Since coming to Japan, I’ve met a lot of people from all over the world. From surprisingly free spirited Chinese-North Korean girls to German guys acting like American frat boys looking to “conquer Japan with their penises.” All these meetings have made me more open minded about a lot of things, but for the purposes of this entry, I’ll only address one. About two years ago I became friends with a guy from Nevada who had switched from a technical major to English, and who could trail out words better than anyone I can think of. Well read, adventurous, and the only guy who road a skateboard through our small Japanese campus—you could tell just by talking with him that he wasn’t a conventional person. Anyways, he and his friend have begun a country-wide trip around the States. Not impressed? Well, they’re doing it on their bikes. Not motor bikes, but bicycles, and camping on the road as they go. They’re currently in their first week, and have just arrived in Vegas after biking—on bicycles—through the fucking dessert.

Here’s a quote from his blog:

Getting to Las Vegas was not so bad and it was a very strange feeling rolling into the city after spending so much time in the desert. I felt a little more feral, a little less civilized. I had not yet reached the point were I wanted to chuck a spear at a car and follow its oil trail off into the desert where it would die and I could chop it up for clothing and shelter, but I felt a little more out of place amidst the rush hour traffic of a large city coated in dust and neon lighting.

-Joel (http://www.honestexpression.com)

It’s here that I’d like to state how envious and proud I am to say that I know someone who, unlike most of orthodox America, decided to take the hard route. It’s something I noticed once I got here, and it’s what I wanted to address. Why does society so often scold those who don’t follow the same pattern of school, graduate, work, die? My own mom scolded me for wanting to put off school for another two years while I studied Spanish in South America. “Uhm. So how old are you going to be when you finally graduate?” It’s not that I don’t value my education, it’s that I don’t understand the rush. What’s wrong with wanting to do what you want as long as you aren’t stepping on any toes or bumming off others? This “womb-to-tomb mentality,” as my retiring English professor put it, is a a social harness that I feel more than most others. As my future plans are made for me, I feel ever more anxious to break out and hit the road with nothing but “a hobo pack on the end of a stick, a can of beans, and a pocket full of dreams.” It’s adventurers like Joel who I think will benefit the most out of what short lives we live.