Decisions, decisions.

Mt Unzen - The perfect hide-out for a supervillian.

On Thursday I will be setting off on another adventure. The trouble is, I don’t yet know where it will take place. I have been terribly indecisive lately. There are plenty of areas I want to visit but I have been unable to make a final choice. At the moment it looks like a toss up between touring round Western Kyushu where I could check out Nagasaki, hike around a volcano and do the onsen thing. Or Tokyo, where I could do the city justice and maybe check out Hakone or Kamakura at the same time. It’s really difficult to decide.

I do realize that these are nice choices to have.

Right now, my parents are visiting Okayama. We took them to Korakuen yesterday which was as blissful as always. Sadly though, much of the lawn was indeed blackened, albeit not actively smouldering. When I pointed out the castle but mentioned that it was entirely re-built in 1966 they were unimpressed. I tend to feel the same way. However, I suppose that in 200 years time, people won’t be quite so snobby about it. In saying that, I still think building a lift into the castle was a mistake, authenticity-wise.

Japanese is a struggle at the moment. The main problem for me is memorizing the vocabulary. I don’t have a problem with the grammar and verb formations. Basic Kanji is perfectly do-able if you put the time and effort in. But no matter how much I study, I just can’t retain the words themselves. It has got to the point where I am jealous of my students’ impressive ability to memorize 50 words a week without breaking a sweat. Admittedly, they sometimes struggle to say anything out loud beyond “Good Morning”, but at least they know the word “phenomenon”.