A kick in the face!

There is nothing quite like a breakfast trip with my small town Indianaianiananin (from Indiana) grandparents to the local Mom's Restaurant, wherein the ceiling is lined with dollar bills signed by patrons past, all of whom were likely the same type of customers you see now - predominantly overweight, all white.

The restaurant lies on the corner of an intersection and is neighbor to a gas station, which sells live bait, and a church. All around this uncharacteristically large intersection (five roads!) are farms. Fields and fields of crops. On the opposite side of one swiftly yellowing field lies a thin barrier of likewise yellowing trees - the only thing separating my house and its respective community from this intersection.

I eat biscuits and gravy, a scrambled egg, hash browns. My grandparents order grits with their meal. It is familiar territory.

My father has started his own miniature farm in our backyard. Some might call it a garden. Corn, cucumbers, green onions. These are all harvested already. There are a few tomatoes left. He even planted some watermelon. They are still small.

Welcome home, Jonny Boy. Welcome home.

Naughty me

I have been avoiding writing another blog post after finally finishing the Trip Logs TM, but now I'm back to share my final thoughts.

Kyoto, Himeji, Kobe, Nara, and Hiroshima were awesome. I wish I could've spent more time in all of the cities. At least a week each, if not more. I don't know if there's necessarily a week's worth of stuff to do in all of them, but just being there for a week would be enough. I enjoy the simple act of walking around and absorbing the environment - the people, the buildings, everything.

I discovered some things about myself, too. I have a bizarre fascination with crop fields and trees. On the Shinkansen ride back to Shinagawa, I was watching the rice (and other such crops) pass by, and I just wanted to get off and walk around in the fields, look at things, take pictures. I don't really know... why. Except that ever since I played Harvest Moon on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, I've always wanted to try my hand at farming (knowing full well, of course, that farming is not a video game).

I once heard about this program wossname where you can go out and work on a Japanese farm for a couple months. At some point, I'm going to have to look into it. I am required to, by law. Probably.

As for trees... I am especially intrigued by the almost-dead trees. Sometimes you walk along and you see a tree trunk that looks like it should've been eaten away years ago. It is decrepit. Ugly, even. But life persists. A branch here or there. Leaves where you would not expect them. I enjoy seeing these things. ):

But more than anything else, I developed this overwhelming urge to walk across Japan. I would probably start in Hokkaido near the end of summer, and work my way down to the bottom at Okinawa. You know, if I ever have the time. Or the money. Or someone to do it with. I really do want to do it, though.

Ahh, pipe dreams.