Countryside photos

Communing with nature

An extremely active day was had yesterday, which saw me at the crack of dawn to go meet Joseph for our regular Sunday morning trot around the Imperial Palace, followed by a 3 hour hike through the mountains Tenkaku and Ootaka.
The hike wasn't really planned, but seeing as I was at home alone and what with my thinking recently regarding the importance of nature to the human body, it was a good opportunity to follow up on it. The trip out to the mountains took just over an hour, on the Seibu Ikebukuro line, which was spent reading a translated manga called "Death Note". It's a pretty good read, and questions human morality and the battle between good and bad. I got off the train at Higashi Agano, a wee little station nestled in a valley, surrounded by tree covered mountains. The first thing I noticed was how quiet it was, and how sweet the air was. The smell of freshly cut wood hung in the air, as there was a logging company just 5 minutes walk from the station, with about a hundred trees stacked on top of one another. I found the path which began the trail quite easily, and almost immediately was engulfed in forest, birdsong and a few stray butterflies that crossed my path. An involuntary smile creased my face, and with a deep breath I set off.
The hike was described as Moderate in the guide book I was using, although some of the steep inclines left me quite winded, and I was soon working up a good sweat. It wasn't until I reached the peak of Mt. Tenkaku that I met some people. As is usual when hiking in Japan, the party I met were made up of 10 or so retired men and women. They had come the opposite way to me, so that they were almost finished, having started out a lot earlier in the day (about the same time I was huffing around the palace). We bid farewell, and it wasn't until I was descending from Mt. Ootaka that I met another party, a couple in their 30s, also going in the opposite direction to me.
By the end I was pretty exhausted, but could only stand on the train back to Tokyo, as it was full of other hikers, the majority old, who were resting their weary feet. When I did eventually get a seat, I promptly fell asleep, and may even have snored a bit before jerking awake when we pulled into Shibuya. Walking home, surrounded by concrete and steel, I couldn't help muse about the stark contrast of surroundings I had experienced in one day, leaving me feeling stimulated but also tired enough to fall into a deep slumber soon after getting through my front door.

Jay the model

The man sees colours for numbers

I met an accountant recently, who told me that whenever he thinks of numbers or he sees numbers, each number is a colour or a combination of colours. I'd heard about this in a documentary I watched about the world record holder of reciting pi to about 30,000 digits. Fascinating. Also, he said that about 50% of the accountants that work in his company are ambi-dextrous, which was unexpected.

Starnge video but great song

Very strange but brill video and song by Devendra Banhart.

Lazy day and music exploration

Having a bit of a lazy day today, due to some client cancellations. I was going to be really active and go to the gym, but I think I overdid it a bit yesterday, so decided to take it easy.
Listening to Emiliana Torrini, who has such a beautiful voice, quite similar to Bjork, and Vampire Weekend, who are very cool.
Also began reading The Return of Merlin by Deepak Chopra, which although is about the whole Arthur, Camelot story, is very philosophical and questions the state of the world and society today. Here's a quote from the introduction:

"What society thinks of as reality today is the hypnosis of social conditioning, an induced fiction in which we are all participating. It is the melodrama of a humdrum existence, filled with trite obsessions and trivial pursuits, wherein our only fate is to born, grow old and die.
If we could only realize it, the keys to the miracle of life lie in our own consciousness.
Life will bestow miracles on us when we begin to see it as an expression of the miraculous. Life itself is a miracle. We are here and now - that is a miracle."

Never a truer word be spoken, and yet it's true, we seem to forget that this life we live in is pure miracle, and just about the most amazing thing to ever happen. I'm constantly weighed down by mundane thoughts and actions which in the grand scheme of things mean little, but seem to take on more significance than they deserve. Just free association here, but does this have anything to do with living in a city? Because a city is a human construct, artificial and unnatural. Does being within such a construct extinguish our inner flame and awareness of the miracle of life? Would living more in nature, near the sea, next to open ground and trees lead to a second awakening of our consciousness? Are we destroying what is beautiful and miraculous in order to satisfy "trite obsessions and trivial pursuits"?

