travel in japan: part 2 (plus)

After saying goodbye to Tanya, I made my way up to hang out with Evan for another 2 days. He was working, and his hometown is very small, so I just walked around his local mall, had lunch with him during his lunch brake and then bar hopped with him after his work. The second day we all ended up at one of his freind's house, buzzed as a bee, drinking wine and talking about silly stuff in Japanese. The next day, I got up and went to Hiroshima, next day after that I went to Osaka, and finally went to Tokyo on an 11 hour local train. (The picture below is of the "atomic bomb dome" in Hiroshima, a sad relic of America's violent past.)
I'm going to now just randomly describe moments from my whole trip, random, from the start to the end. (A lot more happened, but if I chronologically listed it all, it would be way too long to write down here.)

Sitting in the airplane going from Hong Kong to Korea, theres a Korean couple next to me. With out asking he takes my used dishes and gives them to the flight attendent. His girlfriend offers me the uneaten bread from her meal. I smile, feeling the approach of Korea.

On a local train with Tanya, she tells a sick joke and I die with laughter, even though it shouldn't be funny. I can feel laughing-tears come to my eyes.

Another long local train, Tanya offers me a slice of bread and cheese. The train continues on endlessly.

Looking for an old lady's house-hotel near a local station with Tanya. Not finding it. The local police man takes us in his car to her door. The police man drives off. We nock. She doesnt answer. We go in. Shes sleeping. We don't know how to check in, so we leave and she wakes up, stumbling, mumbbling (in Japanese) that shes drunk. She loses her hat, walking in circles. Falling to sleep on soft futons in a large old tatami room.

Evan sits at his computer flipping randomly through Bellingham photos as he tells me stories about when I wasnt there. I feel the years, and connect to the missing moments in some way. Time seems translucent for a moment or two.

In Hiroshima, I meet a couple from Switzerland and two good friends from Columbia. Both females, of the four, have a hard time with English. We drink beer in the hostel, talking about their Japan experiences. I teach the Japanese word for "play" to the man from Switzeland. The Columbian man speaks Japanese well, he's in Japan on a Japanese government Japanese language study scholarship.

In Osaka, meeting a friend I hadn't met for 6 years. Something amazing about that much time between meeting someone. Somehow the past seemed to rush towards me, somehow the past seemed to be not so long ago.

And thats all the moments for now. A few more photos before I disapear.

This (below) is a shinto torii god gateway thing from my Kyushu trip.

Next picture below is Tanya taking my picture at Kumamoto Castle.

And now my day to day life in Japan, looking for a job or whatever, begins!