Friends Are The Spice of Life!

Recently my life has been full of intriguing developments, exotic adventures, sensory overload and a flood of new experiences.  That is to be expected, one would at least hopefully and rationally anticipate, when an everyday, average, Canadian girl decides to uproot her life and move to Japan.

Teaching English in Japan is something I have dreamt of doing since I first discovered that it was possible to.  It has been my life’s dream up until July 31, 2011 when it transformed from a dream into an exciting reality.  From the moment this hppy wanderer stepped off the plane and into the Japanese version of “Wonderland” life has and never will be the same.

A dream come true is exactly what teaching English overseas is for me. It has exceeded my expectations regarding how much I would enjoy it and in other ways blown my expectations out of the water.  During the past five months in Japan I have learned so much, about myself, about Japan and also about what it means to travel.  Yes there is a difference between touring and traveling….I will save that can of worms for another day though.  There is one truth in my life that I am certain of however, and it is that traveling has helped me to grow as a person and mature as a human being.

I have always loved the saying “Friends are the spice of life”.  It’s a saying full of truth in my eyes.  Just as good spices help to make a dish more delicious, good friends help you to become a better person and they encourage you to try new things even if they scare you.  Writing a blog, the thought of sharing my thoughts with the world, is always something I’ve contemplated doing but been too afraid to truly pursue.  The fear of rejection, the fear of opening my mind to the world, and the the fear of my musings being read and then disregarded as mere trash, has held me back.  That is until quite recently, one of my closest friends in the whole world came to visit me…

My friend’s decision to travel to Japan, with her major intention being to see me, helped me to see myself in a different light. To her, my decision to move overseas, and not merely overseas but also to a country as incredibly foreign as Japan, is incredibly brave, possibly bordering on insanity.  It is something that she would, “never in one hundred years be able to do”.  For the purposes of this story it is important to understand that my friend and I are as close as two friends can be, she is the macaroni to my cheese, and I swear there are times when we can have an entire conversation with our eyes. No, sadly we are not telepathic, as cool as that would be but, we run on two such similar brain waves that it was shocking to me that for the first time in my recollection I was doing something she would never want to do.  We have spent six wonderful years together spilling secrets, laughing, crying and occasionally and very secretively indulging in the sexy performance of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean (much to my embarrassment I will admit multiple times). I have often been heard saying that she understands me better than I understand myself.  Needless to say I was baffled, shocked even, by this unexpected development in our friendship.

In the eyes of my friend Japan is about as different from Canada as a country possibly could be. Yet I somehow survive! Also, not only do I merely survive, it is obvious to anyone who sees and talks to me, I am thriving!  For ten wonderful days we traveled Japan, and I shared my new life with her, trying to help her see why it was I completely in love with it.  She thanked me profusely during these travels saying over and over again how she would never have been able to do this without me.  That she thought I was the perfect Japanese tour guide.  I had organized the entire itinerary filling our days with the very best each city had to offer, happily answering her cultural questions to the best of my ability, insisting she try famous Japanese foods that she never in her wildest dreams would have eaten (and sometimes discovered that she liked), and all the meanwhile being able to enthusiastically regale her with the history of famous sites.

One of the major conversation topics that cropped up, time and time again on those long train rides however was: why was I able to do what I do and be happy?  I had left the life I had known, my friends, my loving family, familiar places and yes even my language, behind for a country where I knew no one, spoke only a beginners-level amount of Japanese and couldn’t read the labels in the supermarkets!  It was craziness to her, the adventure of a lifetime for me.

I had never thought of myself as remarkable, sure I loved traveling but who would want to read my travel blog when so many other blogs exist out there on the web? Plus, not only that, I’m a Commerce major not an English major, I am not a writer! Then there’s also the fact to consider that I’m just so damn busy… The list I can assure you went on and on in that fashion for quite some time; pathetic really, just one excuse after another.  One day however before we separated, my friend looked me in the eye and said the words that have inspired this blog:

"You are one of the most well-traveled people I know.  You clearly don’t see yourself the way I, and other people do, we see you as a truly remarkable traveler whom we wish we could be like!  Listening to you talk about traveling is fascinating, and I would love to have you plan the rest of my travels."

It was those words that made me think that I could actually write a blog. That, if I thought of my blog as travel advice for my friends and family who might one day follow in my footsteps, writing my thoughts wouldn't be so intimidating. Since then I have given a lot of thought to starting a blog and I begin writing now with the hope of sharing the lessons I  have learned from traveling, my love for discovering new and wonderful things, what it means to be a true traveler and advice on what to see and where to go!

Until next time,

J