Sybaritic Diversions

…and, seriously, I can’t think of anything better.

In the first several years of my writing career, around the time I was still trying to find a way to break into the Japanese animation biz, I found myself nibbling through a variety of Japanese sweets available at the corner mini-mart.  Most were from Meiji: tiny 1960s spacecraft-shaped Apollo in blueberry or strawberry, grinning Choco Baby pellets in their clear, plastic container, Black Chocolate that was rather sinister in its richness, Hi-Milk chocolate bars in their cheeky red boxes, and Almond Chocoballs that were seriously irresistable.  I nibbled them then, and I still nibble through them now whenever I feel the need for something sweet to lift my flagging spirits.

…but no, I wasn’t referring to Takafumi from the previous entry when I said I wanted to talk about Japanese sweets.  I meant real Japanese sweets, everything from mochi to crisp Pocky sticks coated with subtly sweet chocolate.

I spent the better part of elementary school munching through California Bars, almond and crisped rice-filled milk chocolate bars that were certainly less sweet than the Hershey bars and Rowntree Kit-Kats my kid brother and I were used to.  Of course, my mother had the upper hand as to when this magnificent treat could be dispensed to us, but I think that’s what made them all worthwhile.

When I grew up and found myself stuck amongs anime fanboys for the basic reason that I wanted in on the animation biz, I had my first taste of Pocky from a Japanese grocery in Park Square I.  (It was the Baby Choco kind, as I recall, the miniature version of the regular chocolate-coated sticks.)  In the end, I found myself with a predilection for the richer, more sophisticated seeming flavors like the extremely dark chocolate Men’s Pocky, the fragrant Royal Milk Tea Pocky infused with the bergamot aroma of Earl Gray tea, and the slightly bitter but oh-so-aromatic Green Tea Mousse Pocky whose thick coating was like silk on my tongue. 

Quite recently, just before I emptied my desk drawers and shook the dust of the JICA Philippine Office off my ballerina flats, a Japanese officemate of mine (the lovely Ms. Haruko Kase, to be exact) gave me a taste of the seasonal sakura-mochi (cherry blossom dumpling) Pocky.  Just in time for cherry blossom season, it consisted of the usual sticks covered with pink-tinged white chocolate and bits of an, sweetened red bean paste.  The three of us in the cluster at the time - me, Takafumi-sama, and our then-boss Takizawa-kaichou - all raised our eyebrows at this little surprise.  But we all thought it was pretty good; not too sweet and they really did smell like cherry blossoms!  [Note:  Heck, it was lots better than those Kabaya Ume Pretzels someone brought to the office.  Think about it: sour crackers dusted all over with dehydrated and pulverized pickled plums.  Ick in a major way...]

Incidentally, if there wasn’t any Glico Pocky in sight, Meiji Fran - a fairly popular rip-off of the chocolate-on-a-cookie-stick format - would do in a pinch.  Just be sure it’s Fran Noir: dark chocolate on a dark chocolate biscuit.  Anything else just won’t do.

However, if there’s one treat that I can’t stop eating it would have to be Tohato Caramel Corn - and there’s a reason why I ended up with this odd addiction.  I blame Takafumi-sama for it, by the way.  He went home to Japan and stayed there for the better part of December of last year.  When he came back, he went over to me and handed me a small red bag with a grinning face with a Santa Claus beard and a sprig of holly printed on it.

Takafumi:     Eh, Midge-san.  Here: Japanese merienda.

Of course, I raised my eyebrows at this.  (I wasn’t expecting him to remember that I existed.)  I  thanked him anyway.  I didn’t get to open the bag until about a couple weeks later - and I found myself munching through those caramel corn curls non-stop.  I tried to leave some for my kid sister and she loved them at first sight, er, taste.  Since then, I’ve been popping into the Japanese food sections of my favorite supermarkets for this little treat.  (You really ought to try them.  But, as with Pringle’s Potato Crisps, once you pop, you can’t stop!)  I prefer the toastier-tasting almond variant, but it’s the regular ones in their grinning red bag that make me remember a most unusual day and an even more unusual guy.  (Yeah, I’ll share my stash with you.  But, I swear to God, if you touch those peanuts - or almonds - at the bottom of the bag, I have the right to bash your skull open!)

More tomorrow…

If there are three things I miss more than anything in this world ever since my contract at the Japan International Cooperation Agency ended last month, they would be the security I felt whilst I was working, the scent of green tea wafting about the section, and the sight of a well-missed colleague of mine in the mornings.  (Aforementioned colleague pictured above.) 

Trust me, it’s been a very depressing month since I left JICA and I am still reeling from the shock and the pain.  The unconfirmed "fact" that Takafumi-san was part of the reason for my sudden dismissal makes it all the more painful.

All I can do at this point in time is wait for news about my next job (Should find an answer to that by the end of the week.) and just hope that Takafumi-san will see the error of his ways and see that I’m actually a pretty nice person.  Of course, I’m not holding my breath for that one, seeing how Mr. I-refuse-to-comb-my-hair-as-I-look-really-cool-uncombed can be absolutely clueless, helpless, and totally hapless where women with very strong personalities [like me] are concerned.

In the meantime, I think I’ll go have a cup of green tea.  Ah, c’est la vie…

If there is any season I deplore more than anything in the world, it has to be summer.  I was born in the fall and hot weather has a decidedly negative impact on my temper.  As a result, I would rather stay indoors with a tall glass of something cold and utterly refreshing rather than have my skin toasted to a crisp outside.

