 On Wednesday we had a team hui. I caught up quickly with the coolest colleague W. who is going to Japan for the first time during the holiday season - the very time I would like to visit Japan for once.
I was so excited for her and at the same time super jealous. I asked her what time of the year did they purchase the tickets, because the price I look at now is around $4600 to fly from NZ. She shared that they got the tickets really early, back when the border shut on them which led them to change the tickets with AirNZ. This colleague of mine was someone who I found agreeable the first time we sat next to each other in our 1st ever big team hui. I liked her straightaway. She’s just got 2nd grade for her blackbelt as well. Next year once she passes, she’ll be able to get her name sown on the black belt. It would be a huge honour. It was very endearing when she said to me, “We don’t practise the Japanese Karate, it’s the Chinese one.” Our sensei is able to trace his lineage all the way back to Shaolin Temple. I leaned towards her and pushed her shoulder with mine with a smile. Then again, what isn’t from China We laughed and said to each other. Not everything, But almost everything that are so famously recognized as Japanese ALL actually came from China - they were all things had long been crafted wide-spread and consumed by Chinese first: Tea ceremony, Matcha, Kombucha, Umeshu, Sake, Amazake, Zen garden, Zen Buddhism, Etiquettes, Kimono aka gofuku Natto, Ramen, Udon, Dango, Daifuku, Mochi, Pottery, Kanji, Karate... But the change of dynasties and political turmoils took away all of these beautiful heritage, and took people away from maintaining these timeless traditions. China kept changing in drastic ways. But it is Japan that preserves all that was the best from Tang Dynasty, the most prosperous and stable dynasty in Chinese history. So remember that whenever I so passionately rave about everything in Japan, I’m also in fact raving about ancient China. The China I know has been gradually revived with peace & prosperity that we have been endowed with in the last few decades. The Beautiful and Profound China I am so damn proud of. I cannot wait for China’s border to open, to show the world the mindblowing amazingness of my motherland .  I’ve been keenly following a Sony-ambassador photographer
@JeromeTraveller and his whirlwind journey around the globe based on the FIFA world cup. I wouldn’t care about the world cup or who wins who got kicked out usually but seeing his intense Chase of the highs in places where their country’s team is playing has been a fascinating thing to watch. I’m not into always doing the same thing all the time. Over and over. I always think, Don’t you wanna try doing somethin’ different?? Sometimes I look at people always repeating the same thing and still get a lot of joy out of that and i look at myself and how much i love Japan/the Cook Islands and would always go back for more, I would try to not repeat the same experience, but to travel in completely different ways to see the same place in a different light. Japan is good at pushing limits anyway so you never have the same experience all the time. Especially in big cities. I’m quite interested in how Jerome has been flying into every country whose team is participating, and watch the games there in those countries and then experience the intense joy of celebration when those teams win has been so interesting. That’s a Very different way of traveling. I don’t think I’ll ever jump from country to country like that, especially not just be there for a few days. I prefer going to 1 place at a time, or 1 region at a time. But I’m super interested in such a different way to traverse the globe. He keeps an excel spreadsheet and would change the next destination based on who wins, and cancel the place whose team is out of the game. I’ve never thought of traveling like that before. Of course this is a serious football fan’s way of chasing the high, getting to feel the crowd in those locations. But it’s not something that is usual for most travelers. Of course, the best travel experience is when you travel solo and have the good fortune in meeting wonderful people and travel with new friends that you bond over the journey by staying at hostels and backpackers. But even that can feel repetitive as an experience. I for one never traveled with my own friends. It’s just never gonna work out. People don’t even catch up with me much while living in the same city, let alone coming on a trip with me. I have zero expectations from my friends. I’ve traveled with my mom. That’s usually a very awkward experience. Not my preferred travel companion, even though I love going on trips with my mom. I love traveling with my Sagittarius buddy, who’s just so chill and wouldn’t care where i wanna go, it’s all good whatever I wanna do, and would play along with whatever fun games I come up with on the spot. I love traveling with Binah, she’s an amazingly chill travel buddy, and a super adaptive little girl. But NZ is extremely limited in terms of dog-friendly accommodation options, unlike Selina and unlike Europe. Motels are usually dog-friendly, but I hate motels and wouldn’t choose them over a beautiful place I can find and is an Entire House for ourselves. I loved how I had a bit of a theme going on on this last trip. I just focused on castles and zen gardens. And that allowed me to learn more deeply and experience more deeply. I definitely enjoy visiting many countries in one go, and then go home and look back at them all. The differences between them. What makes each stand out. What makes the best one the best country out of them all. I would be willing to try out other ways of traveling. I’m open to give any different ways of doing things a go. For me, it’s all about inner expansion, and deep learning. Traveling for me, is certainly not about the number of countries one can go, (because “countries” is just a construct afterall) but about how much all those places and people have changed you for the better, and how much you can give back to the world and any people you encounter. Traveling is certainly not about looking at the world from a first world perspective and make commentary or judgements about how others live/do things. But a constant journey of learning and reflection on the world we have, by being conscious of the consequences from the social and political structures people have built. Gong to many countries is not the point, knowing what to learn from those many different places is. The “different” countries part of the phrase is kind of the key to it all. To know the difference, and to know why you must do things differently. For me, it is only when you try a different way to doing something can you truly learn something new either something new about the place about people or, and very importantly, something new about yourself. |
