Life's Simple Pleasures

When I first arrived in Japan every spare moment I had I felt that I needed to be traveling, or planning out new places to travel to. I succeeded in having traveled to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Tokyo, Okinawa, Nagano, Nara and many more uncommon but just as great cities and prefectures. Currently, I feel that I have seen a good amount of Japan, so my desire to travel isn't as incessant as it was when I first arrived. Don't get me wrong, I still love traveling and plan on seeing more before leaving, but for now I'm content with simpler ways to spend a day or two.

For example, last week my roommate and fellow blogger Emily, and I went on a hike. We hopped onto a local train, and after 10 minutes had reached our destination. After leaving the train station, we walked for 10 minutes to the start of our hiking course.

Our hike was amazingly beautiful, exerting, and occurred in gorgeous weather, everything you could possibly want in a hike. The hike lasted about 6 hours as Emily and I trudged North along the mountain ridges. We scaled rocks and pushed aside tree branches before descending upon a lovely shrine, where we stopped and read and had a snack before turning back.

All in all we had a great day. Our hike wasn't as exciting as a seeing the Golden Pavilion for the first time, or a Tigers game in Koshien Stadium, but it was equally as good in it's own simple way.