Spring is in the Air...

The weather was so gorgeous that I could not stay in my apartment. The sun was shining, the air was (sort of) warm, the plum blossoms were blooming and I was sick and tired of being cooped up due to the cold weather.

Hooray! Spring is (almost) here!

On Friday, I had lunch outside on the terrace at Rune/Lune (however you pronounce it) with Colleen and some of the KCJS kids - it was so nice that I decided that instead of staying in my apartment, I was going to get my book, and ride my bike to the Imperial Park and read it there.

It was still a bit nippy but if you were in a sunny spot, then all was well. I found a seat in a picnic area with benches and tables; turned my back against the table, faced the outside (so that my back was supported by the table) and proceeded to try and continue "Memory and the Mediterranean" by Braudel.

There were a few other people in the little area that I was in: an elderly couple eating lunch, a gaijin reading a book as well, and two Japanese men. There was also this cat, lying on one of the benches that was carved out of a tree trunk; at first, I thought it was dead or sick because it was just lying so still and calmy in spite of the fact that there was a man on the same bench. Turns out, the cat had quite a "ho-hum" attitude about the people around him; even when the other foriegner when he sat next to the cat tickled him with a leaf, the cat didn't hiss or run away, just got up, turned around and settled himself back to sleep. Ho-hum.

Today, the weather was even better, so I went to the Kamo River (Kamogawa) and took with me "Mao: The Unknown Story," and my lunch for a me-myself-and-I picnic. Found a bench, parked my bike and plopped myself down and read my book for about 2 hours or so, and even took a nap in the sun with the book as a pillow (the book is about 6 inches thick, 1000pages) for a few minutes. Unfortunately, the weatehr forecast says that it's going to go back down to 40 degrees, so one can only enjoy the weather for as long as it lasts.