londontown in bloom.

I'm back from Japan. My diagnosis was, in the past, severe, but luckily, it seems to be some strain slightly off from what I had originally guessed. Oh goodness, what a horrible metaphor, for it sounds now like I've diagnosed Japan with some disease. I suppose it does have at least one: and that is the one that's going to develop from an overabundance of self-tanner. And another one called kawaii. That's probably just the phonetic spelling, but it sounds like 'Hawaii,' if you say it really excitedly. It means "cute," and we all know Japan is obsessed with "cute." Other than that, however, it was a surprsingly calm city. I'm used to the hustle and bustle of people now - I'd say London is less calm, more energetic - but perhaps that is the strangeness of Tokyo. It's all like a conveyor belt, with tons and tons of people on it, yes, but they're just all going around the same pace. It seems like a bigger crime if you stand on the wrong side of the escalator in London - because people are rip-roaring to go, or just taking their time. It seems more like a medium in Tokyo. You see a lot more people running for trains in London. But maybe that's because they don't know how to slow down. Oh, who knows, a week in Tokyo (minus days for Disneyland & Mt. Fuji) is hardly long enough to analyze the city. Let's just say: it was a good time. But goodness, please, a note to any future civilization: 10 different metro lines is really confusing. It makes your citizens sad, mad, and bad. And more importantly, it makes me feel incompetent and sad. Speaking of incomptent, however, the shrines in China are a lot bigger. And their pagodas. Which some have pointed out to me, is because Japan is a tiny island, but if you're talking about shrines, you really shouldn't cut back, yah?

London is blossoming all over. The parks are now beautiful to walk through - trees are blossoming left and right and I'm gleeful about the giant tulips that have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. London has changed in the month that I've been gone and I'm glad I can recognize it. There are new ads on the Underground, new paint jobs, new exhibitions at museums, and at least one of the hairdressers on New Cross Road has gone out of business/disappeared, and one has turned into a small grocery store. Now my days are to be filled with lounging on the grass with a book and some writing project (hopefully.) That's the romantic idea. We'll see what happens. I'm not notoriously lazy, but I am lazy.

Last night Arsenal beat Villareal to make it to the finals in the UEFA Champions League. (This is footie, folks.) I didn't watch the game (instead Ben-G and I went to watch 'American Dreamz') but on the tube ride home, I saw, in particular, this one ecstatic couple. I'm not much for PDA, or even seeing couples in public. Any couple in public pretty much makes me a little bit less happy inside (I can't explain it), but these two kids were quite wonderful. They were both holding printed-before-the-result-of-the-match t-shirts that had the Arsenal logo and 'CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2006' written on them right up against their bodies. The girl had it draped over her torso and the guy was holding it tightly on his lap. They were grinning randomly, muttering 'I can't believe they're in the final' and my favorite, they were so happy that they would randomly face each other and sort of bang their heads together for random sloppy kisses. And I think, if you should kiss in public for any reason, it should be because of a sports team. Because any other reason, we don't really want to know about.

(Europe and Japan shots linked in two new albums at the bottom...)