Today was a solemn sort of day, as my good friend Alice bowed to the pressures of graduation and a real life outside of the magical carnival that is Japan and returned to Australia late this evening. Watching someone go when you're staying right where you are is somewhat like watching someone die - you know they're going to be happier once they go, but you can't help but wish things could just remain the same.
Seeing her go made me realize how not ready I am to leave, and although I will be here for another seven months or so, I don't see myself being any more ready at that time. Fortunately, I have these upcoming two months to go hog wild in Japan with no real responsibilities of any kind, so with any luck I'll be able to pack in enough crazy to kill a skein of geese at 60 yards.
On that note, I spent some quality time today looking at travel guides trying to figure out where I want to go next, and as it turns out that's a more difficult proposition than I would have initially thought. I will probably explore this area in more complete detail next, which will include going to the neighboring island and cruising around for a while. I just found out from Alice before she left that you can get to this great little onsen (hot spring bath) town on Shikoku (the next island over) for something like $20 each way, so I am definitely doing that as soon as I get back from snowboarding. Did I mention I'm going snowboarding in Nagano from the fourth to the eighth of February? This is what laymans call an extremely cool trip, and what we initiated into the calm and emotionless Way of Japan call Super Level Up Trip Adventure Number One.
This post was basically just one long way of saying that, outside of Alice leaving, I have nothing to talk about. Fun, excitement, drinking pots and pots of tea! Have I mentioned that somehow I have been converted to drinking tea straight, and at this very moment am sipping mint tea that is not super-saturated with sugar and in fact has none in at all? Sheer craziness, I tell you. It starts with the tea, and then goes straight to knifing strangers in alleys just to remember what it feels like to be alive.
- Gyaa! I'm give up
Naka-ku, Hiroshima
730-0803
JAPAN
