The place I was most excited to go in all of Japan was the Fushimi Inari shrine outside of Kyoto. It’s a Shinto shrine dedicated to foxes, which the Japanese believe are messengers that connect people to the world of spirits. Fushimini Inari is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Kyoto. Its path up the mountain is lined with red Tori gates, making for probably the prettiest hike you’ll ever go on when it comes to architecture. Since…
When telling friends and family that I was moving to southern California for school, people’s first question was often what I was going to do with my horse. To me, Simon has been one of the easier obstacles. Once I get settled, I’ll look for a barn in CA and ship him in. Though there are still a lot of details to work out for Simon, I was more concerned with finding housing for me and the dogs than I…
It’s been a pretty whirlwind week over here in SMTT land. Between getting my house ready to put on the market for lease, writing some posts for Jumper Nation, riding nerd horse, looking for apartments in California and smattering in some social activities between all of that… my blogging power is fairly zapped at the moment. Because I need a bit of a zen break, I’m going to share some photos from my Japan trip today. These were all taken…
I’ve always been someone who tries to seek out safety. If there’s an option between a wild choice and a safe one, I take the safe one. It’s something I’ve written about before. The relatively safe choices of my past have given me a lot in life. I’ve worked some really interesting jobs in the tech world, and learned a ton of skills I wasn’t introduced to in school. The financial stability my career provided me allowed me to do…
For the first half of my Japan trip, Kyoto was burning a hole in the back of my head. Each time we saw a temple in Tokyo or any of the other towns we visited I couldn’t help but think, I wonder how much more awesome they’re going to be in Kyoto. Once I got there, I realized that it wasn’t so much that the temples were better in Kyoto… it’s that they are everywhere. You can’t throw a stick in Kyoto…
I’ve written about The Little Prince on this blog before. I wrote about how Tim’s crooked path led me to discover the book (as many other things I’ve discovered), and how it helped grieve the loss of him. The words in that little children’s book gave a different meaning to death, and I needed them at the time. I keep them with me, but that’s not all I took from the book. There’s a passage in The Little Prince with the prince…
This is one of those time periods where life is hard and lonely and I don’t want to do anything but watch Netflix in bed with my dogs. That doesn’t make for insightful writing, so let’s talk about something near and dear to my heart — Samurai Cat. Hikone is a town that we stopped at for a night between Hakone and Kyoto, and it’s a little bit off the beaten path. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because this…
Even though I’ve lived in Austin for seven years, I’ve never been to a Texas beach. It seemed like native Texans were the most hard on them. “Don’t bother!” “Watch out for flesh eating bacteria.” “You’re not missing anything.” “It depends on how recently the tractor has drug for seaweed.” Still, I like to explore around where I live so I decided to round up some friends to rent a house for a weekend in the sun. And honestly? It…