The Even Greater Tokyo Region

Last week, temperatures recorded in Toyama city exceeded 38 degrees Celsius. Humidity is also so high, that you need to chew before breathing. This is ideal, as for the last 3 weeks, I have been on holiday. Yes, my holidays so far have been me sitting at school in a barely air-conditioned staffroom planning and scheming how to get out.

I have been in Japan for one metric year now, and instead of arriving from mid-winter to mid-summer, summer has come gradually. I don't mind the temperature too much. Like an unwanted disease or flatmate, I will never learn to like it, but I have learned to live with it Billy Connoly once said that there is no such thing as "bad weather"; there is only inappropriate clothing. In the case of current Japan, any clothing is inappropriate. I don't use my home air-conditioner, and I don't have air-conditioning in my car, I just try and spend as much time as possible not wearing pants. We do what we can. Humans are resourceful beings.

So, most of my time at work has been thinking about travelling, and how to use my paid leave. I came up with an elaborate plan to go hitchhiking all the way south to Nagasaki. I planned my trip, bought the necessities, and prepared my gimmick... The all-important gimmick.





Most people know of the story of the Hiroshima girl who made 1000 origami cranes for good luck before dieing, right? I wanted to do something similar, except for the dieing part, and instead of cranes I decided to make 1000 origami Kiwis (as in the bird; an origami kiwifruit would be pretty lame. It would just be kindof...oval.), and since I've already been to Hiroshima, I'd like to go to the peace park in Nagasaki too.

This is a portion of the 1000 kiwis (still in progress).

It is a NZ twist, but the real reason is, they are much easier to make. I become so proficient at making them, with concentration I can now complete one in under 40 seconds. Even so, multiply that by 1000, and that is a lot of seconds... and concentration. So i often found time to idly make them. I folded at school. I folded while watching TV, while talking to people, during meetings, and even while driving. Anyway, with less than a week before my scheduled departure, when I was up to the 700 kiwi mark, I got a phonecall from my basketball team captain.

"We need you for a basketball tournament this weekend", he said, effectively ruining my holiday plans. My team, especially with a lot of the older guys recently having retired, they need someone to play centre. It is a big tournament, with teams from 4 different prefectures, and if I'm not there, I would feel horrible if we got embarrassed. I also relish a chance to play some organised basketball, so I couldn't say no.

I went to practice the other day. The gymnasiums are not air-conditioned. Have you ever seen underwater basketball? I predict I that this weekend over 2 basketball games I will halve in weight due to sweating.

Even though I wont be hitchhiking to Nagasaki anymore (I will still go, but at a more convenient time when it is not the hottest and busiest time of year. besides I only need to make 300 more kiwis.), I'll be taking off next week to go to the big Slope, Osaka (大阪). It seems that all roads slope towards Osaka. It's time to have myself a holiday from my desk holiday.