On waking up early
They say: The early bird gets the worm.
I say: The early bird gets to avoid the crowd.
I probably won't make a good travel buddy because I wake up early (no matter how much I want to sleep in, I always wake up early) and go to wherever it is I am going before everyone else has had breakfast. The advantage of this is that I get to enjoy the place (especially if it's a touristy one) before the droves of people come.
Exhibit A: Arashiyama Bamboo Grove in Kyoto. The beautiful photos we see on the internet that had us putting the bamboo grove on our to–visit list is always a picture of tranquility. To catch this zen moment means arriving early.
There were only half a dozen souls at the bamboo grove at 830am.
I arrived at the grove around 830AM and there were only five or six other people there. When I passed by the grove again in the afternoon, around 2PM, it was flooded with people. It was an "expectation versus reality" moment, and not a smidgen of zen.
The 2pm crowd
I have no Exhibit B, but you get my drift.
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