So being back in Higashi-murayama, vising Naoto`s parents is a kind of slipstream feeling for me. There`s a hurricane going on right now, and the wind and whipping rain kind of adds to the unreal feeling.

I say slipstream because I feel like I slip inbetween this *natsukashii* (oh, this is nostalgically old and familiar) feeling and a *oh* feeling. I see places I haven:t really hung out in for more than a year. And I feel all sloppy-sweet about them. I went to the bread store where I went almost every few days today, in order to get their Maple Melon bread which is to-die-for delicious. I recognized the register girl.

But on the other hand, these are all places I lived in, am familiar with, and it:s just *oh*, as in *oh, here it is* rather than *wow, cool, I:m in Japan*.

(sorry about the strange punctuation, weird Japanese keyboard

It doesn`t help that I am going stir crazy because I can`t go anywhere with all the rain except for where mother-in-law wants to take me.

Anyway, I realized, yesterday, not for the first time, how ironic it is that there are alot of very attractive young men in Japan, but when they hit forty or fifty, all of a sudden a million moles nad age spots pop out all over their face and they develop a fetish for pomade to smooth back their thinning hair. Yep, I`m really saying this (sorry naoto), young=good looking, old= ugly here in Japan.

That is, except for their prime ministers. Yep, in case you didn:t know, the prime minister just changed here in Japan. (Naoto got disgusted last week when a whole week`s worth of US evening news neglected to mention that). Both the old and the new prime minister, Abe-chan, have strangely virile, full heads of hair. And while they may use pomade, it isn:t in the slick-backed yucky strands of hair style, so I approve.

Anyway, it`s almost time for me to go take my claritin (cat allergies), so see you later, taters.