Some things come and,

Hi there.

The last few days have indeed been interesting ones.

Outside of an extended need for rest, I had two visits to the walk-in clinic. Now the clinics here are indeed called hospitals. But I would have to say that having visited the clinic now a handful of times, health-work check ups, etc., the hospital in my town is little more than a clinic. Mostly outpatient procedures. I would assume any/such larger cases would be shipped to a hospital-sized hospital such as Asahikawa (a larger city than my own). My town has clinics.

But Monday’s post came to none because on Monday and Tuesday afternoon I was granted afternoons off due to said clinic visits. So I went to the clinics, and so I went home.

Those days had a lot of sleep involved and a lot of gratefulness for alotted rest.

I feel my work has been busy lately. In part, I feel that my body has finally protested against taiko twice a week, being on-guard at school (teaching or supervising), meetings outside of work hours, and new volunteer conversation classes after work hours. Maybe I’m just a sprite of a fellow for whom a broad array of activities both inside and outside of work come to be too much.

So, I have been remedying myself with early bedding. Something like going to bed at the holy hour of nine or nine-thiry p.m., and getting up a few minutes after seven a.m. I am trying to suck the life out of the beast of sleep. The very beast that sleep is.

Rest assured I am working on putting the put-able things on hold in my life that I can, thus allotting more time for recovery and such.

On some cultural note I would say that we are within the eve of end of school year graduations. Next week Tuesday, a holiday day, I will attend and enjoy the elementary school graduation ceremony. Any other cultural tidbits? Well, I haven’t really ventured that far outside of town lately. Maybe it is time for a trip away… (though I may have said at some point that I was going -even to Sapporo- I had backed out due to need of rest). But I will go.

And finally, to share within the cultural tidbit bracket, I was offered a crafted caramel (a caramel nonetheless) by a right-old lady on the onsen shuttle bus here in town. It was a nice dry caramel, the palatable kind like say, a Werther’s. After so many closed-up, extensive, and carefully manicured social relationships -relationships in a work and life setting that don’t allow for much fun and lucid interaction, it was nice to be offered a caramel by a townsperson. It really made my day.

And I am also sorry to say that at my physician’s request, I have cut back caffeine intake to whatis one twelve ounce cup of coffee per day (or just slightly less). But the coffees that I brew with utmost care most mornings have been a most consistent and quiet haven for me in the midst of working-on things. Tough things, difficult things. And so I am led to ask, where is your sanctuary? Mine may be this feeble brew-ish act, but where do you find your bliss, peace, and center in the day? In the morning?

This cup’s for you.

Ciao
(school graduation at the end of March. In Japan -it happens)