Author: Charles
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#10 Into the Many Flowered Fields
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The first official school week had just finished. My schools include an “active school” (a vocational school for those looking to get into a trade) and an art specialty school…
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#9 Pink Blossoms and Dark Skies
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It is Hanami season in Japan, which means that cherry blossoms are fluttering in all directions. That isn’t some idyllic, poetical notion stolen from a slice of life anime or…
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#8 The Next Station is…Shinjuku
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Stepping outside of the train doors, absolutely crammed into our little metal cars, I am floored by the sheer amount of absolute humanity bustling around me at Shinjuku Station. There…
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#6 O’Hell No
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It has been forty-eight hours since my journey began, and I am on one of the most miserable flights I have ever experienced. My legs are cramped and my knees…
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#5 Trust the Process
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I’m sitting in the hotel lobby of Hotel Nikko Narita after a long forty-eight hours spent navigating the debacle of international travel. Surviving language barriers, immigrations, customs, a Japanese phone…
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#4 Dates, Dives, and Diadems
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As my departure for Japan draws ever closer, I find myself fascinated with the mundane experiences of my home. Anyone who has moved a great deal of distance from their…
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#7 Yabai
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It’s been over two weeks since I landed in Japan. Lofi hip-hop is softly pouring out of my eighteen-inch tv and I am writing on the same small table that…
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#3 Welcome to the Jungle
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#3 Welcome to the Jungle Chicago. The city of rebels. From the upsetting, upchuck-inducing stockyards of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to Theodore Dreiser’s warning tale of the indefinite climb up…
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#2 Boxcars and Broken Brakes
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#2 Boxcars and Broken Brakes When I was a kid, our first home was right next to the train tracks. And I mean coal cars traveling at 45mph was less…
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#1 “I’m Going on an Adventure”
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At the age of thirty-two, I have now moved thirty-four times in my life. My family seems to think I’m possessed by some spirit of wanderlust, a devil of adventure…