So one day I went for a walk...

Yesterday I left Hamamatsu and set my sights once again eastward to Kakegawa, some 30km away. When I had arrived in Hamamatsu I had originally planned to stay only a couple of nights, but once I discovered my lodging was so comfortable, I extended my stay. Like most places I stay along the way, I am going in mostly blind as to what I am going to find. I am mainly concerned with finding the most affordable place more than anything else. In Hamamatsu, this ended up being a stay at "Dormy Inn global cabins", which I can best describe as what would happen if a hostel and a spa had a child.  Affordable but also surprisingly luxurious for a place where I was sleeping in a bunk bed. But while the beds were nice, and the private space attached to it was a nice surprise, the real selling point was the onsen built into the facility. I spent every night soaking here! These tubs were amazing, and each filled to the brim with 42 C (107 F) water. Each time I entered a tub th...

For the past two nights I have dreamt of game development. Historically this isn't unusual, I have spent many nights with happy and troubled dreams of work over my 15 year career, it is par for the course. However this is noteworthy as I have not dreamt of my work in nearly a year, ever since I was forced off of a project I killed myself for three year to give life to and keep running, with no clear reasons given for my sudden and dubious ejection. These dreams reflect a small ember that is once again glowing in me.  As painful as it was to lose my team and my project. As creatively destructive as it was keeping my project and myself going those last few years, I can feel that my desire to make games is slowly returning.  I am slowly shaking off layers of a burnt out husk. Last night I dreamt I was back working at Relic, a place I look back on with fond memories and have often dreamt of when stressed at a new studio.  This dream wasn't prophetic, it wasn't even inte...

Yesterday I left Gamagori and continued on my route to Toyohashi, arriving late in the afternoon. I had booked a room a few days in advance, and paid a frustrating premium for it. The room wasn't fancy, it was just a standard business hotel, but it seemed to be one of the few options even remotely close to my price range. One bed for me, and one for my pack. Dropping my pack in my room, I returned to the street in search of food only to find the once unremarkable street in from of my hotel now bustling with men in LED vests directing traffic and blocking off roadways. It was a dramatic scene, and I didn't know what to make of it. At the corner a police car with lights flashing, and an automated message blaring over the loudspeaker but meaning nothing to me. Not knowing what to make of things, or having any particular direction in mind, I followed the flow of pedestrians, which had now appeared in droves. The flow lead not far, down the block to a left, then a qui...