You’d probably like this little recipe I tried out last summer:

At this point in my life, I can say that I’ve lived through the reigns of three Popes.  I was born in the twilight years of Paul VI, the first prelate who tried to reach out to the world by actually going outside the Vatican.  Then there was the Patriarch of Venice, Albino Luciano, who was voted in as John Paul I by the conclave convened after Paul VI’s death.  Unfortunately for the former Patriarch, his reign lasted a mere thirty-three days.

For the past couple of decades, however, my life and that of the entire Roman Catholic Church has been lived under the reign of the former Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, who in October 1978 emerged as the dark horse in the conclave following the death of John Paul I.  He took the name John Paul II in memory of the predecessor who barely had the time to make a difference in the Church.  It was - and will always be - a name larger than life.

I saw the Holy Father in the flesh twice in my life.  The first time was towards the end of April 1984 when, on a tour of Europe with my maternal grandparents, I saw His Holiness blessing the people from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.  When you’re barely eight years old, personalities don’t really matter unless they’re cartoon characters.  This one, however, was different.  What I saw was a very kind-looking old man waving to the people below.  Back then, I didn’t know that the quality he presented to me and to the adoring crowd below was called charisma.

The second time I saw the Pope was when he came to Manila in 1995 for World Youth Day.  The memory is bittersweet since I was the one who reminded our University chaplain to pick out delegates for WYD but was the one shunted out of the pack.  But I got a better deal than the kids who got picked in the end.  Crowds had gathered along EDSA since His Holiness was to address the Filipino clergy at the San Carlos Major Seminary.  When you have a seminarian for a brother - in this case, Jeff was in high school at the nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary - it’s pretty easy to score a front row seat to see the Pope pass by, mainly because your father’s SUV’s parked on the grounds!  It was thrilling to see His Holiness, a whole decade older now, aboard his Pope-mobile.  He looked tired, having presided over the WYD festivities the night before, but you could see that he was still up and running.  (If he ever gets canonized, John Paul II will most probably be the patron saint of workaholics!) And the charisma was stronger than ever.

Having worked with the mass media for the past twelve years, I have yet to meet anyone, be they clerics, politicians, or celebrities, who can match the media savvy of John Paul II.  (Save perhaps for Fr. Patrick Peyton of the Family Rosary Crusade, I guess.)  He had none of the sugar-coated hypocrisy many media-hogs have tried to shove down the throats of the global audience, but had instead a fiery zeal that was most infectious.  You didn’t really have to accept what he had to say (and most liberals turned up their noses at his conservatism), but you had to admire the man for having the guts to speak up, the moxie to grab people’s attention, and the faith to keep on going long after old age and its attendant infirmities finally got to him. 

Moreover, you have to admire someone who openly flouted today’s emphasis on and obsession with youth to grow old gracefully and to die on his own terms, in God’s own time.  Some hours before he died, he dictated a message for the people - for the whole world that sat beside him as he lay on his deathbed:

I am happy and you should be happy, too.  Let us all pray together with joy.

JP II, we love you - and we always will.

Habemus papam!  (We have a new Pope!)

Yes, I know that it’s a pretty odd topic to start one’s blog with, but I’m a Roman Catholic.  Lukewarm, yes, but I am proud of my heritage.  That’s over 2,000 years of history we’re looking at here!

Habemus papam!  And His Holiness was but recently known as Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, the Dean of the College of Cardinals.  If you were glued to the tube for the past couple of weeks, you’d remember him as the dour-faced, white-haired cardinal who presided over the funeral Mass for His Holiness, the great Pope John Paul II.  I think the fact that Jorge Cardinal Estevez Medina was the one who made the announcement instead of the current Camerlengo (Papal High Chamberlain) or even the then-current Dean of the College of Cardinals should have been the first hint we got that Cardinal Ratzinger had been voted primus inter pares - First amongst Equals.

My dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, my brother cardinals have elected me, a humble and simple laborer in Our Lord’s vineyard.

These were the first words addressed to the people by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI in his Urbi et Orbi (To the City and to the World) address around 1:00 AM (GMT +8) this morning. 

I think I’m going to have profound respect for this particular Pontiff.  Having grown up with my younger brother studying to become a priest has, despite my own lukewarm faith, opened my mind to the inner workings of the Church.  I’ve read some of the books written by the new Holy Father in the years when he headed John Paul II’s doctrinal brigade.  He’s godawful conservative, but that - in itself - may be a great source of comfort in a Church that has been victimized by the onslaught of liberalism.

Don’t get me wrong here, though.  I remain a dedicated liberal and a staunch non-conformist.  I do not agree with the Vatican’s stance on contraception and population control.  However, I am one with the Roman Curia in its abhorrence of divorce, abortion, and the glorification of sex, violence, and materialism in the modern world.  While I proudly consider myself a feminist, I agree with the conservatives that this is not the time to ordain women into the clergy.  There are far too many variables to consider and issues to resolve regarding the matter.  And, while I count a lot of gay people among my friends, I agree with the Church’s stance against homosexuality among the clergy.

Benedict XVI is not going to have the easiest papacy by all accounts, but what Pope has ever had it easy?  I hope that he will continue the programs and doctrines initiated by John Paul the Great and that he will share our dearly departed and much-missed Holy Father’s rapport with the youth.

A short prayer:  Heavenly Father, please guide Pope Benedict XVI as he begins his reign as the 265th prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.  May You grant His Holiness the wisdom and the strength to face myriad challenges even as You granted such gifts to his predecessor, John Paul II, during his lifetime.  We ask our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede for the Holy Father’s intentions and for the intentions of all Your children, the flock now entrusted to his care.  We ask all this through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit forever and ever.  Amen.

Servant of God, John Paul II: pray for us.