Latest / bit of a Rambler / 069 Japan Sleeps

Transcript

069 Japan Sleeps · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: stories and sleeping outside and having particularly memorable sleeps outside
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: in my hammock. So that's what I want to talk
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: about today because I had this amazing, big adventure in Japan.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I've actually visited Japan a few times during cherry blossom season,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and for one stint, I went three months wandering the country,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: basically walking from east to west from Tokyo to Osaka.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: And during that trip I had to find a place
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to sleep every night, and it wasn't always easy because
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't always make it easy for myself. I walked
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in the direction of the next interesting spot I wanted
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to see, and that certainly wasn't always in a convenient
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: spot for my hammock, although it often was because there
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: are trees galore in Japan, and I ended up sleeping
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: in a lot of places that were very comfortable and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: will live in my mind for as long as this
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: mind holds together three more weeks, and they were just
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: cool spots to sleep at. And the best thing about
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Japan is that it's legal to sleep in public, so
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't have to run out of the city every time.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I just had to find an out of the way
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: place where I could sleep and not bother anybody. And
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: then it was socially and legally acceptable to sleep in
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a bunch of places, which led to some interesting spots.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So let's start out with the library. I was not
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: in Tokyo or Osaka. I was in some town I
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: cannot remember, and I couldn't find a good place to sleep,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: but I was so tired every day. I was walking
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: pretty much all day with my rucksack on my back,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: often following a pokemon Go marker that was who knows,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: twenty miles away, and I would just be like, yep,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that place looks cool. Because pokemon Go chooses their gyms
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and places of interest based on cultural heritage sites like
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: significant replaces in real life in the country. So I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: could choose this gym to walk to, and it could
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: be twenty miles away, and it could be any number
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of things. It could be an important viewpoint that gives
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you a great view of the surrounding mountains. It might
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: be one of the sendos the public baths I love
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to go to, or it could be like in this case,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: a library. So I showed up in the middle of
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: this town in front of a large library, and I
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: went inside. It was daytime still it was going to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: close like an hour, so I went in, charged up
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: my phone, walked around, just checked things out. It was
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a nice library, sort of took a rest, went out
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and got some food, and then it was rapidly getting dark,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and I was so tired. I didn't want to walk,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: you know, ten miles again to get out of the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: city or however far it was maybe five miles. I
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: actually don't know. It was a small city, but in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: any case, I had to find a place to sleep,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and I didn't want to sleep on the sidewalk, and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I had my hammock with me, and there weren't nothing
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: really hit me, Like the parks nearby just weren't great.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And I ended up coming back to the library and
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: there was a small cops of trees right in front
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: of the full floor to ceiling windows of the library.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: But those trees were all sturdy, just the right space apart,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and there was soft grass underneath. It just felt very comfortable.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: So I put up my hammock and I laid down
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: and immediately fell asleep, like right away. And the library
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: was set back from the street. So I was a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: good i'll say, like fifty yards or so back away
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: from any cars or anything. So I was very comfortable.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: It was pretty quiet. I was warm because I had
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: all my gear, and I just passed right out. And then,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: as one does after they go to sleep, I burst
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: back into consciousness and looked around because I had planned
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: on waking up at six am or something at sunrise
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and taking down my setup and then walking out of town.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Before you know, the world started up, because even though
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: it's legally and socially acceptable, and I want to be
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: causing a big scene, but I didn't set alarm or anything.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: So so when I did wake up, the sun was out.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: There were people walking down the sidewalk fifty meters away.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Some people were walking into the library. I peeked my
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: head over the edge of the hammock and saw people
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: inside the library and thought, well, I mean, you got
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a full night's rest. It was a very comfortable rest.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: There was a light breeze. There were some nice cherry
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: blossom trees just a little ways away, and I was
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: on I don't know, regular nice looking trees. So I
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: stretched and stepped down and undid the hammock knots packed
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: up and just strolled on out. And it was really
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: cool because a couple people looked over, but no one
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: looked angry or upset that someone had taken a nap
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: or rested there and then were on their way again. Also,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I think it was nice that most of the people
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: on the sidewalk couldn't even see me. I was camouflaged
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: because that hammock is this dark blue green and yeah,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and then so I had this great rest in front
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: of a really cool library, and then I got to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: continue my track. Every forest I came across, sometimes I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: would just take naps in them, which was really nice.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: In Japan, I never felt like I was gonna collapse
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: or anything from exhaustion, which can happen when I'm backpacking
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: in other countries. Because I can't just knock out wherever.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I have to find a really good spot that's kind
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: of hidden away from everything. It's not legal to sleep
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: in a bunch of countries or culturally acceptable, but it
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: is in Japan. So whenever I was tired, I would
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: just walk out into some trees somewhere, set up my hammock,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: fall asleep so I could take naps all the time,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: which was great because again, carrying a rucksack for thousands
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: of miles over a few months can get tiring every
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: now and then. But in Japan, I could just throw
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: up my hammock, which takes two minutes to set up,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: take a nap for a couple hours, take it down
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: in a couple of minutes, and keep going wherever I am.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: So that was cool because I just never got exhausted
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: like I might on another trek because I didn't have
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to search for a place to sleep. All of these
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: places were cool because I could just sleep in them.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: But I do want to highlight one place in particular,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: which is what made me think of this podcast, because
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I liked so many of the places, but sometimes there
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: were special spiritual karma spots in Japan that just felt
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: different than other places, And one of those was this
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: small shrine I found that was surrounded by very tall
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: grass like grass about as tall as I was, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: huge bushes of it like it shot up from the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: ground and it was very tightly grown together but super
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: wavy in the wind. So yeah, it wasn't rigid or
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: stiff grass. It looked very alive. It was a vibrant
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: huge ring of grass surrounding this shrine. I'm trying to
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: describe what the grass I like without saying that it
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: looked like anime, But it was a very alive, animated
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: patch of grass or small field of grass, with the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: wind whipping the stalks around. During that time, a windstorm
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: was going on, and like when I say windstorm, like
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I mean storm. It was pretty crazy. It was actually
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the first time I've been in like a windstorm that
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: strong where there wasn't some kind of rain or other
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: weather event going on. The wind was nuts, though, And
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: initially I saw this huge tuft, this small field of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: wild grass and ran into it to escape the wind
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: because it was like kicking my ass. So I pushed
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: my way into the tall grass, hoping it would give
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: me some protection. But I found myself in a little
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: clearing after a few feet and hunkered down in the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: little clearing below the grass line that surrounded the clearing,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and I saw this little shrine in the middle of it.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: It was I'll say, like a ring about ten feet
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: wide with wild grass as tall as I was all
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: around the protected clearing I was in, and the shrine
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: with like a thirty foot radius or something. So it
