Week II

Japan – Kyoto, Tokyo (postscript from the 3rd Feb)

Alright, I broke a contract of mine, I went to a mcdonald restaurant. But I assure you, I only had ice cream and watched the Japanese society at its decline. I just used the environment to backup pictures and to write down stuff. You see, a few days ago my camera – I know, I should have already bought a new one – had a problem with the memory card. All photos were lost, and that all happened at my perfect jump location. Now, imagine some terrified Austrian guy with camera and equipment sitting at the side of those orange shrines in the hills somewhere in the suburbs of Kyoto trying to fix his camera.
Anyway, the pictures were lost, but the camera works again, just my trust is a bit flushed down the sink. Update: the memory card seems now completely gone to a better life.

Still, I made my first self-made jump picture and proudly present it:

What else is there to summarise about Japan? I’m starting to like Japanese fashion somehow, but also to dislike their food a bit. And, the rare fish is the least problem.
Also, Kyoto is colder than Tokyo. Nevertheless the weather was much sunnier. Come to Japan if you want to hear police-cars excusing their fast speed, understand why Japanese don’t like to talk english and get defeated by toilets. Just remember: 7-hour nightbus-trips are the worst.

– dragons and wells, funny food presentations

– kyotos famous golden temple, and Kiyomizu temple (on stilts)

– a lot of stuff (tuna) at Tokyos fish market and the final result

– and: drink vending machines, skyscraper and huge shopping malls..

Next stop: Auckland tomorrow afternoon.

How to run on caffeine

Every movement freezes in your mind. Actions become series of pictures. You feel widely awake and at the same time completely numb to direct influences on yourself. The drugs produced by your body are floating your blood circulation. When you think, time stops. Your heart pumps like it tries to drown out your breaths. All muscles and tendons are tense. Your thoughts focus at the current place and time. Everything is under your control. One blink to crush the city; one thought to destroy the world.
At this state, unexpected events are often the stinging pain of reality. Nothing happens without reason. But what if we can’t find the reasons? Does reality jab you in your back? One thing is for sure: you could process a thousand pictures a second; if the flapper comes when unexpected, it won’t help at all.

The question is not: to drink or not to drink. Rather, you should ask yourself: are you fly enough to open your wings even if the light at the end of the tunnel could meet up with you halfway with a hundred miles per hour? Regret only exists in life. What drives you when you bear that in mind? Is it yesterday’s memory, the thought of tomorrow, or the possibility of none?
Sugar makes your heartbeat sweeter!

Thinking in statistical evaluations

How do you work? If you’d know a bit of Neuroscience you could probably tell me how neurons connect via synapses to each other within our brains and let us feel, memorise and react. One feature that often strikes me in contrast to computers, networks and artificial intelligence is that there is no difference between the process of reading and writing data for our brains. As soon as we remember something, we refresh connections and make a specific memory stronger. This is quite important to know as it gets impossible to see or hear a wrong fact and just not ‘write’ it down in our memory. I couldn’t say how often you would have to call someone by a different name until it’s ‘their’ name. Obviously it works. One example are nicknames, but also on a higher scale, things we name until they find their way to the global dictionaries as soon as they become commonly known.

Even if that doesn’t sound like the snake of Kekulé, I think it’s an important thing we pay too less attention to. There are theses that suggest a connection between search requests for data on the Internet and common knowledge. Thus, allowing someone to compare the search results for different spellings of words. Requests with more occurrences are more likely to be correct. Then again, we may also associate that with the personal knowledge within our own brains. Your ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is perhaps only a comparison between two values or weights.
If everything’s made up, when is it appropriate to laugh?

Thinking of loosing

One of the most interesting feelings in our life might be the ‘let go’ feeling. It’s the one you might sense when you’re on a train, travelling against the sun and leaving your home. It’s also there when you’re saying goodbye at the grave of a loved one and finally realise that the end of someone special is another chance for you at the same time.
It’s having a tearful eye while the other one is smiling. Depending on your thoughts of looking forward and your troubles with the process of letting go, it may seem easier one time whereas it can seem almost impossible at another time. Memorising persons or places is an important ability. We shouldn’t forget the bad things that happened in order to prevent the repeating of things that didn’t have the outcome we wanted. Nevertheless, we should always try to keep the good things in mind as well. We have to treasure these memories of joy as they are our mental achievements.

Every break-up means the destruction of existing connections and pain as a consequence thereof. At the same time, if we are able to use these open connections, we can gain a lot of new experiences. In such situations it is essential to look forward to new possibilities and not to find only grief and despair in the past. Don’t loose yourself in thoughts about things you can’t change anymore.
Get a seat in direction of travel or you might get sick!