Back from Kyushu! This picture is not of Kyushu, as it would take most of the cities on the whole island put together to produce a night view like this one; it's another leftover from Osaka. Kyushu was really beautiful, all kinds of nature bursting out of dang near everywhere, like they had so much to spare that they didn't even care where they put it. Got to go to Beppu, which is an incredible hot spring town surrounded by verdantly forested mountains and the ocean, which was rather lacking in rich tree life. I've been wanting to go to Beppu ever since reading Kawabata's Thousand Cranes last year, the untranslated last fourth of which includes some pretty enticing descriptions of the Beppu area. In fact, once I go to Hokkaido here in a little bit, I think I will have managed to go to almost all of the places in Japan that I read about in books prior to getting here, which is pretty exciting if you're a total nerd, and I happily fit that category.
Hmm, surpressing the urge to write another long boring section on the book I'm reading right now. Suffice to say that I picked up another of Endo's books, and it's just great. Thinking possibly about doing my honors thesis next year on the works of Endo and Akutagawa, which actually have some similarities besides just being my two favorite Japanese authors.
Thing is, other than what I'm reading, not terribly much has been going on lately; mostly just lazing around interspersed with big trips. As a matter of fact, the next big trip, to Tokyo and Hokkaido, is coming up here soon, I think we leave on Friday. I'll be gone for a little over a week, taking the long, slow train to Tokyo, spending two packed days there, then going to Hokkaido, where I'll spend maybe three nights, then take the train again home; not too bad until you consider that it takes two days to get from Hiroshima to Hokkaido on the train, travelling in seventeen-hour-long bursts. I'll be going with two friends, so even the long train rides should be pretty fun, but if anybody has any ideas for three-player games, card-related or otherwise, that might keep three college students busy for about sixty hours of travelling, drop me a line. I figure 9-2-5 will keep us going for about half of that time, but towards the end it may begin to get a little stale.
- Gyaa! I'm give up
Naka-ku, Hiroshima
730-0803
JAPAN