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: was a pretty big little area, pretty big little area,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and when I stepped into the middle of all the grass,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I was suddenly not being buffeted by gale force winds.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I was. I could see all of the grass around
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: me whipping wildly like in some crazy movie, but I
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: it was protected for the most part by most of it.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And I sat down to take a rest before I
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: continued on and tried to find some trees to sling
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: my hammock up. And then I sat a little bit
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: more and I realized that the grass was blocking almost
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: all of the sound from around me. I mean, I
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: could still hear a faint bit if a traffic went
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: by the road, but very faint, like it cut out
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: a good eighty percent of all the sounds. It was
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: pretty wild, including the rushing wind that had been screaming
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: my ears for the past hour. And it was so
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: tranquiled down on the meadow floor in the middle of
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: this small pond of person high grass that I laid down.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I was like, can I just sleep here? Is it okay?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: But I know that it's okay to sleep under temples
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: in Japan, and this was just a small shrine, so
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I figured it was fine. I didn't like, you know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: sleep on the shrine or anything. But there was a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: little clearing in the middle between all this grass, and
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the ground was so soft and spongy and comfortable. But
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: it wasn't wet. It was just springy, soft grass underneath me.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: So I unrolled my bedroll and I laid down and man,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I put my hammock still folded. I used that as
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a pillow that night, and it was so comfortable staring
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: up at the wind. Actually that was a misspeak because
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I meant staring up at the stars, which was great,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and I could see the clouds going by in this
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: deep evening. But I really was looking at the wind too,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: because I'm staring straight up, and every now and then
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: a huge gale would smash the clearing again and all
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the grass would whip in one direction, but it wouldn't
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: fall all the way down, and the after twenty seconds
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: it would kind of wave itself back up to full
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: height and keep shaking in the wind. So while I'm
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: staring up watching the night sky, kept seeing the grass
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: whip around in my vision as well. It was a
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: very profound rest. It was a very profound experience. I
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: loved that sleep, and I was wondering if I could
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: stay there longer and all this kind of stuff. But
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: then I just let that go and enjoyed this night
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I had in a windstorm I don't think I ever
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: experienced anywhere ever again, including in Japan. It was phenomenal.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I had a very comfortable rest because the grass was
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: so soft, and I felt safe inside this little shrine area,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and you know, with all of those a pond of
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: tall grass around me, it felt very cozy and comfortable.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It felt like a little home, and that was my
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: home for the night. It was a great sleep. I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: was very comfortable, and it was a cool spot and
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: there's a windstorm going on, so it was fun. It
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: was just wonderful. Another great little spot that happened was
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I was walking through a town and I was so
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: tired and it was already two am, and I just decided, well,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I know you can sleep in public parks. I've been
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: doing it for a month. I'll just sleep in this
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: public park until the sun comes up and then I'll
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: be on my way. And there was one cherry blossom
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: tree in this one park that I was right next to.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And especially in Japan, I didn't choose the first place
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that was available for my hammock. I always looked for
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: fung shui or an arrangement, even though I don't practice
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: funk shue at all. I looked for an arrangement that
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: would accommodate my hammock, that where me sleeping in a
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: hammock would kind of fit into the rest of the scene.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And I saw a couple parks, but it just didn't
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: seem right. And then I saw this small children's playground
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: area with one cherry blossom tree and it called out
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to me. It was like, hey, this is the spot,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: This is right where you would fit in. And there
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: was a perfect branch. It was a very sturdy tree,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: and I have wide straps, and I set up my
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: two hammock straps and almost instantly fell asleep because I'm
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: under a cherry blossom tree while the petals are falling
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: off and they're falling onto me while I drift off.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So I just conked right out, and then my eyes
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: snapped open. It was day again, and I realized that
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: there were three little figures to my left, and I
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: listened and they were whispering to each other, and they
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: were my Japanese was not great, but I could hear
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: them saying who is this Is it a teacher, and
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: like little things like that, and I popped my head out,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Oh hi, guys, I'm ass and they were like, oh, hi, guys,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I'm ass. And all three of them bowed and said
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: hello when they saw me, and we traded some like
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: simple questions, and then I think it was two girls
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and one boy, and one of the girls could speak
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: very fundamental English, and we had a little conversation for
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: five minutes. This is where they live? Where am I from?
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And we traded just a few sentences while I was
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: taking down everything, and it was very nice and I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: said thank you so much and they were like, thank
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you for visiting. Bye, And it was just a very cool, little,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: cool experience. And I continued on my walk, but it
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: was so funny to wake up and hear these tiny
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: little kid voices. And my teacher brain was like, oh,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: my students. And I was like, oh no, I'm in
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the middle of Japan, resting in a hammock and I
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: haven't taught anything in a year three. I'm so bad
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: with time. I have no idea when this was. I'm
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: trying to think. I believe It was a year ago,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the last time I taught before this public park wake
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: up by the school children. Most of these stories are
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: cherry blossom sleeps because I usually went to Japan, i think,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: except for the very first time during cherry blossoms season.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Oh and one of my very favorite cherry blossom ones
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was again in the middle of a small town kind of.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: There were a couple stores, it's difficult to call it
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: a town, but there was a small community center area.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: But it was supposed to be right next to this
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: very famous cherry blossom orchard. And I arrived at eight
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: pm or something, and there were some cherry blossoms, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: you could see some other emerging, some still blooming, but
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: no one was around at all. There was again a
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: small children's playground. To the side, there was a huge field,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and then there was hundreds or thousands of cherry blossoms streets.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I'll say hundreds. I'm not sure if there were thousands,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: but there were certainly hundreds in a very wide area,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: spaced out wonderfully. And I walked around for probably an hour,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: just all around this huge orchard. And then I found
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: one tree that looked kind of set back from the others,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and I was like, perfect, And I set up my
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: hammock and drifted off to sleep as the petals floated
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: around me again, you know, magically, And I drifted off
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: in this spiritually fulfilling locale, and then my eyes snapped
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: open and I realized it was bright, bright daylight, not
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the early morning that I planned to leave by. There's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: a pattern here, isn't there. I keep thinking I'm gonna
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: leave in the early morning, and I do not. But anyway,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I woke up and I looked around, and I was like, oh, geez,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: because I recognized the silhouette through my hat. I can
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: see through my lightweight hammock, very strong fabric, but I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: can see the light silhouettes through it. So I saw
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: a guy like taking a picture of the tree behind me,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: not my tree that I was sleeping in, and I
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: looked over to apologize to him and get out. And
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: as soon as I popped my head up, I was like, oh,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: because there were already about one hundred people within my
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: little section that I was in, so there were probably
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a good thousand people in the whole park already, and
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: it was I checked my watch. It was eight am,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't like crazy, but the sun was certainly out,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of the trees that hadn't bloomed
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the night before but looked like they were going to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: had bloomed that morning. And I was surrounded by cause players.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: There was a whole bunch of princesses and elves and
