Catcher on the Fly

Friday 29April 2005
Todays the start of Golden week the longest period of annual holidays for the local worker drones.Roads are choked,planes ,trains and other forms of public transport are booked to over-capacity as leeming-like the hordes stream back to their home towns and grandparents before literally turning around and heading straight back home again.
Traffic congestion and jams up to 40km in length arent uncommon.Because of the way the calendar falls this year the holiday period is slightly longer..peak congestion is predicted for May 3 or so. If todays weather is any indication it'll be a good time to travel.
Im collecting my thoughts under a shady tree in Shirotori Park,a local Japanese style garden.It has this lovely lush lawn..green almost unnaturally steroid green that goes down to one of the artifical ponds.The gardens come complete with its own traditional Japanese tea-house,ponds,Japanese bridges and waterfall.the ponds are stocked with ducks and koi or goldfish.Some of them are quite large.In various colors such as pink,orange and yellow.
Its fun feeding the koi though they make these disgusting,urgent sucking noises as they compete for the fish pellets you can purchase at the tearooms.
Today with the temperature around 28degrees, a light zephyr keeping the humidity down its very pleasant.Being a Friday the gardens are virtually deserted..the odd guilty salary man and his furtive looking secretary seeking a few snatched seconds of solace.

Enough babbling...I finished "Faithful" the Bosox book celebrating their 2004 World Series year. A good read though Ive found my thoughts and vocabulary littered with the odd baseball expression such as "double-play" and i wear my 2 pairs of work shoes on a weeks rotation.
Currently reading some short essays and articles by George Orwell who apart from being a novelist also wrote and commented on various issues of his day.Still also being entertained by the exploits of Don Quixote.Its ingenious and totally unbelievable how many coincidences and stories can be linked into one story .The 40 minute odd ride to work seems just long enough to polish off 2 to 3 chapters and marvel at the writing.Im still only about half way through too.
Coincidences
Speaking of coincidences while reading 'Faithful' I happended to glance up and see a Giants/Dragons game on TV.The Tokyo Giants are the Japanese equivalent of the New York Yankees having one of the biggest payrolls and are the most popular team in Japan.The Dragons are the local Nagoyan team who won the Central League last season.I dont follow the local baseball its so slow and with only 6 teams its very repetitive with 160 odd games each year.
Anyway...one of the Giant players was none other than Gabe Kapler who played for the Boston Red Sox last year so it was nice to place a face to a name id been reading about over the last 2 or so weeks.
Turn the Page
Another example of life intersecting my reading occurred after Id read a blog article about Jimmy Page of Led Zep fame.The article which described the chance sighting of Page in a London KFC was well-written and funny containing a humorous analysis of Pages order and eating habits.That same afternoon picking up the months edition of Uncut magazine who should adorn the cover but none other than Mr Page complete with a free cd of guitar classics chosen by him....kismet..serendipidity...go figure..
Train in Vain
Pretty horrific train accident occurred near Osaka this week.One of the worst post-war rail accidents.106 people killed over 400 odd injured when a 7 car train derailed and slammed into a nearby apartment building.Seems the 23 year old driver had overshot the previous train platform and was speeding to make up for the 90 seconds he was behind schedule...the crash investigation continues..
Random Thoughts
Ironic that my English language school should have wallpaper in the new kids room covered in French words ..zut alors et merde..whatever next? must have been a cheap job lot...