Today I made a reading thinking about what awaits me at today’s trip.
Queen of cups reversed, Knight of cups reversed, Knight of wands.
I really like the royal cards because their meanings can be more nuanced when reversed than just good and bad.
A reversed queen of cups, for example, can mean emotions stirring up (rather than remaining introspective). Reversed knight of cups means moodiness. And then Knight of wands can mean adventuring, proactiveness.
Oh speaking of adventure, I’ve been growing my Magatama collection and I got an Aventurine one a while ago. I can’t decide which one to carry so I just carry them all in a coin purse L gave me last year.
Anyway, the reading is interesting also because the two reversed cards point at the upright one. This could usually mean that I should be wary of being hasty and moody lest my adventure be in trouble… But the last card isn’t facing the other two, which to me it means that the reversed ones are the warnings or the things I need to get over to properly enjoy myself.
Which felt right for things before the trip and for things since the reading.
I had this idea I really wanted to do. I wanted to bring Haru and all her sisters on a trip, which means 4 dolls, with 4 changes of clothes each… And I had forgotten to prep so I spent all of last night sorting that. Thankfully my old friend Hyperfocus kicked in and I was able to do it all.
Before leaving my apartment, being wary of not being too rash helped me notice I ALMOST left without my shorts. I’m not going to anywhere too far in the countryside but I would’ve felt silly.
As silly as realizing I forgot to eat and I had 5 hours of Shinkansen ahead, so I tried out one of the bentos they were offering inside the train. It was quite good, I particularly liked the different types of rice.
I remember that when I just moved to Japan I had this dream, this idea to prepare bentos and eat then at different parks every day. To be fair I do go out every day and explore when possible, but Stopping is not something I tend to do and that I’ve been trying to fix.
The first trip was as usual, only annoyance being a crying kid. I’ve been listening to Dreamer of Dune (Frank Herbert’s biography) and listening to an audiobook about a man that couldn’t stand kids while a baby refuses to shut up makes you connect with the subject of the book in a special way.
About half an hour before Shin Yokohama the train stopped suddenly. Apparently there was a power outage which made me remember “oh yeah I’m basically traveling over massive fucking magnets…”. First time I’ve seen it happen and I’ve traveled on these trains quite a few times.
I’ve made mental notes to explore Shin Yokohama and that one river I always see on the way to Shinagawa, they look fun.
To my surprise even with the random stop we were only delayed like 3 minutes or something.
Unlike Nozomi (the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo) this was my first time riding the Hayabusa, and my first thought was “oh shit it’s the main Shinkalion guy!” And for extra Shinkalion points it was the Number 39, that’s the Hatsune Miku number!
That said, while in the train I remembered the clasp-on parasol I had bought for this trip, with the goal of being able to be on the beach while the sun blasted on… And I couldn’t find it, nor could I remember it being left behind in the other train.
It’s not the biggest loss and I can probably find a new one near where I’m staying but it’s still a bummer.
The road to Aomori was long but surprisingly I didn’t feel impatient. I actually kinda welcomed the chance to Stop for a bit.
I tried to draw something but felt my hand being clumsy, so I did a super rough sketch of my earbud case and then some shapes shaded with ball pen.
It’s still wild that I’m basically where I left off when I stopped drawing around college.
There was another random thought bouncing in my head in the almost 6 hours on train.
The other day, speaking with L, she asked me what we call in Venezuela when it rains with the sun still out, I told her we say that Satan and La Sayona were fighting… Which sure feels more balanced than the devil beating his wife.
In explaining La Sayona, I realized how funny it is that most Venezuelan folklore can be summed up as “don’t be out drunk at night or cheat on your wife or the peepee poopoo man will beat the shit out of you”.
Remembering that though, I remembered the radio shows that would talk about legends like El Silbón and La Sayona. I loved those and I realized that they’re the best way I can describe my word relationship with “horror”.
I love the supernatural, I love ghosts and creepy spirits but I don’t like tension or feeling scared. I love the ingredients of horror and ghost stories but not those unto themselves.
And those radio shows are the best way I can describe that. They’re unsettling stories about scary warnings, but they never felt to me like they were scary, they were just really interesting but in an unnerving way.
When I arrived to Aomori the first thing I saw was a big apple bell that another friend (let’s call her N) pointed out was a bell that ring(o)s.
The two things that stood out to me while waiting around were how quiet everything was but also the specific type of tourist flair they added. It felt like it was meant to appeal to Japanese tourists more than international tourists which is super interesting.
After leaving and going for the local train to the hotel, I had a feeling I was Quite Away given the fact that trains only passed like two per hour. Also, when the train arrived I had to press a button for the doors to open, and likewise when I unboarded and my brain fried itself with such a small change.
I went down to the nearby Lawson to get food and I got what I assume to be the local welcome:
The street looks nice so definitely looking forward to exploring around tomorrow.