Ramblings

The past two months have seemed like my own personal multiverse story. Leaping down the whirling cylinder of air and rail transportation, I emerge in a new reality — different faces, new landscapes, everything labeled in unfamiliar languages. Even I have changed. I'm no longer 6 ft, 2 in tall, I'm 188 cm, looking up at much taller people in Belgium and towering above almost everyone in Japan. Yes, it's been fall travel season, while the weather remains decent and the crowds of summer have dispersed.

The Gothic buildings of Bruges and Ghent were a contrast to the Edo-period temples of Matsushima and Aomori, and the flatness of Belgium seemed a different planet than the rugged Japanese mountains. One thing they had in common was an excellent train system that whisked us to our various destinations. So different from our trip to New York City on Amtrak, also this fall — rattling, slow, and often-delayed. Fall colors were in full display this year; New York State glowed in yellows and golds, Belgium was more subdued, and Japan burned with the vivid reds of Japanese xmaple and the yellow of ginkgo.

It's good to be home again for a bit, with a stack of books to read by the fire and fresh ideas for new stories to tell. Er, this is the timeline I started from, isn't it?