But then that's why I came here in the first place...

It’s been a funny month. I haven’t updated for a while. That’s because I had to fly back to the UK at short notice and they weren’t the kind of circumstances where I could post an offbeat observation on Japanese crisps or other equally fascinating topics.

London felt different. Being away for such a long time really made me appreciate its good points. Japanese cities tend to be beautiful at night but less appealing in the daytime. For once, I really appreciated what a pretty city London is. There is a sense of history that you don’t feel in many Japanese cities where the buildings often feel transient-like they will all be knocked down and rebuilt in 20 years time.

British people look really unhealthy. I’m not sure why I haven’t noticed that until now. In Japan I’ve been surrounded by super-skinny people and many of my older colleagues are surprisingly fit for their age. My vice principle, who’s in his fifties, outpaced both me and Kelly when we went hiking with him. But on touchdown at Heathrow, it was noticeable just how unwell people looked. In saying that, I think Brits look unhealthy compared to almost all other nationalities, not just the Japanese.

I realised that I’d really been missing pretentious art scene stuff. So I did a whirlwind tour of the Mondrian-Nicholson exhibition at the Courtald and the Picasso in Britain exhibition at the Tate. Both were great, but especially the former which gave me a whole new range of pretentious things to say in conversation about Nicholson. Not that I’d do that, right?

I’m back in Japan now. Outside of my school, I have barely seen any cherry blossom yet. That needs to be rectified. K Chan and I are thinking about visiting Kyoto at the weekend, but so is everyone else in Japan so we’ll see if that actually comes together. I’ve actually got it into my head that too much is made out of the cherry blossom and that I don’t especially like it-but I have no basis on which to think this. It could just be that my brain is just wanting to be automatically contrary. I need to get down to Kyoto/Korakuen and decide for myself.

Apropos of nothing, here's a link to my favourite live Pulp-clip. This song always makes me want to be a house-husband.