No doubt influenced by the enduring popularity of Sherlock Holmes (the hero of the enduringly popular Japanese manga/anime Conan, about a primary school-age master detective, is of course named in tribute Arthur Conan Doyle), people ask me with annoying frequency about the legendary London fog, in reply to which I have to explain that it disappeared a long time ago, to be replaced by smog, which is different but possibly just as harmful. As such, it doesn’t get foggy in London that much these days, and the same can be said for many parts of Japan. Where we live in Ibaraki, there are probably a few misty mornings each year, and this was one of them. I had just been running with a friend of mine (Mr. Ireland, of whom more later – he’s an interesting character as well as my all-round fitness guru) along a river about a kilometre east of this one where, in a curious climactic anomaly, there was no fog at all, so was lucky enough to catch these pics unexpectedly on the way home.
