I woke up this morning in a bit of a panic, calculating train times in my head and realizing I had to leave today, not tomorrow, and stay in the city near the train station so I could get an early start tomorrow.  I was rushing to the computer to book a night at a hostel when Fuko, in her wonderful matter-of-fact way, told me I was staying at her house for the next night or two, if that's not too much bother, so let's go for a bike ride now please. perfection pt 1: friends 7000 miles from home

We biked over to Gen's house in the next village over, with me in the lead.  Salvaged from the junkyard, most of the bikes have at least one thing wrong with them (all have at least one working brake though!) and the seats are decidedly too low, but they're just contribute to the eminently practical roughing-it charm this place has.

We were half-way to Gen's house when I realized I hadn't been paying conscious attention to the way, and this made me warmer than the sun overhead:

When I first arrived in Sasayama, after being picked up at the train station and dropped off at Tsuji House, after I put down a futon and prepared my bedding, I went for a walk.  I wish I could post pictures (they're taken, they'll be up when I get a cable), but I'm so half-hearted when I take photos of the fields, the mountains, the houses.  I take a photo or two and let the camera dangle from my wrist. I know they don't capture the beauty, so I don't want to waste a moment I could looking at my surroundings myself.  It's a feeling as much as a view.  And on that inaugural walk, I looked around me and though, "I am in as beautiful a place as I have ever been, and I don't have to leave!"

So biking on autopilot, suddenly at home in this place on the eve of my departure, I was happy.  perfection pt 2: the japanese countryside is in my comfort zone. We then arrived at Gen's house, and I stretched leisurely on the lawn reading The Hobbit.  perfection pt. 3 and 4: reading fantasy again for the first time in years.  not wearing a shirt outside and being warm.

We prepared a picnic lunch and biked up a tiny road to a reservoir that holds water which will be let down at the right moment to flood rice fields.  The dam is beautifully covered with grass, so as we sat on top of it with our picnic, a still pond stretched to one side and a grass-covered hill dropped off the other, making it the most glorious place for a meal and afternoon nap.  perfection pt. 5: picnics

Reading The Hobbit makes a lot more sense to me now, in a way.  I never before understood how any sort of journey could last a whole year, or why they measured time in weeks, or days when they were in a hurry.  Here life adopts a similar pace.  I spent three consecutive days this week weeding onions and daydreaming.  We talk about weather by the week, for the most part.

This evening I learned how to make yogurt (perfection pt. 6: yogurt nomm), and a friend of the household (family + friends + woofers) was over making tempura.  He owns and cooks for a restaurant (I worked there last week busing and washing dishes).  perfection pt. 7: restaurant-quality japanese food.

So basically I slept in the sun and ate all day.  Perfection.