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: ninja warriors like taking pictures in front of the newly bloomed,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: fresh cherry blossom trees. And I was taken aback by
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: all these fantasy situations. And then the most touristy leaf
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: peeping camera poppers that you could imagine all Japanese bent
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: down on both knees, you know, split legs, like just
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: really stretching forward to get this one perfect shot of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: a cherry blossom. And there were two dozen of those
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: all around. There were families walking around, kids like throwing
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the petals in the air, and it was just such
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: an amazing Japanese cherry blossom experience. And I quickly rolled
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: out of my hammock and took it down and put
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: which it really only takes a minute, and put everything
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: in my bag and then just walked around with everybody
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: else and we had a and I say, we because
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: I did feel like as soon as I started walking
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: around with my pack, I was part of the cherry
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: blossom peeping community. We were all just enthralled by these
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: trees that had bloomed the night before and a few
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: others that were bloomed maybe a couple days before that.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: And the pedals are whipping around, and like I said,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: there's these flowing, elegant dresses on the women, and the
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: men are dressed in suits, and everyone's taking pictures and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: just being as fulfilled by this magical experience as you could.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: It really is just wonderful to be in Japan during
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: cherry blossom's season, especially if you find one of these
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: perfect orchards or perfect groves where everything looks right and
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: is fluttering perfectly, and there's a community around you of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: people who appreciate it as much as you do. It's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: very fulfilling, which reminds me. There were also because of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the huge group of people, there were food trucks, which
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: are kind of rare in Japan. I see more food stalls,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: but like in the towns, I don't see a lot
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of food trucks, but there were food trucks at this
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: cherry blossom grove and I ate some traditional Japanese snacks.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I remember one person was selling taco balls, the little
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: fried dough with a piece of octopus in the middle
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: with the sauce on top. Just kept walking around with
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: these snacks in my hand, my smile, ripping my face
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in half because I was so happy and giddy just
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to be part of this experience, which is really interesting
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: because it brings me to the next cherry blossom orchard
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that I walked all day to reach. Again. Half the time,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I was following Pokemon Go jim markers, which was a
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: pretty good strategy because those Pokemon Go interesting site markers
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: were married to real life site of interest, usually of
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: cultural or historical importance within Japan. And I walked like
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: all day because it was on top of a mountain
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: or something. There was something special about it. Oh and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: it was not near anything else, So I knew I
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: would have to walk all the way to this place,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and it was going to be ten miles after I
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: reached the nearest town that I would reach this special spot.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: But I was like, you know what, that's what you're
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: here for. You're here to ramble and wander and discover
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: new things and boy did I ever. This turned out
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: to be the largest cherry blossom orchard I had ever seen.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: That one had thousands of trees, for sure, no doubt,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I couldn't. Ten thousand would not be a crazy estimate
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: because there were rows of a hundred trees deep, and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't count how long, but long than a hundreds,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: So there were thousands of trees and they were all
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: in one area. The previous place I talked about was
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: clearly like a curated set of fields put together, and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: there were hundreds of trees, and it's magnificent. And this
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: orchard didn't even bother breaking anything up. It was just
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe they were buying it to sell
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: the cherry trees, or maybe that's a cherry farm, because
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it was just rows and rows and rows and rows
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of evenly spaced cherry blossom trees, but by far the
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: most I have ever seen in one place in Japan.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And I was kind of knocked on my ass, just
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in shock by the sheer volume, and they were all
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: shedding petals. I showed up right when no, you know what.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they all were, but the first
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: like half of the let's say five thousand trees were
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the ones closest to me. That whole giant area was
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: just filled with petals and gusting wind, and it was
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: very cool. But that farm itself wasn't what I had
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: been following, wasn't the trail that I had been following
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the site of interest on Pokemon Go. That was still
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: another couple miles down a road, and there was nothing
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: during the expanse. There were no other towns or anything
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: on any of the maps I had, But I just
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: wanted to make a day of the walk and see
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: what was at the end of the road. And so
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I walked down that road after I hung out in
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the cherry blossom orchard for a while, and I did
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: notice that it was going uphill. And I had already walked,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: oh since five or six am, and it was nearly noon,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: so yeah, it was already like a good six or
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: seven hours of walking. So after a brief break, I
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I'm going uphill, and I started walking up,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and maybe an hour later it turned into this small
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: paved road lined by trees, sort of like you know,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: over the road, and I was walking uphill and the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: entire hill was covered in trees. There was nothing else
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: around on this hill except for this tiny paved road,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: leading to some special surprise that I didn't know what
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: was at the top. And I just kept trudging up,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: one after the other, and then a bus went by me,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and I was like, uh, well, I was very confused
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: because there were no town, nothing around really, and I
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: kept walking, and then another bus went by me and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I saw I looked up and there's a bunch of
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Japanese people looking down at me, and couple wave and
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I waved back, and I kept walking, and then I
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: got to the top and it was like I had
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: reached the Spirited Away Bathhouse. It wasn't five stories or
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: however tall that was, but it was a grand, traditionally
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: decorated Japanese bathhouse. And I didn't know that's what I
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: was walking. I didn't know anything about it. I just
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: knew it was I think at Pokemon Gym from Pokemon Go.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I was just following them because I
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: knew it would probably be something interesting. And this one
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: was a magnificent traditional public bath in Japan. And it
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: must have been pretty special because there were buses going
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: into it pretty often, and it was large, it was
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: certainly one of the largest ones I had seen that
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: wasn't inside a city. Yeah, it must be the largest
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: one I saw outside of a city. And there were
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: no tourists outside of Japanese tourists, So I think I
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: did sort of shock the staff when I walked in,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: because I stepped in with my rucksack on, and there
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: was one guy at the front desk. There was one
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: greeter who stood by the front desk, and then there
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: were a couple people attending those two. I don't know
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: what they were doing, maybe just ready to work at
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: a moment's notice. And I am usually the only tourist
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: in the Japanese bathhouse, but I think it was particularly
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: surprising to the staff here because they were so far
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: off the beaten track, and I hadn't arrived on one
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: of the buses that were constantly going in bringing people in.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't see anyone else on foot or bicycle or anything.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: So I walked in, big scruffy traveler guy with my
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: big old backpack, big rucksack on the back, with my
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: bed roll and everything, and for like two seconds there
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: was sort of everyone was taken aback, and then two
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: seconds later everyone was like welcome, so, you know, welcome
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: so much basically in Japanese. They were all welcoming me
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: very kindly and said are you here for the bath
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: And I was like, you know it, sir, how much
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: is it? And it was seven dollars for what looked
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: like a luxury experience, and I was like, uh, okay, yeah,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I'll definitely try seven dollars in like the most beautiful
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: bath house I've seen so far in Japan, in the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: most beautif full location, in the middle of this forest,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: next to a cherry wazam orchard. I was like, yeah,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I could pay. I could splurge on seven dollars. At
