The Last of the Typhoons

To paraphrase (and totally distort) Burnham, my new motto is `make no plans.`

I rode up to Koyasan, and barely made it before nightfall. Which is good - I may have mentioned it before, but there is a total lack of streetlights here in Japan. After a bit of searching and asking around, I finally found the hostel. Luckily, they had a place for that night, but would be on vacation the rest of the week. There was a mother and daughter from Hawaii and a young Japanese guy staying there as well, so I was able to talk to some native-English speakers. The next morning, I went around checking out a few of the temples and getting the last of my stamps for my book. It`s quite a lovely little area - reminds me of Vail or Aspen (ala Japanese style, of course).

Since the hostel was closed, I had to choose between staying at a temple (around Y9500, or about $90) or heading back down to Wakayama. Since I`ve stayed at a temple before (and there are no other accommodations up there), I decided to head back and maybe go up to Osaka for a couple days. Those descents are always much more fun the the ascent. Whereas it took me about 7 hours to get up there, it took about 4 getting down. At times I was wondering `how in the world did I ever make it up here?`

Arriving in Wakayama, I went back to the first place I stayed at when I arrive here - the capsule hotel. It`s sort of strange, as things look vaguely familiar, but yet so different. Anyways, the next morning it was raining. Seems they`re having one of those storm things. Like a hurricane... what`s it called... oh yeah, a typhoon. And it looks to be headed straight towards where I`m at. Not being in the mood to cycle through the rain, I`ve holed up here in Wakayama and decided to wait it out. It`ll pass sometime this evening, so my flight tomorrow should be (knock knock) unaffected.

Meanwhile, Bangkok awaits. Weather forecast is for high 80`s and sunny. I`m following the rainy season around SE Asia, so hopefully it`s not dragging on like the typhoon season here.