Saturday, March 31, 2007

Crampt spaces, driving me bonkers

I'm a tad miffed.
Miffed at the little annoyances that are happening; rainy weather (although I'm not outside, nor do I have to be), a slow and flunky laptop on which I'm typing this (I'm in need of something new, but until this one gives out, I can't account for a new one), my English and Japanese deteriorating rapidly when I'm tired (so I'm making these tiny, stupid mistakes), the travelling to all and everywhere (but if I want to see stuff, I'm kind of bound to that), but most of all, the crampt space this hotel room is.
Here's a pic:

You see, not much room to turn around in...

I've been living in a room half the size of this hotel room for more than 10 years. Not only my bed, but my desk, my TV, my stereo, my stuff... Everything was in there.
For over 10 years, I've been struggling with floor space, packing my stuff in boxes (resulting in everything being everywhere), trying to get things organized and clean, but failing miserably.

Until I moved.

When I moved, I moved to a Real House, with a living room and kitchen, a study/work room and a bed room (and obvious things, like a bath room and toilet). My new bed room alone is like three times the size of my old room; I have space to do things, to store things, to have people over, to play games, to do whatever I like.

And now I'm in a twin hotel room not even the size of my bed room at home. This room is divided in two area's, separated by the tiny bath room, which is just high enough for me to stand in, and the room is driving me nuts.

I'm all for privacy, but I don't really mind sharing a normal room with someone I like to go on holiday with.
Fortunately, we're heading for Tokyo tomorrow to live in a normal apartment for the remainder of the holiday, as I don't think I can take much more travelling around, living out of my suitcase.

I've been doing that for far too long in my old room, and for my work in foreign countries.
I just unplugged the hotel room's refrigerator, as it was making too much noise. Good thing there's nothing in it.

I believe I've stopped making sense a few lines ago, but I don't mind. This is off my chest, it's 01:17-ish in the morning, and I'm going to sleep.

Cheers, K.

posted @ 6:17 PM | Feedback (3)

Shinto's holiest of the holy, and a wedding, set in stone

Ise is the Vatican for the Shinto religion.
There are two very important shrines there, keeping two of the most important relics of the Shinto faith.

These shrines can't be photographed either; a large fence surrounding the inner and the outer shrine, complete with guards.
The surrounding forest is beautiful; very, very large trees towering over everything, and the whole area is engulfed in a powerful atmosphere.

After this rather religious visit, we moved on to Futami, where the Wedded Rocks reside.
A pair of rocks, connected to each other by a holy rope. Sounds like fun.

We had fun, but mainly from laughing, as the rocks weren't nearly as large as we expected them to be. You see; a Torii (Temple Gate) sits on top of the large rock, so when photographed in the correct angle, the rock looks huge. Once you're there, it's kind of a let down to see them being quite smaller than expected.
Still a fun thing to see and visit, though, and if you're into frogs, a frog god resides there as well, so all is not lost. ;)

I'm keeping this short, as I'm rather tired, and we will move our group to Tokyo tomorrow for the remainder of this holiday.

Cheers, K.

posted @ 5:09 PM | Feedback (0)