Mollie, how did you get stomach flu? You didn’t use your
dry-heaving sister’s toothbrush right before finals did you? Again?
I’m going to guess I accidentally swapped drinks with a
friend recovering from stomach flu. I also may have jinxed fate by telling my
professor earlier in the week that I had an “iron gut.”
When I got back from the izakaya on Thursday night, I
thought I had overdone it on the drinking. I got back at midnight and it wasn’t
long before I realized what was hitting my system. I won’t get too graphic, but
I was vomiting until 6 am. The kind where you need to plug your nose or
unspeakable things will happen.
I spent the next 12 hours horizontal, wondering how I could
traverse4 through Japan in a stretcher. I missed the final program banquet and
missed many goodbyes. I was managing a slow re-entry into humanity by Friday
evening, and met up with Veronica and Emily at their hotel’s onsen. It was a
calm, enjoyable send off to Kyoto.
Waking up the next morning was a bit lonely. All my friends
departed for the US that morning, and I had very little knowledge of where
exactly I was going. I found my train okay and soon realized how successful my
haphazard travel planning had been.
Now I should say, this past year I’ve had the fortune to
spend over 80 hours on trains. Traveling through France, Italy, Hungary, South
Korea. This is not a regular occurrence in my life, traveling through these
breathtaking countries. Before last year I had never crossed oceans to visit
anywhere.
This is to say that though 80 hours sounds like a lot, the novelty
hasn’t worn off yet. There’s just too much beautiful countryside, looking out a
traincar window is like watching a movie.
So let me tell you this: when I say my trip to Matsumoto was
one of the most spectacular train rides I’ve taken, you know I’m not fucking
around. I became so entranced that I actually started filming the trip on my
Android. It was the kind of ride where you consider just getting off at a stop
with no plan, because it was too beautiful to pass by. A lot of Nagano is like
that, including Matsumoto, where I stayed.
When I got into Matsumoto I knew two things: my hostel was
far from town, and the hostel owner was coming to get me in an hour. With no
phone, in a fairly large train station, I saw how my wonderful afternoon could
unravel. After twenty minutes of standing outside the East exit, I also
realized that if any old man approached me and told me to follow him into his
car, I would do so.
Luckily the hostel owner found me okay, and drove me a short
distance to where I’d be staying.
For all the complaining I saw online about the hostel's distance from town, it was surprisingly close, while still being positioned in between the mountains of Matsumoto near the creek bordering town.
I spent my week biking through Matsumoto, designing my photobook, and listening to plentiful podcasts. My nights were punctuated with kind visits from the hostel owner. We spoke a couple of times over shochu, talking our ways around language barriers.
One of my favorite days was a day trip I took to a farmers' market in the mountains. After biking uphill for what felt like forever, I stumbled upon the red-roofed market. I came across it from the wrong side, leading to me traipsing through the vineyard, creaky bike in tow. I spent a few hours looking around at the local foods, sipping coffee from the cafe overlooking everything.
However lovely my time was in Matsumoto, I did find that I was having more trouble sleeping. The night before my last day in Japan I couldn't fall asleep until the sun came up (around 7am). Even so,
I managed to rally and make a trip to a neighboring park, Kamikochi. The mountains reminded me a bit of the Grand Tetons in the US. Even though it was summer, you can tell from my video, the water was quite icy. I spent the afternoon walking around the park, listening to more podcasts, and eating cherry blossom ice cream. It was the perfect end to my adventures in Japan.
The trip back to Minnesota was not as eventful or beautiful as the previous six days, but it was safe. Despite having a rather solitary end to my trip, I found it to be exactly what I needed.
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