It's amazing how strongly the sense of smell is tied to memory. I went for a long walk beside the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon on Sunday, after a long, heavy rain. The smells of wet earth and lush greenery suddenly made me feel that I was back in Japan, walking up the steps on the hillside behind my neigborhood Buddhist temple. I could see the moss-covered rocks, the trees, the bushes, the gravestones glistening with rain...