Farewell Emi

We saw off Emi today, as she embarks on her big adventure in the land of the Kiwi and sheep. It's all very exciting, and both Miyu and I were wishing we were going too. Maybe we'll go visit her at some point over the next year - that'll be nice.
Miyu, Jay and Watanabe mum also returned to Fuskushima to go visit friends who have just this week given birth to a baby boy and girl. So, I'm in Tokyo by my self, and without any familial obligation I treated myself to a two hour session at the gym. A full round of weights, followed by 40 minutes aerobic workout. Felt fantastic! Think I'll finish the day off with a movie and then get an early night.

Photos from the day

Early morning run and filling up with fish

I felt particularly groggy this morning, having not had a very restful sleep. Not really sure why, but I was still able to get up at 6.30am and after glugging down a cup of extra strong coffee, didn't feel too bad. Meeting Jospeh at Nakameguro station, he didn't look too hot either (due to a cold), but after some lively conversation we felt good enough to trot around the palace once again. This time we noticed an English style red brick building, which was very grand and it surprised us both that we hadn't noticed it before. We finished off by stretching on some very soft, dew topped grass, which when I was lying down on, the juxtaposition of blue sky backdrop and Imperial trees was very calming and would have made an excellent photo.
BREAKING NEWS! There's just been a commotion outside at the mansion block next to ours. A fire engine and ambulance has just come blasting up the road, there's a strong smell of gas in the air, and the firefighters have just rushed out a small child and what I presume is the mother. Cor, it's all go here!
Anyway, back to my day. After returning home, I fed Jay and took him to the park, where we played with some giant frogs and threw a football around. Then back to home for a quick nap before heading out to Tsukiji to meet up with Miyu's mum for a slap up sushi feast, which included a whole crab miso soup. Delicious!

Recent pics

Autumn sunshine

Ahh, my favorite time of year. The sun is shining, the temp is in the mid-20s and the nights are cool. Ideal hiking weather, which I hope to do a little of soon.
Miyu's sister is staying with us for a couple of weeks b4 heading off to NZ for a Working Holiday, and she's a god-send. Jay loves her, she's a hairdresser so we're getting free snips and she does the washing up after dinner. Plus she's trying to cram in some last minute English learning, and I'm glad to be able to help out in that respect.
Jay is now pretty comfortable walking around, and he's discovered climbing. He loves to climb up on a dinner table chair after pushing it up to the sink, and help out with the washing up. The small things in life really are quite wonderful.
It's a Saturday night, and I've been out with my friend Jason, who turned 40 last week. He was looking for some advice in the love department, saying that he was wondering if it would be OK to ask out a 21 year old at a North Korean university...I tried not to laugh, and told him quite directly to steer well clear. Sometimes he he's quite childlike himself.
Looking forward to my regular Sunday morning run around the Imperial Palace tomorrow morning with Joseph. It's great to spend some time with my friend and share our thoughts on life, and it leaves me very energised for the rest of the day. The reason we're doing it is to be in in shape for next year's Tokyo Marathon, where we'll hopefully get a place in the 10k run (although we only have a 1 in 17 chance of getting placed, as it's so popular!) We've currently stuck to one lap of the palace, but we'll soon be working our way up to two laps, which will be 10k. The run itself is very easy, as it's very visually stimulating, and there are a horde of other runners racing around, even though it's 8am on a Sunday morning.
Work is going quite well. There was a bit of a lull in September, but it's again picking up and I'll probably be doing about 50 hours a week up until Xmas, which is good for the family coffers. It's also pleasing to see that my hard work there is paying off, in that I've build up a solid reputation, and my services are so in demand that the staff are fighting over getting me to take on their clients. It's also satisfying because this is what I visualized for myself two years ago when I got the job, and now it's been realized.
We're contemplating buying a house or flat, which is pretty exciting, and something that I'll feel very good about. A place to truly call our own, and to do with as we want. Ideally we'd like a garden, but it would mean moving further out, to somewhere like Kamakura. I do like urban living, but the prospect of all that space, really appeals, and I'm sure would greatly benefit Jay's development. Just got an image of a house up a hill, overlooking the ocean. Summertime and we're having a garden party with a group of friends. The bbq is sizzling, and we go and cool off with a swim in the sea. Ahh...