Konichiwa

Happy new year sweet friends!

We are having quite an amazing trip. All the difficulties of being in a place where you don’t recognize the alphabet, juxtaposed with all of the awe and beauty. My favorite ones are in those little moments when you realize that the people that you felt were so foreign and different from you; they are all just trying to live the same way we are.  Accomplish the same ‘goals’. The accoutremonts change (foods, language, landscape) but the people are just trying to get to work,  soothe their children, buy groceries, and find some semblance of happiness, just the way we are. They are scared,  stressed, exhausted, excited, loving, flawed and hopeful (or hopeless in moments) just as I am.

It cracks my heart open every time.

This is why I love to travel, and I think I had forgotten.

On this trip thus far,  I’m realizing that the landscape is removed of big, intrusive ads and billboards and that is replaced with all the big feelings of discomfort of the newness of it all.  Suddenly you’re mute; unable to solve a simple problem like buying the correct metro ticket or finding the bathroom; which become insurmountable and humiliating moments.  But they are just that,  moments.

They are the moments that force you to be out of your comfort zone.

The paradoxes. Your brain’s main purpose is to ensure you’re safe and to do that, it’s always looking to compare experiences and things to something familiar. If it knows what something is, it can rest and save energy that we need, once upon a time, for important things like survival;  and not buried into the couch with your neck stretched forward in an unnatural and evolution-changing position, scrolling on a tiny screen. 

But in traveling,  everything feels like it requires survival so there’s no rest for your brain. It notices only the differences that are considered a threat, and therefore creates the discomfort

To me,  that discomfort is living. It’s growing. It’s pushing the boundaries.  I realize that sounds like hell to a lot of people.  I understand that completely. 

But I realize I need this to feel like i’m living my life. That’s probably why the last few years have been so difficult.  instead of travel, which also had plenty of benefits and redeeming qualities, my health issues  became the source of that discomfort.

And,  that’s probably also why I am resilient. I look at everything as growth opportunities.  [That is,  after I’ve processed the suck of it and had multiple meltdowns to let it go].

So cheers to travel! And happy new year!

In continuing our new years tradition, we purged and burned the things we want to get rid of from 2024 near a beach in Okinawa.

How crazy is that?

We didn’t hit a pinata,  but we at least got to do the important part.

We were guided. And even when things do not go the way you hoped, we’re still guided,  as long as we allow ourselves to learn from it.

We are at the airport getting ready to head to Osaka and then kyoto for the second half of our trip. I’m sure I’ll have note growth experiences.

Here’s some highlights (jenn with permission).