Before leaving for Asia, I made a determination that ran against all my previous instincts as a traveler. While traveling in Japan and the Middle East, I was decidedly incommunicado, calling home and friends only infrequently and never writing. This was primarily because I didn't want to shape my experiences with a set of preconceived categories of who I was or how I lived. I wanted to be changed by my experiences and so I generally didn't record them.
