Travel and Travail
The older you get, the more boring travelling alone becomes. It’s different when you’re younger — whether you’re along or not, travelling can be a gas. But as you age, the fun factor declines. Only the first couple of days are enjoyable. After that, the scenery becomes annoying, and people’s voices start to grate. There’s no escape, for if you close your eyes to block these out, all kinds of unpleasant memories pop up. It gets to be too much trouble to eat in a restaurant, and you find yourself checking your watch over and over as you wait for buses that never seem to arrive. Trying to make yourself understood in a foreign language becomes a total pain.
H. Murakami, “A Folklore for My Generation”, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, London: Harvill Secker, 2006 (emphasis mine).