Japan:

The Pacific Theater
(South East Asia)

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

On the flight over, I recounted these cities, quotes and realizations shared by my fellow vagabonds:

As someone who only spoke 10+ words of Japanese, the few I did know were just enough to get by. Or so I thought…

I will say this though, the countless number of Europeans I bumped into a cafes and guest houses always offered me the most profound philosophical reflections. One of my favorites was this:

“Language is at the root of culture. When we attempt to learn anything new, what is one of the first things we consider? How does this relate to something I already know? It's nearly impossible to ignore the connections of previous experiences. Whether we consciously realize it.

We frequently place one concept in an abstracted group with association to a hierarchy we may already understand to some fundamental degree. A profound conversation about knowledge, life, or wisdom is wildly fascinating to an intellectual. Any mere traveler appreciates this, however intellectuals feed on it. Constantly hungry for mental stimulation though these measures.

When looking at cultures that split before the development of language, culture, as we know it today didn't exist. Obviously, “Culture”, something new, isn't old; however, with this perspective hopefully the previous statements and the following shall become clearer. Like Abrahamic religions compared to Buddhism, or English to Japanese.

Chanting is universal but there's no globally accepted translation. Translation is fundamentally obsolete. Isn’t language just (structured) chanting? Without context or definition life in a foreign nation is public isolation. A true connection is difficult to be drawn without communication. Therefore, isn’t language, culture? Therefore, if you don’t understand the language you can’t truly understand the culture.”

This language shortage would quickly decrease with my time at K’s House, Fuji. I managed to learn quite a bit, everything from flirting to dining, navigating to small talk.
- America & Europe

“You can be completely surrounded by people yet feel completely alone. Honesty is easily perceived and best shared with strangers.” – England & Holland

“People come and go but if they're real friends you'll pick up where you left off like nothings ever changed.” - Japan

“Remember, what it cost to find happiness or where enlightenment comes from.” - Australia

“Over promising and under delivering was a pretty worded lie or an example of a lack in effort.” - America

“Chasing after everything will leave us with nothing. Eventually we have to make decisions.” – Canada

-October, 2018

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