So today is election day here in Japan. The election campaign has been going on for some weeks but I know little about it. In my youth I took it as an imperative to know what was going on politically in the country in which I was living. Now I do not care. A certain seen- it- all- before has crept into my political attitude. I think I have become jaded by constant minute by minute updates on everything. Comments on these updates are followed by comments on the comments. It is all too much. I understand that the LDP will probably win relegating the DPJ to opposition. I can’t get anyone to tell me what the issues are other than improving the economy.
The campaign has been very quiet. I say this but of course I never watch TV nor read Japanese newspapers nor listen to the radio. Maybe there has been a stream of insult and invective of which I am happily unaware. There are posters of candidates and occasionally a loudspeaker-rigged car cruises by, in which someone is saying something.

Deep ideological differences between Big-Enders and Little-Enders even led the countries into war against each other.
I can’t vote anyway. In fact, because of my nomadic life, I have only voted once – in France for some kind of regional election thing.
Today is another extraordinary day and rather than vote, I live out a fantasy. I paddle – I have bought a new one – the kayak, loaded with scuba stuff, out to the reef. I moor the boat, get into the gear and go remote diving. I then heave the BCD with tank, then myself, back on the kayak and paddle home for a nice cup of tea.
Good adventure.