March 4

Because I was switching hotels, I carried more luggage than intended to the Honda chapel.  The train took me right past the exhibition site and thus along familiar tracks. 

After church the congregation had a common lunch, so first all the chairs had to be removed, then all the tables set up, and finally the necessary chairs brought back out.  We had chicken curry, Japanese style, and I snagged one of the last table places at a table with Tim, Asami and her husband, Judith and Ayako, as far as I remember; Tomoko ate on the floor (not from the floor) rather than squeeze in at the table, but got herself a chair.  I gave mine up after a while, but instead of Emi sitting down at the table she joined her friends on the floor, except she had a chair. 

Later, for the second time, I ended up drafted for a staged photo for an upcoming brochure.  The thought that I as an irregular, infrequent visitor should end up in a brochure amuses me. 

Tomoko asked whether on these long business trips I pay rent at home and when I did she qualified it as “mottainai,” a regretful waste, and suggested housesitting for me when I’m gone.  I find that a good idea, and although Tomoko gets first dibs, if you’re traveling to Basel or looking for a cheap place to stay in Switzerland feel free to contact me.  Just leave a comment on this blog. 

After lunch, Ayako suggested going for a walk in a nearby park.  The Oyumino area is a planned development linked by continuous walkways that pass over or under roads and link all schools but one and most important administrative buildings as well as this park.  We walked past boys fishing for koi despite the prohibition sign a few meters further on, past a stream in which lilies will bloom come May or June, past paddies and through the woods, discussing Japan and being foreign and living abroad and dealing with having several cultures to call home.  When we got back to the vending machine, hot in our clothing more suited for the average early March temperatures and not the current warm spell, Ayako declared that not being outside in the sun would have been “mottainai,” cementing the word in.  Slowly, one by one, my vocabulary grows. 

We walked along one of the roads to the area where Ayako lives and passed two blooming cherry trees – I mean cherry trees in bloom – on the way.  It was a good day for flower photography and I was glad that for the most time Ayako and Judith were able to keep each other company while I tried to frame my shots.  I’m starting to get annoyed at the broken autofocus on my telefocus lens – trying to get it right manually eats up a lot of time. 

Judith dropped me off at the train station and I headed to Chiba to check in.  After dropping off my luggage, I walked to Paseos, my preferred purveyor of toe socks, and got three pair of “Super Salaryman Men’s Socks For Business.”  Because it was so warm, I stopped at Starbucks, one of the few places with outside seating, and sipped a tea in the balmy evening breeze, watching the cars pull in and out of the paternoster car parking opposite, and the modded old buicks cruise past, the rear three inches lower and the front four inches higher.  Despite the faceless corrugated white front of the many-storied car park across the road I enjoyed just sitting there, which to me illustrates how one minute the soul-crushing painful jumble that is Japanese urban architecture will make me certain never to want to live there and the next minute some redeeming quality – a beautiful garden or even just pleasant weather – will erase that certainty.