You wake up jet lagged in Shunko-in Temple in Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital city. The bed-on-floor situation and outdoor hole-in-the-floor potties remind you you’re on a different continent. You hear someone sneeze…in the room next door. Good morning! You’re in Japan! You can’t go back to sleep after 5 a.m. so you’re more than on…
How to Stay in a Kyoto Temple
No Swine Flu Here
Contamination—no one’s friend. Coming from the epicenter of American swine flu outbreaks…or anywhere in the States…is cause for full on anti-outbreak procedures. Everyone on our flight from San Francisco into Narita airport had to fill out these health questionnaires, which included:“Please check any of the following symptoms: Mucus, Rhinostenosis, Sore throat, Cough.The situation in the…
HOU–>SFO–>NAR–>KYOTO
Three weeks is just enough time to get settled in and remind me of what I’m missing back home, like balmy Texas evenings and family dinners at Los Cucos on $1.50 margarita night. And pictures where Luke and Apollos are making the exact same face, or where Joy makes the same face I’m making at…
Destiny
Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours For one lone soul another lonely soul, Each choosing each through all the weary hours And meetin strangely at one sudden goal. Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers, Into one beautiful and perfect whole; And life’s long night is ended, and the way Lies…
By the Corpus Christi Bay
While I’m in Texas and longing for Florida beaches, I thought about my first job down in Corpus Christi, which was weird. That would be a nice place to have a family maybe, but it was a very strange place to live alone and work the night cop beat. I tried to make the most…
Cows Close to Home
I have this frenemy who disdains all things suburban and refers to Olive Garden as “one of those suburban restaurants.” Now I love me some Tokyo and all, but when I visit home in Katy, Texas and see neighborhood after neighborhood of glistening, glowing greenery beaming in the sunlight, I have to point out that…
Mexico in May
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005My little sister getting married isn’t the only surreal thing about being back in Texas. May always seems to be spent in Texas preparing to go somewhere. Last year Chris and I flew in for Hannie’s graduation and Han and I prepared for our tour of Europe and North Africa….