Flying

Sunday was paragliding day. I jumped onto a train at some insanely early hour of Sunday morning, and headed out of Tokyo in a direction as unknown to me then, as it is now.

As you head outside the city, there are less signs in English. Still, I managed to change train, and arrive on time.

This is not a picture of me paragliding. I merely took the picture. After 2 runs, and the basics learnt - including a full understanding of how to react when someone hollers BANZAI - rain appeared from nowhere and cancelled the rest of the day.

So we headed out to an Onsen, and I learnt how to turn my body to jelly without eating vast quantities of ice-cream or Mako Donaldo Hambugo.

Got back home, and called Renate. Moving to another country these days is logistically painless; but there are, of course, other pains. You get tired of being unable to call your friends, infuriated of looking for basic necessities, tired of starting from scratch on all knowledge, frustrated with the minor differences in process and ethics. All compared to that which you have become accustomed to. I'm way over the worst of it now, and I see a list of dozens of cool things to do in my short time remaining here. My phonebook has an endless list of contacts, and a very, very short list of friends. The contacts distinguish themselves from friends rapidly, when you hear that question: "How are you" in a manner which demands honesty rather than cursory politeness.
- posted by Daniel @ Monday, September 12, 2005