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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Monday, July 15, 2002 |
 Evening
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Kokusaika
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Shimane impressions
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Another pleasant surprise. The speech went well! I was really unsure of how it would be received, especially as I was talking about leaving Japan permanently when in fact I've never done this. However, everyone laughed in the right places (and, equally importantly, didn't laugh in the wrong places), and after I'd finished and was leaving the hall, quite a few people told me they thought it was an excellent speech, and how interesting they'd found it. This really made all the stress and the late nights of last week worthwhile.
Also, one person commented that I must do a lot of speeches, judging from how relaxed I looked. If only he knew...
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A pleasant surprise on arriving in Matsue. Having arrived at the place where I was due to give my speech, I met Itagaki-san, who almost straightaway asked if I knew someone called Akiba Yoko. Well, of course I do- she's a friend from my time in Hiroshima University. It was good to see that she hadn't changed a bit.
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Seeing all the paths and tracks snaking across the hillside in the Lost Valley (I wonder what it's really called?), all I could think of was precisely that: snakes. There's no way you'd find me walking through there without a damn good pair of wellingtons...
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I remembered this from the last time I'd been to Matsue, but half-way into the journey, the road descends into what can only be called 'the Lost Valley'. I'm sure that this is what Japan must have been like before industrialisation: thick forests, abundantly green; rushing rivers, little houses dotted across the mountainside. It's a very impressive sort of beauty, but what is striking is how deserted everything looks. There were rotten bridges across the rivers, uncultivated fields, rusting barns, tumbledown houses. It really feels as if the whole valley was abandoned, suddenly and completely. This in a way adds to the beauty, but it's also slightly eerie.
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For a fair part of the way to Matsue, the bus follows Route 54. Well, there seems to have been some sort of hydrangea-planting campaign along this road, because the roadsides were crowded with beautiful blue and pink blossoms. I like hydrangeas anyway, but in such numbers they really did look spectacular.
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The bus journey to Matsue was more pleasant than I'd expected. This was at least in part thanks to the fact that there were only six passengers. I assume that the early morning and evening services are fuller; surely six people on a whole bus can't lead to much profit.
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Breakfast Show Staple Notable weather
The typhoon is supposed to be heading straight for Hiroshima. I had a little more time this morning, so I put the television on for the morning news, and this typhoon, judging from the reports, looks fierce.
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Breakfast Show Staple Randomhaiku of the day (from The Genuine Haiku Generator)
clammy dried liquid
smatters smatters, warm
chaotic clear flea
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:19:35 pm.
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