I’m more than one-third of the way through my 3 months’ allowed stay in the country, and I’m quite tired of sightseeing! It could be that my current city, Hiroshima, is just not that stimulating, as I find myself wanting to return to the hostel and read or watch TV after barely an hour after venturing out. I guess you could say an equilibrium has been reached. The energy to constantly make decisions on how to entertain myself has been depleted for now. As a whole, decision-making has occupied a greater portion of my day than the activities themselves. Not that I don’t like the process; in a literal sense, i.e. transportation-wise, I enjoy the journey more than the destination.

So, I thought, maybe I should jot some things down on digital paper rather than let it all build up inside. Not that I haven’t been sharing, but it’s time to give Instagram a little rest. Traveling solo inevitably requires one to distinguish between what to share and what to keep to oneself. As frustrating as deciding that balance feels, surely tilting to one extreme or the other is exponentially more so.

I’ve never put it this way before, but as complicated as writing can be as a process, it can often simplify one’s thoughts. As in, the concrete, physical words are the condensation accumulated from the hurricane that is one’s thoughts.

What better way to chill out than a listicle? Here are random things Japanese people really like, the reasons behind which I quite want to know!:

1. Towels of all irregular sizes and thicknesses. Not the cushiony, bristled kind in the limited array of navy, black, forest green, and clinical white. Flimsy ones with huge cartoon faces or half-hearted patterns too vague to be Japanese.
2. Snoopy. I only liked the version of him as the–miraculously–cool and classy corporate mascot for some US pharmaceutical company. I really don’t know how they pulled it off. I just don’t want his face burned onto my mochi or friggin melon pan, Japan.
3. White bread as a the only option for sliced bread at the supermarket. I’m sure the stuff is great for French toast and grilled cheese, but toasting it on the daily (in a toaster oven like I think most Japanese use) does nothing but set it up to shrink disappointingly when met with a knife. Only on the stovetop does the stuff get fragrant.
4. Cats. It’s true what they say. I wonder what the catnapping rate is, given the free reign these felines have around the neighborhood.
5. Folding in the top sheet of toilet paper to form a V-shape.
6. A separate pair of slippers for every toilet. That’s right, take off the slippers you’re already wearing as you enter the stall and change into the ones stationed next to the toilet.