Microblog

It’s a perfect day to be a couch potato: rain all day, and a novel just released in the US today.

While I ran errands Downtown, the IDS Tower had its head in the clouds.

Posted Mono no aware: the Pathos of Things.

Stocked up at the Mill City Farmers Market under the watchful eye of Anton Chekhov.

Used NFC (near-field communication) to read the outstanding balance on my Japanese Suica stored-value card: ¥421, almost four US dollars. The balance expires in 2028, but I plan to spend it much sooner than that.

Woke up from a deep sleep near Seattle. “Anything you need?” asked the flight attendant. “The best cold beer.”

On my way to Haneda HND for my flight home, popped into TOTO’s Tokyo “demonstration showroom,” occupying two floors high up in a Tokyo tower. For good, practical reasons, most Japanese have TOTO’s washlets in their homes; we’re having them in our new home

Walked a level path through extensive marshland surrounded by mountains in Nikko National Park. After yesterday’s tough trail, I went easy on myself today.

Hiked a gnarly trail: extensive tree roots, scree, erosion, fallen trees, 2,300 feet gain in two hours, no switchbacks. Walking down was even harder than the climb. A guy, older than me, was doing this with camping gear. Mount Toyama (7,230 feet), Nikko National Park.

Walked for hours around an area of temples, shrines, and woodland paths on a hillside near Nikko, two hours north of Tokyo.

Rode a Sendai city bus past fields where homes had once stood, to an elementary school that is now a museum. The 2011 tsunami crashed through the second floor of the school, but the children had been sent to the top floors and roof where they were safe.

Hiked for two days along part of the 700 km Michinoku (Pacific) Coastal Trail in Sanriku Fukko (reconstruction) National Park. People stay away because of the destructive 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Rode this beauty through the 33.5-mile Seikan undersea tunnel from Hokkaido to Honshu.

Visited The Hill of the Buddha in a cemetery south of Sapporo. Architect Tadao Ando surrounded a stone Buddha, below the head, with a lavender-covered hill. Ando’s concrete is gorgeous: I’d joyfully live in a home with concrete floors, walls, and ceilings

Hiked through Fall colors above the tree line in central Hokkaido’s Daisetsuzan National Park.

Posted Snapshots: Eastern Hokkaido National Parks.