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: that time, I was making I had savings, but I
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: didn't want to spend my savings if I could avoid it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And I was already living pretty cheaply, you know, backpacking everywhere.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: But I wasn't going to the super expensive bathhouses because
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I went to a couple and they're not They're too fancy.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I like the small ones. I like the mom and
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: pop independent I like mom and pop everything, but I
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: like smaller businesses in general. So this grand bathhouse, I
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: was like, maybe it's too fancy for me. But then
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I was like, dude, you're never gonna be here again,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: You're never gonna see something like this again. Enjoy this experience.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: And I did so, I said yes, and I tried
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: to give them, you know, seven hundred yen or whatever
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: it was. He's like, ah, no, you have to buy
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the ticket first, which is a thing in Japan when
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you order food at a restaurant, you'll buy your ticket
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: from a vending machine kiosk, and then give it to
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the front desk to show that you paid, and then
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: they give you everything. I think, I don't know, I
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: don't want to guess. I think I remember something about
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: it being not indecent, but you know, spiritually indecent to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: make this about a transaction when it's supposed to be
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: about a hospitality. So it's better if you use the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: machine for the monetary, the financial transaction. Get that out
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of the way, and then the business can better serve
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: you generously without the specter of dirty many floating around
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: in the background, which I forgot every single time I
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: had to buy something. But it is an interesting cultural trait.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: So I did. I bought my little tike and gave
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: it to the front desk, and they gave me a
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: slipper and robes or slippers because I have two feet
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: and a robe, and I luxuriated in the most comfortable
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: sento I visited in Japan. Ever, it had every kind.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: All of them have different kinds of public baths, but
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: this one had the baking soda jacuzzi jets. So you
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: sit inside this little pool and jacuzzi jets shoot out
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a baking soda water solution and it just exfoliates your
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: skin until you're smoother than a baby's butt. It's crazy
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: how smooth my skin was. I couldn't believe it, and
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I just had a great time. More you can in
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the Cento episode, I described that whole place in detail,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: but it was fantastic. And I know you're thinking, wait,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't he talking about cool places he sleeps, not cool
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: public baths? I am because that public bath after you're finished,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: take a shower, spend as much time as you on
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the public baths. I like to wash again after and
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: then I'm sparkling clean in my robe. Go to the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: post sento area, which is like a relaxation room you
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: do after you go through the pampered trial of a centoe.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: And this one had about a dozen bean bags in
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: front of floor to ceiling glass windows, overlooking from the
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: top of the mountain that we were on, just overlooking
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: valleys and hills, forests, a small town out in the distance,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: but mostly just nature in its glory. And the sun
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: was setting slightly off to the side, so it wasn't
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: directly blazing in there. It was so serene, just amazing.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: There was an ice cream shop or noodle shop. There
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: were all these shops around that you could eat if
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: you wanted to. And I just sort of laid down
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and I drank it all in the experience of relaxing
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: after this bath, and I nodded off for a little
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: bit in my bean bag because it was so comfortable.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Probably wasn't more than fifteen minutes or something. But when
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I did wake up, I was reborn. It was a rebirth.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: It was so wonderful. I was like, oh, that was
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: the best experience I have ever had. It was, yeah,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: it was perfect. It was the perfect experience. And I
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: got a little sleep at the end of it, and
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I got to sleep in I got to sleep inside
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of the best experience I ever had, So it really
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: was just again phenomenal. It was such a great little sleep.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: So that is one of the coolest places I ever
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: slept because it's the best cento I ever visited, and
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the only one with bean bags I've ever been to,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: bean bags in front of floor to ceiling glass windows
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: overlooking a valley, I mean a cinematic valley and stretch
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: of natural beauty unparalleled. You know. One of the coziest
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: places I ever fell asleep in Japan was actually in
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: a laundromat. Accidentally. I had to do my clothes, and
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I washed my clothes and then I stayed awake, tiptapping
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: away on my bluetooth keyboard this book that I wanted
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: to write, but boy, I was flagging because that was
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: near the end of my day and the laundromats are
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: generally open twenty four hours, and this was in the
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, but Japan has laundromats everywhere, so I
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: was kind of shocked to find one. But I was
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: very happy when I did, because I was on my
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: last shirt and my second pair of pants and I
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: just needed to wash everything. So yeah, I did, and
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: then it finished and I put it in the dryer.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: But as soon as the dryer started up, some of
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: its heat was escaping into the room, so I got
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: very warm and my eyes were my eyelids started hugging
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: each other and I could barely keep my eyes open,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and I was like, well, just yeah, just take a nap.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: There was a little bench with a table counter area
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: in front of it for people to write down or
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: whatever while they were waiting for their clothes to be done.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: But my rucksack was on the floor, and my rucksack
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: mostly just had clothes in it, so I liked to
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: just lean against it, and I instead just sat on
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: the floor listening to the hum of the dryer and
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: just took a nap for like forty minutes, and so
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: easy to fall asleep. Japan also feels so safe all
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the time. And here I was in a cozy, warm
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: cocoon with my clean clothes just waiting for me, and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I yeah, fell asleep. And then I woke up and
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: it was morning again, not the forty minute nap, I thought.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: And my eyes popped open, and there was a Japanese
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: woman like moving really slowly toward her her dryer, and
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: she was just opening it up. And when the latch
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: popped open, my eyes opened and she was staring directly
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: at me, so it was clear that she had been
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: trying to be quiet so that I wouldn't be disturbed
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: while I was sleeping there. And I was like, oh
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: oh ohhi was a muss and she was like, ohio Suma,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: said sumas. And she was like apologizing to me, the
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: dirty hobo sleeping in her laundromat. And I was like, no,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: it's my fault. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: I got my clothes out of there, and I was
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: glad I could like take out my clothes and be like,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: see I was, I was using it. And also even
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: though it was clear I was probably snoring like a
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: fat old bear in there. And she excused herself and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: took her clothes out, and I packed all my stuff
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: up real nice in my little stuff sacks I had
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: for the clothes and continued on my walk. But man,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: talk about being just It's a very small building. And
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: so as soon as the driver start up, just a
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: cocoon of warm air hugged me until I drifted off.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: It was so comfortable. That was a very cool spot
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: to fall asleep in. And then it was cool to
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: wake up and have this very conscientious person be kind
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and I got to be kind, and then I got
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: to go on my way with a full set of
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: clean clothes, which is very important to a backpacker. There
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: was also a very interesting temple in the mountains that
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I happened to cross Pokemon Go, and it was not
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: just one temple. It was like this temple courtyard, community
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: of temple. There's oh a compound, like a temple compound,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: so there were multiple temples with torches and carvings and
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: statues and all that kind of stuff all around. But
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: I know that it's legal to sleep in or buy
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: temples also. And I spent a few days there because
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: it was right next to a verdant forest, like so
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: thick and lush. It was just beautiful just to look at.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And that was the first time I was like, this
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: is the first place I've been to where there might
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: be ghosts, where I might finally believe that ghosts can
