Waiting for an old friend to arrive has to be one of life’s most maddening tasks, and if it doesn’t actually hold the top spot, it’s at least in the top 3. Picture someone you haven’t seen in 11 months, someone close, someone who always picks you up when you’re feeling down. You get the phone call, they’re coming to visit sometime in the next couple of weeks, details later man. For nights on end you’re awake for longer than you should be, mind racing through hundreds of memories. And every time it seems you ask yourself the same questions; will it be like it was before? Have they changed? Have I?
Well this year my old bosom buddy, bringer of chlorophyll-infused motivation spikes, has hit a delay somewhere. Spring’s been held up, what gives?!?! It's as if even Father Time's been affected by a grease ration and the inhabitants of Eastern Asia will simply have to endure a roughly gnashing transition this year. A little perspective; as of this week Tokyo's averaging 6 degrees below the normal temperature from years past (that's in Fahrenheit, but for all you logically-minded metricites out there it's about 4 degrees of difference at the current temperatures).
Almost religiously the end of February finds me sitting eagerly stooped, like a 6 year old on Christmas Eve thinking the morrow’s morning couldn’t possibly come soon enough. I wait, and I wait, and I wait some more, and just when I’m about to give up on it all the warm light seeps in and hits me like a thimble full of adrenaline drowned in a bottle of champagne.
March of 2012 started no different; there were ups and downs, cold toes, winter apathy, late lazy mornings under impossibly cozy blankets, an excuse for tea at all hours, and maybe under some forgotten piece of free time a drink to warm the soul. However, this is the month where everyone knows the weather’s gotta give at some point, you can practically hear the birds gossiping about it. Weekend plans are colored by that uplifting anticipation where even the crankiest of old winter Scrooges carries their head a little higher. The elation shared during the onset of this season affects everyone a little differently. Some start going to the gym in preparation of that first bikini day. Others clean their houses, but for me the one constant I can find is that it invariably drives me outside. So when an early afternoon jaunt offered up the slightest chance at short sleeves, I began prepping my beach shorts in anticipation. Sadly, the next day I awoke to a massive dump of snow nostalgic of my days back in Colorado, and although I miss the winter shenanigans of that place, I can honestly say (without even a hint of hesitation) I'll be happy when the outdoors become available again at all hours of the day. We here in Tokyo will just have to wait a little longer… Here are a few of the photos I’ve occasioned to take while NOT freezing my toes off recently.
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| Oh you Japanese! Leather boots, umbrella, bicycle, and a blizzard, having fun yet? |
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| Here's the bamboo forest near my house weathering the storm in an almost surreal way. |
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| The plaque next to these two tells a story about an old monk who has gathered mushrooms all his life. The younger monk (the standing one) offers to help the aging man but the elder simply replies that this is his job and without it what would he do with his time? I'll bet he's rethinking his proclamation today though, 6 inches of fresh snow is hardly ideal mushroom gathering conditions... |
