Almost no matter where we have been in the city, pictures and ads pop up that are of interest to the anime lover. Julia has asked me to take quite a few pictures. I had also read that everything in Tokyo has a face and a cuteness and we see that all the time. Drawings in ketchup on an omelet and pastry named after pets. All of this without going into the heavy anime sections of the city. Here are a few.
Breakfast at Higurashi Garden, bakery with a book store behind it.
It was delicious. The little dog was full of chocolate, made and named in honor of the owner’s dog, and the eggplant tart was to die for. Plus ice coffee for me and fresh lemonade for Julia and Ed. We are ready to explore.
Our first beer and snacks after a very long travel day. It was a long travel day; however, it was also relative smooth going.
Friday. Sheets of rain are falling outside my living room window. Julia is in New Hampshire at sleep-away camp and I am so glad I packed some warm clothes, her rain jacket and a long poncho for her!
I has been lovely being a grown up for the week. I’ve not really cooked a single meal—lots of breakfasts out and left over freezer stuff popped into the microwave. I’ve eaten supper at 10 at night when I finished my work, and I’ve written long overdue emails although I’ve just gotten to a few today that I thought I’d write a few days ago.
I’ve printed out about half the memoir pieces I’ve written and pinned them up on a wall in my study with the hope of finding some order for them. Right now, the pieces are in rows but I am imagining changing that to be a winding path up the office wall. Pretty appropriate considering my story—absolutely no straight lines!
I’ve booked places to stay in Tokyo and the first week in Hanoi. I need to get serious about making notes of places we can visit and restaurants we can go to.
The rain, as quickly as it began, has abruptly stopped. And for a moment there is a breeze.
This weekend is FanExpo 2023 (formally known as Comicon). On Friday evening, Julia wore fetching a new Jedi uniform. We walked around the Expo taking in the sights, posing as part of the Jedi attendees and sitting in on a few panels. The last one about the Kawaii culture of Japan—a topic that may be useful in another few weeks.
We worked the Expo on Saturday. Last year, Julia was placed as a room monitor on a very slow floor. There were panels every hour but there were only 30-40 people who came to any one of them. It made for a pleasant 2 days of work that Julia could actually handle pretty well by Sunday. This year there are less panel rooms and we are on a busy hall of three panel rooms. We are two of six people working the rooms and sometimes it was too much for Julia. Still, she was willing and relatively focused. She gave some wrong directions when asked but I’m sure she is not the only one doing that.
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Nothing like falling into a place. And entire world whose comfort is undeniable. How long has it been since this has happened to me?
Maybe forever.
I credit today to the slow recovery from Covid. Both Julia and I tested negative this morning—she probably would have tested negative days ago. And me too, probably, but I waited. It didn’t matter to wait. We were being very careful—masks and going to very few places. And it was well past our quarantine time.
But anyway, this morning I woke up, still coughing but otherwise restless. It was and is a dreary almost-spring day. 45 degrees, rain with shades of gray above. My upstairs neighbor had planted daffodils around the house that are waving their yellow heads and the Covid fog, which I hadn’t realized I had, is beginning to clear. (I guess it could be late winter foggy head or old lady fogginess but I’m blaming Covid today.)
“There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.”
Parker Palmer posted these lines From Blossoms, by Li-Young Lee.
The words break me open. I could almost feel the crack and see the light shining through. I have lived for so so long as if death paid calls and demanded I serve him tea, as if death watercolored the garden backdrop and asked for a critique. I have grown comfortable with his presence, or at least, I have stopped fighting or fleeing from his penumbra.
I have grown use to the absence of joy that comes from inside me. I have manufactured joy, have siphoned off just a little joy from those engulfed in it. It is second hand and yet, I have been grateful for the taste of it. I have needed to chase and catch it if I was to feel any of it at all.
And then, all of a sudden, my heart is in my throat, I am prepared to tremble in anticipation, I am singing all day.
“from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.”
This is a silly collection of pictures although I wish I had taken even more pictures. There were many, many sconce designs in every cottage and I became intrigued by them!
Chasing Joy 