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Dream Journal

Favorite Tchotchke Store

Checking in on my favorite Japanese tchotchke store which has been shut for the duration of the pandemic. It seems like it’s appeared in previous dreams as a place where I stored my clothes sometimes. Among the tall wooden columns of its business complex, I feel like I’m sneaking around. The windows are dusty and the door is locked, but I’m relieved to see there’s still stuff inside. It’s obvious they’ve moved a lot of merchandise out, perhaps long ago when the pandemic started. I’m worried they still might go out of business as it’s been so long they were closed.

In my home I’m carrying a “Omicron and Delta” handheld COVID temperature sensor device. It’s a smooth bubble-form electronic, a little fancier than I’d typically buy. Reflecting how it can’t be that old as the branding of it for detecting Omicron could’ve only happened recently.

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Dream Journal

Escaping from a Life Among Dioramas

I’m a girl living in an apartment built into a rock outcropping, containing crystal protrusions, waterfalls, and garden diorama-scapes. A distinct relaxing Japanese feel. I make my way out of the enclosed 1-person space by navigating up a waterfall (much higher than expected), revealing that the apartment generously provided for me was also a restriction — there are much bigger areas beyond what was accessible before. I pass over a wooden gate into a back alley, with a tiny, quaint moat running along one side. I can now view my place and its exquisite dioramas from the other side, and it’s 1 of 3 similar apartments for elite long-term guests… guests of who, I cannot recall, if I ever knew. But if I can see so clearly, it seems perhaps our hosts were watching us, keeping tabs. A tiny snowfall lands on the miniature traditional town hall.


I’m angry at my brother Patrick, giving him an explicit warning in the car backseat. About what, I can’t remember.

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Dream Journal

Left Behind at Omura Station

Travelling by train in Japan, stop momentarily at a station called Omura. The train leaves without me and my wife is on it with both our tickets. I have to walk along the line in a foreign country, or ride the train and hope they don’t check my ticket.

The back wall of my dad’s house in Cathedral City has been stolen. I suspect it might be a construction site somewhere in the lots behind it. The city recently has only sold cheap plots, ones in the middle of blocks without good road access. Exploring this area, I pass a lane of farm trees, not knowing the neighborhood anymore. I see Fifth’s Grocery store, and a Marie Callender’s inside it. I orient myself with the mountains but it’s harder than usual. I sit and wait underneath a shady tree out of eyeline, eat a couple coconuts and scope out the area.


Climbing up a set of colorful ersatz stairs, through a vertically-tilted bus where a giant girl is sleeping in one of the bunks. I pass by her and she seems interested in me but I’m kind of on a date. My date (a younger girl with dark fluffy short hair) and I make it for a wedding on this long plateau walkway at the top, something like the Alden Royal Skyway… very underwhelming for the title. No one else seems to be there yet, but I know this is where it is.


I’m shopping for a blue vest in a small department store, even though I already have a few blue vests. The department store is in some kind of college, concrete archways and corridors.

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Dream Journal

Buddhist Dinner, Stark Girls, Bridge Near Waterfall

I’m sitting in a communal-style restaurant, part of a big group. Instructed on how to put out my right hand behind my back (in Buddhist fashion) to receive dinner from the monks who serve it. Meanwhile, when I try to help, I over-boil the spaghetti noodles, and have to do another batch.


Arya and Sansa Stark are having difficulties cooperating. Arya is thinking of moving out. There are three bookcases in the apartment alcove.


A new bridge is built a very close by the traditional-style Japanese house where I’m staying. It’s the only bridge for many miles on this river, and it’s just after a short waterfall, which acts as a weir.

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Mixtapes

Avantgarde Japan: The 80s

Songs from the renaissance of innovation felt in 1980s Japan. Featuring musical experiments by Haruomi Hosono, Midori Takada, Yasuaki Shimizu, World Standard, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, and many more.

  1. Yasuaki Shimizu – Tachikawa-Seiko 1-Shiseido-Honda (medley)
  2. Haruomi Hosono with Friends Of Earth – Non-Standard Mixture
  3. Miharu Koshi – Parallelisme
  4. Inoyama Land – Glass Chaim
  5. World Standard – My Low-Chuned Banjo
  6. Mariah – Hana Ga Saitara
  7. Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Primordial Germination
  8. Haruomi Hosono & Yellow Magic Band – Fuyiyama Mama
  9. Midori Takada & Masahiko Satoh – Nahm
  10. Mariah – Shinzo No Tobira
  11. World Standard – El Sur (South)
  12. Miharu Koshi – Capricious Salad
  13. Haruomi Hosono with Friends Of Earth – Alternative 3
  14. Yasuaki Shimizu – RICOH 2
  15. Midori Takada – Catastrope Σ
  16. OOIOO – Oizumio