Because...I feel like it!

Yeppers, that's why I'm posting. I have a numerous amount of topics swirling around in my mind at present to begin posting about, but the one I seem to be totally distracted with lately is just one in particular.

 Japan.

 Now, of course, I'm always thinking of Japan. It's always in my heart, it's always something dear to me. But as of the past few days, Japan has been a really big deal for me. In other words...I want to travel there.
 Eventually, I will. I just know it, like...well, I won't bother explaining. Why should I, anyway, when most wouldn't understand the reasoning behind it? It's rare to meet that many people in these parts who want to leave their country on a voyage to another, simply because they are absolutely in love with the culture and the language.
 To be quite honest, I've had a lot of people tell me the Japanese are extremely strict. And I will agree that in some areas of Japan, or in some places, they probably are. News flash-
 I don't care. 
 Somehow, the impossibilities and inconveniences now seem a completely irrelevant topic. I'm going to Japan. Do or die.
  Okay, maybe not. If the Lord will's it, I'm going to Japan. XD But I'm serious about it, that's for sure. It's not because of anime...sure, I'd love to be in the country where that art-form originated, but I truly do have an interest in the cultural quirks of the people living in Japan.
 I also have this desire to visit Korea. Since it's only a sea's leap away from Japan, I wish it were as easy as saying that.
 The closest I've been is this-I've had a single offer to go to little Japan and Korea in Manhattan, but sadly, I don't know how to arrange that with the woman who offered it to me. Plus, my allergies have to be taken into consideration.

 Somehow, to spite all of this...it seems close. I remember one winter when we were sick, and my mother borrowed a video on Japan from the library. I watched it with my dad. It had a special part about the tradition of sword-making. I'm certain my eyes were as wide as saucers. My mom was laughing at me because I wouldn't stop talking about those swords.

 "They really put forth effort into making those things! They really care about it. I can just see one now; working away, pounding those Japanese virtues of strength and honour into the blade. "

 She thought I was just being silly, but after a few years, I'm still stuck on Japanese swords, and pottery, and paper...
 Green tea. Everyone I know says it's bitter. I drink it straight; no cream, no sugar, no nothing. It's delicious. And I eat my desert before I drink my tea. Why? Because you're supposed to compare the bitter with the sweet when you drink it.
 It's like a balancing beam. The sweet makes the bitter even stronger, but the bitter makes the sweet, sweeter. They're always going back and forth, back and forth, bitterest, sweetest, bitterest, sweetest...
 Maybe it's the quiet analogies that surprise and enthral me. I don't know. But I do know that I do love the culture. There are many things wrong with it, many errors in their ways of thinking, but all the same; there are errors in every culture.
 I neither turn away and choose to ignore them, nor do I accept them as okay. I simply address them as what they are-wrong, and I try to enjoy the good aspects.



-Argentia Krystofel