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  Tokyo, Japan
Friday, October 6, 2006

When I'm on the road, I'm usually able to churn out an entry a day, sometimes more, provided I have internet access. Of course, now that I'm staying put, have few commitments and internet at home, I get lazy and/or overwhelmed. I didn't do anything really interesting these past few days or There's so much to write about, but I'd rather go by theme, to at least have cohesive entries or If I write about that I have to put pictures up but I don't really feel like going through them now and the picture I really wanted to post turned out blurry.

What have I been up to? Getting used to things, exploring, buying and making pretty things. The apartment is all set up; all that's left to do is organise the kitchen cupboards, but that's G's job, seeing as how he's the Head Chef. Someone from the moving company is to drop by this afternoon and pick up the empty boxes.

Bubble Man revisited

The cough I've had for the past three weeks is finally on its way out. It was probably due to a combination of factors, most notably the pollution, living with AC and the drastic change in temperature that hit us about four weeks ago. Before that, rain or shine, the air had been hot and muggy, like walking into a bathroom where someone's been having a really hot shower for fifteen minutes. Then, one morning, it was actually chilly, chilly enough for me to wear a jacket! Since then, while it hasn't ever been really chilly again, there's been quite a bit of rain (it's pouring rain right now, in fact, as it was last night), even more overcast days and the heat, when it's sunny, is not as exhausting. Personally, I liked the always-hot-and-humid better, as it was very predictable and easier on my lungs.

An offshoot of the horrible cough is that for the past two weeks, I haven't been to my aikido classes. The classes are offered through the Embassy and take place right next door, in the squash court. Yes, the very same squash court on which Prince Takamado played just before suffering a fatal heart attack in 2002. Anyway, the first few classes were very hard on my body, as I'd never before done any kind of martial art. Not only do you have to learn to move with another person (aikido involves judo-like holds as well as working with wooden swords) but I had to learn how to do a somersault all over again, because it had been so long my body didn't really remember how. Once I got the hang of it, I dove into it perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, throwing myself around with glee. But I paid for it in aches and bruises the next day and the days after that. Oh, I paid!

And now for some random observations:

For anyone distressed by the lack of garbage cans on city streets, there's a simple solution: find a convenience store

Cat!

. That's where the garbage cans are. And finding a convenience store shouldn't be too difficult, as there seems to be one every block or so. Sometimes two on the same block, practically neighbours. The main chains are AM-PM, Family Mart, Sunkus, Lawson's and 7-Eleven, though I haven't seen very many of those around where we live. Here, it's mainly AM-PM.

G and I regularly receive e-mails notifying us of events for Embassy staff or the diplomatic community in general. We were quite amused by a notice about an equestrian event to take place at the Imperial Family's farm, which extended an invitation to members of the diplomatic corps and their "unmarried daughters over 18 years of age". We laughed about the "matchmaking event of the season", but it turns out that the reasoning behind this is that if you leave your unmarried daughter at home, unsupervised, think of the trouble she could get into! Apparently, events involving the Imperial Family keep up this tradition. Our reaction was, "If you don't want your daughter to get in trouble, don't show her off in public where she could meet someone to get in trouble with!"

For some reason, I've been attractive to dragonflies this summer, at least as a landing pad. Twice at Lac Philippe and once more the other day. I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when I noticed a large, reddish dragonfly coming right at me! I dodged, but it corrected its flight path and continued on toward my face. I raised my hand, not sure whether to brush it away (it was very large) or try to dodge again, but before I could do either one, it landed on my hand and ate the fly it had caught. I guess it wanted to sit down for a light snack and I was the nearest piece of real estate.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Cat! Again!	Cleaning up	Cute!	Dragonfly
Eh?	Golf	Lunch	Puffy
Refreshing	Sushi - G	Sushi - plates

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