Japan in August

The last time I went to Japan it was June of 2003. I was 16, naïve, stupid, and mystified by the entire experience. There was a lot of life to be lived, and the 3 week trip was like I was living my entire life at once. Every single thing was incredible no matter what, and I came back with this dream world in my head. 11 years later (way too much time between trips for sure), I was able to make my way back.

Nara was hot, miserable, and wonderful. I'd love to go back when it isn't a million degrees out.

I arrived on August 8th at Narita Airport. Two days prior to my trip, I was hit by a cyclist on the sidewalk and had emergency plastic surgery on my face. I began the trip hungry (I couldn't eat salty food, and that's all the airline was serving) and unprepared. The directions I had to get to Oyamadai station from Narita were not detailed enough, and to top it off, the guy I bought my ticket from gave me a ticket for the Skyliner when I had intended to take the NEX. As a result, I ended up at Nippori rather than Shinagawa, and spent my first evening in Tokyo in a near panic trying to find my way.

In the end, I made it to Oyamadai right on time. I arrived hot, tired, and sticky in the humid August air. I ate a fruit sandwich from Lawson for dinner, gave my good friend Dorothy (deedeeoho) some candy from home, and crashed for the night.

Life isn't complete without Sour Gummy Worms

Enjoy your only meal in 10 hours. Thanks, Lawson.

Despite all my anticipation and excitement, I had been so scared trying to figure out the trains that I almost turned around and went home. It's stupid to think to do now, but at the time it seemed like it might be nice. Looking back, this was a good to start to the trip. The expectations I might have had were stripped away in one evening, and I was able to start with a fresh look at Japan. As a result, my journey was entirely new and adult.

Jiyugaoka is a maze. I wanted to come back to this bar, but I couldn't find it again. Maybe one day...

I'm going to talk more about the trip itself later. See this as a prelude to future posts which will outline each leg of the journey. It might be in chronological order, but it might not. I don't have a full plan on what I'm going to talk about yet, but I have all these pictures to post and discuss.

I don't know if anyone is even reading this blog, but please let me know if you want to hear about any part of my recent experience traveling to Japan.

Hello Autumn

I know that it's been Autumn for a while now, but I haven't made a post for a while. I spent some time walking and shopping today, trying to forget the stress of work for a day.

We grabbed some ramen and sushi at Shigezo earlier today, and then eventually ended up at Compound. There's a really good exhibit going on there, and if you're in Portland you should check it out.

I had been working on NaNoWriMo, but I've had to back out. I have other things I want to work on that feel more important, as well as work stress, so I only ended up with about 8500 words before dropping it. We'll see if I want to try again next year.

That's it for now. Not too exciting, but I hope I'm able to concentrate on a project going forward.