Snow Falling on Snow

A soft 'crumph' every 5 minutes or so. Thought I had a stalker for a while, but it's the snow falling off my roof. It's come in a big way while I was away: Kuji looks a different place now. Stunningly beautiful - the trees like confectionery, the mountains dusted - although my view may change when I have to drive to work through the stuff.

Kyoto was memorable - the place (or, rather, the outskirts; the downtown area, billion-dollar station aside, seems a pretty average Japanese city) is a picture-postcard version of Japan: bamboo groves, temples, rock gardens, monks, the works. Every temple seems to have been burned down at least five times so practically all the buildings you see now are reconstructions. Particularly good were Chion-in (ludicrously, comically massive temple complex) and Kinkakuji (that one covered in gold you often see in Japanese tourist board adverts; Yukio Mishima wrote a novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, about the monk who burnt it down in a spasm of obsession in 1950). I won't claim to understand the nuances of layout and design but even to a Philistine like me it's a pretty otherworldly place. Nara was probably even more spectacular - it contains the largest wooden building in the world, Toudai-ji, which itself houses one of the largest Buddhas in the world, and which, brain-meltingly, is only two-thirds the size of the original. That was - predictably - burnt down in the 16th century. The present scale is that of a cathedral. Photos of both on FB soon.

Other than that? The guesthouse I stayed in also accommodated a rather beautiful Chinese girl with whom relations were good but whom, chance perforce, I shall never see again; New Year's was amusing, spent round a badminton group member's house watching a pretty funny TV special then seeing in the new year at the local temple; a few house visits and training before school resumes next week. All good in the house of Pearson. It was quite the 2010 for me; I hope 2011 proves even better. Best wishes to you all.