Early Start, Early Home

Wednesday 4th November 2009

AM

Least: At just after 7:20am, I finally dragged myself out of bed to get ready for work. My new day shift begins at 10:40am, but it's miles out of the city in Gakken-Nara-Tomigaoka. It will be even more dificult to rise next week after a late finish at work on Tuesday night. I hope the early return home is worth it.

Most: At close to 10:ooam, as my train climbed into the Ikoma mountains, the view of Osaka was incredible. From the side of the mountain I could see the vast concrete blanket that covers Osaka Bay. Apart from the sickly brown smudge of smog, it was a strangely beautiful view - next week I'll try to take a photo.

PM

Least: Approaching 5:15pm, I stepped onto the JR Loop line at Tsurahashi station. The crowed nature of the train would not usually bother me, except for the number of clearly ill people on board. The number of flu cases is approaching 6 million in Japan, a I think a fair swag of them are continuing to ride the train pretending that their masks are working. If I haven't already had the swine flu, I'm sure I'll have it soon.

Most: At 4:35pm, as I left work, it was just beginning to darken. The sunset on the way home was spectacular and it felt good to be free before 9:30pm as usual. Probably the most interesting part was knowing that many of my colleagues were only an hour into their shifts. Arriving home just before 6:00pm, I streched out on the couch with nothing to think about except what I was going to cook Rosie for dinner. I settled on a basic spaghetti.