Hi fellow sufferers,
As many of you would have realised, I am now ensconced in the foreign ministry doing work on Japan and Korea. Whilst its nice to be working on some familiar content, it is occassionally odd meddling in Japan affairs from afar. Look back only three months and its strange to think one was reasonably well integrated into a small Nagano city.
Life over the next few months is going to be dominated by elections. Most kiwis have been touched by the dragged out affair of the American elections more than our own round of voting. Nevertheless, we are now in the final run-down to the polls here and at every turn we are assaulted by ads and talk. I would normally not comment, except to say that part of my work time inevitably gets taken up too by the twisted political scene in Tokyo. Yes, we have to contemplate elections in Japan too.
What I am proposing as the best antidote to all this pernicious politicking is to take to the hills and find time for some spring tramping. Unless times have really changed, you don’t end up running into an election billboard as you approach Neils Forks, don’t have to suffer verbal rubbish during a morning chorus in St Arnaud, and you don’t get assaulted by electoral roll thugs as you tear own the Tehrenikau Valley. I invite all of you to a mass exodus to the hills over the next few weeks. It would be great to catch up with more folk and restore some sense of balance to this mad world.
Regards,
Pete
