The anime series Azumanga Daioh has an episode devoted to the first dream of the year… the DVD liner notes say that Mt. Fuji, eggplants, and a particular type of hawk are all good omens in the first dream.

I don’t think I even slept on New Year’s Eve…

My new year’s dream was quite complicated. It was some kind of movie about a Muslim man who lived in Europe with his family, played by Denzel Washington. He had a wife played by Selma Hayek with whom he was fleeing to America to escape a French gang, who had murdered everyone in Denzel’s family over a business deal. They had befriended an elderly African mystic who had the power to transport your soul across time and space. So as Hayek was flying their small plane out of France, Denzel wished that he could be body transported just one more time to avenge his family’s death at the hands of the gang. Back on the ground, Denzel’s brother played by Tim Meadows was being killed at that very moment, when suddenly the mystic worked his magic and transported Denzel’s soul into Meadow’s body. Then began a huge gunfight in which all but one of the French gang members were killed. The gunfight was seen from a first person perspective from Denzel. The remaining one was a hillbilly racist man from the American South, who was pretending to be dead to trick Denzel/Tim. Denzel yelled out, “you can stop with that bullshit, I saw you moving!” The other guy says, “then why don’t you shoot me?” Denzel, out of ammo, picked up a spiral notebook and looked through the ring binder, pretending it was a scope. “Bang! Bang!” he shouted. The gang member realized he was out of ammo, and grabbed a pistol. The two men started running around the room, the gang member shooting at Denzel, Denzel desperately searching for a gun. Finding one, he approached for the final shots. The gang member managed to shoot Denzel in the head once, but Denzel answered with 3 bullets back into the hillbilly’s head. “Don’t you know,” Denzel said, “sometimes it takes up to three bullets in the head to kill someone.” Back on the plane after a body transport, Denzel talked to Selma, asking, “What will we do when we get to America?” Selma replied, “I’m trying to decide whether to be a good wife and stay at home or to have a career.” Denzel asked, “Which do you think will happen?” Selma answered, “Career,” and laughed. End of dream.

Aw, Ellen. I’m sorry you feel that way. This is a site devoted to things Japanese, and having grown up with both cultures, there are some things that really strike me as very Japanese — as in they remind me strongly of my mother and her family and things we do/did together that I could never do in the US. There are some things that one can only experience in a particular country and in that country’s context. And just for the record, I wouldn’t say that kamikaze pilots are particularly cool. In fact, my mother’s name is Kazuko, and you can imagine how annoying it has been to listen to people call her “Kamikaze” as a kind of joke. Definitely NOT funny.

Having said that, I will admit, I get very nostalgic for Japan this time of year, because New Year celebrations there are so unique and such a blast.

Duo — it sounds like you were chanelling Anakin Skywalker! Watch out.

Denzel and Salma in one dream almost sounds like too much.

Heh — good one, JP. And yes. Of course you are right!