A vacation like no other

Japan is full of wonderful things, places and people. My trip to Kyoto was no exception.

Since I am still dealing with some residual ear infection issues and am generally not a big fan of airplanes, the next best option while here is the bullet train called the Shinkansen, here.

Seating on the "Shink" is spacious and comfortable, there is a little lady who rolls a cart full of goodies to buy (a little bit like the food trolley on the Hogwarts Express. Sadly, no jumping chocolate frogs.) but you can also just pick up a bento at the station. It is quite relaxing to ride something that in many ways feels like a plane but never leaves the ground. The view as you zip past the enaka (country side/towns) and cities reminds me of what you see in a Van Gogh painting, slashes of color hurriedly compiled into a beautiful, scenic picture, rather than the view from the slower pace of the local trains I take everyday for work, where you can see the same scenery for minutes at a time.

The trip to Kyoto was a bit exhausting, the train from Chikugo-shi to Hakata, the big city terminal in Fukuoka, boarding the shink to Kyoto was a total of 3 or so hours of just sitting.  That being said, it was totally worth it.

Next stop, Kyoto!

When you take the Shink, I recommend
dragging a buddy along.

Yea.. New Years Resolutions......

So, I was all pumped after the New Year. I cleaned and reorganized my apartment to a stage I am pretty satisfied with. I set out a schedule to get things done, study Japanese and so on and so on.  Things were going pretty well until the third week of January and then homesickness hit me hard.

One of the partially rescued photos from my laptop before it crashed .
The original is gone but here is the copy with fancy edits.
Taken in New Hampshire, 2011 on a visit with my friend.
Pray for Japan!

The sad thing is, nothing bad happened in Japan, in fact, I haven't been this stress-free in such a long time but I found myself flashing back to memories of driving on the Kennedy and seeing the Chicago skyline ahead, or sitting in the tv room of my best friend's house, I even had a horrible flashback to my cubicle at my old job with my supervisor looming over me throwing some paperwork at my head.  (that actually snapped me into a reality check)

It also hasn't been so great with my computer being on the fritz. I'm probably going to buy myself a lovely new laptop in the coming days/weeks. Its an expense I wasn't looking forward to but its is a necessity at this point. I just need my Downton Abbey fix and to be able to stalk you all on facebook from a screen bigger than my hand!

.... and well, to keep up with my blog. Yea, I should do that too, huh?

So, keep a look out for some catch-up posts from the various travels I have done thus far in Japan.

For now, Happy Valentines Day!