We’re fortunate that November is still mild (16 Celsius) and pleasant, and as Tuesdays are usually rest days for me, we took a 90-minutes train ride from Tokyo out to the delightful little town of Katsunuma, in Yamanashi prefecture. This is the heart of Japanese wine country and a wonderful place to spend a relaxing day.

First we participated in a local winery tour and then enjoyed a delicious lunch in the adjoining restaurant, including five glasses of their wines.

Then we took a short taxi to a local hotel on a nearby hilltop and relaxed in a public onsen (communal baths) for a few hours.

Suitably refreshed, the snooze home passed without incident.

Only later did I make a connection between that day and one of my writing projects, The Zelkova Sphere.

The winery’s restaurant was also called Zelkova, named after the Japanese Keyaki tree. I’m taking this as a sign to resume writing this book, the first in a trilogy I’ve been dallying over for several years. The big question is can I start this project while also running with the weekly story challenge?

Stay tuned.

What I’m Reading:

Little has changed from the last post. It’s still a mixture of Asimov’s short stories and back editions of New Scientist magazine. Catching up on this delightful backlog will probably occupy another month because I like to savor the writing and look up new words, in addition to studying how the writer has tackled the story in question.

What I’m Writing:

And it’s short stories all the way. I am writing #6 this week. See here for a [list of stories written]../short-story-challenge/).