I went to Tokyo last week. I went by train. It took six hours! I don’t go to Tokyo very often because it is quite far from where I live, and it is expensive to get there.

I wanted to go by aeroplane, but I was worried about typhoons. We are having a lot of typhoons this year, and I thought the flight may be cancelled if a typhoon came.

 

I only spent one night in Tokyo. I went to see a concert at night. In the afternoons, I went shopping in Shibuya and Shinjuku, and I visited the Museum of Western Art in Ueno.

I wish I could have spent longer there, but I had to work the next day. Living in the countryside is nice – it is quiet and peaceful, but sometimes I miss the noise and energy of a big city. I hope I can visit Tokyo again soon.

 

Today I went to an Asian culture museum. It has exhibitions of Japanese cloth, and old weaving machinery.

It also has an exhibition of Persian fabric. This was my favourite exhibition room. The colours and patterns are very beautiful. There is also an exhibition room about Mongolia and Mongolian costumes.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take photographs in most of the exhibition rooms. I could only take photographs in the room about weaving. It was very interesting to see how cloth used to be made. It looks like painstaking* work.

The museum is set in beautiful grounds. Now it is full of greenery.

It is also very noisy, because there are many insects around at this time of year. The cicadas have started singing, and the dragonflies and bees are buzzing around!

It is also getting very hot and humid. It is around 33 degrees every day. The weather forecast says that it is going to be a sweltering* summer. It is going to be hotter than usual in August and September. I hope I can spend some time cooling off at the beach or under a tree somewhere!

*painstaking = needs a lot of care, effort and hard work

*sweltering = very hot!

What season is it where you are?
Is it the start of fall?

Whenever I think of the start of autumn I think of this poem by Emily Dickinson.

The morns are meeker than they were –
BY EMILY DICKINSON

The morns are meeker than they were –
The nuts are getting brown –
The berry’s cheek is plumper –
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf –
The field a scarlet gown –
Lest I sh’d be old-fashioned
I’ll put a trinket on.

Maybe it seems difficult to understand, but we can talk about that.

It is the beginning of autumn. So the days are shorter. The mornings are “meeker”.

“Meek” means quiet and respectful.

So she is writing that the sun comes up later and the days are shorter.

It is fall, so the nuts and berries are almost ready for eating.

Roses bloom in spring and summer. It is fall now, so there are no roses.

But the leaves of the maple trees are changing colour and other trees and plants already have red leaves.

So Emily Dickinson thinks that she must be smarter or more colourful.

So she says she will put a trinket (accessory) on. This might be a brooch or a necklace.
Poems like this are fun to read aloud. Why don’t you try it?