Textbooks and Temples
In psychology, there is a phenomenon known as the Holiday Paradox. When we have new experiences, the passage of time feels fast in the moment but slow in retrospect. This is partly because we form richer memories when we encounter novelty, and maybe it explains the way we're feeling as we begin to write this post. How could it possibly be nearly a month since we last made an entry? On one hand it seems like every day has passed in the blink of an eye, and yet, it feels as though we have been in Japan for years. Actually, we were counting on this. As strange as it may sound, this phenomenon of perceived time dilation is among the many reasons why we moved here. We were very settled and comfortable in our home in Canada, but with each passing year the number of new experiences we encountered in that familiar territory grew fewer and fewer. Time began racing by. We glanced briefly in the rearview mirror at our 20's as they shrank into the distance, and when we turned our eyes bac...
