bathing beauty

We are still pretty jet-lagged but it was a perfect day to take Mr. Wayne to Doggy Beach. Usually, when presented with a pool or pond, he sits along the water's edge and stares at the surface (doggy Zazen?) But today he really surprised us when he followed another dog all the way into the water! The other pup (a female pit bull) was energetically chasing after and fetching a tennis ball, and while Wayne was not interested in the ball itself, he was totally obsessed with the whereabouts of the other dog. Wayne tends to roll over like a log in the water and he mostly needed to stay in the shallow area where he could stand up but he ventured much further than I have ever seen him go. And after a while, he seemed to understand his limitations.

Perhaps Wayne has inadvertently offered me this as a metaphor - a way for me to begin to process the experience of Japan....as I sort through the pictures and attempt to tell the story of traveling the farthest I have ever been from home. And, just like Wayne, as the journey proceeded, I had to figure out what I could and couldn't manage (with the "boot")

A few more pics on Flickr from Doggy Beach