Haiku

"Butterflies
Drifting through a sunlit garden.

A leaf falls"

Japanese

"Cool clear water

and fireflies that vanish

that is all there is"

Chiyo - ni

Why Japanese? It all began with computer games and an obsolete games console which my boys all particularly loved. We could only import new games for it from Japan, so we did. Japanese dictionaries were acquired and consulted, games were endlessly pored over, discussed and, finally, played. So I now have a Japanese speaking son. The twists and turns in a life often rest on a sixpence.

He had an interesting and traumatic time there. He fell in love with a beautiful Japanese girl, broke his wrist in several places and was hospitalised, made some lifelong friends, took up smoking temporarily, saw a man throw himself under a train, and lost two stone. He came back very thin and utterly changed.

Haiku

"Moonlight.

A beautiful woman sits 

all alone

in a large, empty garden"