This is me

...but I need (yes, I need to share with the world wide web) to say that I just came home from a wonderful but short evening at Morena...my old neighborhood bar run by an amazing woman named Kyoko-san. I used to live 5 minutes from there. I would visit after a night out when I wanted to wind down before bed. I used to visit after a day of work and wanted a little company before heading home. I used to visit if I wanted to meet up, by chance, with other neighborhood visitors I got to know there.

And it was very hard tonight (and yes, a bit sad too, since I'm on the emotional side) to leave in time to catch the last Yokohama-bound train to get home to my parents. It was hard because every cell in my body wanted to turn right down the dark but comforting road that led to my old apartment, past the kaiseki restuarant that only takes reservations for the lucky 5 who can eat there, past the intersection where there are 3 vending machines where I used to buy tea on the way home, past the various houses that had plants I watched grow over the seasons, past the skillfully parked cars sleeping in tiny garages that I once took pictures of as I walked home and promptly moblogged, past the elementary school that was quiet at night but beautiful because it had a school yard with trees and open space, and finally, to my faithful home of 2 years that was the best place to live in Tokyo in my mind.

I couldn't turn right. I no longer live there. But I felt that I 'should' turn there.

Yeah, yeah. I'm allowing myself to feel all this and I'm posting it since this forum has become a method for me to express and process what goes on inside me. At times I'll write about missing black socks or about a new hat I bought. Now, however, I need to write about whatever this is all about; a business trip that turned out to be a meaningful re-connection with a location full of wonderful memories.