...okay, as if the massive earthquakes recently aren't enough, it has to be cold enough to see my breath today? I'm anything but impressed at the weather conditions, but liking the brilliant pink flowers lining all the hedges in town - they're gorgeous! I haven't been lucky (?) enough to be gifted with one yet, but they make the blur that is bicycling to school
as fast as possible because there are three minutes until the bell goes and I'm supposed to be the grownup here just that bit brighter.
If you hadn't figured it out by now, I kind of have this ongoing love affair with spring.
It's not just the rebirth/new life tropes, nor the fact that my birthday's on the cusp of winterspring, nor the fact that the vampire-days are past (no more going home in the dark when it's 4 PM!)... ah, sunshine. Yeah, maybe I
was a plant in a past life. ^_~
It must have been a good life, 'cause I sure moved up on the chain.
...okay, muse and myth and allusion aside, it
has been a good life, lately. The Malaysia/Singapore trip was amazing - relaxing and challenging all at once. Not least was that I tried snorkelling! Diving into open water with some flimsy Technicolour chunks of rubber and an adapted ski mask and saying "go! have fun! breathe!" ... well, okay, I flailed at first. Large bodies of water and I have a history. But I quickly grew to love the new perception that said adapted ski mask granted me, and wished there could have been more time for it!)
Coming back to Japan each time is different - this was one of the more jarring reunions, and yet I could say "ah, home..." with only the tiniest of smirks. It
is home; it's like the song goes;
...this could be the very moment i'm aware i'm alive
all these places feel like home
with a name i've never chosen
i could make my first steps......and so it's not a perfect fit - I'm not yet twenty-five, not least - but I've liked the tonality of "chocolate" for years.
Ibaraki - for all its quirks - has become home. It's still definitely a place that sets my head to spinning, but seeing past the prettiness of a place and still letting it claim a corner of your heart (or head, or pocketbook, or all three) is to me a key part of making something a home, not just a place. Looking twice.
That was an idea that worked at the street performers' festival that I ended up at last Saturday. At first, the rain and
cold lent the streets an almost-dirge-like sobriety; certainly not the regular mood at any Japanese festival I'd ever attended! Still, as the three of us became six became four and lights winked on, unsurprisingly, the best performers emerged.
Living statues and steampunk stiltsmen and gorgeous firedancers and comical dancers... masks and hashi twirled (around faces, around yakisoba)... oh, we were freezing, and it took until half-past-midnight for my toes to feel normal again. But smiles grew as we searched for the troubadour duo from earlier. With a wink and a laugh we became part of their act, two of our number dancing to the accordionist's tune, her dancer weaving his way around them and playing the smaller, warmer, collegiate crowd. By day there was separation - by night we all became a little bit of a spectacle. A bit of a wonder.
And
then quiet talk and laughter and thought over oolong tea and the (second!) best risotto I've had in Japan... oh, it was an unexpected day, but a good one.
This week is going far too quickly; hard to believe I only have two days of classes left; that I have only ten weeks - ten weeks! - of classes left; two more to travel, then on a plane and back to Canada.
HOLY MAN.
So maybe it's like the other song goes;
laying in bed tonight i was thinking and i was listening
to all the dogs, and the sirens, and the shots
and how a careful man tries to dodge the bullets
while a happy man takes a walk
and maybe it's time to live.
... p.s.: you rock my world, you know. ♥
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