The whitewater in between the rocks

I took today off. Thought it better to get some more rest and then see Takachiho Gorge again. On the way home I got stuck behind a beast of an old semi truck that was climbing its way up the highway at a good old 20km/h. Painted on the top of its old, jagged metal container were the symbols 日本 (the symbols for Nihon/Nippon, aka Japan) so that everyone behind the truck could easily read them; and that I did for a good five minutes while its battered carcass of a vehicle spewed the thickest, most copious amount of black soot that I have ever seen come out of such a contraption.

It is only natural for the beautiful and the ugly, the constructive and the deconstructive to coexist (at least conceptually). As my time here narrows down the two extremes seem to develop much louder voices, much brighter lights, and much more dramatic situations. The nature around me also mimics the extremes: just yesterday the sky was falling down in sheets of rain as lightning crashed every which way and that, while tonight the lands have fallen silent enough to hear in full form the frogs' nightly choral performances.

But it is not just the extremes that are making their dramatic entrances into life at the moment. The smaller details (that make up the larger parts of life in the long run) have been knocking on my mind's door and offering presents of strange emotional cocktails.

The nature of this blog will be changing, probably also dramatically. As I am called on to attend farewell party after farewell party (often strung three nights in a row), I probably will not be able to make the same sorts of frequent posts as I've done in the past. And as I get ready to leave this country (for who knows how long...), I will be thinking about what to do about this blog. Probably the "trips" will continue in their peculiar stripping of sorts, but I can make no promises as to what kind of tripping or stripping will go on upon leaving Nippon. But basically, in the next month, don't expect more than a few pictures and comments every once in a while.