I really don’t like cold weather.

Growing up in the San Francisco bay area, it never really got cold. There was “cool” and “chilly,” but never “I’ve lost-feeling-in-my-testicles” cold. Of course, when living outside of Boston during my university years, the weather certainly became “my-scrotum-is-an-empty-sack-because-my-
testicles-have-retreated-into-my-body-cavity-and-are-now-socializing-with-my-kidneys” bitingly cold, but there was frequently snowfall to accompany it, which made the temperature somewhat bearable because everything was white and purdy-like.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t snow sufficiently enough in Tokyo to stick on the ground, let alone allow me to temporarily ignore the fact that all of my appendages are atrophying due to frostbite. It’s actually not even that cold here anymore, but the overall dreariness combined with the lack of suitable insulation anywhere makes me utterly and inescapably miserable. Thus, during the winter season, each day is spent in a semi-catatonic state as my mind and body shut down all extraneous operations in order to conserve energy and cocoon myself from the bleakness of reality. I feel drowsy and distant all day long, and I can’t even remember what the sensation of “hot” feels like anymore.

Thankfully, February will soon come to a close and hopefully spring will make a timely arrival. In the meantime, I’ll just have to put up with the bitter cold and the oppressive melancholy and try to keep my spirit warm with copious amounts of booze.

Over the weekend I was looking at some photos from a warmer time and figured that I might post some for the sake of. . . well, for the sake of what, exactly, I don’t know, but for some reason or another. The photos were taken last spring at Shinjuku Gyoen, the park that Judy and I visited last November. However, in the spring I visited the park alone and, as such, was able to spend way too much time talking ridiculously awful photos of the scenery. Here you go: