Flowering of the March Year, the Girlfriend Year

It was a triumphant day which convinced me that I was right to reject WinBe's desperate offer of a posting in Monzennakacho (門前仲町) last week, and confirms that I have entered a new era, a golden age in fact -- this is the March Year in perpetual bloom! The gloom of the past few days is abating, and having attained the freedoms of the freelancer life, there is no way I could revert to the corporate banalty of 2002. That was a February year, and this is March. A yearlong March, and a spring that will blossom through 2004 and beyond.

I was afforded a most amazing afternoon in Ichinoe just larking around and lobbing leaflets into letterboxes, fragranced by flowers, delighted by drifts of swirling sakura petals. I explored exquisite alleys with their modular homes, gated carports, and gardens guarded by PET water bottles or dangling CDs, which are apparently an Australian innovation to deter stray animals. The "mansions" are where the money is, of course, so that is where I made a beeline too, whenever one loomed into view. Some of them were truly gargantuan. Inevitably I also encountered the odd temple or shrine on my journey, wishing I had Malicia with me to share the view. I will take her tomorrow. For my labors, I got paid ¥4300, which incidentally is what it costs me to live one day in Japan.  In other words, the day paid for itself!   

If that was not gratifying enough, when I swung by Sunkus on Kiyosubashi Dori (清洲橋通り) in Taito Ward just before midnight for beer and cheer, I met Hiroshi and was able to briefly exchange. I unloaded my concerns about Miyuki-chan, and how I felt that she had been elusive at ohanami on Sunday night. Hiroshi confidently assured me that it was nothing to worry about, she had only acting shyly due to the difficulties in communicating with me. Japanese girls are so shy, that sort of thing. Fair point, I thought, relieved... and I immediately resolved to text her in Japanese henceforth. Hopefully this will resolve this problem.

The cherry blossoms will fall soon, but for me it will be spring all year long, even beyond the end of the year. Instead of working in a classroom somewhere, tomorrow I get to return to Ichinoe, and distribute leaflets in the balmy sunshine. Before going to bed, I dropped Miyuki a mail in 日本語 as resolved.

It might be April but I feel the need to proclaim: "Onward into the March Year!" Onward into the Girlfriend Year, too!