Usual timestamp (12:34, 12日11月) en route (one of) usual locations
Posted a few letters along the way
Faded but dreaming
PS started cool/cold turned warm/hot once downtown
About postal obsession: about postal delivery to Canada (& US to a point) – some folks insisted it was an “Japan problem” when I mentioned aloud that I couldn’t send cards, this is not the case, ergo, from my comment elsewhere:
currently from the Japan Post website, there’s been monthly ongoing status updates for September, October, November and I just checked again today to see if any changes but sadly not.
And this is not because Japan post just doesn’t want to, rather through the IPU, Canada Post has requested not sending post because it gets stock-piled because they are not able to take custody of the pieces, and Japan Post doesn’t want to be stock-piling on their end…
It’s moderately arcane but immensely practical and is based around international reciprocal convention/treaties articulated and detailed in what’s been called “the world’s most complicated spreadsheet”
~~
Via: Japan Post’s official “State of service” page
September 29 2025:
“Second Update: Delay of mail delivery to Canada due to strike action (by Canada Post) … mail dispatches to Canada have been postponed. If the strike is prolonged, delays will be experienced for all types of mail (EMS, airmail, surface).”
Checked again today and still a big “X” meaning not accepted
Oh well, I’ll keep making my videos and podcasts and DIY print at home PDF versions
All right, so I did go to the post office and mailed one Christmas party invitation to local Okayama; one envelope of secret prose writing to a poet/podcaster elsewhere in Japan; a lovely stationery letter – on paper which soaked up the fountain pen ink – to an artist at a cottage in UK; and, the final print (albeit a misprint) of the Misasa Sojourn poetry, musings etc chapbook to a legit US poet laureate, along with a postcard of haiku master Issa’s cottage (with an unnecessary monkey stamp), and slipped in a poem written for a friend in Gifu as I was passing through… Three distinct artifacts from rural Japan to someone who blazed many trails of poetics, aesthetics and Zen from the 1950s onwards
The kind lady behind the desk helped me choose beautiful stamps
Oh there was one more postcard to a mysterious new stranger who recently signed up from my postal club list from Oregon (hello)
However: Made an invitation card for our “casual Christmas lunch” (keeping as simple as possible this year for various reasons). Delivered one by hand, sent another by post, another went electronically, guest list short this year, menu brief & simple (must pace self as also have two Santa Claus appearances… sorry I meant to say performances) about Santa Claus, my son insists that my beard should be a little bit longer although he didn’t know that it’s become very white, I’m unsure of how to respond
Meanwhile: Pro move for hospital, short sleeve shirts for injections
And the miraculous Argyle sweater vest cardigan…
Keeps core warm, arms available
Beard optional, sunglasses for fluorescent flicker headache prevention
Next day (decompression recap from bed):
Day after medical appointments always has me completely frazzled and exhausted yet to my very core I love to make projects, even simple ones but today, can’t sew on buttons, can’t write postcards nor make NY card, can’t finish up that zine – just exist (try to eat)
Yesterday was especially tough because appointment was outside of my usual “energy window” due to doctor having to be in Kyoto (she’s been *stolen* by the University hospital there) so transport window was in my “fading hour” exacerbated by crowded transportation time (via 3 modes) #Optimizing
But again, I go into lizard brain mode: get hot beverage, headphones, dark glasses, keep head down, sense input low – arrive home frazzled but hit oxygen, bath, nutrition, bed {This is just here to be my #diary}
Bonus: Tiny poem, related to recent tasks, unrelated to hospitals per se
I meant to snap a photo
Of all the winter scarves
Air drying in November sun
Yet you'll trust me:
All of the colours
Moreso all of the stories
Plus smell, signaling
Preventative intention despite displeasure
Of mothballs
And warmth
