On settling.

I know I haven't updated for about a week, but I have an excuse: this week is the first week that has gone by fast; I believe I have just about hit my stride, as far as routine and daily life is concerned. Each day is not a continual series of difficult and exhausting revelations: I might actually start to think of things as typical or usual, soon. That's pretty exciting for me.

The rainy season continues on - I was told by a student today that this rainy season has been unusually hot and not-rainy, but it's been precipitating on and off all day, and tonight when I walked home it was cool and damp to the point of being chilly. Damp cold is a terrible thing.

Trees along the river by my house have burst into unexpected bloom, as have the bushes on the median of the road. The happy coincidence of a clear day and my not working has yet to come along, but I fully intend to take pictures. I'm sure my neighbours think I'm horribly rude and strange by taking pictures of completely ordinary things, but I am continually surprised and delighted by my neighbourhood and thing things therein. For example, C tells me that their students unanimously agree that my area is prime real estate area: I was at first surprised to hear this, but after I thought about it, I realized that during my tromps through neighbourhood streets, there are some huge-ass houses around here, by Japanese standards. Ones with retaining walls and little courtyards inside, or vegetable gardens, or blooming trees peeking over the walls, nestled up under the eaves of roofs shingled with blue lacquered tile.

It's easy to imagine families, generations, as having lived in many of the houses around here. There are quite a few children in my neighbourhood, as well; parks and such are there for them, and I occasionally see them out and about, so it's a real family place. Or, thus I deduce, having had no real experience living in other neighbourhoods in Japan. Time will tell. Just over a month ago, homesick and longing for some sort of family equivalent, my neighbourhood's houses were definitely of comfort to me, just by the fact that they were there: inside each, families sat down to dinner, talked to each other, watched TV, and life went on comfortably and normally for them, even if not for me.

Now, I believe I've caught up with the Joneses, as it were: my life's gradually starting to fall into a denouement from the series of jagged spikes that it's been over the past two months. And that's very comforting.