This post was recovered from an old blog that I had while studying abroad in Japan. I’ve only updated misspellings or dead links, but left any cringe worthy things or immature thoughts. I’ve decided to leave them as a snapshot of who I was and to see how far I’ve come. Any photos have been freshly edited and so are not the same as what was originally posted. Over the years I had several blogs, most lost to time, and I wanted to recover some lost memories and reflect on my life.

he next few days in Kyoto were spent riding the trains around the surrounding area. During the nights I wasn’t able to sleep well at Mac and so during the day I would ride the trains all the way to the end of the line and back, resting and sleeping the whole time. My feet had also gotten torn up pretty bad the first day, blisters were on the verge of popping. Riding the trains allowed these blisters to heal and I saved most of my energy for the last couple of days, when I would have a place to sleep at night and store my heavy gear at during the day.

Even though I wasn’t seeing a lot of the sights in Kyoto I did get to see some beautiful Japanese country side. On the second day I rode the train out to Sonobe on the Sanin/Sagano Line. The trick to riding out to all these places for cheap was buying a ticket for one station away from Kyoto station. Then ride the train to wherever, get off the train and switch to the returning platform. As long as you don’t leave the station then it doesn’t cost any extra money. So to ride all the way to Sonobe was around 140 yen and it allowed me to rest. Plus this line is really beautiful as it goes through a gorge, tunnels, and then finally through a wide open valley filled with tanbo (rice paddies).

The next day I rode out Tsuruga on the Kosei Line. This line runs along the coast of Lake Biwa (the largest freshwater lake in Japan) and was another beautiful ride despite the rain. As the rain streaked across the windows of the fast moving express train I gazed into the hills bordering the lake. The plants were so lush and green, reminding me of home. Soon my thoughts drifted to returning home and I reflected back on my experiance in Japan.

On the day that I would head over to the couch surfers house I took the Kyoto line out to Himeji. I purposely took the local train there and back so that I could kill as much time as possible and sleep. I had until around 5pm in the evening before I could meet up with my host and it was still early morning. The Kyoto line is far less spectacular than the Sanin or Kosei line as it mainly runs through the city. As I passed through Osaka I noted how much it looked like Tokyo. Then the train passed Kobe and the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge came into view. The bridge was HUGE! It is currently the world’s longest suspension bridge and I can say it absolutely dwarfed any of the bridges we have in Portland. The return from Himeji to Kyoto was filled with more wandering thoughts. I think these long trips on the train have helped me really bring a close to my stay here in Japan and allowed me to really think about how I feel.

After returning to Kyoto I headed for Kitano Tenmangu Shrine to meet up with my couch surfing host. I called him from a public phone and he came to pick me up. As we walked to his place we talked, introducing ourselves, and talking about various random topics. Yasunari, my host, was a 20 year old college student living in Kyoto. He’d actually applied to go to Aoyama Gakuin and got past the entrance exams, but decided to go to school in Kyoto instead. After getting stuff situated in his place, a small on room apartment which is typical of japan, we went out for okonomiyaki and yakisoba. With a real place to rest I planned what to do the next day and promptly fell asleep at his place after returning from dinner.