I’ve been back for a while, and I’m turning into one of THOSE people. You know the ones. The ones who get back from a trip and say “Well, that reminds me of when *I* was in Japan.”
Because it’s TRUE. Everything here DOES remind me of everything in Japan.
We shot out of the station bound for Kyoto, taking only a short amount of time to buy a tiny hot can of coffee for my mom. I admit it: I was showing off that I knew something cool about Japan that she hadn’t seen yet.
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)