Travel Journal – 29/4 – Monday – 2013

Well, it has been some time since I wrote anything of any value here, but this has become a tradition for me, despite the slip during the last trip 2011. And today has been a lot of traditions, feelings, and memories. All both good and bad…

I’m writing on my iPad today for various reasons so I won’t use spellcheck when I write this post. I might return though sometime later to fix misspellings and such if I think they matter. Either way, I mostly write to remember, tell those who are interested and to practice.

When I said ‘today’ I meant from yesterday (28/4) approximately 08:00 to now (30/4) 00:24 Japan Standard Time (which is 17:24 swedish time, I think).

It’s been a loong, but short day. The flights were relatively painless, as far as floghts can go for me. Meaning, still extremely bothersome, painful for my back, my right side and my neck as well as my shoulders. But i got trough it with sleep and brief conversations.
PB however skipped sleep on the long flight, which I think was stupid. Epecially after the events after arriving in Japan.

Well, however, we arrived and after many stops and doing small errands we finally arrived in Kita Urawa where we met a very surprised Miiko. There was some complications with us getting into the appartment, which caused Miiko to have a minor panic attack on our behalf. But it all was settled in the end.

We went for the traditional first meal, Ramen in Kita Urawa. I must say that Im very dissappointed over the changes they’ve made in the meny since last time. My favourite ramen from 2010 was gone, and the ramen I got 2011, was temporary unavailable. Well, well…

After that we got the room, spoke to both Miiko and Kejirou’s second secretery who knew a lot of english compared to the rest of Miiko’s acquaintances I’ve met so far. Got the key and then after unpacking went to the smaller sento to take a semi-traditional first bath.

After that we went to Akihabara to look for a new digital camera for me and some dinner as well as a Taito Station to play Lords of Vermillion 2. With the exception for dinner, we found neither. Or we found cameras, but I need to think it over more. But no Taito Station with Vermillion.

We gave up before we found one, when the clock closed into 23. This mainly because with the failure to find Vermillion but also largely because PB has been nodding off all the time and being 2-4 times more sleepy than usual all day.

Well, as an emotional reflection of everything so far; I’m still not “feeling” lime I’m here. I mostly just feel empty for the moment, trying to grasp the emotional dilemmas in my head and find a balance. So much is lost by coming here, and in many ways nothing is truly gained. Yet. I need to find my spark, and balance. Routines must be built, and the feeling need to be found. Tomorrow Miiko will come here around 12:00 with breakfast/lunch. I will try to explain again how we cannot see her the 6th but maybe the 7th…

Well, well, PB is finally sleeping after the trip home from Akiba. We got to wait about 30min for some ’emergency’ so he had about 40 minutes of slep before we arrived here again. Now I’m going to makr my bed and sleep.

This is Herid, the time is 00:46.