Spring

Well, it's the time of year that I am continuously going AWOL. Happens every Spring and Fall.

My friends and family on the other side of the world stop hearing from me for extended periods. In the Fall it happens after school resumes - projects that were put off all summer long are picked back up, the thermometer falls below 100 and we slowly creep back outside to enjoy the last hurrah of Summer...

But in the Spring...In the Spring it's the weather. It's been gorgeous here for the last couple of weeks. For a moment in Time each Spring and Fall, Tokyo feels like San Diego - blue skies, a warm breeze, birds chirping, and the whine of a lawnmower off in the distance. That is my idea of Heaven. Before the typhoons rage, the humidity cuts out oxygen, and the legions of mosquitoes appear, families are playing at the park, couples are riding bikes, Moms are walking babies, runners are lurking around every corner.

This is the Time of Year to enjoy just Being.

Short and Boring

Went to the gym today, for the 2nd day in a row, and I realized it had been a month since I had been there. But I did walk a lot when my mom was here - I should have been tracking those miles...oh, well, too late now. Live and learn.

My throat is killing me, and my neck and ears are starting to hurt. Allergies? Or strep. I'm starting to get nervous. It really hurts. But my eyes have been scratchy for about a week now. The pollen is REALLY flying about out there. My car even has a green haze over it.

My house is still a mess. The weather has been beautiful and I simply don't want to stay in and clean. Any day now, the rainy season will start, and we won't be outside much at all. So for now, it's play outside and do the bare minimum. Later I can deep clean.

Time for bed.

Baby Steps

For heaven's SAKES, it's been a long time.

Partly because I've been so busy doing silly, mindless, chore-like things that would be very difficult to turn into an amusing story, and partly because it's been so long since I wrote anything down that I don't hardly even know where to start.

Mom left last Thursday (the 14th). It was a very, very, sad day, but not as sad as the partings over the last 4 years. This time I know I will be back in The States soon, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. We spent her last week here doing low-key things, but still, it seems like the time just flew by and we didn't get to savor it.

Since then, I have been busy catching up on the things one neglects for 2 weeks while guests are in town. Top o' that list...Dust Bunnies. The hair, dog fur and dust congregate here at an alarming rate. They congregate and then retreat into the shadows, organizing, until it is too late, and they have the upper hand. They have some sort of early warning system, and when they see me coming, retreat further, where my Swiffer cannot reach, until I turn my back and then, there they are again! Where I have just swept!

My Dust Bunnies are mocking me.

Next, I raise the stakes to the vacuum...

Also, laundry. The laundry you don't bother to do during vacation. Bath mats, sheets, hand towels, floor rugs...stuff that takes half-a-day to dry. That explains a couple days, right there.

Balancing the checkbook.

Who am I kidding??? I haven't done that yet. Soon though. Maybe tomorrow.

Right now I have to get to Yoga.

"Baby steps".

My motto for the week.

False Advertising in Kyoto

We're having a great time with Mom so far. Mom, Noodle, Dillon and I went to Hakone last Monday and rode 2 Gondolas, ate some black hard-boiled eggs, cooked in the sulfur springs, took a pirate-ship ride on a big-ole-boat on Lake Ashino and then had a Japanese lunch, which Mom and Noodle were less than impressed with. And D'’s gratin had whole baby fish. Heads and all. Before I realized this, I was planning on sharing with him. Ick. But he ate it anyway, because fish brains and eyeballs don'’t bother him as much as I. On the way home, we stopped at the Glass Museum, which at first seemed like a bust, but ended up being really cool. It was in a building that looked like a castle and we want to move there. You are invited to visit whenever you want. AND, they had a tree there, the trunk of which was made out of silver wire, the leaves of crystal. They shimmered in the sun and we were mesmerized. We didn'’t want to leave.– You know how we like sparkly things..

And then Tuesday we (me, Mom and Noodle) left on the Bullet Train for a girls get-away in Kyoto. That afternoon, we walked around the Gion District, where the few remaining Geisha live. We didn'’t see any. But the row houses were fascinating. They were made all of wood and sat, literally, 6 inches off the narrow streets. We also visited the Food Market and sampled lots of "“weird stuff"”. We bought some pickled cucumber, but then forgot it in our hotel fridge. Bummer.

Mom says our hotel beds were for midgets, but thinks that might not be very nice. So, "“Dwarfs"”, she says instead. (Rolling on the floor, laughing out loud, I am!) And our pillows were made of beans. They sucked and our necks are sore.

Wednesday, we took a 10-hour tour of Kyoto and Nara. We were so wiped out that we fell asleep at 8pm last night (despite the midget-beds and crunchy-pillows). Kyoto talks it up big about their stuff being really old, but it turns out, its really not that old, after the countless fires and rebuilding of the city. For example, the big Buddha at Nara -– his legs are 1200 years old, but then there was a fire and most of his body melted. So 800 years ago, they recast his body and head. Then, there was another fire, and his head melted off. So they remade it out of wood. Then, the wood rotted and his head fell off again. Apparently, they didn'’t have any money, so he sat outside, headless, for 400 years until they could recast his head out of bronze. His head is ONLY 300 years old. We were not so impressed.

Also, Mom walked in on 2 Japanese men standing at urinals. She was not so impressed.

Then our train didn't leave until 3:30 this afternoon so we had some time to mosey around a bit more. We checked out a temple (Which, of course, wasn'’t as old as they'’re spouting off either -– it was barely 100 years old, after the fires and all. Big deal. Mom grew up in a house older than THAT!!!) and then we walked through a beautiful, tiny garden, tucked away behind a stone wall, about 5 blocks from Kyoto Station. Then we stopped for a Starbucks and a quick stroll through the Gap before heading back home, again on the Bullet Train (which, by the way, is really cool!).

Now it'’s 10:38 Thursday night, and time for bed. We posted a new album of our visit. Check it out if you want.

Mom & Happy Hour (In That Order.)

My Mama comes tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!

Cara came over tonight with 2 beers to get us started, and hung out with us, talking for a couple hours, and it was nice. I love her.

I'm going to bed now because Noodle and I (Dillon got a reprive due to the expensive nature of the Narita Express) have a loooooooooooooooooong trip to and from the airport tomorrow.