Hello! Feeling shy after not blogging for so long, and definitely kept forgetting to take notes while traveling this past month, so everything will be coming straight from the dome. But alas, there are so many things to share! I am titling this as my vacation era because after I left Okinawa, my past month and a half comprised of much faster paced travel, carefully planned itineraries, wishing I had more time, little to no rest days, sharing memories with travel companions and the constant battle between the devil on my shoulder saying "abundance mindset! only a little bit longer til you'll hopefully be making money again soon, might as well splurge!" and angel on my shoulder saying "STICK TO THE BUDGET." This is compared to most other places I visited before where I felt less pressure to 'see it all' or do touristy things, stayed in cities and towns for longer than recommended, had plenty of rest days, took care of personal admin within a reasonable amount of time, and was able to do laundry 1x per week. The laundry really built up during this time....
Japan take II
I flew from Shanghai to Okinawa, where I stayed for 3 weeks hoping to farm, which did not work out, but I couldn't complain too much because I was still in Okinawa. On my flight over, I was imagining cool ocean breezes, tropical landscapes, forests and colorful plants, and a peaceful landscape. For some reason I was not processing that being on a tropical island obviously meant that it would be incredibly hot and incredibly humid. I was also shocked to learn how urban where I was staying was. My original plan was to stay in Naha, but leave for farm life after a day or 2, but since farming did not happen I decided to stay in Naha for my whole 3 weeks due to budgeting and also just not want to move around too much. A future note to never underestimate the importance of research, which kinda got lost in the sauce when I was in China because I wanted to be really present. Naha is a hustling bustling city with literally no trees for shade, and concrete everywhere.
It was definitely not the Okinawa experience I was hoping for, but I tried to stay open minded and used it as an excuse to explore more of the mainland. Because I was in Okinawa, I was really interested to learn more about the Indigenous culture there, which in my opinion is very distinct and separate in many ways from Japan, despite being adopted into Japan's empire. But I quickly realized things being advertised as 'Okinawan' were largely from U.S. military occupation of the island during WWII. Things like, spam onigiri, Orion beer, okinawan donuts. I found it was hard, at least where I was, to find remnants of the Indigenous culture, much of which from what I was learning was destroyed. But I was able to try a traditional Ryukyu, which was the kingdom that ruled Okinawa before Japan, bukubuku tea and peanut snacks. Also got to try Goya at a couple different women owned and ran restaurants which I thought was really cool. When I was drinking the tea, it came with a card that explained how the practice was virtually extinct because all the teaware was destroyed during WWII. On top of all this, when I visited Motobu, a town more north of Naha, I noticed how much Hawaii tourism culture/American culture is really replicated to create an 'island vibe', despite this island literally having its own Indigenous culture,,, very odd to me. Like the emphasis on American foods being offered or the theme of restaurants, seeing 'Aloha" signs everywhere I was like ?????? There truly is no escaping empire.
Despite this I feel very grateful for the ways things turned out because it felt in a way like a continuation of the histories I was learning while in China. And I got to see a completely different side of Japan than the first time I came, which was aesthetically, geographically, and culturally different. I also enjoyed seeing so many different phases of the hostel I was living at, since Naha is mostly just a leaping point for most people to pass through briefly. During this time I realized I am considered "old" in the solo-travel world, the amount of times I heard someone say they were 18 or 19 and I just-----lost for words. It felt funny to be literally the oldest person in the room most of the time, because especially as someone who's been the youngest sibling all my life, I always assume I'm the youngest. Then there was the week when there was no snorers, the week of snorers and people who woke everyone up trying to wake up the snorers, the couple nights I saw someone laying butt-ass naked in their bed (it was an 8-person dorm), the few days where everyone was waking up to start their day at the same time. It was kind of entertaining to me to see how the energy in the room would constantly shift as people shuffled in and out.
And since I was in the area it was also only right to have a Tokyo redemption moment that also included a quick trip to Mt. Fuji, since when I came here last year I was only able to explore the city for 24 hours. And I finally got to share traveling with someone very dear to me, which felt nourishing in so many ways. There is nothing like being able to share a meal with someone in Asia. All the dishes are truly designed for sharing whether their family style servings or ordering a ton of little dishes to try as many things as possible.
The city where an auntie made me cry
Mamma Mia. I know earlier I coined this era as my vacation era, but I think this era could also be my redemption era because on top of being able to revisit Tokyo for a proper amount of time, I returned to Seoul, a city I had also only previously visited for 24hrs during a layover last year.
