It’s been a minute

A good minute indeed. I remember starting this blog nearly a year ago with the intention of writing every day about life in Takahama, hence the site title- Takahama Roaming.

How naive to think I would have such consistency and organization. In fact, after getting through the day, and experiencing all there was on offer, I began to feel very much like the neighborhood cat.

Overstimulated and bombarded by a colossal amount of information, I would often get off work and long to take a rest, perhaps on the concrete of the neighborhood car park, or on a nice futon if one was available. Thankfully several were.

Sometimes I would be ready to sit down and focus, but then I would get the sudden urge to go out and take photos of the sunset/boats/random stuff.

While a lot I was encountering was novel and worthy of attention, I would get to the end of the day and struggle to single out one thing to write about. At some point I gave up and left the task for the next day. A brilliant strategy -one I do not suggest you try to emulate. Do that for a few weeks and you are essentially throwing in the towel. And that’s precisely what happened.

I even set up the perfect environment to write in. A home office, free of clutter and distraction. Didn’t take long for it to become a dumping ground for all sorts of unrelated bric-à-brac. (note: photo doesn’t show current state)

But there was another reason to explain my apparent procrastination that I assure you comes from a purely altruistic place. Truth be told, I was having quite the time. Living next to the beach, snorkeling in pristine waters, getting poked by sea urchin in my ass, kayaking, learning to free dive. When out of the water, I was meeting many wonderful people and trying to remember everyone’s name.

If I were to simply write about all the fun I was having, I was certain to invite a lot of hate and jealousy. And I couldn’t live with myself if that was the effect I was having… so in the end, I just posted all that stuff to Instagram where people secretly hate anyone who appears to be enjoying their life anyway.

But in all seriousness, I came to the realization that people will judge you whatever you do. No escaping that aspect of our more shadowy side. So why not just do what makes you feel alive? I love to write and love to capture moments through photography, so why not just do that! Also, do people read blogs these days anyway? You know, blogs tend to include several of these things called ‘paragraphs’ and these may intimidate a lot of people who aren’t familiar with the activity of reading.

Speaking of photography, this is my favorite image from the last year taken by a really amazing individual - https://www.instagram.com/ein_ticket_zur_milchstrasse/.

We were working on a promo video together, which wouldn’t have been possible without his innate talent and technical skills, and even though it wasn’t his intention he managed to summarize what this past year has meant to me in photograph form.

Venturing into a lot of new territory this year did indeed felt like holding an oil lamp and heading out into the unknown. And along the journey, reconnecting with old acquaintances and establishing new connections all against the backdrop of a beautiful new land. Oh yeah, and there was also a lot of water everywhere.

Funnily enough, we even ended up doing an exhibition together along with a life-long friend from Kobe > https://www.instagram.com/horiemadoka/

This was definitely a great memory. Not because we could show off our flawless photography skills（笑）but because it felt deeply meaningful, precisely because we did it together on a theme that made us reflect a lot on ourselves.

So I’ve left out a least a million things here, but this isn’t really meant to be a summary of the year per-se. It really isn’t meant to be anything other than practicing some discipline before the start of the next work year. I am feeling fresh and ready to consolidate all the experiences gained so far and putting them into something more concrete. No, not like a car park for more cats to sleep in, but cats may be invited I guess.

My work here in Takahama is to help promote the town and at the same time provide information about regional rejuvenation projects around Japan. If I can do that, even just a little through this blog, then I may be able to sleep soundly at night knowing that this adventure into Fukui Prefeture was the right choice.