Day Thirty Five: Sobudai, Shin-Yokohama, Kyoto and Nara

I was up at about 10. the whole family was gone and I was there at lodging by myself. I just spent some time pondering on things before the horlacher family came back and met me there.

they had been gone doing the final preparations for the inspection of the house they were moving out of. I kind of felt bad that I didn’t go with them to do it, but honestly I didn’t know that they were going to be doing in the morning.

so I spent some more time with them in the morning and with ben before me and ben left at 1 to go to the train station where I would be riding the japan rail system to nara.

the pass I had to stay on the zama base was only good until 1pm or something stupid like that. so when I got to the gate to get out of the freakin place, the Japanese folks acted like they weren’t going to let me leave or I was going to get punished for exceeding the time limit or something. it was pretty ridiculous for a while and me and ben had to stand there waiting for Japanese army folks to make some trivial back and forth phone calls asking their higher authorities if it was okay for me to leave the place.

eventually they let me out of there and I was out of the clutches of the American military, which was good, even though it made me sad to have to say goodbye to the horlachers.

and then me and ben made our way to the station, said our goodbyes, and I was gone.

five hours of train rides later and I was in nara. I was carrying a rolling suitcase, a 50lb packpack, and a guitar around the whole day, and stopped in a restaurant nearby the station with all of my goodies. they were glad to see me and my money when I ordered what could possibly be my favorite Japanese food, coco’s curry.

I was out of there and went and met bob and mayumi at their house after the sun set. they welcomed me and showed me where I would be sleeping. I have a room upstairs where I will be able to sleep, by myself for the most part except when there are guests in the house, then ill get to share with who knows who else!

the thought of it is terribly exciting.

also, I live just about an hour by train from Osaka, so I can go play there sometimes, and they are even going to be doing a Japanese version of jesus christ superstar all this month, definitely something not to miss!

but of course the end of the huge bulk of constant travel is over, and that has me feeling sad. I have never been in a situation in my life where I didn’t know where I would sleep night after night until the last month. it has been an incredible experience that I have absolutely loved.

when youre living in such a way, your lifestyle is based on constant schedule changes, desperation and all types of surprises. almost every situation I experienced was never planned, it all just came to me as I went along. I had a goal to see every major city in the country, and I was able to.

you feel different when you live as a traveler with no real plan. while some senses are dulled and not utilized entirely, others are amplified to some extreme and basic instinctual level that we rarely realize we still have in our mostly civilized circumstances. a person living the traveling life with little money begins to learn how to live by using every single resource and hand and waste nothing.

I have never felt in my life so poor and so tired, but I have also never felt so free and so in-tune with what was going on around me.

this trip has been incredible and I have had the best experience of my life and I am truly grateful that I am able to stay longer thanks to my friends in nara

and even though I have been wet, hot, cold, hungry, fatigued, sick, anxious, and felt so often like I am in a place I don’t know well enough to feel comfortable in anywhere at any time, constantly moving with no nearby support or place to hang my hat…


I have loved every second of it