Lake Toya

 We have been going here quite a bit of late. It seems to be our default destination whenever we decide upon an impromptu day out from Muroran. We were there yesterday amid some very blustery, changeable autumn weather. Almost Irish it was. The Lake is graced with some relaxing, simple cafes (menus are limited, service is slow, views are contemplated) which get by on atmosphere rather than he definitive Italian short espresso. We were out for a stroll by the lake in the falling light, distant showers drifting across the still water when we were treated to this.

Whooohooo....oh, shite....

This is heading our way.

The surfer in me is going "Whoooohooo!!", the home owner in me is looking anxiously at the roof and the tall trees around the house and going "Oh shite".

Andrew Fox, "Good Money"

I subscribe to the Dublin Review, a quarterly periodical that successfully embraces the long form essay and contemporary Irish fiction. At times it tends a tad too much towards a prevalent 'grim brutalism' in its depictions of modern Ireland, but this is balanced by the sheer quality of the contributors' writing. I particularly like the work of a young Dublin novelist Andrew Fox, whose work has appeared in the Review over the past couple of years. He published his first collection of short stories 'Over our heads' earlier this year, and while I have yet to read it (it's on the bedside stack along with the other 300 plus books I haven't read. It's a big stack.), I have just read his most recent story, 'Good money', in the latest issue of the Dublin Review. For what it is worth, in my opinion both Fox and the Review are worth your time (and yes, money).

Up and running

It is Autumn and with it comes a spate of 'Marason Taikai', literally Marathon (running) events. None of them actually involve a full 42.142km marathon, but in Japan anything over a thousand meters qualifies as a marason. Inspired by Daddy's example (as opposed to being shamed by the steady uptick in the weighing scales), both Sanae and Cian have embraced long distance running. Last weekend saw us all up at Forest Kozan for the annual Green Race. Cian ran 3km, Sanae successfully completed her inaugural 5km, and Daddy avoided the bears on his slow 20km through the woods.
This weekend sees the debut of the Santa Land Hiroo marathon, sorry, marason. Cian has his 'Saturday Morning Variety Show at the Mizumoto Palladium' tomorrow morning straight after which  we jump in the Mazda for the four hour drive to Hiroo.
Long distance driving before the long distance running.
The race is on Sunday, and again the Gaynor-Takahashi family plans to dominate the 3km, 5km and 21km events. Then we all pile back into the Mazda and drive another 4 hours home and wonder if we have enough energy left to watch any of the weekend's rugby.