I don’t want my trip to feel like checking boxes. I’m going to Japan to experience it, not prove that I went. I’ve noticed something about how the way we travel has changed.
We make lists, we have neighborhoods to visit, foods to try, and photos to take. Somewhere along the way travel felt like collecting proof. If there’s no picture, it didn’t happen.
My first trip was in 2003, yes I know I’m dating myself. Think about it though, how different it was. No tiktok showing us the way to the hidden cafe, no algorithm feeding us someone else’s perfect day. Just raw Japan.
You had to figure out the maps in Shinjuku station and hope for the best. No google maps to guide you. There was just Japan, raw Japan.
You could stand in front of a centuries old temple then walk a few blocks into a neighborhood covered in neon.
This contrast is part of why I love it so much. Japan always seems to have one toe ahead of everyone else in the future in some aspects. In others it’s like a world between where the veil is thin and past meets present down every corner. Sometimes they’re separated by centuries.
Sometimes they’re separated by a single street corner.
This is what I want from my Japan travels, this is what I want everyone to experience. Put down the phone, absorb the history and rich culture. Take time to smell the flowers or maybe the sake.
You don’t have to see everything. You don’t have to photograph every moment to prove you were there.
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