and out the other side

A fever – a really bad fever – can do things to people. You come in one way; you sweat out of every pore while your brain burns itself up; and you come out the other side of it different. Like the sickness is a kind of last-resort effort to change. Didn’t have a fever, but I had one serious headcold for a week and a half and it sort of feels something like that has happened. Starting to feel my age (and I’ll be damned if I even knew what that was supposed to feel like before now).

after-action Cliff’s notes

1. Many of the small urban streets in Japan would be flat-out illegal in the US; or at least clearly marked ONE-WAY.
2. Managed to do a couple hundred kilometres on about $20 in gasoline; seems not too bad, good little car, but its been six months since I last had to worry about that.
3. The left-hand/right-hand road thing is not such a big deal. It ain’t no thang, as the kids say.
4. No matter how nice the afternoons and evenings were for the last week, the day of the trip was, of course, overcast.
5. Renting a car was the simplest and fastest thing I’ve done in Japan; took about 20 minutes, and a lot of that was the guy putting us on pause for a minute or two to answer the phone.
6. Every American must, when in a foreign country and driving a motorised vehicle for the first time there, blast “Sweet Home Alabama” loud enough for everyone they drive by to hear it. I don’t even like country and “no-brainer” doesn’t even begin to describe what a kneejerk first-add that was to the playlist. There was never even a question.
7. Driving is awesome, and eases the troubled mind.

daytrip: Toyohashi Natural History Museum

About an hour south of Nagoya, which meant a 3-hour trip for James and I on a somewhat-warmer Saturday.

mini-expedition: Nagahama

So I picked up a second 5-day/use train pass, which expires on the 10th. This means that, including today, I need to go somewhere every day to use it all up. This is good, because it pretty much forces to go out and do something lengthy and memorable, or be out der monies. Which would suck pretty hard.

future thoughts

Because never my mind on where I am or what I am doing.

despair fuels creativity and spontaneous train rides

Unfortunately, frustration only breeds malaise.

expedition Tsuruga

Michael, going somewhat crazy, decides that a day at the ocean is what he needs to restore some sanity. Water is good.

biwa stomp

Inauspicious start: realised I forgot my map as I was passing the Seta station bakery; then realised, at Yamashina, I’d neglected to stop in the bakery to get some food. Most excellent. It goes to show that the things I could really use I forget to pack.

touring

Took a six-hour bike ride on Sunday to sort of not-think about some accumulating nonsense. This worked.

dreamin’ and schemin’

When I was here at Ryukoku last year, I decided to take a trip up to Wakkanai more-or-less on a whim. It was the furthest point from me on my map of Japan; I had a one last weekend coming up; and I wanted to actually -do- something besides look at old statues in 100-degree weather and 98% humidity.

So this time I'm thinking about walking to Tokyo.