With three Santa performances done, …
i now return to civilian life as a middle-aged dude trying to put on a snappy outfit to see a jazz matinee at the piano bar with my darling duo who met me there after tea ceremony
[realized I didn’t tell you anything about the jazz show but maybe that’s just for us, I had a coffee, kid had an apple juice or was it ginger ale? we got snack packs, bought a CD, had it signed, took a photo with the pianist and the singer Akiko-san who is friend with Ryoko – gave them new year cards]
holiday rhythms are what you make
Of course is a little bit that happens on the 24th/25th… Just a normal workday in Japan but scheduled an unscheduled day off from school for the kid in hopes of some Lego, woodstove fire, coffee, marshmallows, maybe a pot of chili or some popcorn – we’ve got a substandard tree this year but some twinkly lights here and there but most important, a wood stove, did I mention the wood stove? I always mention the wood stove
Then, Japan begins planning for New Year’s starting with house cleaning and working into eating mochi, soba, visiting shrines and me avoiding the television shows that seem to be various and endless
i’ve got a few “life administration” tasks yet to finish up this year and a few creative projects i am eager to do for personal documentation/archaeology i.e.: diary round ups, maybe a little bit more ukulele playing, I don’t know…
right now it’s Sunday evening, we’re home, I’m drained but happy I pulled off the Santa gigs and made loads of kiddos surprised, confused, happy (and in the case of the one kid who I teased about his Pokémon shirt, sad)
tangled up amongst the wires
i’m counting up things that happened this year including 59 medical appointments (including dentists and surgery) and try not to think of things I would’ve done with that time otherwise because that’s useless thinking, + thinking about the poems I published, video dispatches sent, several hundred letter letters and cards and zines, and broadsheets mailed, submitted, a modeling gig + much household management, a big family road trip plus an adventure to expo in Osaka, several onsen excursions but will save all that for another time
I’m just here to say:
“I put on a suit and took a silly picture of me because I’m a cheese ball and got out my fancy blue shoes which have stayed in a box all year & rode the bus which was free today and listened to some music, gave out some cards, and had some laughs – and we sat at the bus stop waiting with our snacks from the convenience store and rode home until Ichiro fell asleep snoring on the bus and I carried him home from the bus stop while he held onto my beard for a handle”
good night wonders
ps oh I’m gonna send some more new year cards amongst other little sundry tasks but you know that already, I’m just trying not to obsess about it this year (and I’m also passively aggressively resisting Canada and USA because of their disappointing Postal Service but I just read that Denmark is discontinuing Postal Service and I’m not sure I’ve been much more sad than reading that news – and yes I know a “third-party private service” will continue some mediocre effort to maintain the 400 year old beneficial tradition – handwritten letters are a treasure
{here are a couple of previous Christmases with Ichiro to cheer me up}
