Friday, April 29, 2005

To pack the beetle or not?

Packing for trips has never been my strong suite. I figure as long as I have my ticket, passport, some string, a few crumpled currencies hidden in my earlobes, safety pins, colored pencils, a lighter and a change of clothes, I'm ready to go. And this has, thus far, worked brilliantly for year-long trips, three or four-month trips and two-week excursions.
Only, this time, I'm off for only five days to a music festival in Aso, Kyushu, Japan. I've attended this fest (Nijinomisaki) for the past two years.
The first year, I brought a change of clothes, some rattles, a flute, a tent and a sleeping bag.
The 2nd year, I brought a change of clothes, some rattles, a flute, a tent, sleeping bag, a tarp, a hacky sack and toilet paper.
Now, here's where it gets complicated. THIS year, I'm bringing a change of clothes, some rattles, 2 flutes, 4 tents, 3 sleeping bags, 2 tarps, 2 toilet paper rolls, 2 collapsable chairs, 1 second-hand guitar, 2 sets of guitar strings, 34 books, 3 gigabytes of coffee, enough clay to build a complex in SW USA, enough paint to deface 2 Tokyo apartment walls, a frozen orangutang, a crate of ramen and 30% of Korea's kimuchi.
Though, I'm still waiting for the proposed grant processing to go through, I think I may have a new scientific break-through on my hands here. Namely that:
1)The increase in hippy luggage over time corresponds directly (or maybe kind-of slantedly) to the misinterpreted trend of global warming. And,
2) What we pack is inevitably determined by what we have lying around our house.

If you don't believe me, go and have a look at the residence of someone who is packing. If they own 24,000 unique Indonesian beetles, just call me an ass if they don't throw a few beetles into their luggage! And if they own 8 guitars and 3 frozen orangutangs but don't toss even one old six-string and one chilly long-armed ape into their pack, then I willingly abdicate governorship of this hypothesis, and I might even buy you a pint!

Until then, I just remembered I have to go pack Tobasco sauce and chopsticks...

3 comments:

Winston said...

You're such a good writer...

-c said...

Gee, thanks, you're sweet! I've been studying a philosophy called Zen and the Art of Semi-incoherent type-rambling.

Anonymous said...

Love your writing...came upon your blog while googling the festival. Hope to see you there.

An-Tam