The Mountain and the Past (The Trip: Part 2)

From Tokyo we headed to Mount Fuji. We came up on it in the dark, but first thing in the morning, I looked out the window at our hostile and was astounded. It stood over the city, clouds circling the top.

I wish I could describe the climb well, but I really can't. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Other than the sheer beauty of it, there's not much to tell.

We left Mount Fuji in the afternoon, but we didn't make it to Kyoto until after dark. Again, we had the fun of lugging my bags across town, but at least this time, we had a destination. We found our little Ryoken and got to our room.

A Ryoken is a Japanese style, small hotel where you sleep on the floor. It's like a Yeogwon in Korea, if I've ever mentioned one of those to any of you.

Personally, I liked the Ryoken, but Damian wasn't as taken with it's charms. The hotel had a curfew and no internet access. Actually, this is pretty much par for the course with small Asian hotels in my experience, but still, Damian was pretty pissed.

I stayed in and quietly ate while Damian and Dy went out in search of an Internet cafe before the curfew. I was asleep not long after they returned. Apparently, Damian and Dy had a conversation while either while I was asleep or while they were out looking for the net cafe, because they had some news the next morning: they were looking for a new hotel.

Unable to pay for another room (and already having paid for both our nights in Kyoto), I stayed at the Ryoken. Honestly, I was a bit pissed with the situation. I felt like Damian and Dy were ditching me.

While Damian and Dy looked for their new hotel, I spent the entire morning in a nearby temple. The time away and peace and quiet did me a lot of good. My nerves were pretty shot at that point in the trip. I was frustrated and a little mad, but after a morning in the temple, I had calmed down a lot. And I had come to a rather important epiphany: Damian and Dy had a very different purpose than me on the trip. I was out to experience Japan. They were on vacation. It doesn't sound like a big difference, but it is. Just realizing that made a big difference to me, and, at least on my end, the rest of the trip went a lot smoother.

That afternoon we checked out the art museum in Kyoto. Afterward, I had a nice evening alone back at the Ryoken. The next day we checked out a beautiful Japanese garden and headed down to Hakata.

We didn't do much in Hakata, mostly just relaxed back at the hotel. Damian and I watched some TV on my laptop while we did laundry. It sounds simple, but it was a good show. He and I had a good laugh. Oddly, it was one of the better parts of the trip for me.

The next morning, we went to the international ferry terminal and headed back to Korea. After six weeks in the United States and a week in Japan, I was very happy to be heading back to a more stable schedule and more structured life. Unfortunately, a lot happened between the ferry and settling down.