Think of this as Volume 12, Number 47 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.
I'm going to put the lesson of this week's Clue right at the top.
The world is bigger than you think. And your world is smaller.
This is a personal story that starts 20 years ago. I was in Japan, and found myself staying with Hiro Nakamura (right). Not the Heroes hero, the real guy, a nice gentleman who was born in Yokohama but was then just starting to make his way in the world, with a small apartment in the Tokyo suburbs.
It was a tiny place, smaller than the first apartment my wife and I had 10 years earlier. It was split in two, with a bedroom on one side just big enough to fit a few sleeping bags, and a living-dining area on the other side featuring the world's smallest kitchen.
It also had a bathroom, in front of the bedroom. And in this bathroom it had a shower, a toilet, and a deep, deep tub. I was confused at first, but Hiro explained this was a soaking tub, an ofuro. The water was kept at a constant temperature. I could shower and get myself clean, then remove the cover from the ofuro and soak in hot water for a while. It was like being at a ryokan. It was very nice.
I thought about that tub often when I came home. I thought, if I ever make enough money to afford a bigger house, I want one of those bad boys.
After two decades of hard work by both me and my lovely wife, I was ready to go for it. We had the loan, we had extra cash. We hired an architect who gave us a design featuring just such a tub (she said) -- from a company in Charlotte called Americh.
We began to build. This was six months ago.
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