last of the summer holidays

Just working my way through the last of the summer holidays. School will start again next week. I'm looking forward to teaching the japanese kids and seeing the elementary school teachers again. The weathers been hot, consistently 30 degrees plus and humid (yay for air-con). I'm also looking forward to the advent of autumn which should occur sometime soon. The autumn leaves are amazing with japanese maples dotted throughout the mountain sides. Kyoto temples are especially beautiful in autumn. However the autumn will be followed by the chilly winter I remember from last year (bring out the kerosene heaters!) hopefully I'll still be able to get to school on my scooter and the roads are not too snowy. Mind you, the cycle will complete itself with the coming of spring and the cherry blossoms.

I sometimes think about why the seasons are different in NZ and Japan. I think it's because the Earth is on a slight tilt on the axis so one hemisphere is a little closer to the sun (correct?) as the earth spins and rotates about the sun, once every year, we get the four seasons emerging at different points on the ellipse - something like that, I think

I've been swimming in the rivers here when it gets to hot. The countryside rivers are so fresh and clear. I bought a mask and snorkel and I'm amazed by the variety and number of fish swimming in the rivers. It's a great way to cool off after a sticky-hot day - jump in the local river and rinse that sweat away in the cool clean water.

I met an old fisherman who gave me the go ahead to swim anywhere. I asked him 'sumimasen ga, kono kawa no naka ni, oyoide mo ii desu ka?' may I swim in this river?' and he replied 'oyoide doozo - doko demo ii, kirei da ne' basically ' go ahead and swim, anywhere is fine, beautiful river isn't it?' so it's all good.

Lots of love to the NZ peoples and to everyone in the world, though we struggle with day to day activites, in actuality, we are eternally blissful entities. Peace.