75) Nice Nonetheless

My original plan went something like this: stay up all night wandering around the city, looking for shrines or interesting areas to take pictures of, and then if I get tired find a PC room or 24 hour café and spend the night there drinking coffee and reading or surfing the web.

Reality went something like this: I get off the train from Japan Central Airport and find that a thunderstorm has just started.- cancel wandering around all night- thus canceling my master plan. After about an hour I found a café called Mr. Doughnut and stayed there for a while- hoping some new plan would come to me. Nothing came to me, so I started to wander a little bit (luckily I brought and umbrella) and found a 24 hour Gold’s Gym. I figured they would at least have a shower, and I may even be able to crash there for the night. They were not too keen on that idea, so I asked him if there were any hotels nearby. He said there was a capsule hotel (where you basically stay in a capsule with a TV).
the rain almost letting up


I accidentally wandered into the wrong building but realized I may have stumbled into a better place- a sauna. I met a guy that told me the deal and what floor it was on, and headed on up. It was a really fantastic sauna- better than anything I have been at in Korea. It was multi-floored and had a small casino area and even a movie theatre with individual beds. Right when I got in I did the whole sauna routine (shower, sauna, cold tub, hot tub, and repeat) and then went into the movie theatre. I found a bed next to an old man and enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha without understanding a word of the movie. Eventually I dosed off only to be awaken a few hours later by some guy talking in his sleep- it was bizarre, annoying and slightly comical at the same time.
cherry blossoms- they were all over Nagoya (atleast what i saw of the city)

At some point that night I realized some of the ways I have changed since I have been on this trip. For one, I don’t know how comfortable I would have been a few months ago with arriving in a foreign country with no place to stay, no real plans, no ability to speak the language, and no one I know. Or how comfortable I would be with sleeping in a large room with about 100 other strangers- or being naked with them in a bathhouse. But I was quite comfortable with everything, and didn’t even realize it until I stopped to think about it. This little overnight trip to Japan turned out much different than I imagined, but it was nice nonetheless.

this is for those of you who have not seen a recent photo of me lately...