Over the edge

Floating lazily and feeling lost in between the soft folds of textured dreams where the smiling soft pleasures and dark nightmare pains constantly fight for attention and in running across floors of viscous milk rice to try escaping the talons of my pursuing succubus, I fall deeper into the catacombs amongst the misplaced worlds of forgotten universes. Embroidered flowers sway in a gentle wind as if dancing beneath skies of faded blue denim. High and almost hidden behind the lush tree line is a temple in the distance with the monks sounding the bell.
The bell!

The bell was gently sounding on my travel alarm and my new day materialized around me. I stay awake for silly hours sometimes at night when I'm lost in the cyber-world.
Although I was a little hungry I wasn't really tempted too much by the comfort hotels morning menu except for a little omelet with a fruit filling. I am always attracted by the smell of hot fruit and it did fortify me while I was chatting with madame on the phone arranging our meeting.
I had a three hour appointment to close my assignment for my working weekend and then I went to the train station to buy my ticket for Shimonoseki. There were not many in the queue on a quiet Sunday lunch time and as I looked around me, I spotted a silly face pressed up against the ticket office window just staring at me.
Ha ha she'd come to meet me as a surprise instead of meeting her there as we'd planned. When she came over to me in the office she couldn't take her eyes away from my hair and was laughing and making jokes. A severe look of disappointment (faked) on my face and her jokes about it soon stopped and really she quite liked it and she was stroking it and had her fingers in it quite often on our short train ride and she succeeded in making a mess of it. I had thought that she was in Osaka all this week but she explained that a cross bookings error at her agency resulted in her being offered this job to replace the missing one.

We traveled down to Shimonoseki on the train together which is most definitely at the edge of the world, whilst exchanging news and eating corn sticks and sipping blackcurrant juice through damp flat straws. Shimonoseki has landmarks such as the Kanmonkyo suspension bridge that reaches out to the island of Kyushu and it has the tall Kaikyu Yume tower (which you can see behind us in the header picture). The tower has an observation deck at the top within the glass sphere but we never climbed it and not because I have issues with heights!
The wind was cool coming in from the sea and my short leather jacket which was lovely and warm, made my overall look like an extra from the movie "Grease" according to her. I compared her to Barbara Streisand's "Funny Girl" as my little snip at her high heels!

Shimonoseki's only other modern claim to fame is the fact that it has the biggest harvest of puffer-fish (fugu) and in case you are wondering, no I don't care for it. If His Majesty the Emperor won't eat fugu then neither will I. Some people call this fish as 'teppo' which means 'gun' and is a funny way here of saying eat me and die!

There is a famous story about some men that cooked this poisonous fish and didn't know if it was safe to eat or not so they gave some to a simple beggar outside. When they returned the beggar was smiling and gave his thanks for the food while returning the empty dish. The cooks waited and the beggar was in good health and so now believed it was now safe and so they too ate their fish. After an hour and none of the three cooks had suffered any ill effects, the beggar pulled out the fish he'd been given from the concealment of his bag and ate it knowing now that it was safe. The three cooks had been fooled by the wisdom of this simple man.

Having seen the small hotel that Hitomi has for her one week stay here I won't complain about the comfort hotel my company booked for me. I wouldn't complain at all and am thankful for it. I really am remarking about that perhaps before the restructure we perhaps did book into the more expensive hotels on our expense accounts. I am not disparaging her room at all, it was small, simple and clean and very comfortable and no traffic noise from outside because we were far from the central area. I shall just acknowledge that in todays economic climate all companies have to cut costs on where and what they spend on the same as we individuals do too. She was right to look for a reasonably priced hotel and they are much cheaper once you move out of the city center and away from the usual travelers haunts. I wasn't allowed to share her small room overnight (officially) and so I had to buy a room for myself for a single night and it only cost me ¥5000 (50US$ or 40€) with my evening meal and breakfast included so I was very happy with that price. Lucky for me with just a small ticket extension I could get the fast train home from Kokura station which is a 15 minute bus ride from here. Then it is just over five hours back home.
It's a strange feeling that I'm experiencing now in my thoughts that when the demands of work would put distance between us then these are the times that I want to be close. Like a slap in the face to the fates. When we are normally together at home then sometimes I just want to stay away from her! (Laughs) I'm joking but I think you may know what I mean!

An uneventful ride home on Monday morning had me yawning and spreading out in the greater space and comfort of the fast train in comparison to the slow local trains. The meals on board the fast train are always very nice and are much better than meals you even find on most airline flights. Today I chose the roast chicken from the offered menu and look how nice it appears. I can confirm that it was hot, moist and succulent and it tasted as good as it looked. I think you all know that Jazzy baby likes it hot and moist and...
Oh never mind! (Laughs)

The sad news is that after I reached home and left the station, I was going to make a call to Hitomi to tell her that I'd just arrived home safely when I found... or rather I didn't find my phone. I frantically searched my travel bag, my purse, my pockets and I retraced my steps to see if I have dropped it somewhere. The very nice platform superintendent even allowed me back on to the train to see if it was in my seat or under it. It was not! None of the train cleaning team who had started work as soon as the last passenger had left had seen it and it had not been handed in to the misplaced property department.

Tears!

涙

I had some contact numbers and even some private phone images in there. I feel naked without it!
Luckily for me I have a lot of my numbers written down in my address book for just such a crisis as me losing my phone or it breaks or something worse. I raced home and borrowed my brother's phone and left Hitomi a text to say I've lost my phone.
I've also left texts with the people who most send me messages.
If some stranger phones you with my number it isn't me!

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A JAZZY PUZZLE

Try to guess where this is bearing in mind what you see.

All answers to my comment box please.