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: stay somewhere. And I said thank you to the empty
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: air around me, just in case. And then I fell
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: asleep into a dreamful, lovely sleep and woke up and
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I was like, that was great, I'm going to sleep
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: here again. And it was nice that there was concrete everywhere,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: flat concrete near the temples so I could use my
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: cook set, and every night I slept in that little
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: temple compound. It was very comfortable and I felt so
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: relaxed and at ease. There's an interesting story with that,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: but I didn't sleep during that interesting event, so I'm
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: not going to include it here, but it will be
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: in the Japan Trek episode where I talk about this
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: three month journey. God, that's going to take a long time.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: That might have to be a few episode installments, because
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I can't believe how long me talking about sleeping. I'm
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: just kidding. I can believe it because I don't shut up. Next,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the courtyard of Ega Castle. If you don't know about Ega,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: it's popularly the birthplace of ninjas. It's where ninjas come from.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And I saw a bunch of cool stuff there. I
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: saw a whole bunch of weapons and stuff. But this
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: is about the sleep. And I climbed all the way
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: up to the courtyard of the castle, and then I
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: realized the courtyard was ringed by beautiful forest, and it
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: was getting late in the day because I had arrived
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: in Ega in late morning, and I spent all day
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: walking around the castle compound and as I walked around
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: more and more people came to look at the castle.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: But there was this perfect set of trees in the
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: back of the courtyard against the tree line, right like
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: directly in front of the castle, and I was like, well,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sleeping here. As the day progressed, I think I
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: went into town and then went back to the castle
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: like in the later afternoon, and that's when I found
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: those trees. And it was just I was sleeping in
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: a kirakus oua film, you know. I was every nerdy
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: video game anime thing I had ever experienced. I was
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: in front of the castle where ninjas were born, and
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: it was I don't know, a couple hundred meters away,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and I was in a tree line sleeping in full
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: view of it, like with the starry sky. It was
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: amazing and I passed right out. And when I woke up,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I met a girl and we went on a date
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: because she thought it was interesting and probably weird for
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: sleeping in Ega courtyard. I slept at Ega Castle for
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: a few days because it was There was so much
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: to see in the city, and even just at Ega Castle.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: There were multiple museums. There were ninja houses with ninja
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: entrances and exits and hiding places and little tunnels. So
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: there was so much to see and interact with and
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: learn and in just Ega Castle that I ended up
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: staying in Ega, probably the longest of that entire three
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: month trip. I might have stayed there five days, or
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: I'll say five days, because I don't think it was
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: a full week, but it was four or five days.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: I had the date with that girl to keep. I
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: wanted to learn all I could from the museums and
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: the history and the castle, and there were stuff in
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the city I wanted to see, so I just walked
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: all around, and then every night I would go back
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: to Ega courtyard, set up in the same two trees
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: and pass out. I felt rested after the fourth or
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: fifth day or whatever it was, and then I kept
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: on trucking. But every night I was staring at this
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: magnificent real castle where Ninchez were born, and it was
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: the coolest. I slept next to a monkey enclosure, which
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: there was a weird like zoo house monkey enclosure, but
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: there wasn't a rest of a zoo. It was just
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: apes and monkeys inside this pretty spacious enclosure in public
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: like off to the side of a town, like in
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: a park of a small town. There was a pretty large,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: decently sized monkey enclosure. I was a little confused to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: see it, but that was cool because that was the
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: first time I had my rain tarp because it had
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: been raining in Japan and my quick dry hammock. I
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: can close the top with velcro that I sewed onto
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: the edges of it so I could close it. And
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: if it was lightly raining, my quick dry hammock would
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: self dry almost as fast as the rain was falling,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: so it really wasn't an issue for most rain. But
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: once it got heavier, I was like, Okay, I gotta
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: work on this rain tarp thing finally, and I got one.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: There were some clear polyethylene or something at a Japanese
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: hardware store. I talked to the guy there. He was
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: excited to talk to a traveler. And I went back
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: to that monkey enclosure because I remember there being some
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: good trees there, and I walked by, said hey to
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the monkeys, use the public restroom, and then walked pretty
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: far away. It was a huge park, so I could
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: barely even see the enclosure by the time I found
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: those trees that I saw, But there was a street light.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I remember on my left side, I put up the hammock,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: pulled up the bugnet, put up the rain tarp, which
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: took three minutes. It's very fast set up. Actually, since
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: it was the first time, it probably took like ten minutes.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: But after that I added the hooks and the caribiners
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: on and it just clips to the hammock lines and
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: then it literally takes three minutes to put all that
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: up at the most. And that night, that first night
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I had the rain tarp, there was a pretty heavy
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: downpour and it lasted all night, and it started right
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: after I figured out. It started before I really got it.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: But once the rain tarp was up, I got into
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: my hammock under the rain tarp and I got clear
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: plastic sheeting. So on my left the street light, the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: yellow street light was orange, i should say, filtering through
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: all these rain drops on my clear rain tarp, and
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: that was casting this nice yellow over me. But it
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't too bright because the hammock is opaque. And then
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: on the right side it was all dark, but I
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: could see out through the hammock sheet the rain tarp
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: in case anybody was walking over, so it felt I
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: was still in control of my surroundings. I'm still aware
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: of my surroundings anyway, as much as you can be.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: And I watched the rain drops splat and fall down
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: on my rain tarp, and it got heavier and heavier
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: and came in waves, and I must have watched the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: water for an hour at least, and it was so
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: I love the rain, first of all. I love sleeping
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: in the rail of the sound of rain. I love
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: everything about rain. And I fell asleep watching this heavy,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: continuous rainfall that lasted all night, and then when I
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: woke up, it pittered off and I started walking again.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: But man, that was such a confirmation of my plan
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: for the rain tarp. I couldn't believe how well it worked.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: I was completely dry in the morning and it had
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: rained for eight hours straight. It worked so well, and
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: that was instantly a permanent part of my sleeping setup.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Now I've mentioned that Japan is particularly lenient and even
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: welcoming of travelers and people who sleep in public, like
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I saw business men sleeping on benches on the sidewalk
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: more than once in Japan in the cities. It's just
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: culturally accepted there that sleeping, that sleeping is normal they
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: accept that in Japan, and if you're not bothering anyone,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: there's no reason to bother you. Nice part of Japan.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: So I had never experienced it so clearly as this
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: following sleep. Though I was in the I had finally
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: arrived at Osaka. Three months after I landed in Tokyo.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I was very easily walking eight to twelve hours a
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: day for ninety days roughly, and I was in Osaka.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: I went that was the only I landed in Tokyo,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: and I decided, I'm gonna go walk to Osaka, which
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: is hundreds of miles away as the crow flies. But
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I went north and south and doubled back and just
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: went all around. So I had been walking a fair amount,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: and I was finally in the only destination that I had,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: and I wanted to keep going, but I used up
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: my three months visa free travel. By the way, visa
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: free ninety days in Japan. How can you not do it?
