20 Comments
Aug 25·edited Aug 25Liked by Gianni Simone

Completely agree. Every time I wander around my home, I find something new. To expand definition of home , I walked all around Miura Peninsula, where I live, but again every walk , even repeated, opens something new!

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Yes, and walking is also great for coming up with new ideas. I usually get my best writing-related ideas either while walking or taking a shower.

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I too am a walking man and take walks around my bucolic tokyo hamlet everyday. Most of the time I’m listening to an audiobook but sometimes I tune out the book and tune in my surroundings. You really do catch some remarkable in the everyday moments from time to time. Thanks for this.

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Thanks, Baye. Indeed, life can be maybe not stranger but more interesting than fiction.

Ah, and welcome to Substack! I look forward to reading your posts.

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I especially enjoyed the last vignette! How perfect!

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Thanks, Kate. How's your little corner of the world? Do you live in the city or the suburbs?

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I live in Kamakura and take a long walk almost every day!

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Nice! If I move again, that's a place where I'd like to live.

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Beautifully written. I especially like the closing paragraph about you and your wife walking and taking in the environment with some homemade treats!

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Aug 25·edited Aug 25Author

Thanks! Yeah, walking alone and doing it with the wife are completely different, and somewhat complementary things. And I love them both, of course.

Is the place you live in good for walking?

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Absolutely, Gianni! I am not one to live near cafes/bars/restaurants/shops but rather parks and waterways, and bushland (where possible).

I am lucky to have lived - and continue to live - in Sydney suburbs that are close to the water and parks (and some bushland). It comes at a cost as it's way cheaper to live out west in more urbanised environments but as a single woman who lives alone, my security and wellbeing come first and I find great comfort living where I live.

You recall my poem The Living River on my Substack page a couple of month's back? That poem is about my suburb. I totally understand your walking thing - screenwriter Julia Cameron wrote a self-help book on walking and how it's a spiritual practise. It's worth a look.

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Thanks for the suggestion. In Japan, the first typhoons of the season have arrived, so now it's either sauna-like hot and muggy or rainy and windy. Not the ideal time to go out for a walk.

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Oh, the weather has to be 'right' - there is such a thing as 'walking weather', if you ask me. Our summers are way too hot to be out in the sun for any reason but that doesn't stop most Australians from enjoying hot weather. Aussies have a thing for heat, something I haven't encountered in the northern hemisphere.

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The heat can be brutal. In Italy, it hurts your skin, but at least you can take refuge in the shadow. What really kills you in Japan is humidity. I used to love summer, but since I moved to Japan, I wish I could spend July and August away from Tokyo.

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Australia is similar. The humidity here can also be unbearable. I guess Japan and Australia are near enough neighbours to share similarities in climate. At least we don't have typhoons - are they like cyclones or something? The top of Australia has the monsoon season but Sydney is too far south to experience anything like that.

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Aug 25Liked by Gianni Simone

Gianni, this is delightful, I want more!

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Ogni tuo desiderio e' un ordine, milady!

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