Made for walking

Relatively lovely day, long walk for an old babe,as my mom refers to herself, and good levels of alertness in same; it's probably the little batches of organic semisweet chocolate chips I've been doling out on these wintry afternoons.
Still reading Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain; he also wrote a novel called A Thousand Cranes, which I vaguely recall from college days. He has created a male protagonist who is one of those universal aging men with problems, could be any race or color. This one's named Shingo, his milieu is post WWII Japan, and he has access to relief from his troubles that American men of a similar age would not have had, such as the comfort of geishas. He's an interesting piece of work, but not one I feel much connection to. I keep thinking of the older Rabbit, John Updike's character in his Rabbit series of novels; men of a certain age, squirming at the parts of their lives that they feel encumber them. It's the opposite of "chick lit", but often more serious.