Slingshot
An acquaintance of mine juggles several jobs and spends most of the year traveling.
Fragments — Latest first
At the Departure Gate
The peak season must have passed. The departure gate was quiet in that particular way airports get ...
Across the Pond
Across the pond. It's the phrase North Americans and Europeans use for the Atlantic ...
The Weight of the Body, the Lightness of Information
All you needed for the job was your own will, your own body, and a handful of quarters and tokens.
Before the Words
I was walking through Madrid when a light beige building stopped me.
Code as Narrative
After a hiatus of several years, I recently returned to coding,
My Own Universe
“It really comes down to whether you find it bothersome,” the tinnitus specialist says,
Downpour in Phnom Penh
The day after arriving in Phnom Penh, my plans — the whole reason for the trip — fell through.
A System of Trust and Transcendence
My scheduled flight was canceled due to heavy snow.
Monday Morning
The British magazine The Economist publishes an annual “Big Mac Index.”
Northbound, Southbound, and the Direction of Meaning
A couple I know lives in northern Tohoku, and every few years, I drop in on them.
The Strait in the West, or Ambiguity
The moment the ferry crossing the western end of the Mediterranean pulled away from the wharf on Spain’s southern edge,
Journey to the Oysters
As the eastbound Doto Expressway approached the Minami Furano area, the snowfall intensified.
Visitors to Bangkok
Whenever people hear about the nightlife districts scattered across the world,
The Price of a Secret Hot Spring
Driving along a narrow mountain road in northern Hokkaido, I spotted a piece of wood half-hidden in the bamboo grass along the shoulder, scrawled with “ROTEN →.
Pescado in San Salvador
Back then, I was drifting through Central America without internet or a phone.
Toyotomi x Words of Travel
Last summer, I returned to Toyotomi in northern Hokkaido after decades away.
Reunion in San Jose
The driver in the taxi I’d hailed in San Jose was an Asian man, probably in his early forties.
A Stifling Library
I sometimes visit a university library. Not as a student, alumnus, or faculty member, but as a neighborhood resident granted access through a community program.
Egg and Lettuce Fried Rice, Hot and Sour Soup
Wherever I’ve traveled in the world, Chinese food has been my salvation.
Asahikawa Station, South Exit
I had a few hours to kill between trains at JR Asahikawa Station.
Escape
Toward the end of the twentieth century, I was living in a Tokyo apartment and commuting once a week to Urawa in Saitama Prefecture to ...
Canoe
It’s been years since I paddled for the first time through the wetlands of eastern Hokkaido,
My Physics Teacher
Physics was my worst subject, but I liked the teacher.
The Third Winter
In October, morning temperatures dropped into the single digits.
Duckweed
Apparently, most people don’t move all that often in their lifetimes.