I learned to love getting lost in Tokyo. A super metropolis, super city, super time. Two weeks here wasn’t enough, but filled with karaoke, new friends and old friends visiting, endless shopping (which I had been strict about up til this point), izakayas, new on top of old, the best street snacks. A lifetime in this place probably wouldn’t be enough.
Slipped through the mountains on a sleeper bus to the other side of the country and ended up in charming Ishinomaki. Recovering from the tsunami disaster, but full of heart. The friendliest, sweetest people I met in Japan.
Hida-Takayama was full of sake and soba and strolling at night through ancient times, experienced my first earthquake in Kanazawa, DT Suzuki and finding zen, met a friend on a snowy mountain in Murodo.
Day trip into the Shiga countryside to visit the Miho. A space-age jewel of a museum in the forests.
Kyoto was hot, the hostel dorm was hot and busy; I needed mountains, trees, rain.