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: You should go do that, And I decided to go
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: through the city. But Osaka. I had been walking through
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: all these smaller towns and cities, and Osaka was huge,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: so I made it to like in the middle of it,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: and then I realized it was really late night, and
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: I was exhausted, and I happened upon this night market
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: and there were bars and noodle stalls and chotchkey shops
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: and just all sorts of things down this incredibly long alley.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: There were easily a thousand shops in total, and I
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: watched people eat dinner and shop and I don't know,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: be fashionable for a while. In this little Osaka sort
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: of commercial alley, it felt more done up than a
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: lot of the other smaller hutong style alleys like this.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: It felt like it was produced more than it occurred naturally.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: But it was still a cool spot. But I was
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: winding down. I was like, oh fatigue, ton of bricks.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Time to go to bed, sir, And I walked all around,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: but Osaka just didn't have great parks in the spot
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: I was at, in the neighborhood I was in the
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: neighborhood didn't even feel as welcoming as the rest of Japan.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: It was just a weird city. But I did find
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: near that line of night market stores, a couple winding
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: alleys behind there was a small park and it did
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: look nice and inviting, and I was like, oh, thank goodness,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: and there was a couple of trees and they looked perfect,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and I put up my hammock and I fell right asleep.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: There was this three months you did it, that was
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: your journey amazing, and I kind of conked out. I'm
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: sure that played into how easy it was for me
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: to fall asleep, that sense of accomplishment. And when I
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: awoke again, I heard a sound that like I knew,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't place it immediately, and I heard it again,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and I looked over and there were people sitting very
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: close to me, and then I saw the move and
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: heard it again and realized that they were playing cards
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: and throwing the cards down, smacking them down on top
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: of each other, and that was that little smack that
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I was hearing, and I peeked over, and it was
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: really funny to me because there's an anime called Cowboy Bebop,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: and in Cowboy Bebop there's this trio of old men
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: playing poker. There's an old man poker gang with three
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: guys in it who are pilots and old war veterans
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: are always telling stories and making jokes with each other,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: and they're always playing cards. And these three guys just
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: looked up at me, and immediately I saw that gang
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: from Cowboy Bebop and they said, oh, good morning, and
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, good morning, nice to meet you.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Playing cards and I was like, oh, you pulled it
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: off and we exchanged some short a nice little conversation.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: They were very polite, and I was packing up my
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: stuff to get out of their way, and I apologize
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: for sleeping so close, and they were like, this is
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: a public park. We're glad you enjoyed it. Why are
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: you in Japan? I was like, I just walked from
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: Tokyo to Osaka. So we had a cool little thing.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: And then I wished them well and went on my
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: way and they said something nice that I didn't understand
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: except for the good bypart. But it was a good
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: conversation all of my conversations. When people found out I
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: was wanting across Japan, they became more interested and they
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: they saw the value in a journey. And even though
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: my Japanese wasn't great, I got the sense from how
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: they spoke and the questions they asked. And when I
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: did meet people who could speak English, which happened I
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: don't know, once a week or something, they said the
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: exact same thing. They were really excited that someone was
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: backpacking across their country and they wanted to tell me
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: about it and know what I was doing and what
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: I thought. And I felt that very strongly when I
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: was having that conversation with the three men poker gang.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: So that was a great sleep because I found this
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: little refuge in the middle of a city that I
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: generally wasn't as excited about as many other cities in Japan,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: and I woke up to absolute cultural confirmation. There were
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: three guys and this was their park. This was clearly
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: where they played cards. But they were as polite and
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: interested and gracious as anyone I've ever met to some
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: guy who strung up a hammock in their park and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: showed them appreciation for allowing me to sleep there. That
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: was a cool little oasis of slumber for me. Literally
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: everywhere I was it was a cool place because I'm
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: in a hammock. Every time I'm in a hammock, it's
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: the coolest sleep. It's such a good sleep. Every time
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: there was a disused school, like a little school building,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I remember translating the words, and it was like classes
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: are out indefinitely, or were closed for something. Something was
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: going on, and it looked kind of abandoned, and I
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: had walked north from a very tiny town just to
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: see because this wasn't even Pokemon Go. I remember there
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: was like one little Pokemon Go thing and then there
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: was nothing after, and I was like wow. Usually it's
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: kind of populated by some towns, but I just walked
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: into the Nowhere's land and there was pretty much nothing
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: except this abandoned little schoolhouse. There was a playground out front,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: and someone left their jacket like it was behind. I
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: can't remember exactly what it was, but it looked abandoned,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: and I was able to use the fabric from the
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: jacket to repair my backpack, which had just started falling
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: apart a couple days ago, and that day was really
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: falling apart, and I just got lucky enough to find
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: a great water proof Oh it was ripped already. There
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: was something wrong with the jacket, which is how I
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: knew it wasn't hanging out. Also, there was no other
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: clothes anywhere, but there was like this broken jacket left
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: there and I was able to use that to repair
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: at the perfect time my backpack, which was part now
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: my rucksack which still looks new fifteen years later. But
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: my little day bag that I was using for I
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: must have been using for something, because I knew it
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: was time to repair it. Oh, and I got to
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: use the extra material to make a stuff sack for
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: my sleeping bag. So before that, my sleeping bag would
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: just unfurl and take up all the free space in
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: my rucksack. But I made a stuff sack from the
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: left door material on this jacket, and then I was
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: able to compress my sleeping bag in my rucksack after that,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: and then I fell asleep, And that was just a
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: cool because I got to repair my backpack that I
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: knew I was just about going to have to repair it,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: So that was just a regular cool sleep. But I
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: was in my hammock, there was a bunch of trees
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: around the banded schoolhouse, and I fell asleep and it
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: was cool ooh, but a very idyllic cool. One. I
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: came across this waterfall. I was walking down a pretty
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: abandoned road through forests for hours and there was this
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: a small waterfall leading into the main stream. I was
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: walking nearby, or rather adjacent to along some would say,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: and it was idyllic it was a small shelves of
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: water falling down, and I knew I had to spend
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: time there, so I pulled out my cookwar set and
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I started boiling some curry. And I had such a
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: good curry dinner because this old grandma had sold me
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of mushrooms beforehand, and I had some
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: udon noodles and the mushrooms and the curry, and I
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: just lit up my alcohol stove and heated all that
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: up and had a big satisfying meal while there was
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a babbling brook half waterfall stream right next to me.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: The water was amazing. I got the water from the
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: stream that I made my curry from the coolest from
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: this freshwater stream. And after this incredibly satisfying meal, surrounded
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: by atmospheric forest ambiance, I put in my hammock and
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: I just passed out like a fat forest baby. So
