Transport

Commuting by public transport is not an exciting way to spend your time, so people read, listen to music and do things to keep their minds occupied. At times commuting can feel mind-numbing, as you sit not thinking about anything in particular. To keep my mind agile, I've started to do a game in which I notice the names of books that people are reading and try to remember them. I then write them down when I get to work. So, yesterday and this morning, people were reading:

Labyrinthe - Kate Mosse
The Right Nation - John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton
Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel
Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
A Pimlico Military Classic by John Keegan
Tourism - Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal
The Adventure of Augie Marsh - Saul Bellow
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Difficult Conversations - Roger Fiske
The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho
L'ecume des jours - Boris Vian

As for me, I was reading Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey, which I'm reading to learn about Japan in advance of my trip there. Tomorrow I fly to Tokyo, and spend two nights in Hokota, a small city north of there. This coming weekend is spent in Tokyo, and we fly on Monday morning to Fukuoka to spend 2-3 days there. We then get the Shinkansen bullet train to Hiroshima, and spend 2-3 days there and then fly back to Tokyo for another 2 nights.

Sayonara!