on my way to work

Thursday, the week sure has gone by fast. Always does when one is busy. Walked to work this morning, which takes me about a good 20minutes. Was too lazy to get out of bed this morning at 7 for my walk around the neighbourhood, so decided that the walk to work was better than nothing. You may think that my walk to work would be full of exhuast fumes and people crammed along the footpaths, but it is completely the oppposite. I walk up a hill that has quite a number of trees and very quiet. I can also hear the birds chirping, which gives me a sense of peace and calmness before I start work. There are a number of cafes I cross and often contemplate to sit in one and study, but everytime I do, I am bothered by the gossiping oba-sans (women over 40ish) or the smoke that lingers from the smoking area to the non-covered non-smoking area, or the draft that is caused by the door opening and closing recieving the morning customers. Therefore I choose to ignore those cafes and go to my desk where I can spend a bit of time on the PC and some study before "really" working. Most of you know that my work is rather vague and wonder exactly what I do. Sometimes I do as well. All I know that it fits in with my lifestyle which is the most important thing.

Lunch was an exception to the daily routine. Work friend (and surfing buddy) H took me to a restaurant that I haven't been to for about 2 years. It was stepping back into little Kyoto. The room was architectually designed like a typical house in Kyoto (dark chocolate stained wooden beams jutting out from the cream coloured walls, intricately carved sliding wooden doors), all separating rooms from each other. Was very impressive and a complete escapism from the office and Tamachi. Today had a slightly different meal and that was one of chicken tempura. A bit like KFC, without the oily skin and heavy fried batter, yet not like the deep-fried chicken they also serve here in Japan. I am not usually a fan of chicken, however, this particular meal was quite good and reasonably priced.

I didn't make it to my yoga class last night, due to studying intensively at work till 9pm! Quite a record for me. On my way home last night, I was thinking how if you really didn't love what you did at work, then working every night till this time would be complete torture, since you really couldn't do what you really wanted to do, let alone go to the gym and just blob out watching a TV drama or something. Luckily for me, I am out of the office by 7 most nights so have quite a bit of time to do what I want, but for the majority of workers, this is impossible. No wonder people would say that their hobbies are sleeping or watching the odd TV program, work doesn't allow them to have much more than that. Needless to say, most of the people I work with, are out of the office by 8pm, and my boss leaves most days at around 7pm. However, there are those that stay till 10 or 11pm with the lights of the office blaring out well into the wee hours. Thank goodness I am not one of those..

If you wish to know the road up the mountain,
you must ask the man who goes back and forth in it.
Japanese Proverb