Announcement: I'm Writing a Book!
After a decade of making piles of notes and rough drafts, I’m putting it all together and writing a travel book aimed at helping people get the most out of their visit to Japan.
This is not going to be a typical travel book. I am not an influencer and I’m not going to feed you bad lists of must-see places. Instead, this project is driven by my own philosophy on travel, combined with practical strategies and useful information to make any trip as enriching as possible.
I need your help to see it through, though. For as little as USD $5, you can pre-order the book at a discount and get access to the final product, plus the audiobook version and supplemental materials. Check out the project page at davidwroteabook.com
My aim is to get it finished by the end of Q1 2025, but the more support I can get, the more time I can afford to put into it, leading to an earlier release date.
Posts
Dispatch № 84: Conditioning
Almost nobody gives them permission, let alone a push, to question authority or to push against the structures to which they find themselves subject but from which they rarely benefit.
Dispatch № 83: Bulging
The bag of plastic recycling comically large and overstuffed to bursting, like a farcical suitcase.
Dispatch № 82: Hidden Away
Plants are good at that, at keeping secrets subterranean and contained.
Dispatch № 81: Capsule Elegy
Few buildings ever manage to command such remarkable presence, and many that do lose their edge as the rest of architecture catches up around them.
Dispatch № 80: The Old Life
In the winter months, kerosene trucks drive slowly through neighborhoods in the evening, making their presence known with a repeating announcement played over a loudspeaker, accompanied by the tune of an old children’s song.
Dispatch № 79: Transmitter
In the context of universal infinite immensity, the shrine is vanishingly small. We as humans even more so.
Dispatch № 78: A Different Model
The street running past my apartment building has no name. This is neither a fluke nor uncommon.
Dispatch № 77: Blemished
It represents a fool’s errand in human pursuits and is as about as common as hen’s teeth in nature.
Dispatch № 76: Truncated
Even just staring up into the branches was a joy, watching the sky sparkle through shifting gaps in the foliage.
Dispatch № 75: Fleeting Escape
Sand below us, water in front of us, the great mountain sitting huge in the blue haze to our right.
Dispatch № 74: Loud as Flowers
You feel you are swimming in a saturated, soporific concoction of apricot, honey, and hypnagogia, with undercurrents of the autumn sun’s penetrating warmth.
Dispatch № 73: Zones
My old apartment was simple in this way. Leave your shoes at the door and that’s it. No other changes to make