* This essay column is written by a longtime foreign resident of Japan.

After two years and more than 40 articles, sadly this is the final Doshi Days column. I've enjoyed having the opportunity to explain how much fun it can be for a foreigner to live in the Japanese countryside, and appreciated the complete freedom of content given me by the editor and staff of The Weekly. Plus the many e-mails received from readers of these essays were most encouraging.

Actually, this is an apt time to conclude the column as I'm no longer living in Doshi on a full-time basis. Earlier this year I became the English teacher at a major electronics maker's factory in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, and stay in the company dormitory. After almost 13 years in the village, I return on weekends and holidays as I did when we had a besso there.

With my two sons at university doing their best to kick-start the sluggish Japanese economy by vigorous consumer spending, I needed a steady source of income rather than relying on free-lance editing and writing.

Things happened rapidly: Within two weeks of seeing an ad in The Japan Times, I had attended an interview in Tokyo and was working in Kofu.

Ironically, soon after that, the village office asked if I would become the full-time English teacher at Doshi's two schools. As our youngest son, Dan, is a student at the local junior high, there might have been some conflict of interest. And, to be honest, I prefer teaching adults.

Dan is doing a great job of looking after Alice, our Labrador retriever, and competently handling his new responsibilities. Likewise, my move from Doshi has literally widened my horizons. It is said that a change is as good as a rest. Although I don't feel I'm getting much rest, especially in a dorm that's noisy at night after the near-silence of Doshi, I'm enjoying the challenges of corporate life and exploring another part of Yamanashi.

But some things don't change. The tempura udon I mentioned in the Sept. 28, 2002, column remains 500 yen at the Seseragi restaurant in Doshi. And when I was there for lunch the other Saturday I could see two besso being built on the other side of the Doshi River. I fantasize about starting an organization in the village to be called SOS, the acronym standing for Save Our Shizen (nature), while there's some greenery left to protect!

In the Oct. 11, 2003, Doshi Days I wondered if the real estate agent with the office over Route 413 from my home was responsible for the new besso across the river where I regularly walk Alice. He was and, according to the landowner, three more are planned in that previously unspoiled spot.

Our property dispute with Kato-san, covered on Sept. 14, 2002, remains unresolved. Although the local policeman seemed indifferent to my young hedge being ripped out (by Kato-san's son, it emerged), he arranged for a mediator to see if Kato-san would sell the land in question. As expected, he wouldn't, but the old guy is in poor health these days and keeping a low profile.

And with me gone, Doshi's nature is being saved from my predations, in that my pickup no longer collects stones to build walls and paths, hauls away logs for firewood or uplifts saplings for hedges.

That said, my faithful Stihl chain saw and I got a good workout early last month when we removed the top thick slice of the stump left when a huge keyaki (zelkova) tree was felled in the forest near my house. It took many hours to cut free, then I laboriously rolled it a couple of hundred meters over to our property and left it under cover to season for a few years, at which time it should make an attractive tabletop or two.

So, although I'm away from Doshi on weekdays, I'm looking ahead and fully intend to return at the earliest opportunity -- probably for good.

If you have any comments please e-mail me at jtweekly@japantimes.co.jp

The Japan Times Weekly: April 3, 2004
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