For the past few months I have been collecting centuries long beefs between the East Asian countries. The TLDR is that none of them like each other. LOL. Very different from my experience as Asam because I think there is something about all being lumped together and being considered "the same" in the U.S. and also the way that spaces are still very intentionally segregated by race that kind of forces Asians across various diasporas and migrations to feel more solidarity between each other. Although, I will say there are still many cases of these century long beefs still manifesting in the U.S., but there is definitely a uniqueness to the type of bonding that happens here for sure. Anyways, this has often meant some awkward situations of varying intensity because when I travel East Asia, I often get mistaken for being a mainlander, which also implicates different expectations on me. Even when I'm in a place like Korea, where people for the most part can tell I'm not Korean, but also don't just see me as a regular joe-shmoe foreigner, but an ~Asian foreigner~.
So long story short I ended up having to send my partner and their friend my location to come get me when a lady grabbed me and wouldn't let me leave because of this whole situation that happened beforehand. If you want the full story just text me lol. Once she finally left , I did indeed start uncontrollably balling my eyes out. It wasn't a sad type of crying, it was an angry crying because it really is just a completely different set of expectations being projected onto me than what I'm used to and its incredibly frustrating to have to deal with because people really do just believe what they wanna believe, which is often not me. It reminds me of when a friend I had made in Changsha expressed concern for me travelling because she said people are more likely to be friendly and helpful to someone who is more outwardly seen as a foreigner, as opposed to someone like me who blends in a lot more. It just gets a bit draining. I also think the cherry on top of months of building tension around this, was spending time with my partner and his friend who, to no fault of their own, are both visible foreigners in EA so people are willing to speak English with them immediately, help out, and be gentler. Anyways, a friend informed me that getting yelled at by an old Asian woman is indeed a canon event, so I guess it is simply inevitable.
Other than that, for some reason before even arriving, I felt like it was going to feel right being in Seoul, and it did indeed! I realized very quickly that my knowledge of Korean food was not by any means extensive, mostly because there aren't many vegan Korean alternatives in NYC, but I do claim to love Korean food so I was excited to be exposed to more. I also realized after visiting a national park an hour outside the city that Seoul is literally just built in the mountains, which explains all the hills, I just never put it together because the buildings are too tall to see the surrounding natural landscape. All in all, the energy was just there for some reason. I got to try so many jjigaes (stews), stock up on skincare that will be hard/impossible to find in New Zealand, enjoy so many parks, have a night out for the first time in MONTHS, eat incredible mung bean pancakes after over a year of literally finding not a single place in NYC that sells them, see cool art and enjoy crisp cool evenings and weather below 90 degrees for the first time since I left. I am a winter baby, so something really healing happens when a cool breeze absorbs through me. I think enjoying being outside, having ample public space to just exist in, and eating lots of foods loaded with chili was something I had really been missing in the midst of hot Asia summer.
Island (reprise)`
What can I say, I love an island. It seemed only right, especially after finishing Crying in Hmart at the beginning of my travels to leave Seoul for Jeju island. I spent a week in Jeju island, traveling the whole island because I watched a TikTok where a person said their biggest regret was not traveling the whole island and I immediately rebooked all my hostels to be able to do so. And I did not regret it one bit! I was surprised and not surprised how urbanized and cleared certain parts of the island were, but also the areas where the natural landscape was able to take over were 10/10. Lots of volcanic rock formations, coast lines, subtropical forests, tangerines eaten, patches of wild flowers between farmland and large bright yellow spiders hanging in intricate webs were seen. There is a big cafe culture there as well which truly did not disappoint. One of the major things I've been adjusting to since leaving China has definitely been the prices. The conversion rates on top of general affordability have just simply not been the same. Since leaving China, my midday cake and fruit tea were simply not in the budget anymore. But when I realized how big cafe culture is in Jeju it was definitely one of the things I wanted to prioritize experiencing, especially since it is Korea's center for Matcha production. It was honestly just a really nice week. Although I usually prefer taking more time in places, I did for the first time understand the appeal of just traveling with a backpack on your back and bopping from place to place, but only for really short term trips like this one. By the end of the week I was ready for a bed rotting day to the max. I also finished reading There, There by Tommy Orange, if anyone else has thoughts I would love to hear them, because that book was a lot to unpack.
Part II coming soon, hoping to reflect and write before the "I'm not in Asia anymore" depression kicks in. Wish me luck.
p.s. going to post a visual diary to accompany this post because I have so many pictures, and very little motivation to post on Instagram like that. It will probably be very tumblr circa 2013 coded.
