...there is no all-seeing, all-loving god who keeps us safe from harm. But atheism is not an invitation to despair. By disclaiming the idea of a next life, we can take more excitement from this one. The here and now is not something to be endured before eternal bliss or damnation. The here and now is all we have, an inspiration to make the most of it. So, atheism is life-affirming in a way religion can never be.

Look around you. Nature demands our attention, begs us to explore, to question. Religion can provide only facile, ultimately unsatisfying answers. Science, in constantly seeking real explanations, reveals the true majesty of our world in all its complexity. People sometimes say "there must be more than just this world, than just this life." But how much more do you want?

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The number of people who could be here in my place outnumber the sand grains of Sahara.
If you think about all the different ways in which our genes could be permutated, you and I are quite grotesquely lucky to be here, the number of events that had to happen in order for you to exist, for me to exist. We are privileged to be alive, and we should make the most of our time on this world.

Being paranoid about life and events is the worst.
Overthinking leads you that way.

Travelling is a great part of life because of the common experience it engenders amongst people. There's a subtle and unexplainable change that comes over a traveller. It opens horizons, and makes relationships seem more genuine, maybe because they're less tenable and more impermanent. Knowing you won't know a person for long makes a short encounter all the more powerful. I try to treasure particularly the people themselves I meet over the sights. People make the experience before the environment, in many ways.
The people I travelled with I feel I have some kind of long term and lasting experience in common. We all know where we were, at that particular point in our lives, and what it meant.
It's also why I believe travelling when you're not self sufficient limits the experience. Relying on your parents puts a barrier between you, what you want to do and the people you'll meet.

Japan 16th-18th

Tokyo University, again.

The University's main square by night, blurry.

Kimono Market, near Harajuku Metro (I think)

The craziest kimonos in the store.

Boxes of obi.

Roving Christmas celebrators asked me for a photo.

Shinjuku somewhere.

Cocoon Tower.

Doing my best Karim Rashid impersonation, Takeshita Street.