What we do

My husband and I are very much creatures of habit. 95% of our evenings are spent at home, we cook dinner together, watch the news and are pretty much done with the dishes by the time 7:00 rolls around. On the weekends we sometimes go out for lunch and occasionally dinner. Part of that is to save money and watch what we put into our bodies but mostly it is just that we really like to cook and eat at home. This has been going on in essentially the same way for the past eighteen years.

Another thing we do is get outdoors on the weekend. On the rare day that I am too tired (or if it is really pissing down rain) we will stay in and watch DVDs, or go to the cinema to see something interesting but most Saturdays and/or Sundays we find ourselves outside. I need the air and the exercise to keep my sanity. No amount of room running or spinning like a hamster on the stationary bicycle can do what three or four hours of forest air can do for my brain. In all the years I have spent with my husband we have spent a lot of time together outside. Over long weekends and holidays we learned to whitewater kayak, did some pretty hardcore mountain biking and some serious hiking. We used to go camping at least once a month-although less in winter (I do SO hate the cold) and during all that to keep fit (and sane and have time to talk) we went for walks.

There was a great place in the mountains near his family home where we used to walk. It wasn't especially amazing in terms of scenery; it was just an old, narrow, unevenly paved road that eventually turned into a dirt track. But it was close and when we walked we walked through the seasons: froggy voices and cherry blossoms in spring, newly planted rice, blue skies and fireflies in summer and fiery orange leaves in the fall. Even winter it was walkable since it didn't snow and home (and a hot bath) were waiting nearby.

When we first got here in Miyazaki we were out of sorts. It took us a while to find places that met our standards for "proper" outdoors. We had been very, very lucky to have been able to spend so much time is such amazingly beautiful places back in Wakayama--so the bar for "nature" was pretty high. We persisted, and have found some good spots (although sadly, the rivers down here suck for kayaking) and almost just as importantly, we found a place to walk. It is not anything to blog about really--just a road that winds into the mountains. Still, it is what we want to feed our habit. It lets us walk for hours side by side and talk away our week and our worries. If we're lucky there will be monkeys or a wild boar to surprise us. Most of the time we have to be satisfied with the fish that swim in the clear stream that runs beside our route or with the little orange crabs that raise their claws in defiance at our trespassing feet.

This is what we do. We are creatures of habit. This is what we do. I love that we are predictable and I hope that it is our good fortune to stay that way for years to come.