Good morning and ohisashiburi.  To ruin the gist of this chapter of the story, nothing particularly extraordinary, for example me learning to surf, do wheelies on my motorcycle (500+ km so far) or, for that matter, learn more Japanese, has occurred in the last two or so months.  That said there have been innumerable moments of joy, sadness, confusion and speculation, a few of which I would like to share. 

After rolling out of my futon this morning and eating my near ritualistic two-eggs-and-toast breakfast, I hopped on the good old ubiquitous-gray-Japanese bicycle and headed to work with a renewed optimism and zest for life.  Or perhaps it was the fact that going outside meant being in a warmer place than my house.  The weather has been steadily getting colder, despite repeated comments by my coworkers that this fall has been unseasonably warm.  Maybe in your house it has been, I reply.  No snow yet, but snowboard mode is kicking in and I’m working on a couple of trips to Nagano and maybe Hokkaido in January and February.  That said I am thankful for the ability to be outside longer in the season and I’ve finally realized the benefits of daylight savings time, which they do not celebrate here and thus leaves me with only 45 minutes of fading light after work with which to work on the garden, climb the local hill, or motor around with comparatively high visibility.  The roaches in my kitchen have given way to slugs and I now have named the rooms in my house according to their flavor of mildew-scent.  Well, it builds character, I remind myself when the neighborhood P.A. system awakens me at 7am (probably on a Sunday) with news of some local flea market, 106-year-old finally kicking the bucket, or suspicious persons –unintelligible “white” unintelligible- seen near the elementary school across my house.  What I can’t understand is whether they’re talking about a white truck with said persons or just white people.  Ah, let’s enjoying wake up early with me!

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