Clean and Rainy

Good morning from my hotel room in Kashihara. It's been raining to-day and almost everyone has an umbrella! People ride bikes while holding their umbrellas up and open! Stores and restaurants have umbrella holders outside though I've been carrying mine in because I've heard umbrellas are one of the few things in Japan prone to get stolen, I suspect because most of the umbrellas are sort of considered communal property once in the holders.

I've been staying in as much as possible but I have to go out for food. I got my breakfast this morning at Mister Donut, the closest thing to a Starbucks around here. The coffee is good, the doughnuts are very mild but not bad. A bit eggy. They have toast, too, but toast is so thick here it's basically cake. It's pretty good. Still wish I could find a place that sells oatmeal.

I had to go to the laundromat yesterday. There was only one other person there, a middle aged woman in traditional kimono sitting in the corner. I tried to stay as far from her as possible and felt twice as awkward trying to figure out which machines were washers and which were dryers. I don't think she liked seeing a white guy there, she stepped out a few minutes later. I'd heard white people get odd reactions, particularly in areas far from major cities, but I'm quite used to being stared at since I've always dressed like a weirdo. Surprisingly, my clothes and umbrella aren't nearly so conspicuous around here. Wandering around Osaka in my black fedora and grey herringbone tweed Inverness coat and black scarf, I got some looks but I've seen several people with big black hats and the Inverness coat looks quite a bit like a certain traditional Japanese overcoat I've seen a few times. Even toting heavy luggage doesn't mark me out much as I've seen several people on the trains and wandering about with big metal suitcases on wheels.

I can't get over how clean everyone and everything is here. The laundromat was in mint condition. All shining steel and sparkling linoleum. The tables were so flat and clean I felt fine using them to fold my clothes. The toilets are legendary, of course, all with bidets and heated seats. I've never felt so clean in my life. It's no wonder the Japanese word kirei means pretty and also clean.

Not that my Japanese is great. I can do simple sentences well enough to get by but smart phones have made things absurdly easy. I don't even have service yet, I'm able to use translator and google maps with wi-fi, which is free in nearly every convenience store and train station. World travel used to require some intelligence, I think, but I'd been noticing for years how people who've travelled extensively don't seem to be particularly, shall we say, brilliant. But now you can buy smartness in a phone.

Various Ways to be Exhausted

These pretty little pink flowers are growing in random spots beneath a freeway overpass in Fort Worth, Texas. How do I know this? Because I'm trying to get to Japan, naturally. Travelling from Knoxville, my flight to Charlotte was delayed due to fog, causing me to miss a flight to Fort Worth--and then the substitute flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue. So eventually I did end up in Fort Worth but too late for any flight going to Japan to-day. Fortunately, American Airlines was nice enough to put me up for the night in an Embassy Suite so I can't say I'm too upset. I walked to a nearby Wal Mart for supplies--I was happy to see Texas doesn't have fences and walls everywhere to thwart pedestrians like San Diego does.

It certainly has been an eventful five days.

While staying in Tennessee I had no wi-fi and couldn't go to a Starbucks for it because you can't even stay inside a Starbucks for very long--only to go orders are allowed. I found this out early one morning in Birmingham, Alabama. It's probably a sensible precaution but it makes things difficult for me.

Otherwise, the drive from San Diego to Knoxville was heaven. I do love driving. I spent a lot of time going through Texas, of course. To quote Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, I like the desert "because it's clean," hopefully Coronavirus-free. I swear, if I never hear the word "Coronavirus" again it'll be too soon.

There are so many new Starbucks outfitted with outlets and wi-fi and all the Dennys seem to have wi-fi now. At a Denny's in San Antonio, I overheard a pretty young waitress complaining that she couldn't even buy some supplies for her baby because it was stuff panicked customers had already raided the shop for.

I didn't take many photos on my journey, I didn't have time since my flight was leaving from Knoxville at 7am on Wednesday and I'd left San Diego on Friday. I really wish I could've spent more time in Louisiana. Just the sight of swamps and forests from the freeway was breathtaking.

Here's another photo from Birmingham:

I drove around the historic district at 4:30am. It was too dark for photos. A really eerie experience, all those deserted old buildings with no-one around and weirdly bright street lights. I can't quite describe the feeling it gave me.

Asking the Bird

Here's a surprisingly noisy little bird at one of the occasional designated picnic areas scattered about the Texas desert. Adding to the post-apocalyptic feeling of any scrubby desert was a gas station sign limiting purchases of water bottle cases to two per person. Otherwise, I haven't seen much evidence of the Corona virus, though having no frame of reference I suppose every place I saw may have been 50% less crowded than usual. The outlet mall I stopped in to use the wi-fi in Tucson was certainly packed. Despite pouring rain, just like in San Diego, people were wandering around in t-shirts, some of them looking askance at this archaic contraption I carry called an umbrella.

I overheard one guy in a Mexican restaurant in Sonora, Texas speculating I had a sword hidden in the umbrella. A very young white man was my waiter. He was excited to see me reading Robert Louis Stevenson whom he said he reads at the library.

Some of you may wonder why I'm travelling now, at this worst of times, why didn't I stay at home? Well, I haven't got one, for one thing. I'm certainly not alone in that--having been in L.A. recently I've seen the tent cities on the sidewalks are even bigger than the ones in San Diego. Funny how easily the media so often overlooks such things.

I'm lucky enough to be able to stay in motels on my way. Travelling has sure gotten easy thanks google maps and travel sites where I can find decent motels for 50 or 60 dollars a night, often identical, blocky buildings with tiny rooms and weak water pressure. But they have free wi-fi which is all it takes to make them seem like paradise to me.