Paula and Mark's new baby girl, Ashley, as well as Kimiko and Toby's little boy, Tyler. All your Aunties, Uncles and cousins asked about you and said they wished you could be here for the Feast, which was amazing if I should say so myself! The Yuge boyz, Jared and Trevor, took Jak and Molly to the park, and then picked kumquats in the backyard with Kristy and Jeff's boys, Connor and Cole....Brett and Donna's cute baby girl, Kaylie, bedecked in ribbons and glam, danced for us while Yoda cruised the party, jumping up on tables (bad kitty!)to sniff the King crab legs. Between melty bites of S'mores being toasted in the fireplace, all the sugar-loaded little kids reminded me of you, the ultimate happy little kid, stealing chocolate chip cookies and igoring the roasted zucchini!
Happy Fourth of July, Adam and all you expats far away from home and hearth! (keep away from Jus' blog if you don't want to get sad about missing our barbeque!...you are warned!)

Happy 4th! I flew back from Europe, and boy my arms are tired.

Adam:

Dude, welcome back from your honeymoon!

scuba:

Yes Fool. Happy 4th! I only wish that safe and sane included bottle rockets. Here's to pee and blackcats!

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on July 4, 2005 10:41 AM.

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