allurgee

I've been suffering from an allergy for about six weeks now, and the nose blowing finally got to the point where I went to the doctor on Saturday. Two hours and 10,000 yen later, I emerged with sufficient drugs to quell the sneezing, though I am left with a sense of vagueness and a slight wooziness. I seem to always get sick one way or another in Japan (last it time it was only pnuemonia!) and something here, or probably, many things here, seem to disagree with my body.

Racing into October as we are, it seems like only yesterday that I was complaining loudly (and to whoever would liten) about how hot is was. Yes, how hot and how bloody humid. The nights are cooler now and sunny days are very pleasant though the signs of winter are omnipresent. The layers of cloud, for example, are like so many moth-eaten bunnyrugs, rather than a majestic pile of cotton wool. (Here I am reminded of Larkin's 'Summer, Mother, I', the 'high-builded cloud', but that's beside the point.)

Now with the routines of teaching and looking after our demanding little one, life has assumed a predictability. It's hard to do anything really interesting because of the train travel and risk of Tom's loud complaining, so Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto, once regular destinations, are like phantoms now. Parenting is such a life change that there is no way to describe the difference. One day we were on a this planet, the following day, on this one. And there is no way of travelling between these two worlds. Really, there isn't.

sushi

The Koizumi era ended last week, a period which coincidentally shadowed my own stay in Japan. A lot of print has been expended on the success or otherwise of the now former Prime Minister, but it is probably safe to say this. That Koizumi inherited a legacy of deflation and economic stagnation, a banking system mired in bad debt, and an inward looking polity. Today Japan is growing again, has defeated deflation and has generally undergone a massive shakeup at company level. It is more forward looking and confident internationally. Added to this was Koizumi's unique style of governance, a crash through or crash methodology in which policy creation and delivery was often prised from the reach of meddling political hacks and civil servants. An interesting time to be in Japan.

Shinzo Abe is also an interesting man and may well prove to be a better Prime Minister, if he can get beyond a purely conservative agenda. The Yasukuni issue is begging for a resolution. There is still way too much nannying by civil authorities. Japanese who want to achieve outside the parameters currently set down (culturally and politically) should be allowed to do so. Japan also needs to deal more honestly with its recent wartime past; textbooks which whitewash atrocities or misdeeds are at best, unhelpful.

But the foundation has been laid. Vale Lionheart!