Thoughts of life, love and family

This is just going to be a stream-of-consciousness post. I haven’t felt the inspiration to write a proper story in a long time. All haiku production has ground to a halt. Basically, it seems my brain has turned to jelly now that I am in the middle of exam season.
This was proven yesterday when I totally spaced out on the time of my yoga lesson. I managed to arrive just on time. I followed the teacher into the room in a grey and black flash, hoping against hope that I hadn’t put my shorts on inside out or back to front.
Time keeping is incredibly important in Japan. I’m compulsive about it, as anyone who has visited me here will tell you. As a foreigner, I feel I have to be even more punctual than the Japanese. It’s like every time I’m late I’m compounding the ‘lazy, unreliable foreigner’ stereotype. That I would fail to be early for something was a clear sign of how head-wrecked and exam-fatigued I am.
Now don’t go worrying about me. It’s not like I’ve become such a dedicated and diligent student that I’m working myself into the ground. I’ve still been finding plenty of ways to skive off.
Last Saturday, I went to the movies. I saw 涙そうそう (Nada Sousou). It’s a Japanese movie starring Tsumabuki Satoshi, a popular young actor here.
The story is simple: A brother and his stepsister are left without parents. His grandmother on a small Okinawan island raises them. The young boy has promised his dying mother that he will look after his little sister. As he becomes a man he takes on the role of father figure. But the focus of the movie is the conflicting types of love they come to feel for each other.
Don’t worry, it’s not at all salacious. It’s a pure and moving character study.
The movie has lots of interesting themes: living for yourself versus living for others, the repression and expression of emotion, accepting or running away from responsibility. Simply put, it’s all about life, love and family.
There’s a beautiful scene at the end of the movie where the grandmother and stepsister are sitting on an idyllic, tropical beach looking out at the crystal ocean. The girl is upset and the granny talks about how we are each given a life. None of us knows how long we’ll be given. Some lives are long and others are short. It’s what we do with the time we have and how we touch the people around us that count. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
All in all, the philosophy of the movie matched very well with my blog motto. I highly recommend it if it ever comes to an art-house cinema near you.
Because I’m an expat and because my family and many friends are far away, I always seem to be overly affected by such emotional stories. Even a week later I’m still mulling over the ideas in the film.
To make matters worse, last night I sat in and watched ‘Billy Elliot’ on video. It covered much of the same ground, with a bit of ‘always be true to yourself’ thrown in for good measure.
So along with an addled brain I now have a punch-drunk heart. I’m a wreck.
I guess I should also give a quick weather report. I’ve complained often enough in these pages about how terrible the weather has been this year. Well for the last two weeks the weather has been glorious. Late autumn slash early winter is the best time of the year in Japan.
The sky is high, blue and cloudless. The air is clear and brisk. And a pale winter sun takes the bite out of the breeze. It’s a walker’s paradise. Coupled with the reds, browns and yellows of the changing leaves, I can honestly take back all the nasty things I have said about the Japanese climate. Mother Nature is being good to us once again.
Well that’s all for this status report. I hope I’ll be able to think of interesting things to say again when all the tests are over.