A regional Japanese mall

We walked to the Aeon Mall in Motomiya, Morioka today. It wasn't far – a couple of kilometres. After a few beautiful weeks, today was a cloudy, forgettable day.

The mall felt very 'regional'; a word Lucy and I use with some affection. To us, it means a place that just is what it is. Just a place that people go. No big story. Life, going on. I love that. It's why I travel. To be with people, in their life.

We passed through a tiny, empty park. Not even a park. An open area with some slides. I can't imagine it's ever seen more than a handful of Australians. A regional park. There was nobody there. I should have taken a photo. It would have been melancholy. I don't take photos.

This is being in a place, to me. This is why we stay in a place for months at a time. We learn it. We walk to its regional malls. You know what we got, in this regional Japanese mall? McDonald's. You know what Japanese people eat sometimes? McDonald's. Then we walked back.