I opened this thread to hold any comments which would otherwise be considered hijaking on other threads.. This thread is mine, so all random thoughts are welcome.
(BPL staff, go ahead and delete this if you need disk space :)

Miguel, ok, so we won't give you the stuffy philosopher title...
This is a good chance to whittle down that row of gear and personal items, now that you've moved. I left a few metric tons of stuff in my old house in the US; and don't miss it. It was tough to break away though. Very tough. Most that stuff is going into a dumpster when the house finally sells.

The criteria for possesions I have now goes something like this; "will I actually want to keep this the rest of my life or until it wears out?"; if not, it must have a useful temporary purpose to make the cut. I used to buy the cheapest possible stuff, now I find a way to get less, but higher quality goods; titanium, down, wood.. and items which are multi-purpose.

Hey, If you are not already selling on ebay, give it a try? I just sold my first item there, a Teva eVENT jacket for $100 to some guy in the Czhec Republic(!) It is liberating sending that redundant jacket to someone I suspect will use it, and profiting at the same time.
And along the same lines, I never would have shopped for used goods in my past; but now I see it as a great option.
Asamayama next month?

Edited by Brett1234 on 03/13/2007 03:21:43 MDT.

Will have to give eBay a try. One thing I really want to sell (because I want to buy a smaller and lighter one) is my Nautiraid Raid 1 folding kayak. At 25 kilos it is just too much for me to carry on the trains (I did, four times) and I don't have a car. But it is classic beauty of a wooden folding kayak, and therefore agonizing to put up for sale. It also took me two years to save up for it back in 1993.

I'll have to winnow through what I have and see what might be saleable on eBay. After that I'll probably try to sell the rest at a flea market. Have you ever tried that? Hell of a lot of fun!

And books. Aaaarrrgh! Hard to sell English books in Japan. There are used English bookstores like the Blue Parrot, but they turn away a lot of books.

Asamayama... I just looked through the information sheeet I have and realized that while you can climb the side of the volcano, you can't go all the way to the rim (I think... have to ask someone to read it for me). Will have to check out the weather conditions up there for next month. With the major blizzard in Akita and Niigata today I wonder how the weather will be then. Will also have to make sure my schedule will allow the time away (probably no problem). It's going to be pretty cold. Not sure if camping is allowed.

I think I'm done cleaning for the day. That's enough ripping away of my addiction for one day!

By the way, Brett, what do you do? Teach English? (as if there is anything much else to do!)