Through the glass front of my ninestorey hotel I could see the boiling Sea of Japan, hurling its mud-brown water masses onto the deserted beach, its towering breakers menacing the few guests huddled at dusk in the lobby. Ripping apart all heavenly pillows, Susanno, the sun-goddess Amaterasu’s unruly brother, lets his angry tempest swirl past my top-floor balcony – wild gusts of thick snowflakes drifting along my windows, pausing at times, counter-flowing, then continuing in a mad rush. The thunder of the heaving waves, pounding against the flood defences and beating the empty coast, shakes the building with the force of an earthquake. Bludgeoned by this elementary beat, my room starts to sway like a drunkard… Continue Reading