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: peaceful it was pin drops. It was so quiet except
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: for the natural sounds of the forest. But there was
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: no traffic, no people, there was nothing around. I was
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: just in the middle of this forest, next to this
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: little river with a tiny shelf waterfall. And got up
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: the next morning, strapped on the pack and kept going.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: But that was a spiritually rejuvenating experience. Oh you know
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: what a kind of fun one I fell asleep. I
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: was walking. I have no idea where this was, and
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: but it was this so weird. There was like a
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: flat patch of land that went out for miles. It
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: was like ten miles altogether, and then there was a
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: hill in the middle of the two flat patches on
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: either side of the hill, and the hill was a
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: good like thirty forty feet tall, so it was a
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: pretty steep couple of hills from the flat area. And
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: on the top of the hill was a narrow concrete path,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: maybe a bike path or something, although I don't think
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: I saw anyone riding bikes on it. And I walked
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: along that for two days total, Like it took a
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: long time to walk that whole path, and I was
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: so curious what it was the whole time. But the
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: first day I was really tired and I had found it,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: like in the evening, but I had to go to bed,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: and I saw this little cops of trees finally, because
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: that was another strange thing that the land was mostly
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: bear Japan has trees everywhere, so it was kind of
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: weird to see just grass with no trees anywhere. But
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: I finally saw this little cops of trees and it
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: was again like this little oasis. I was like, okay,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: there's my spot. That's definitely it, because I've been walking
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: for miles and I haven't seen a thing yet. So
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: I went down the hill carefully carrying all that weight
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: and got into the little cops of trees, went right
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: in the middle, strung at my hammock, and fell asleep.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: And I woke up to a baseball game because that
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: little cops of trees was right next to a baseball diamond,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: and I heard it was a crack of a bat
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: or maybe someone was shouting. Can't remember exactly what it was,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: but some baseball a thing woke me up, and I
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: peeked over my hammock again and there was a full
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: on baseball game of high school students going on right
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: next to me. I guess I can't tag ages anymore,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: so I don't know. But they were older children playing
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: baseball and I was in the tree. I don't even
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: know if most of them saw me. Maybe they did,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: but no one paid any attention to me at all.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: They just played their game as I packed everything up
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: and I was in the very middle of this grouping
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: of trees. So and like I said, my hammock's pretty camouflage.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: They just might not have seen me. But I just
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: packed everything up, and you know, when I walked out
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: of the bunch of trees, one of the kids did
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: look over and notice me, so I don't think they
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: did see me until I woke up and left, which
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: is pretty cool. And I continued on. I got to
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: the end of it, there was nothing at the end.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: The path just ended and then there was no path anymore.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: It was very bizarre. So I went down into the
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: city after that and kept on my way to Osaka.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: I think that was two months into the journey or
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: something like that. Oh geez. You know what. One of
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: the most amazing sleeps I had in Japan was the
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: first time I was warm in Japan. I was visiting
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: during cherry blossoms season, but I hadn't completed my sleep
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: set up yet. So I had the hammock and I
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: had the bugnet, but I didn't have the rain tarp yet,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: and I didn't have anything warm yet. So I was
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: wearing literally every single article of clothing I had, and
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: I was freezing the first two nights I was in Japan,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: because I didn't know cherry blossom season was still sub
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: zero temperatures. It is if you're going to go see
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: cherry blossoms in March or whatever, or just no, it
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: can easily be below zero when you go. It certainly
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: was the first couple nights I was there, and I
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I got a remedy this. And I
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: remembered sleeping on athletic foam mats when I was in
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: China camping and subzero temperatures, and that made camping endurable tolerable.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: So I looked for a sports store, got there right
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: before closed, found athletic foam, took it outside, set up
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: my hammock in the forest surrounding that athletic store, and
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: when I settled into it, I was wearing all of
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: my clothes. And when I settled into it, I was
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: like worried for a second because with all the insulation,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: I was still cold, but it very rapidly became warm.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: My face could feel the heat bouncing back at me.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Now I was so cold that the next morning, my
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: skin's still hurt, like I was maybe getting early early, early,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: early frostbite, and nothing was any blue color or anything
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: like that. And I was wearing everything I owned, but
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: I was so warm when I got into my hammock
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: that day with the athletic foam in it. And this
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: is maybe a centimeter into half of athletic foam. You
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: do not need a lot. I was so warm that
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: I took off all my layers except for t shirt
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: and my jacket, which I had to on zip because
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: that athletic foam radiated all of my heat back. It
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: felt like it. You know, obviously mathematically it wasn't, but
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: it felt like all of my body heat was being
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: radiated back at me. And I had such trouble sleeping
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: the first two nights because I was literally freezing, like
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: it was below freezing, and I was so cold. Both nights,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: I kept waking up and I would try and scrunch
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: up smaller and fall asleep again. And then finally, with
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: this heating pad, I was instantly suddenly as warm as
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: I could have wished for with such a light weight,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: I mean anyway, half a pound, this six foot athletic
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: film medroal, and I was in a hog heaven. I
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: was so comfortable and as soon as I realized it
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: was hot. I just absorbed my own body heat back
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: at me for a couple minutes, but I passed out
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: because it was the first time I could comfortably sleep
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: in seventy two hours. It might have been four days,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It was a long time though. Before
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, you have to solve the cold problem.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: This is crazy. You're wearing all your clothes and you're
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: still so cold as you're waking up at night. And
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: I did. I got that athletic foam. It worked as
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: well as I hoped, better than I hoped. Actually it
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: worked better than I hoped because I was uncomfortably warm
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: until I took off layers, So it was it completely
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: changed how I travel. It was so great, So that
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: sleep was life changing for me because I was like, oh,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: now I can sleep in subserio temperature easily and comfortably
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: because the hammock was just as comfortable as ever. I
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: just had a little bit of padding and I had
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: all the heat I could want. Since I've been talking
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: about Pokemon Go, I'm gonna include one of that because
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: this was a good sleep. I set up in this
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: random park somewhere next to a gym that I had
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: been walking to all day, and if you don't play
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: Pokemon Go, you have to be physically close to the
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: gym in order to use your Pokemon to take over
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: that gym, and I was doing that. Whenever I did
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: get to a Pokemon gym, I would fight. I had
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: six man champs at the time, which was the big
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: dumb cheet you could do it. I have a great
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: time just taking over all the gyms across Japan, and
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: I took over this last one. I was like, I'm
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: going to go to bed, and then I noticed, like
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes later. I was scrolling Reddit or whatever the
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: crap at the time, but I checked the gym right
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: before I went to bed and saw the color had changed,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: and I was like, uh, well, no, I just beat
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: this gym. What the heck? Because it was pretty late
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: at night too. It was like, I don't know, ten
