Enter the strange

I must warn you all that my posts may become strange at times. They may even be frightening. For the faint of heart, I recommend a strong aperitif before eating and digesting. {the picture above is at Suizenji Park, Kumamoto City}

But before all that there is some harmless news. My mom has finally returned to her own archipelago. They love her here and pretty much want my whole family to move here (except maybe my brothers, but that is understandable). I think that she had a chance to see some things that were still the way they were when she lived here when she was seven. However, now there are cars and concrete most everywhere and that has changed the mindset of the people here, or maybe consumerism and its vagaries was the culprit.

Consumerism. A few weeks ago I acquired a new car. It is a 1995 Daihatsu Charade Detomaso. It is pretty much the perfect car. And, I only had to pay for taxes on it, which makes it even nicer (nb taxes are very high in Japan for cars). I think that it gets about 15 kilometers per liter. Still, it's fast, utilitarian, and has a leather steering wheel made by some Italian racing company. Here is a picture of it:


It is nice to finally have the freedom to explore. It's so beautiful around where I live I have trouble imagining that there are places in Japan that are more beautiful (except maybe in Hokkaido and Yakushima). But maybe I am just being dumb.