The Sweet Spot

I was afraid I'd missed it. But apparently, I'm just a lucky bastard sometimes.

You see, there's this thing in Japan. They call it "weather". It's probably available where you live too, check your local department store for details. Anyway, this "weather" can be described using adjectives. Good, bad, warm, hot, hotter, hotter-than-hell-on... -on-a-day-when-it's-really-hot-ok? Of course, cold is also an option, but not so much right now. But the thing is, Japanese summer, vintage 2006, is coming to an end. As usual, I'd been looking forward to the Four Days when summer has ended and dark-and-grey autumn has yet to rear its ugly head. You know, the Four Days which come along but twice a year here, when you can go outside in a t-shirt, and not sweat to utter death, nor shiver like you got paid to do it. It's a good Four Days. I like them. A lot, actually. So imagine the horror when it started raining and generally being cold at the start of the week. Fearing I'd overslept my Four Days, I... couldn't really do a whole lot about it, but still.

But yeah, it stopped raining, and we're right in the middle of fantastically "Lagom" weather. If you think that random Swedish word destroys the whole point of this being in English, so be it. Look it up. Learn a language. Live a little, you know? Contrary to many other things my junior high teachers told me, learning can be fun. Trust me on the sunscreen, and all that.

So yeah, that's one Sweet Spot. Here's the story of another. Gotta love my segue/title-setting powers.

Next week, I will have see two of Japan's Prime Ministers in the flesh. The first one was of course Koizumi, but since he's stepping down on Wednesday, I figured I might as well go and see his successor, Abe Shinzo. You know, "collect the whole set", and that whole malarchey.

... which of course is complete and utter bullshit. I mean, I'm as politically interested as the next guy - possibly slightly more, even - but me finding out where a rally was being held for a person I can't even vote for, and then going to attend it is borderline absurd.

Rather, I was sitting in Starbucks at the good ol' scramble intersection in Shibuya, reading the latest issue of TIME (all capitals! Look, ma, I'm cultured!), which I had purchased because Abe was on the cover, and I knew nothing of him.

Having consumed my chocolate chunk cookie and orange juice, I leave, only to find myself surrounded by random people, and more random people being really loud about politics. So I ask this equally random guy if perchance Abe will be joining the show, and get the reply "Yeah, in 20 minutes". So I wait around, get to see him, hear him, and then go home. And eat pasta.

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But enough politics. Other things have happened this week as well. They tend to do that, the damn things.

For example, I've been to see a movie. On Thursday, I think. And just by accident managed to squeeze myself on to the last train heading where I wanted to go, after said movie ended. It was quite full. I have no idea why all these people chose seven minutes past midnight as the time to go where I was going, but I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Yeah, it's derivative and repetitive and whatever, but I like taking pictures of lots of people in trains. Is that so wrong?

Also, I've seen a really cheap-ass building. I really thought Japan was better than this, I really did. But apparently shoddy construction has spread all the way to these shores. Since land is still ridiculously expensive, you wanna make the most of it, yeah? Build high. But then there's the risk of earthquakes, so you can't build too high, or it'll cost another ton of money to make it "earthquake proof". Solution? Build the top half of the building like a Potemkin facade (so what if I like Wikipedia! Sue me!) facing the all-important railway, just so people passing by will believe how rich you are/were. And yeah, it says Microsoft right there on top, too.