Entry for September 7, 2006

"Mukashi mukashi, aru tokoro ni kabocha no ohimesama ga imashita."

Once upon a time, there was a Pumpkin Princess.

Once upon a time, there was a Pumpkin Princess and she lived in a Pumpkin Palace with her Pumpkin Mommy and her Pumpkin Daddy. And every day she would take a ride in the Pumkin Prius to the Pumpkin Day Care. Then she would come home and take a Pumpkin Bath and wear the most beautiful Pumpkin Dresses and drink the finest breast milk.

One day, she took an extra special Pumkin Bath and put on her extra special Pumpkin Dress and went to the Royal Pumkin Ball. There, she met the handsome Pumpkin Prince. The Pumpkin Prince took one look at the Pumpkin Princess and fell madly in love with her. He said to her, "Pumpkin Princess, will you marry me? You will live with me in my Pumpkin Palace with my Pumpkin Subjects. Your wish will be their command! You will wear the most beautiful Pumpkin Dresses, and we shall take a ride in my Pumpkin Porche and go to Disneyland together."

And the Pumpkin Princess replied, "I am an independent woman of the 21st century, so I prefer to do everything for myself, so I have absolutely no use for Pumpkin Subjects. I already live in a Pumpkin Palace and wear the most beautiful Pumkin Dresses. A Pumpkin Porche isn't very fuel efficient, plus it has a high CO2 emission rate, plus, what ever happened to supporting domestic industry? I don't need to marry you!"

So the Pumpkin Prince went home alone. And the Pumpkin Princess went home and said to her Pumpkin Mommy, "You know, if he'd said something about how I could use my beauty and intelligence to help international understanding and science and industry and health care and welfare, he might have got somewhere."

And the Pumpkin Princess thought for a moment and said, "you know, that's what the Crown Prince of Japan said to Princess Masako, and look where that's got her..."

So the Pumpkin Princess did not marry the Pumpkin Prince. Instead, she went to the Pumpkin Day Care and the Pumpkin Elementary School and the Pumpkin Middle School and the Pumpkin High School and the Pumpkin University and the Pumpkin Graduate School and used her beauty and intelligence to help world peace and science and industry and health care and welfare, and the Pumpkin Mommy and the Pumpkin Daddy paid off the mortgage to the Pumpkin Palace, and everyone lived happily ever after.

So the baby that may become the Emperor of Japan one of these days is a year younger than the Pumpkin Princess. I was kind of hoping the baby would be a girl, so that the discussion about a female Emperor would continue and to off on a tangent on the social status (or lack thereof) of women in Japan or something. Now, you just know that the discussion is going to wane and the crown will eventually go to this new prince.