journal features

Ome is for (river) lovers

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Kokubunji, 2021.07.17

The rainy season has abruptly ended, and the temperature is north of 30°C every day. Both kids were out of school today because The Boy spent the week writing term final exams and didn't have class. So we returned to Ome (omé), the town I cycled to last month.

It was a longish drive, taking even longer than it took me to ride, but we had a nice time visiting the Tamagawa. I showed the kids how to crack open rocks by banging them on the edge of a large, sharp-edged piece of some very dense brown rock that emerged from the rubble. When researching where to go, Mari found a fishing outfit where you can fish from stocked ponds. So we'll return yet again this coming Thursday, which is a national holiday.

It was great to get away from the house in a safe way as COVID numbers begin to rise. Once again.

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