Japan – Day 14

On my last day in Japan, I ate a strudel based breakfast fit for a champion at the local konbini1. Next, I traveled by bullet train to Shinagawa and then made my way to the Narita Airport via JR train. Riding the trains one last time, I began to think back on my trip. I compared my experience to the one I had 34 years ago and appreciated how special this place is to me. The temples and sacred sites, manmade and trinket-laden as they often were, still moved me in a deeply spiritual way. Something about the intention behind these places — the effort to create somewhere spiritual — was enough to trigger those feelings, as long as I gave myself the time and space to look for them. I continued onto the airport and looked at souvenirs. I found myself able to clear my mind and enter a more peaceful state even while looking at new clothes or browsing at the Lego store. I loved the feeling I got as a lovely Japanese woman took care to hand me my receipt, looking me in the eyes and holding it…