Happy anniversary to us, again. With a typhoon blowing in, we didn’t make elaborate plans but we had a three-day weekend to fill. We chose quiet, mundane adventures near home.
Saturday
The day’s cold rain made me want an onsen bath. We headed down to Tateyama for a soak at Satomi no Yu with a detour for pizza at Goccia on the beach. Then we wandered next door to Tateyama Sweets Center where we bought chocolate and donuts.
Tod had a desire to replace his worn-out shoes with the same model, so we stopped at the shop where he’d bought them two years ago to learn that shoe is no longer made. Our mood changed after the shoe disappointment and we ended up coming home instead of bathing.
Sunday
Tod suggested we go to the Ichihara Lakeside Museum with a detour for lunch on the way. I randomly selected a lunch spot en route that turned out to be so wonderful we will return with guests and friends. Kamameshi Kura restaurant is in a traditional storehouse. The owner’s grandson is opening a fusion French-Japanese restaurant in the adjacent house in December. The family was warm and friendly; we had a good conversation as well as a delicious meal.
Ichihara Lakeside Museum was hosting “Re-collection” an exhibit of Ichihara artists whose works were in the vaults. Many were by Yukio Fukuzawa, a mezzotint artist whose prints are gorgeous. He had a knack for balancing form and detail. I was deeply inspired and lightly depressed as I sometimes am when I realise how poor my art is in comparison. But I well know that “comparison is the thief of joy” so I focus on the joy part. Fukuzawa’s work deserves joyful admiration.
On top of my awe of Fukuzawa, I fell in love with a painting of an industrial gas storage sphere by one of three artists named Tokita also in the exhibition. Not the most typical subject matter but it was treated with the most delightful play of color and composition. It was massive, too, almost 3 meters tall. Photos are not allowed in the museum and there is no postcard of it; I can’t find “Hi no Maru” anywhere online to show you. That is my biggest disappointment of the weekend.
Monday
Our actual anniversary day was spent in a mission to find Tod some shoes. We drove up to the Mitsui Outlet Mall where there are myriad shoe shops. Asics had some that fit the requirements – wide toe box, loop at the back, black – and most importantly didn’t made Tod angry, which seems to be his key metric. He really hates shopping for shoes. I sort of need shoes, too, but mostly I admired everyone’s dogs in the outdoor mall arcades and felt overwhelmed by consumerism. My delight was buying too many outlet chocolates and eating “long potato” from a kebab truck.
Let’s see what we get up to between now and Anniversary 37. I know it will be a mix of mundane moments and quiet adventures. That’s the life we have and we love it (and each other).
