After a month of rainy mornings, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided to step out for a walk. It was brrr cold in the beginning but a quick warm up jog was all that was needed to break through. I clicked a few spring signs along my walk and at this point I think we are a week or may be two away from peak bloom. I don’t mind being proven wrong. But the buds are waiting for a little warmth to open up and paint my neighborhood with vibrant colors.

It was nice to step out of the routine and do something different. I don’t know where February went. Work has been very very crazy, and even though our social calendar is at rest, life is rushing through weeks and months. So it is time to pause, and control the pace instead of rolling with the punches.

Last night after work we went to Books Inc and bought toys for all of us. Agam got his third 1000 piece puzzle, I bought two books – Strange Weather in Tokyo, and The Bookshop. Tara got a collection of Pete the Cat’s stories. The three of us walked out delighted and hopeful of a reset weekend. We went to Rumble Fish for Sushi and enjoyed a quiet, and light meal.

I finished Strange Weather in Tokyo this morning. It is a delightful story of a relationship that emerges from no where, between a woman in her 30s and her old high school teacher who is 30 years older. It has all the flavors of Japanese literature, the delicate mix of emotions, realism and loneliness. I enjoyed it and recommend it. It is a fairly quick read, but very refreshing and comforting.

The characters come to life through the well crafted details of conversation between them. I can totally see this book being made into a movie some day. It’s conversational flow resembles Before Sunset.

I am obsessed with Japanese literature, so I have my biases. But it takes effort and skill to write a love story that derives its strength from the spoken and unspoken dialogues between the characters. And not the plot, and the dramatic visualization. It takes little effort from the reader to slip into the world of Tsukiko and Sensei and relate to them. I am going to stay with them a little while before I move on to The Bookshop 🙂