Rajio Taiso

I'm reading Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki.  I'm not very far into it, but it's set in Tokyo and I'm having flashbacks right and left.  Early in the book the main character, who is telling the story, mentions rajio taiso.  Radio calisthenics.  It's a radio exercise program that plays every morning at 6:30.  The guy tells you what the next exercise is then does the count to just the kind of music you would expect for an early morning radio exercise program.  "Ich! Ni! Ich! Ni!" over and over then on to the next exercise.  Those two words nearly overwhelmed me when I read them.  My first apartment in Funabashi, near Tokyo but considered inaka, the country-side, was across from the local city office.  Or rather, the back of the the city office and there was a big paved area where people could gather and kids could play.  My first summer there I was really looking forward to my month of holiday in August.  All of the schools shut down for the entire month.  I had been burning the candle at both ends teaching English in the early mornings, evenings and all day Saturday and going to Japanese class every weekday afternoon for 3 hours.  I was beat and looking forward to sleeping in late.  I could still do that back then.  The first Monday morning of my vacation I had roused early from habit then rolled back over still mostly asleep, happy in the knowledge that I had nowhere to be and could lounge in bed, snuggled in my futon for hours yet.  I didn't have air conditioning, but I slept with the widows open and there was a light breeze drifting through the apartment.  I was well on my way to glorious slumber when a blast of sound catapulted me from my futon and to the balcony door to witness the horror that had befallen me..  There ,in the little square at the back of the city office, were at least a couple hundred little kids along with their mommies being led in radio taiso.  The music was being blasted out of 2 huge speakers set up against the back wall of the building directly facing my apartment and the canyon created by the towering brick and concrete walls that formed the courtyard, along with the paved ground,  created a perfect shaped to channel the agonizing cacophony directly at my apartment and into my poor, discombobulated brain.  I staggered away from the window, feebly trying to pull myself together enough to close the windows a block out the booming of the radio announcers "ICH! NI! ICH! NI!" I succeeded and the sound reduced to a mere calamity. It went on for 10 excruciating minutes. When it was over I made myself a cup of tea to calm myself and sat in silence, hoping to recapture my earlier peace and go back to bed.  It was futile.  And so it went for the rest of the month, 6:30 in the morning, 5 days a week.  I was told that they did it to keep the kids active during the summer holiday, to help them get their day started. I supposed it served the same purpose for me.

Leaving Paris

As took my walk this morning it struck me that it was one of my last in Paris.  I have maybe 6 or 7 left.  It wasn't a thundering revelation to me. It had been creeping up for a while.  Six months ago I couldn't have imagined leaving Paris for at least another 2 or 3 years.  Things change.  Now I'm looking forward to it.  There will be a lot I'll miss about Paris, but we're moving to a great city with just as much history.

We have a schedule now so it's gotten very real.  Our belongings will be packed and carted off by the movers on the 26th and we'll fly out on the 27th or 28th.  Yes, that's less that two weeks away.  Amazingly we don't have that much to do.  Mostly deciding what to take with in our suitcases.  We're not moving that far away, less that 2 hours by plane and out stuff will join us lass that a week after we find an apartment.  A much easier move that Sydney was.  Or Texas.

We're spending some of our time doing a few last things we haven't gotten around to yet and revisiting old favorites.  A lot of it revolves around food and wine, which makes sense.  A few last trips to our favorite museums.  A few more long walks.  Then a whole to city to explore.  I could get used to this.

Summertime

When I was a kid summers were simple.  They were about riding my bike from dawn to dusk, hanging out with my best friend Mike and honeyed iced tea at my Grandma's house.  And the highlight of the summer, the camping trip.  Every summer we took a two week camping road trip.  There were short weekend trips and I loved those, but it was the long trip that the summer was built upon.  One year we did Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.  Another year it was Yellowstone.

Imagine three kids stuffed into the back of a Vega station wagon,  camping gear packed in the space behind the back seat and a rented carrier strapped to the roof.  We had all of our own gear.  A 4 man tent, sleeping bags, Coleman camp stove and lanterns.  The whole deal.  When we wren't on the road we kids were camping in the back yard.

The summer I always think about though, was the summer at Ruedi Reservoir.   That was the year that we didn't have a goal destination.  We just hopped in the car and drove and somehow that's where we ended up.  We'd only planned to stay a few nights and ended staying for most of the vacation.  The streams feeding the reservoir were running and the water was high.  We found a great spot near a large stream and put up the tent.  The stream was gorged with trout.  They were beautiful.  You could hardly throw your line in without pulling out and big, fat fish.  My mom cooked them up in a pan on the coleman to over a grate on the fire.  I remember one fish that got caught up on some rocks in the stream.  The line was tangled, but the fish was still on the hook.  my sister, Rhonda, waded out into the stream and brought back the fish.  She got the credit for that one even though it was on my hook.  Fair enough.  Then there was the night a huge storm blew in and the tent stakes pulled out of the ground.  The only thing that kept the tent from blowing away was the weight of 2 adults and 3 kids.  My dad and I ran out and pounded the stakes back in then we all huddled in the tent until morning broke.

We revisited Ruedi again a few years later, but it wasn't the same.  The streams were low and the fish not biting.  We moved on pretty quickly that year.

I think about why I travel sometimes.  It's not really the traveling for me.  It's not the sights and the marvels.  It's the being in a place, living there.  I don't really travel like most people do.  I go places and I live there.  I walk the streets, or hike the trails as the case may be.  I don't sight see.  That was what that one summer at Ruedi Reservoir was for me.  I can't help but think it had something to do with why I travel as an adult.

By way of Introduction

I've traveled a lot in my life compared to most, but not nearly as much as some.  Most of my traveling has been in pursuit of another goal.  Not for the pure act of traveling.  A lot of it has been in pursuit of animation, to study it or to do it.  This blog will be about the travel.  I'm sure animation will pop it's weary head up from time to time, but this is about the travel.

I've done of few of these travel blogs over the past several years as we've hopped around the globe.  You can find them at the following links.

http://mcdonaldsdownunder.blogspot.com

http://kenninindia.blogspot.com

http://kenninparis.blogspot.fr

They were of various lengths and all were mostly a way of dealing with the move we were making.  Thinking out loud.  They were all overtaken by work or boredom.  I hope that this blog will not be.  I plan on this one to be a little more far ranging.  I'm going to start with the core of moving about in the world and see where it leads.  I'm going to do a lot of reminiscing, but I also plan to do some looking at the world as it is today and maybe even where it may be going.

Why am I doing this now?  I have the time.  I only sleep about 6 hours a night.  I hit the sack between 9 and 10 and I'm up 6 hours later.  I've decided to do something at least superficially more constructive than surfing Facebook and Twitter on my iPad with that time.  This is being written at 3:45 in the morning.  That's what the clock says right now on my Macbook.

That's enough for now.  I'm going to try to publish here at least a few times a week. We'll see.