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new type of home

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Kokubunji, 2020.09.06

Mari and I have been remarking to each other what a difference this place is already making. The kids can run off to their rooms upstairs to hop on live games and simultaneous chats with their friends. We can barely hear that they're online, as opposed to having to hear every syllable of "Cha-chan, I said go left! Go left! Go left now... Why didn't you go left. Now I'm dead again." The first floor has a "six tatami" room plus a good sized eating/living room that's adjacent to the kitchen. In short, we have enough room to live without constantly bumping elbows. And the rent, even with all the up-front charges, is less than we could have found in Toronto anywhere.

There are trade-offs, of course. It's a 25km+ trek to work by bike, or a three-train journey plus a ten minute walk if I want to take transit. Also, the only shop within a reasonable walk is the grocery store, so it's not like it's an exactly walkable place. But of course we knew this coming into it. And again, it's doable becaus ethe first train trip is maybe three minutes in duration, and the long one is handled nicely by an express that makes all of two stops between us and the hub station at Shinjuku. The third trip is four stops on the major ring line.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges