Right. So this post is going to contain a lot of photos. Less wordy, more snappy (Yep. Picture puns is now what I am reduced to).
First and foremost!
Yes, those are avocado and cheese flavoured Doritos. Verdict? Would snack again. Perhaps with salsa next time. Taste? Slight bitterness but an unmistakeable avocado finish. The cheese taste is a little off-putting, but tolerable. Fun fact, because Japan doesn’t really have ‘V’ in its alphabet (all three of them) the literal translation of the text underneath Doritos is, when sounded out in full… a-bo-ka-do chi–zu.
Two nights last week involved ridiculously late nights out. This was after me promising to myself to take it easier lately from a drinking prospective. But then opportunity comes-a-knockin’ and its too much fun to pass up hanging out with good friends.
Another night this week took me to Kiyomizudera, a temple I’ve now visited three times. Although this is the first time I’ve visited it in Autumn at night.
Needless to say, but Kyoto events get very busy. Especially at night when a number of places do light-up events. But they’re all worth taking the time to go and see them from all the ones I’ve experienced so far. Kiyomizudera is no different. In fact, it was quite a beautiful sight to behold and even though I say this often, I don’t feel like these pictures do it justice.
The picture above is one of the first sights you see as you make your way into the temple.
Now, no-one can ever claim that I’m not into reflection. (And I wonder why I’m single)
As you can see, many people are lined up to look at the view from the viewing deck, which is the following picture.
And after making your way through the rest of the temple and garden grounds, you come across this on your way out.
If I’m here at the same time next year, hopefully equipped with a much better camera, I plan on revisiting this temple (and many others, for that matter) during the Autumn season.
It is moments like these where if I ever find myself feeling homesick, my frustration about certain matters that I can’t help due to cultural differences or my struggles with grasping the language, I reflect on all the wondrous things I’ve experienced here that I would never have encountered had I just decided to stay the course in Australia.
I’m the only person who made this choice. No-one pushed me into coming over here, no-one is forcing me or asking me to stay.
If man is an island, then I am an unexplored archipelago.
I was reminded this week of fun times with former co-workers as I was getting updates from my former employer’s Christmas function. To know that I am missed so much after eight months absence means a lot. Or when I Skype with family or friends and hear about everything that is happening back home that I am missing out on.
But every so often, I get reminded of why I didn’t have a problem leaving my home country.
I knew the Liberals would win office. I knew that Tony Abbott and his cabinet would make sure that their reign would be a meteoric clusterfuck beyond logic, reason and sensibility.
Quelle surprise! I read today about the fact that our only progressive piece of legislation to be introduced has now been overturned. Sure, get into the nitty-gritty about it not holding up on a federal level but the fact remains that it was a step towards equality.
Now we’ve told a group of people who wanted nothing more than the right for their love to be recognised as a legal union that their love is now, in fact, invalid. A train ticket can be invalid. Love is never invalid. It is something to be cherished, celebrated and shared.
Straight people have already fucked up marriage*. I’ve never even been close to being married. Now we enable law to let us hold onto it like it is some sort of sacred rite that is ours and ours alone?
That attitude, my friends, is invalid.
*the exception being the happy couples I actually know, of course