On the other side of the Island

The view from the fourteenth floor overlooking the inland sea can be inspiring. There is a vivifying view to drive dreamers and prompt poets towards new aspirations. It can even revive and reassure over-worked writers and jaded journalists into believing that we can once again capture and contour a moment like this within a composition that is more than a mere cascade of words and more than a cluster of colloquial components. It is the proverbial moment to savor, a breath of fresh air, a piece of paradise, an intoxicated impulsive instance of enthusiastic and elated ebullience.
This is stuff of dreams and the experience of life placed preciously into a paragraph!

There are moments when someone can feel absolutely drained and this week has been one of those weeks. I really didn't want to get out of bed so early on Saturday morning. I was not required in the office and I had no schedule for the whole week-end. I was free and all that I desired was to stay cocooned in that dark, safe place in my bedroom. But there is no one to make the world go away and suddenly there is also no one to cuddle up with because she's already running around and demanding that I too get up!
My eyes are shut tight against the cruel light and I pull the cover over my head, I know exactly where she is and what she's doing because my ears are like twin radars. I was not yet free of the arms of Morpheus but just like a bat that is aware of the exact position of its prey, I felt her occupy a place in space and her presence invaded my ability to return to sleep.
"Come on!" she insisted.
My request for tea was denied because she remembers the last time that she made tea and brought it through to the bedroom for me. She probably remembers the time before that and the time before that one too! I fell asleep and it went cold and remained untouched. Every part of my body wanted to return to a state of unconsciousness, every part that was except my bladder which was being a little rebellious. I finally rolled out of my comfort zone and yawningly fell into my pre-planned routine starting with quieting the dissenting screams of my bladder!

On the train to Kobe, Miss 'Intensive Conversationalist' had her IPod in her ears and her eyes in a magazine and that seemed a waste of a window seat! I would have not used the window seat any better as this was unfortunately an alcohol free day which I'm sure my liver was very grateful for as I sat with my laptop looking over a few drafts that I'd promised to complete over the week-end. I spent about 30 minutes on the first one and thought I could do the rest later, then both my laptop and I shutdown and conserved power. We took almost three hours on the train to Kobe and a two hour bus ride to reach Tokushima, traveling across the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which is the world's longest suspension bridge. That took us onto Awaji Island and from there we crossed Onaruto Bridge onto the island of Shikoku. It is while crossing this straight that we often see whirlpools in the waters below!

We shared a delicious lunch in the hotel and the afternoon was spent by the pool and this truly was heaven and every part of me rejoiced in the relaxing sunshine.

It was just after seven when Hitomi received the phone call telling her to expect the imminent arrival of our guest, Miss Hayashi and a couple of young ladies. We met them in the foyer and we made our introductions over a few drinks and a very informal chat. The alcohol-free time had to end sometime! The result of our meeting had me spending my Sunday in her small office here in Tokushima city to discuss a possibility of future business and Hitomi, or Miss Indianna Jones as I am now want to call her, went out on an tourist trip to see the Iyano Kasurabashi (Iya vine bridge) which is a national cultural asset. It is said to have been built during the war in 1185 and it was made purely from vines which would be easy to cut down in case of pursuit by the enemy. Today it is supported by steel cables and the vines are replaced every three years. You pay a small fee to cross the bridge which, a sign says, helps preserve the bridge, helps keep the skills of building with vines to be passed to future generations and unofficially it's also to stop bloody tourists from falling to their deaths on the rocks below which would be slightly bad for business.

We leave here on Monday afternoon and I'll be back in the office on Tuesday. The result of my meeting with Miss Hayashi will be concluded with a second meeting with her in her Kobe office in two weeks time.

Footnote 1:
I have been approached by Daniel Dragomirescu, the editor in chief of a European cultural magazine called Contemporary Literary Horizon, with a view to contributing an article or two. It is based in Romania and his own blog can be found here.
I have made no decision as yet since I am fully committed with work over the next two weeks and I also stand at one of those proverbial cross-roads in life.

Footnote 2:
I am surprised that a lot of regular readers have not yet given me a Google mail account to enable them access when this blog goes private on September 12.

Footnote 3:
If anyone is interested in reading a previous post that I hid with an encryption routine last month because I was feeling so awful and down at the time, then the password is (case sensitive) "Fate"
I won't reply any comments to that one so don't expect answers.