Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
So what do Japanese go look at after cherry blossoms, once the weather actually gets nice? My house told me—an azalea bush (tsutsuji) near the driveway burst into miniature pink blossoms this week. Kawaii! Last year at this time I was back in Texas as my sis planned for her and Justin’s Big Day, so…
WHAT could she have been thinking!??! Purple pom-pom hat, striped MC Hammer pants, green and purple polka-dot sweatshirt (should be outlawed on its own), bleached platinum hair, plaid suitcase?! My weekend was like this outfit in that you’re not quite sure what season it’s for, whether it’s ironic or in earnest, whether it’s cheerful, whether…
I peered out the fourth story window of my Thursday morning English class. I’d written a short conversation on the board for my oldest and most-beginner students, a very sweet elderly couple. They were running late, of course, because of the rain. The temperature dropped about 40 degrees F overnight and a constant, driving wind…
This week brought two—TWO!!—warm, sunny days!! It’s supposed to rain the rest of the week, but like I told my friend Chrissy on a bizarrely beautiful day in early March, “Acknowledging that it will be cold/rainy/crappy again helps me enjoy today’s weather without interpreting it as a promise for continued nice weather. Then instead of…
I started this post this weekend when it was freakishly cold (think: sleet—yuk!). I’d somehow developed another nasty cold of my own and Chris wasn’t due back from his California training for days. He was able to call me for the first time since I’ve been back to tell me he’d returned to San Diego…
Standing the the sunshine watching birds soar overhead is delightful. Standing in the sunshine atop a crumbling cliff with a rainbow of hang gliders and parasailors floating overhead is downright glorious. My folks brought me here last October after showing me around UCSD across the street—I like seeing their old haunts. Chris had never been…
First weekend back in Japan! What to do…what to do….How about kicking it off with a delightful little tea party along the Hikichigawa? The kitties were not happy to be left inside on this lovely day. Sorry cats. “YOU’LL be sorry!” they were probably thinking. At one point over the weekend I left the window…
