What is the connection between artistic expression and the joy of living? How can one best live a literary life? This book is a collection of small word-projects. Each examines a book, a moment, a story that helps to deepen the author's literary adv...
Sendai, did I take you for granted? I came to you in November of 2016 and left in October of 2018. Not quite two years. True, I found your cold both figuratively and literally. You people were cold to me, and you were a cold place. But, you were not without your charm. Your mild Aprils, May, Septembers, and Octobers were something to behold. Your parks -- Dainohara, Nanakita, and others -- were very nice. The surrounding mountains made me sad I didn't have a car. Your many universities held out the promise for a future employment that never materialized...not quite. Coffee shops. Of those, you had many.
Great friends. Yes. A girlfriend. Frustratingly -- no. Libraries. Yes. Somewhat remote from my apartment.
So, what is this love I feel for you? Certainly not the passion I had for Nagasaki in my early 20s. Perhaps, then, it was a mature love. Something I will not understand until I'm older.
It's strange. I always said that you can't have a great memory alone, but one of the best memories of my life is an alone memory. It must have been an April or May. I must have gotten up early. I must have written a good six pages of my novel. I must have done a long run. I must have showered and made my way to the Sendai Literary Museum where I had a coffee and read. And then, I must have walked around Dainohara park three times as the sun was starting to get low. I must have been drinking my favorite drink at the time -- Lawson's Iced Latte, Mega Size. And I had this very clear thought. There is no more perfect normal day for me than this.
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A day of good landscapes. A day of writing and reading and iced lattes. A day when I could go anywhere and do anything.
True, it wasn't a warm-blooded romance. My Cuban blood revolted a little. But as a cold rational way to spend my mid-30s, as a place to mature and find simple happiness, perhaps you -- Sendai -- were my perfect love. And, two years later, I have no regrets.
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An Appendix -- Other things about Sendai:
Different parts of you had different charms. In Dainohara, I felt like I was cut off from the world; at the central train-station, I felt like I was in the big city, that the world ran through Sendai; in Izumi Chuo, I felt like I was in the best of Japan suburbia; the Outlet Mall reminded me of high school; my neighborhood made me feel delightfully middle-class; the International Center made me feel like I was someplace tolerant; Mozart coffee made me feel someplace hip; Veloce coffee made me feel someplace familiar; the Literary museum made me feel someplace Holy.
Sendai has great Jazz Festivals. Two of them. I got to do two of them.
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