Dark times are coming.

Something's changed. I can feel it. A sense of doom, of departure. Things seem strange. The air is different. Darker. Closer. There's a tension and a spark. There's a moistness. A definite feeling of wetness.

That'll be rainy season then.

Having asked almost daily for the past month when rainy season is coming, and having been given answers ranging from "the beginning of June" to "it's not", I was beginning to feel cheated that I wasn't going to see it. And also I worried that none of the kids and teachers were going to be able to shower through summer (and thus Katsuyama would stink) due to water shortages. Well, I needn't have worried. I should have just planned a trip away sooner. It started maybe last Wednesday. It's barely stopped since. The rain, the mists, the fog. And a general dampness. And all because LeeJay and I dropped all other plans and headed for a last trip together to Hiroshima.

LeeJay surprised me by sticking to our plan of driving to RayVon's on Friday night, taking the expressway but for once driving at the suggested speed limit. And for the first time ever, people actually were overtaking LeeJay. I have identified 'safety on the roads in rainy conditions' as a training need for the people of Okayama. Well, we arrived at RayVon's, dined at JoyFull (our favourite cheap chain restaurant) and picked up a video to watch later. We chose "Starsky and Hutch" which we had all seen before, but we laughed like junkies at a crack party anyway. Except I laughed until I realised I was the only one in the room actually old enough to have actually watched it when it was first on (well, nearly)...

We set off later than planned on Saturday because weather outside was frightful, RayVon doesn't have a fire that is sooo delightful (her house would burn down in moments), the rain was showing no signs of stopping and no-one had brought any corn for popping. And I laughed until I realised I wasn't Dean Martin and I wasn't singing "Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!" in a Las Vegas showbar. So we left, got the shinkansen to Hiroshima and immediately abandoned plans to go to Miyajima as the weather was getting worse. There was only one thing we could do- shop! So, having dumped our bags at the hotel we made our way to the second hand district so that I could get my outfit for this coming weekend's Sayonara party.

Searching wasn't without its rewards- we 'fell' into the Kate Spade counter at Sogo where LeeJay's credit card fell out of her purse and into the store assistant's hands, the store assistant having accidentally handed Leejay a lovely blue and green leather purse. Then while in the doorway of a second hand shop we heard the magic beat of "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd coming from the shoe-shop across the way, and what else can you do but enter said shoe-shop and sing and dance like that same junkie at an even bigger crack party.

That evening took us to the best Indian restaurant I've been to in Japan- called Nanak and in the second hand shopping district- and we gorged ourselves. And then we went a-drinking. Gin and tequila for me please! (No, not together.) As could only happen with us, it would be the sound of roaring thunder that signalled our departure and we headed back to the hotel through torrents of rain, only to watch the wimbledon women's final on the telly. Wenus Villiams won it seems. We passed out before the end.

Sunday saw more shopping and an early return to RayVon's for more second hand shopping, the experience of seeing the largest dead frog in the world, ever, and eating big burritos (despite a wopping great okonomiyaki lunch).

Monday night was another wet, murky one, with mists rising from the river, but we did our best anti-rain dances and cries at the Ochiai Riverside hotel karaoke parlour. To no effect. LeeJay's friend Naoko joined, and even with her help we were too weak and the rain continued. Although it did stop long enough for us to light fireworks in celebration of Tom-Cruise-with-long-hair-in-a-wheelchair day.

It's all left me pondering the important questions- how do I dry clothes when it's raining and I have no radiators, will it be hotter when the rain has stopped, and would a junkie really dance and sing at a crack party?