A Journey Remembered, and Today's Record

A customer came by the roastery today
Clean-cut, the kind of guy you'd call a fine young man

While I was going through the coffee beans with him

I asked, "Where are you from?"

"I'm in the middle of a trip around Japan, traveling by van," he said.

He showed me photos on his phone. The inside of the van was paneled in wood, clean and comfortable-looking. Already six months into the trip, he said he wanted to keep wandering all the way overseas.

"That's something to envy. If it's a choice you can actually make, you should do it.
Really, that's great. Do you post on Instagram or anything?"
I asked, and

"No, I'm keeping my distance from that kind of thing. Honestly I'm thinking of giving up my phone before long too,"

he said, and that flipped some kind of switch in me,

"When I was young and traveled around Asia, forget phones, the internet was something only a handful of people had, and even they'd only use email at an internet cafe if they had an address at all.
You'd arrive at a guesthouse with a Lonely Planet or a Chikyu no Arukikata guidebook in hand, swap information with other travelers you met there, and that's how you'd decide your next destination.
These days it's live-streaming the whole trip around the world on Instagram while collecting subscriptions.
I don't think that's a bad thing, but times sure have changed."

Right about the point where I got so worked up I nearly gave him the wrong change, the fine young man left the roastery with a clean, refreshing sort of ease.

"Thank you! Take care out there!"

I called out, and stepped outside wanting to see him off properly. There was his van, an old one, looking like he'd painted it himself.
Nice.

Then something on the roof of the van caught my eye.
A square antenna I felt like I'd seen somewhere before.

"What's that antenna for?" I asked,

"It lets me get internet by satellite, even out on a boat."

That's Starlink, the one I'd seen at Costco. Seriously high-tech.
First time I'd met someone actually using it.

Whatever this old man's nostalgia amounts to
the times are steadily changing.

Safe travels. Hope our paths cross again someday.