Big In Japan

Rainy days bring a strange sense of contentment. For as long as I can remember I have always enjoyed just looking out the window and watching the rain fall.

It seems everything these days reminds me of Japan. After a week of sunshine, it began to rain yesterday and, opening my umbrella for the first time this year, realized that the last time I used an umbrella was in Japan. Suddenly a torrent of memories flooded back: the first umbrella I bought, which I forgot in front of the 7-11. The umbrella I bought during the typhoon when Sparks came to visit for the first time. My next door neighbor with whom I left my umbrellas (I had a collection by that time) when I left. I basked in the memories as I walked under the rainy sky. I think that’s what I like about the rain; its calming rhythm seems to ease my mind.

I suppose it’s not just the rain brings up Japan. Even sitting eating breakfast conjures up images. Finding that first box of “Frosted Flakes” on the grocery store shelf; Eating cereal out of a rice bowl (about the size of a tea cup, I had to eat two or three bowl-fulls at a time); Finding the big soup bowl in the 100yen store which was just the right size...

I catch myself tying it into most every conversation I have. Especially with new people, I have to struggle to start any new topic with “well, when I was in Japan...”

I know I will return one day, and at the moment most every action I take I take with the plan that it will get me closer to my return trip.