Out for a trip and I FINALLY have the time to do a proper Monthly reading.
Mentally it shows a hesitation about if it’s the right time to take the first step on things, while on the deepest levels there’s concerns about if maybe doing so would lead to conflict (again).
The start of the month is marked by having my hands tied to do anything, and by the end there’ll be concerns about an inability to move on.
On the whole, it’s a month of reassessing what I’m doing while fighting off doubts of every kind.
Even though I’m doing the reading while the month over halfway done… no yeah, it checks out.
I may be slightly sleep deprived but I woke up in time, which means I can shower and sort my things in peace. I left them all in the same room but out of luggage last night so it should be easy enough I think.
Kinosaki is in Toyooka, and if I take the limited express that leaves from Shin Osaka once per hour I can make it there in a little under three hours… which was a logistical consideration given that I’m staying in a Ryokan which means I gotta arrive by five at most.
Thankfully Kinosaki is small enough and this one is close to the station.
Kinosaki holds a special place in my heart because it was the first time (both in Japan and in general) that I planned a trip that was just a pleasure trip for myself and wasn’t related to work in any way.
That trip was in July 2021 for my birthday. It was in a specific period where I was still starting the doll photography hobby AND exploring my own identity in general. I dropped by Kinosaki with dolls on a pink suitcase, I was sleep deprived, and I only booked a single night.
While I didn’t get to explore too deeply that time, I fell asleep in the afternoon, used the in-hotel onsen at night all on my own, explored the town at night, realized too late that I could try astrophotography. I even had some doll photos (that are in an SSD I don’t have access to as of this writing).
It was frantic but it was one of the first times I felt like I did something exclusively for me. Ever since then I’ve made it a point to drop by Kinosaki at least once a year.
That streak was broken last year but I DID try to make a reservation, I just had to cancel it because it was… A Year.
Anyway, I mainly dozed on and off on the train while heavily dissociating so the road passed kinda fast.
Going to a place once a year like that means you see things change and things remain. There was an onsen near the station that always seemed to be closed for some reason and today wasn’t an exception… except for the fact that it had a whole construction going on so they’re either renovating or demolishing it.
Checking in was smooth enough, and I headed back out almost immediately because I wanted to take pics with the Nikkon F4. I went through some familiar paths and before I knew it I ran out of film, switching then to the Pentax and continuing the idea while I had sunlight left.
On the way back I stopped by a restaurant I was already familiar with. And speaking of food, you might be wondering what Kinosaki’s specialty is…
It’s beef.
Tajima beef to be specific.
I’ve looked this up every time I travel here and I might be wrong, but as I understand it, Tajima refers to a specific cattle bloodline. Basically, while Kobe beef might be beef approved by Kobe’s Big Meat, Tajima refers to a specific cow bloodline that has remained pure since the Edo period.
Is there a notable difference? I’ll leave that to people with more refined palates than mine, but it is a difference nonetheless.
Anyway, food was great, I even ordered some bacon.
I returned to the hotel to leave the heavy cameras and I was ready to faff about in general when I saw it was less overcast than usual and headed out with only ONE heavy camera and the smart telescope.
There’s this artificial island thing that’s by the water and it’s a great spot to do some stargazing since it’s away from all the lights.
Of course I then gotta try to turn off my built-in paranoia of dark places. I’m not so much afraid of the dark or the unknown in the dark as I am of growing up knowing you’ll get mugged at best in those sorts of places.
I could’ve sworn there was like a set of steps or something but I couldn’t find them… then again I kept myself to low warm lights so as to not fuck up my night vision, so…
The telescope threw its usual “this will take 4 hours” warning but I now noticed it also said “check after 10 minutes to see if the image improves”. So I left it doing its thing.
Meanwhile, with the big camera, I was checking three stars in particular that kept getting my attention.
Curiosity got to the point I ended up downloading a paid app called Sky Safari. Turns out it’s Jupiter and Gemini.
App’s pretty dang cool by the by.
After I was done I checked what the telescope had caught and damn, if it’s this good after like 15-20 minutes I definitely wanna see how it does while letting do the whole thing.
This is, according to the whole thing, M67 – King Cobra Cluster.
Satisfied, I returned to the hotel to call it a day.