My housemate Megan just went home to Melbourne for a week and brought back some oishii chocolate coated jelly babies. If they're sold in the states (I don't think so), go buy them now and eat them by the handful. Brown gold, I say.

So last weekend I explored the northwestern climes of Tokyo-To with friends Jake and Haruki. Haruki is Japanese so we made full use of his family's Toyota minivan* and his driving privileges by heading out from the 23 ward area late Wednesday night, camping in the van, swimming in the Tamagawa (a much cleaner and more delicious Tamagawa than the downstream area near my apartment), and hiking/lazing around Okutama. The quasi-canned (river and hills are au natural, but lake is man-made and barren) wilderness was refreshing in many ways. Yet the entire trip was colored with the feeling of something-exciting-happened-here-yesterday-and-before-you-came-along-we-covered-it-all-in-concrete-and-weeds-and-maybe-even-a-coating-of-harmless-grime that seems to affect the atmosphere of a lot of Japan's publicly accessible spots. Another similar feeling is that of we-built-this-structure-in-1950-and-actually-right-now-it's-only-1955-yes-we-realize-that's-impossible, which I was experiencing intently in a public park the other day. I wish there was a better, hyphen-less was to explain both, but atmosphere is difficult to describe. Cop-out. Regardless, I'll remember my Okutama experience only with fondness. Just look at it -- beautiful and mountainous.

Internationally, there's been lots of marathoning happening lately. Distance is the only track and field venue where Japanese athletes consistently succeed, so both the men's and women's marathons in Helsinki have been broadcast in full over the past two days. And I have watched. And enjoyed. Rah Japan.

*The joys of the "roadtrip" were actually some of my favorites from this short trip, I can't lie. However, 7/11's without Big Gulps and/or burnt gas-station-style -coffee are poor, empty, hollowed-out shells of 7/11's indeed, if you've ever wondered.