A Lensatic Adventure? Guess not.

I went to the store today to buy for myself a compass. This seems kind of silly when you first hear it, but I’ve a pretty good reason.

So I woke up this morning at around six, like I usually do. So I take a shower, get dressed, and sit around, trying to find something to do. Well, I think to myself, I’ve got to go find food at some point. I could have rice again but maybe I should try someplace new. Hey, I’ve got $50 worth of guidebooks on that shelf over there… and proceeded to try and find my apartment in the books. The books don’t cover my area at all, and describe the area around it basically as “Uh, there’s not much to do here, but at least it’s linked to the other areas of Kyoto, so it’s easy to leave.” Ouch.

Unfortunately, the streets here always shoot off at odd angles to each other, so I’m constantly getting turned around. My thinking was that if I have a compass, I can at least know which general direction to go. You’d be surprised how hard that is to keep track of here. (Hint: that was my good reason)

So, what does it take to leave? It looks like it’s about five minutes by bike to the nearest train station, and a $1.50 fare should get me to Eastern Kyoto. From the station, it’s about half a kilometer to a store the かんりんりん (apartment caretaker) recommended I check out if I want to buy a decent compass instead of the one I picked up a little earlier, which even I recognize is pretty lame.

I had asked him where I could buy a decent compass as I was walking in the door, by the way.

In this same area, according to my books, is… a lot of stuff. I’m hoping to visit a shrine and find a compass today. Probably also need to eat lunch, ‘cause it’s almost 11AM and I have yet to eat breakfast.

Actually, there’s a sushi place near here…