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: thirty eleven PM, and I wasn't in a city. It
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: was a small town, so everybody was asleep, and I
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: was like, how the heck did that happen? And there
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: were buildings I didn't know the apartment buildings, but anyway,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: I attacked that gym again took it over. I was like,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: and I laid back down and started going to bed.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: And then before I was like really tired, it just
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: checked it real quick and the color was back to yellow.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: I think I was red or I'm not sure how
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: the colors work, but I believe I was red. And
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: it changed back to yellow again. It was like someone
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: took it from me again. You can see their Pokemon
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: in it, so you know someone took it, took over
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: the gym. But now it's like eleven thirty. I was like,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: what the heck, So I take it over again, and
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: then someone takes it from me again right after, and
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: I look out of my hammock and I'm like, look
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: it around, and I spot this guy standing right where
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: the gym is. I'm maybe, I don't know, forty fifty
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: feet away in behind a line of trees, so he
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: can't see me in my hammock, but I can see him.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: And he is also like wildly whipping his head around
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: wondering who the fuck is taking my gym every ten minutes,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: and he's like slapping at the thing, trying to fight
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: all my ma champs, and he doesn't. I'm just like,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: all right, man, this is now we're doing I'll do
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: this all night, buddy, and I just kept doing it,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: and we probably went back and forth like ten times
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: before he finally gave up. He smoked, and he like
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: walked away after a couple times, but then he would
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: quickly walk back after I took the gym, so he'd
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: like finish taking the gym and then walk away like
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: strut away, like yeah, that's right, and then I would
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: take it immediately after back from him, and he would
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: run back and like look around, like who the hell
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: is taking this, and then fight it again. We went
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: back and forth several times before he finally left and
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: didn't come back, and I slept next to my conquered
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Pokemon jim My hard one hard fought Pokemon Jym and
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: just real smugly fellsleep and it was great. It was
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: a fun time. I was playing video games with a stranger,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: and you know, it was fun. And so I don't
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: done this on Pokemon Go. I do have one more
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: cool story that I can remember. I mean, I stayed
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: the three months, so I'm sure there's a lot more
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: than what I've said, but one of the best experiences
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: was an actual antique wooden traditional temple. This happened, I
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: believe before the rain tarp introduction to my sleeping setup,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: because it started to rain and I still had a
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: ways to go. I had miles, I had a whole
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: day to go basically before I reached another town, and
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: I was just following this then forest path through a
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: forest and the middle of nowhere. Again. I had just
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: decided to walk. I was like, I'll just walk this
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: nowhere path for as long as I can. But it
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: started to rain and I was like, oh, I was
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: hoping it wouldn't rain. And that's all. I didn't plan
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: for it or anything. I didn't prepare. I was just
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: hoping it wouldn't When I started taking this incredibly long
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: trail and it did start to rain, and it looked
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: like rain. You know, I have plenty of warning. And
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, well, as long as it does get
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: like heavy or whatever. And I got heavier and I
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: put on my hat and I was like, okay, I
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: have my cover for my rucksack, so it'll be okay.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: And I started getting really heavy and I was like, well,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: as long as it doesn't last like a long time.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: And then fifteen minutes later, I was like, okay, this
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: is I'm getting soaked. There has to be something, and
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: I started walking faster like, looking for any kind of shelter.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: None of the trees were comprehensively foliaged enough. They were
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: just weren't the right type of tree to shelter from rain.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: The rain just went straight through them. So I just
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: kept looking, and then all of a sudden again an
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: oasis showed up. There was a wooden traditional temple, this
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: super cool sloped roof traditionally put together with no nails,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: just fit together wood. I think there was a plaque,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: and I don't have the notes for this, but I
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: believe there was a plaque that told me how old
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: it was, and it was hundreds of years old, and
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: the wood looked like it was hundreds of years old,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: but it looked like well cared for, even though it
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: was a very old structure. And it was open air,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: so it was actually more of a gazebo or pagoda.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: Are those open air More of a gazebo than a
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: complete temple. And there was just a wooden decking and
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: a couple decorations or something. But what I noticed was
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: the wide sloping roof that overhung the wooden deck by
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: a bit, and I ran over to it and got
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: some relief from the at this point pounding rain that
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: I had been walking in for twenty minutes. And I
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: was just like, oh, thank goodness, this is so nice.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: And I decided to just wait out the rain, and
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: I just watched the rain come down, but it didn't
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: lighten up. It just kept coming down, and after an
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: hour I think total, I was like, I might just
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: I think I have to just stay here. But what
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: was great about that temple was that there was a
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: skirt of concrete around the temple itself, but still under
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the sloping roof, which went maybe three feet over the
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: square of wooden decking in the center of the open air.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: So even though I was outside, I had like three
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: feet of no rain, and there was a slight raise,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: like just a few centimes there's maybe a couple inches.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: So I was off the damp ground as well, and
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: the rain was coming down hard, but it wasn't flooding down,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: so I was still above the wet ground on dry
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: concrete or maybe it was paving, I can't really remember,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: but anyway, I was off the wet ground and I
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: was protected from the rain, and I said, thank you
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: so much, temple, and I just laid out my bedroll,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: put my pack behind me, used it as a pillow.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: I was dry, I was listening to the rain. That's
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: how I used to fall asleep, listening to rain sounds,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: and I conked right out. It was a very comfortable sleep,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: and I woke up the next morning, rested and rejuvenated
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: and continued on my way. I thanked the temple profusely
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: a couple more times because it saved my butt, and
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: it did because there was nothing for a couple hours
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: more walk at least. I can't remember how far exactly,
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: but it was at least as far as it took
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: me to get there. I believe it was farther. I'm
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: pretty sure it was like a couple hours before I
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: hit anything that looked like a village or town afterwards.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: So if not for that temple, that would have been
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: an uncomfortable, rainy hike for hours longer without any sleep.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: So that was a wonderful sleep thanks to this very
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: conveniently placed open air temple that looked so cool. Just
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: got to reiterate how cool it looked old wood. The
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: paint was still on some of the tiles on the roof.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: It looked so cool, and I got to sleep under it,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: full of gratitude, amazing sleep, listening to the rain pitter
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: patter slam into the leaves of blades of grass around me. Yeah,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: that was another great sleep and I'll wrap it up there.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: If you want to share your great sleeps with me
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: while you were traveling or backpacking, or just great sleeps
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: in general. I like sleep. I like hearing about it.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: You can talk to me a bit of a rambler
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: at gmail dot com or any of the social media's
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: I like talking about sleeping, can talk about cool sleep
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: spots and other countries I've been in. Thank you so
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: much for listening. I love telling these stories. I love
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: it when people can enjoy these weird trips that I've done.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: And I'm excited to talk to you again soon