Alumni Blog: Why I Fell in Love With Tokyo, Japan

 

Last weekend I visited Tokyo, Japan and I immediately fell in love with the city, it’s people, and their culture. There is no other place in the world I rather visit. For those five days, it was like I was living a dream. It’s a place that inspired my childhood, and so many others my age. I didn’t grow up to Superman, and Batman like my father's generation. Saturday mornings I would wake up and watch the latest Pokemon episode. 4 o’clock I would come back from elementary school and watch Dragonball Z, and then play Playstation. Just walking around the city for those three days seeing neighborhoods where my favorite cartoon characters got their names from like Ryōgoku, Naruto, and Sakura. It bought back those earlier days when the world was still new to me. Days that are so long along, it’s hard to remember.

 

I felt comfortable going across the city. For most of the days, I traveled alone. Each day I would wake up and have a rough idea of what I wanted to do. I didn't want to plan too much, because I wanted to go "wherever the wind took me". As a result, I got lost a few times. But it ended up being a good thing. I saw parts of Tokyo that you wouldn’t find in a tourist brochure. I walked through residential neighborhoods and saw everyday people doing everyday things. Eventually, when I got back on track, I saw things like statue of liberty, world famous neighborhoods, the Tokyo skyline, and so much more.

 

By the end of the day, I would rest in the hostel common area, and talk to people from all across the world. And they might not realized it, but their stories inspired me. I met a brother and sister pair, 18 and 19 years old traveling the world fresh out of high school. One guy said he worked for about 4 months, saved a couple thousand dollars, and backpacked across Europe. Another guy is traveling across all of Japan, and he makes coffee for a living. These people were living life by their terms, not society’s. They weren’t rich or well off. Anybody can travel the world. The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves. I went to Tokyo for 5 days with 250 dollars in my pocket and 100 of it went to the hostel.

 

These trips I've been taking this past semester studying abroad only make me want to work even harder for this life I was so briefly introduced to. In about a month, I’ll be back in my hometown Cleveland, Ohio. But I know my days of traveling won’t end here. As a freelance web designer, photographer, and digital marketer, I’m already starting to meet people and research ways I can do business internationally. I don't believe we're meant to stay in one place when there is so much of the world to see.