Focusing on good things.

I'm in the glums (work-related bizarreness and general middle-aged angst) so let me focus on the good and tell you about the nice weekend I had there two weeks ago. I walked a very roundabout way (read miles out of my way) to go see the King's Speech. On the way, I came across a bamboo forest.


It was a little bit magical and reminded me of where I used to live in Kanagawa a couple of years ago. P.S. I really enjoyed the movie, too, and think Colin Firth deserves all his accolades.

The next day, I finally visited the Edo Tokyo Open-Air Architecture Museum. I have an unlucky history with this place, having made several aborted attempts over the years to go and see it. Most heartrendingly, I dragged my visiting Irish friend two hours by train to go visit it only to arrive and remember museums close on Mondays in Japan. (H., would you believe the same guy is still playing his saxophone out in the middle of the field beside the museum, entertaining the crows???)

Rather than the buildings themselves - which were great -


I was more taken with the attention to detail and craftsmanship. The weaving and carving and knotting and pinning really spoke to me.








I did a project on thatch many moons ago as part of my masters and admired the finish on these Japanese roofs. It makes the Irish ones that I studied look a bit like they were thrown together by the above-mentioned crows.



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Japanese do detail really (obsessively) well: a virtue their in roofing, not so much when you're trying to get a key HR policy document approved in a hurry.

I know I also vowed no blossom watch this year, but I just couldn't resist. It's still very early in the season, so these are plum not cherry blossoms. Nonetheless, I clocked up my first ohanami, sitting under a tree with a bunch of other city folk...





...enjoying traditional food on a stick - a glutinous rice dumpling, grilled, dipped in soy sauce and covered in a sheet of dried seaweed - sounds revolting but is yummy!