We called well over 30 hotels, hostels, and some couchsurfers — everything is booked in this part of Japan. Turns out it’s a national holiday, fortunately we found the Municipal Hiroshima Youth Hostel… it’s also booked to capacity but we’re staying in what appears to be an emergency shelter in an old meeting room.

As the temperature was dropping I realized a warm bed is certainly something to be thankful for… Although I also liked the Japanese concept that it is a day to think about environment, human rights, and peace :)

Liebe; middle high German meaning "the quality of love, pleasure, joy"

It was raining all day yesterday on Jeju island. It finally let up this morning. It’s cold and windy, and I can barely find my way around. I stumbled into this cafe looking for a warm cup of coffee.

It is quiet except for the melodic strum of classic guitar playing on the stereo. A child sleeps on a couch near the back, his mother takes my order. I fall back into a chair and sigh a breath of the warm comforting air. Spas aren’t this nice.

I look outside to the cold wind and busy traffic; it feels a world away from this moment. It reminds me that the rest of the day could be amazing, it could be anything I want it to be.

hear a song in every color
align every want and
orient to the blue