Day 34: Lightning lullaby
It is just after midnight and my attempt to fall asleep early for a long walk tomorrow have been upended.
As I lay in my bunk, slowly drifting off, I felt suddenly as though I were laying below a bridge and a freight train was rolling overhead. It was the first of countless rolls of thunder, intensely loud and reverberating in my head.
Roused by the storm I could not help but look, so I dressed and slipped out of my bunk to head downstairs. The hostel was darkened for the night, with a small group in the common room enjoying a conversation. I silently passed them by, unlocked the front door and found a covered spot to admire the spectacle.
The sky had opened up suddenly, and with a ferocity that spoke of a some long standing grudge between it and the earth. Sheets of lightning crashed across the sky one after the next, followed by seemingly unending rumbles of thunder. It made the rain seem less like scattered droplets falling at random and more like powerful waves crashing into the city streets.
The front door to the hostel opened again and the manager stepped out into the night beside me. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Not expecting an answer as he lit a cigarette. "The rain is different in Japan". I nodded to him in agreement, as it very evidently was, and we stood and watched the rain together for moment before his cigarette was finished. He turned and went inside and I was alone to greedily have the deluge all to myself once again.
I would stand there for another 20 minutes, occasionally being peppered with errant drops sneaking past the awning on the wind.
Kyoto was beautiful at night bathed in lighting.
As I lay in my bunk, slowly drifting off, I felt suddenly as though I were laying below a bridge and a freight train was rolling overhead. It was the first of countless rolls of thunder, intensely loud and reverberating in my head.
Roused by the storm I could not help but look, so I dressed and slipped out of my bunk to head downstairs. The hostel was darkened for the night, with a small group in the common room enjoying a conversation. I silently passed them by, unlocked the front door and found a covered spot to admire the spectacle.
The sky had opened up suddenly, and with a ferocity that spoke of a some long standing grudge between it and the earth. Sheets of lightning crashed across the sky one after the next, followed by seemingly unending rumbles of thunder. It made the rain seem less like scattered droplets falling at random and more like powerful waves crashing into the city streets.
The front door to the hostel opened again and the manager stepped out into the night beside me. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Not expecting an answer as he lit a cigarette. "The rain is different in Japan". I nodded to him in agreement, as it very evidently was, and we stood and watched the rain together for moment before his cigarette was finished. He turned and went inside and I was alone to greedily have the deluge all to myself once again.
I would stand there for another 20 minutes, occasionally being peppered with errant drops sneaking past the awning on the wind.
Kyoto was beautiful at night bathed in lighting.
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