La Japoneisa: Fleemarket, Grasshopper and a Toothbrush

Last night Mason came to Chiiori.
Today I was supposed to join him in his clearing-the-house-for-the-Weisses action but Mason slept till 10am and so I made shortbread. And cooked lunch.
In the afternoon though I had to give to my obligations and followed Mason to his house above Mason's fields.
The place was packed with things however at that point I still did not know what kind of things they were; what I saw were piles upon piles, mountains of stuff covered with dust of years and travels. Slowly our act upon the intention uncovered billion years old magazines, inhabitated books with inhabitators-stuck-pages, boxes of all sorts of ware. I was sat by the pipe that provided the whole village with fresh mountain water and an old modesty-towel-turned-zokin, big yellow bucket and inconsistent music coming out of an ancient stereo were my companions for the next four hours. I was also armed with a toothbrush, a memorial of my status of slavery and previously agreed obligations, and was labouring off a punishment for something I have not done, working off the hours from my money-ownage. And so I sat and washed and washed and washed inumerable amounts of japanese style trays, couple of antique tobacco boxes from Laos and then more and more things until I found myself right in the middle of Iya fleemarket.
And I watched a dead grasshopper. The grasshopper was green and had an army of ants struggling with him (to gain a more personal outlook the grasshopper had to be bestowed with a gender). The second time I looked the ant was 20 centimetres further left! The third time I looked the grasshopper's head seemed to have been falling off and this fact was confirmed when I closely watched the ants undo the head and their further attempts at moving this head into their ant house in the concrete floor.

In the evening Koji gave us a call and was wondering whether BoChan and I were to join Awa Odori tonight. Suddenly I felt this warmth at my heart that one feels when they begin becoming a part of something greater, or even a part of something.


And so we drove and danced, then drove again, spoke a little and then drove once again to dance a little more and I cried for a way to capture these twilight of life.
For the last couple of weeks I've been banging my head against the wall, against everything there was available really, for neglecting the need of owning a socket adapter as my camera ran out of juice, as did everything else, and I was not able to catch all the moments of beauty and joy that I'd like everybody in my heart to live with me.
Wayne, coming on Monday, is one of my only hopes (never thought an ordinary Englishman would reach such a high status in my eyes, but extreme situations require extreme solutions).
My second hope is Mum the Great. The third one is Wayne's mum.
This is the time where, I have to admitt, I truly came to deep understanding and full appreciation of a Mother's Day for they all deserve it. I wish I could be such a selfless creature one day. All the chocolates and packages of other random goodness that came my way since there was the need to...I guess it is only now that I see so far as the sender. And i am grateful.
And then there is, as one of the last resorts the 37 of Don Weiss's unpacked boxes and if that fails, it is Bangkok and Mason's fleemarket.