Everyone is too hot. The conversation starts always with it's very hot today. Everyone is tired and a little dizzy or they have a headache. The summer trickles on here meeting autumn head on in typhoon season. This weekend was respite for us in Seki with a brisk breeze and a couple of cool rainy nights. For others it was a reminder of how vicious the natural world can be and how precarious little Japan is.
I spent yesterday hiding from all the bad weather, all the bad news, in Nagoya's famous department stores. A labyrinth of escalators and passageways that suddenly open up onto wide open spaces with pop up shops in the middle and the more established designer boutiques glassed off with museum like window displays. In some areas the sales are unattended racks in the unadorned corridor leading to the toilets in others Dolce and Gabana shoes hang from black chandeliers. The rough and the smooth, the rich and the poor, the lucky and the unlucky.
I stumbled across a tiny Fortnum and Masons concession and down in the depths of the fairground like food hall was a miniature Harrods tucked into a little alcove. Everywhere was crowded, fashions were as varied and enjoyable as ever and I found as much joy in browsing little boutiques housing items with nonsensical English phrases as ever. This is the lesson I learn in Japan. The government battles, the ground shakes, the mountains fall down but Japanese people keep going. 6 months in and it still surprises me. Just as it surprises them that six months on people still aren't visiting their country.
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