Last Day at Work

After little sleep and resigning myself to getting only half the things done that I wanted to, I'm now packed up and ready to voyage to the mainland before catching my flight on Sunday. One last day at the office, then I'm gone for three weeks.

As I was loading the car this morning, saw neighbour woman out in the parking lot in her pink housecoat and white slippers, with a long, thin stick, stalking a brace of geese. Can't figure those people out: if you're not keen on birds, why live in a bird sanctuary? Then again, I was never 100% keen on Japan, but I lived there for five years. Maybe what I needed was a long, thin stick and pink bathrobe...

Made hotel reservations this morning. I'll be staying near Ueno. Who knows how close this is to where I want to be, but I've given up trying to figure it out. I'll just have to put Tokyo's world-famous public-transport system to the test.

As for essentials, I'm pretty good. Passport (brand new): check. Five days' clothes: check. Runners: check. Camera: check. Laptop: check. Cigarillos: check. Reading material (Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance and Dyer's War - the latter courtesy of JP): check. Still have to get omiyage. Still have to let some people know I'm flying into town. Still have to get a decent night's sleep...

'Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on...
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.'

Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver