Elaboration of Yesterday's Image.

The image I posted yesterday of me riding a miniature train at Matsumoto-san's struck me as - in general - representitive of my time here. Here's me, all dressed up, looking cool, riding a miniature train around a garden. Perhaps I really like contradictions raised by the image. Japan, on any giving day, is full of both deep philosophical contradictions, such as squaring away Japan's traditional past and ultra-modern future, and just plain logical contradictions that don't compute in my head but work well and naturally within the Japanese psyche. Secondly, it strongly represents the environs of Shikaoi. If one does end up dressing up in Shikaoi, it can be normally assumed, unlike Tokyo or Osaka, that you will be doing something exciting and unexpected, not simply ordering a shrimp cocktail at a restaurant. To bring this point further, there is rarely a reason to ever get dressed up in Shikaoi (my kids lurk everywhere). Lastly, it should become clear from looking at the photo that I do really bizarre things on a daily basis - with gusto! I normally attribute this to teaching kids, which, if done successfully, causes one check their self-respect and sanity at the door.