My chance encounter with the Onishi's yesterday got me thinking, once again, about things Japanese. It is hard for me to state in any rational way just how much I loved my time in Japan and how most of my life since returning seems like treading water. It is a postscript in a dull book. There have been smallish summits here and there (Ann is one exceptional high spot) but nothing to match the quality of that period. I suppose this is what is meant by peak experience.

By coincidence today, I stumbled on a song that I liked from my immersion in the J-POP scene on my first working trip to Sanda in 2001. It was approaching Christmas that year and becoming genuinely cold outside. My time out from classes sometimes gave me the chance to watch a cable music channel, such as Viewsic. Amongst the many ordinary pop servings was a Christmas song by Keisuke Kuwata, White Lover(Shiroi Koibito tachi). The artist sits outdoors at a piano as the snows falls, the black and white photography highlighting the isolation of various individuals whose lives are shown in sharp relief to the presumed spirit of the season. But the gentle insinuation of the snow is an irresistible force in finding new connections - it is the white lover. The song is one of those pretty ballads that, with time, grows on you. Finding it again today was quite a blessing and I include a couple of stills from the video which unfortunately, is not available online.