Justin-Klein.com – Life of a Traveling Programmer

An approximation of the route I took.

On the morning of December 27th I awoke at 5:45, an hour before sunrise. I packed my regular school backpack with my laptop, my digital camera, one change of clothes, and a small map book. Dressed in full winter clothes I went outside to scrape the ice off of my worn-out shopping bike’s seat. The plan was to ride it to Kobe some 95km away by sundown.

Perhaps the most humorously named store I’ve seen yet (this isn’t actually on Kinukake-no-Michi)

When I pulled out onto Kinukake-no-Michi, the street running from Ryoanji past my apartment and down to Ninnaji, the city of Kyoto was still very much asleep. Aside from the occasional jogger or high-school student on his way to baseball practice there was no one in sight. Every store was closed. Except for the combini, of course. I popped into the first Lawson I passed and grabbed a quick breakfast of Manjuu, Melon-Pan, and Onigiri.
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Daitokuji, less than five minutes from my apartment on foot.

So, you remember my last post when I said it snowed a lot?

HAH! Shows what I know.

I was so excited when there was a little snow on the ground here in “lower Kyoto” that I decided to climb a mountain to get the full winter effect at Enryaku-ji. Little did I know what was on its way…

Hakubaicho…the way to Jumbo Okonomiyaki!

This Thursday, on the last day of school before winter vacation, I woke up an hour later than usual. I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, and refreshed my e-mail in Outlook. The following message was waiting for me:

ＳＫＰのＡレベルの学生へ
今日(木曜日）、山口先生の３限の授業が雪のため休講となっています。
よろしくお願いいたします。

One of the streets along our little shortcut to campus after the snowstorm cleared up.

It means that class is cancelled. On account of the snow.
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My mom’s here! In Kyoto! With me! Weird!

I have officially purchased a plane ticket back to America. I’ve officially notified my real estate agent that I’ll be vacating my Kyoto apartment. February 15th is the day.

I’m so filled with emotions both positive and negative that I’m really not sure which is the dominant.

I mean, honestly. How could I stand to leave all of this behind? Colonel Clause??

One half of me is overjoyed to see my family and friends again, to return to the place where I grew up, to regain access to real hamburgers and pizzas, and to be able to once again afford DVD’s right off the shelf. But the other half is nowhere near ready for this Japan portion of my life to end.

Clear skies and old-fashioned rooftops. Kyoto.

Before I came here, I sort of assumed that the novelty of living abroad would eventually wear off. It hasn’t. But I guess I can’t go on being a student forever, and who knows, maybe I’ll end up right back here working for some high-tech firm in Tokyo. We’ll just have to wait and see what the cards have in store for me.
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