Tone-gawa

So I've been thinking...last time I logged in I talked about the blog as my "room." Now I'm not so sure that metaphor works. I think I truly do need a physical space, a domain to call my own. While it it nice to have this netherworld, mysteriously-floaty virtual space in which I can keep a journal, a log, a running display of my rambling thoughts, this blog is not a sanctuary. I guess that's what a room or space ultimately means to me. I remember when I lived in Gunma-ken (in Japan), how I had this perfect space. Along the bank of the Tone River, which ran through the city's downtown, there were these great sakura trees which would bend right over the water, and the sound of the water was loud enough, I could just sit there and hear nothing else. No cars or motorcycles or busses from the nearby Interstate. No yaki-imo vender playing his yaki-imo song from the back of his truck. No schoolboys on bicycles shouting and laughing. Just me, my river, a tree, and a journal. I could write there for hours.

Thinking back, I can't remember even what I would write. Maybe some poems, maybe I was just keeping a journal. But I can see that place; I can even smell it - the ramen shop just there on the other side of the bridge, the smell of the water on the grass. I guess I miss having a place that is all mine.