The play is the thing

It was a hazy dawn that was gradually lighting up the sky behind me as I jogged past the 'Homac' super store on the edge of town. The music of my ipod drowned out the occasion passing of the early morning buses and heavy trucks. Every time that I've been in Hokkaido I have always felt invigorated and I love to jog in the dawn. Even my beloved Momma felt so much better breathing in the fresh sea air that fills Otaru. Just as this morning I'd get up, brush my teeth and have a quick wash, do my hair and put on my sports clothing and jog north out of town towards the Herring mansion. The coast road leading to it used to have the tunnel through the hills to Shukutsu but that has long since closed and appears quite desolate and forgotten now that they've opened the much more modern tunnel on route 454 from Takashima port straight through.
The route I take out of town along the coast to the old tunnel is quite beautiful and as it brings me back into town along by the old and somewhat picturesque canal, the vivid color of the sky tells the world to wake up and the town begins to become alive with people.
I'll call into the bakery as I get back to town center, it always has such a warm happy aroma about it and I'll buy warm freshly baked breads and then I'll take a leisurely walk home and shower.
By this time the angels will have woken up and be deciding what to wear and perhaps smelling the freshly baked breads will run downstairs where the maid will be spreading butter and preserves. Of course since the jog and the bakery is my usual habit they know it will be there waiting.
For those that don't know Otaru, a port town in the northern Island of Hokkaido. I would like to tell you that it is a beautiful town well known for the canal, its beer and glass-blowing and delicious fresh sea food. The word 'otaru' is a very old word that comes from the very first tribes-people of our nation and it means something like a river in a sandy bay. The aches and pains in my thighs and calves will tell you that the town is nothing like that at all. The immediate town next to the sea is nice and flat but as soon as you walk away from the sea and pass the train station you are climbing up a hill with a perfect vista of mountains in the distance and the hills we walk can be pretty steep in some places.
Dad's house is atop a rather steep incline and starting out fresh on my pre-dawn jog - I am running down hill and then on the flat roads that hug the coastline. Coming back into town it's the same flat low land until after I leave the Bakery. It's all uphill from there and that is why I walk.

How many times I have sought Otaru as a sanctuary myself seems uncountable. I have found it so easy to relax here and to write here and to spend precious time with my dad and see my eldest brother and his wife.
I phoned Hitomi to say that I hope she does not have too much work this week and that she can find time to relax as the children and I are enjoying a week away. She laughed and said the peace was a welcome respite. I told her not to make home untidy and I'll see her at the weekend.

As I sit here with my laptop on the kitchen table after a delicious lunch of fresh crab and salad with noodles. I look out of the window and watch the angels play gleefully on the lawn with their Grandfather.
In a way I feel a pang of jealousy as I watch them run and squeal with delight because when I was their age he just never seemed to have the time to play with my brothers and I. Oh he had time for us if there were lessons to be taught and there was something that he could teach us but I have told you all countless times, he has mellowed out a lot as he has aged. I can be happy as I see the three of them having fun in their games and enjoying the cool spring sunshine. The angels love his attention and I think in a way my Dad actually enjoys acting as a child now that he has time away from the demands of work and who know, perhaps he believes that this is a chance to be with them in such a manner as he wished he could have been with us. That thought makes me feel very warm inside.
But as I finish sipping my lemon tea I realize that it's time to close the lid of this laptop as they shout for me to come and play. I get my chance now to run and play with Dad and I should not wish for the angels when they are grown to write that their Mother could not play.