i like summer

January 13, 2018

While living in Japan, I always wondered which season I prefer. Summers temperatures can reach up to 90F+ with 95% humidity and winters can dip below freezing for a few weeks.
Summer has bugs. Winter doesn't have proper heating.

I used to think I preferred winter.

Turns out. I was wrong.

I prefer summer.

While summer is far from pleasant, at least I'm still able to ride my bike.

Sure, I could ride my bike in the winter, but it's far more painful when your hands, feet, and face freeze from the windchill. Of course winter riding gear exists, but those pieces of kit are expensive and still leave me feeling cold. Not to mention that putting on winter kit is quite the task. Then when it snows or gets icy, it's actually dangerous out there. Days are short. Many rides are done in the dark, when it's even colder. Simply put, riding in the winter is painful and depressing.
And yet, it's still fun.

But this is why I prefer summer. Because although it is miserable, it doesn't physically hurt to ride my bike and I can see the sun.

Luckily for me, when I return home to Hawaii, this will no longer be an issue.

So as winter is now here. These are a few things that I've been up to since my last post.

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I had the fortunate chance to go hiking with Yamato san in late November. The mountain we went up is called Kuju-san in Oita prefecture. It is the highest point in all of Kyushu. We left iizuka, if I remember correctly, at 2:30am so that we could see the sunrise. It was cold, but the view was worth it. The entire hike was painful for me, as I had ran 15k the previous day with my students.

The definite highlight of this winter was traveling to Busan with Cory and Jennifer. We decided at the last minute to go and we also decided to treat ourselves. Good food and good times were had. My entire attitude towards Korea had changed. I returned to Japan a different person.

met a friend that i made in mongolia and made new friends in busan.

I got a new camera. It's my goal to take more pictures of events and things in Japan. What I really want to capture is my life at work for memories. Unfortunately, I won't be able to share any of those photos publicly.

Then finally I went home. Home is great.

Due to the time difference, I thought my flight schedule going home would be cool. I would spend Dec. 25 in Japan, at work. Then catch an overnight flight and arrive in Hawaii on Dec. 25 in the morning, effectively having two Christmas days. It wasn't that great.

However, I was lucky to fly first class going home. That was nice.