I'm Not Dead!

I'm not.  I promise.  It's just been a while since I posted.  It turns out that married life pretty much doubles the speed at which time passes; not a complaint--the time Tomomi and I get to spend together in the course of a typical week is precious to me, and of course the moment we decide a certain time is precious, the faster it seems to pass by.  Factoring in work, and a newly discovered sense of duty toward household chores (particularly cooking), it has been very easy to let certain healthy habits like blogging and exercise go.  The effects of one of these lapses has been more noticeable than the other.

It happens that today, Tomomi is required to be at work.  Saturday is usually our date day; either we go for a walk, or we settle in a quiet cafe together, so needless to say, this was an unwelcome disruption.  Her company will have a 飲み会--drinking party--tonight and in addition to working at the office today, she is expected to make the arrangements and reservations ahead of time.  She is also required to actually BE at the drinking party, which will go until 9 or 10 pm.  And, she will not receive a compensatory day off for coming in today.  This is the point in the blog-post where I made several starts at a lengthy, raging rant against Japan's company culture.  Nothing I verbalized could adequately capture my frustration, though it's worth noting that the words 'counter-productive', 'misogynistic', and 'unjust' came up in every iteration.  **sigh** I love Japan dearly and so much is good here, but this is something that is just... backwards.  If you find it upon your heart to pray for Japan, please take some extra time to pray for the working culture, which I believe to be the catalyst for many other significant social issues in this country.

Anyway, Tomomi being away working leaves me with a choice: either I spend the day stewing in a pot of loneliness and bitterness at the work culture here, or I spend the day exercising muscles I haven't exercised in a while.  Since it's raining hard, I am opting for creative exercise over literal exercise.  I will get some grading done, and hopefully do a bit of writing, too.  Stay tuned!