The weather cooling down has been fantastic, but we are in the next season. When we open our windows it’s there. We go on walks and it’s just everywhere. Next to our garbage bin, houses are lined with it. It’s stinky season. And it’s my favorite.
It’s kinmokusei season and we love it. “Osmanthus” according to wikipedia. It’s a lovely stinky tree with beautiful little orange flowers. We went on a walk the other evening just to go and smell them. At some point my partner and I started referring to even good smelling things as stinky. I think it made me laugh once and we’ve just kept it going. It’s also gingko season. A very standard stinky. We haven’t quite gotten the beautiful ginkgo fall leaves yet. I am looking forward to that. Summer was hot, and it’s not quite cold yet. I think next week might have the first dip below 20c for the high1. Excited for it.
With it finally not being so draining to go outside we’ve been trying to make it out for some walks. Going to some museums or cafes. It’s been good.
Every time we go further outside of Tokyo I have a reoccurring thought of “would this be a good area for us to live?” Partner and I try to imagine if we could live in the area. We like having access to greenery. Hiking trails and such. Being able to look outside our window and see something living rather than just apartment buildings and asphalt. It’s always a challenge of needing to have access to Tokyo, but we tend to ignore that requirement. Would we need to get a car? Does it feel like there’s still some life in the area? Is there community we could see ourselves joining? Is it one of the disappearing towns?
It’s a bummer how there’s so much being absorbed into the major cities. I really wish there was more meaningful incentives for allowing remote work in the smaller cities.
Some of the places we go are not for us. But man, we enjoy their stinking walking paths in autumn.
less than 70f ↩︎