Making a Worthwhile Mistake
sounds like a contradiction, but behind every big success has a multitude of mistakes and failures in its wake. Well that’s at least what all those success/motivation books and videos say, but I have yet to confirm that theory as I just have the failures and mistakes portion of that equation. Being the lucky individual I was, while this was the wrong train, it still went to the desired destination, just forty minutes slower than usual. Having taken multiple naps on the shinkansen, I was now wide awake on a train that moved at a quarter of the pace of the previous one. No longer gliding through the scenery at lightning speed, the train jostled slightly as we went through the trees,mountains, and valleys at the perfect pace to observe the beautiful surroundings.
The white fog, while present, wasn’t thick enough to cut off the view of far landscapes as the train ascended up a slight gradation. The window was cold to the touch, reflecting the atmosphere of the air outside making the heat from the vents under the seat a comforting sensation. Being a local train the train halted at every stop along the way, I pondered what life was like in the small towns in Japan. The train stops, like the small towns they were in, seemed to be frozen in time. It was something so picturesque I was reminded of the images I saw in Five Centimeters a Second.
Time Flows
slower in a town like this. I needed new brakes on my life as it was flying by faster than I could keep track. Populations in small towns are happier than those in the city. Maybe it’s because they spend time with the things that are really important instead of chasing the things they don’t have? The train kept putting along stopping at one stop after the next, picking up more people along the way. Eventually I gave up my seat to an older lady and was left standing starting at the world pass me by.
I would have been fine sitting in that train forever and watching peaceful scenery pass me by, but the train announcer started declaring Matsumoto so I took a deep breath and prepared to step out into my new life.
