The somewhat mundane adventures of a guy who keeps ending up in Asia... and his random musings.

Summer vacation is almost over and I have to say that I am relieved. Everyday has been kind of dragging on lately and I just want to start getting my plans to go home underway. I guess I should be taking advantage of my last two months here in old Nippon, but there are two major things standing in the way:

1. Cost of transportation
2. I've been everywhere that I care to see in Kyoto and Osaka

It costs way too much to go places here. Getting to my girlfriend's apartment in Kyoto from my apartment in Osaka takes no less than two hours, 1,000 yen and involves changes trains and busses multiple times. If I wanted to go to Kobe or Wakayama it would cost another 2,000 yen round trip and frankly, I'm very broke at the moment. I have had to use credit just to buy food lately, so travel isn't much of an option.

 

Okay, so why not go somewhere local, right? Because honestly, I've seen everything I want to. Oh sure, there are more temples and stores and such, but (aside from the fact that they all cost money which I don't even have at the moment) I'm not that interested in seeing another temple or shop. Shops are only good if you have some cash to blow, which I believe I have firmly established that I do not.

 

As for temples, I am not a very religious person so I view most temples, no matter how beautiful, as a waste of resources. I've noticed a tendency for people who were raised Christian but no longer consider themselves as such to have a reverence for Asian religions, citing them as more spiritual. I personally view Asian religions o be just as silly as their western counterparts, but more wasteful in terms of land and materials used to build the shrines and temples.

 

So I've spent the pat week playing "Heroes" with some friends in Kyoto and watching the Olympics. The past two days sleeping exceedingly late, but the rest does feel good. School starts again on September 1st, so I guess this post is also a prediction for my activities next week as well. I have 11weeks remaining in Japan, 6-8 of which will be spent working and 2-3 which will be spent cleaning and moving. I will try to post an article about moving back to one's home country about the middle of October, as that is when the bulk of my moving adventure will take place.

 

Anyways, I'm getting super excited about going back home. But for now I think I'm going to take another nap.

*yawn*

 

-Maru!