On Habits

 

Tottori, Japan, 7 October 2025

It doesn't cease to baffle me how rapidly I develop habits. In Japan, sandwiches means for me 7-Eleven; Japanese wraps Family Mart; coffee-to-go Lawson.

Taking photographs means basically flowers and architecture. I do not know why that is, it developed automatically.

I once read that children when looking for, say, a toy, always go back to where they initially played with it. It makes sense to me, that is why I like to believe it.

The habits that I somewhat intuitively develop seem to follow a similar pattern. I usually book a hotel near the train station so I do not have to carry my luggage very far. Once  checked in, I usually start exploring the neighbourhood.

Lately, I've realised that after my arrival in Japan I mostly stayed on the side where "my" hotel was located. Once I became aware of this habit, I started to venture to the other side of the train station. My new habit is to regularly explore both sides of the train station ...

One of the good things about habits is that you can always develop new ones. My newly acquired Japanese eating habits include rice with curry and fish for breakfast, pumpkin pudding for dessert, and apple juice whenever.