Sign in Subscribe

Lessons from Month One

Lessons from Month One

May 3rd marks the first month for me since arriving in Japan. Here are a few things I've learned so far:

  1. More time in fewer places is better than little time in many places. I visited 7 cities and stayed in 11 hotels/hostels in the first 30 days of my Watson. While visiting those cities was my own choice, a few of the accommodation changes was due to factors out of my control. Moving around so much has been exhausting. It takes time to get adjusted to a new neighborhood/city. I’ve often felt that just as I started getting familiar with my surroundings, I had to pack up my bags and leave. 
  2. Don’t skimp on accommodation and always get a private room. I’ve spent 2/3 of the nights in hostels so far. I've slept in a room with mold on the ceiling and felt headachy and dizzy while there. I've had a roommate who set her alarm for 4:30am and snoozed 5 times. I've also shared a room with a friend group of three who were packing with lots of plastic and paper bags at 11:30 pm, followed by chitchatting and laughing at 6:30am the next day. Yes, it's typical hostel stuff, but I'm done with it. It’s too much unpredictability and potential for chaos and poor sleep.
  3. Every single day, I’m the only one deciding what to prioritize and let go. And that isn't easy. People want to be helpful, so upon learning about my travels, they like to give lots of recommendations, regardless of whether they understand my Watson or not. There are also always travelers around me who are doing and/or suggesting many activities. I have to stay focused and know what is relevant for me. So how do I decide what to prioritize? By following my own curiosity and tuning in to my energy levels. I was relieved when Sneha from the Watson Foundation told me that there's no wrong decision in my Watson journey. It's about gathering as much information as I can about what interests me without having to reach a conclusive thesis at the end of it. The Watson is more likely the beginning of a journey than a conclusion.
  4. Loving and supporting myself are integral parts of my project. Parallel to the Watson, I finally started therapy with an amazing trauma specialist. For more than a decade, I've been over-functioning with a dysregulated nervous system and various psychosomatic symptoms. I know I couldn't continue like that while on the Watson. I'm the CEO, admin, researcher, photographer, etc. of my project, and I need to be well. This means I'm committed to the following while on the Watson: psychoeducation, nervous system regulation, stress reduction, and happiness production.
  5. I cannot possibly explain everything that happens in my journey to everyone. This may seem obvious, but my mind has a way of convincing me that this is what I must do to justify my project and the value of my existence. But it's difficult to keep blogging about my experiences while I'm on the road (especially the first month has been filled with unexpected challenges and navigating logistics). Writing for me takes time, and whatever I manage to share by writing seem to hardly do justice to the complexity of the experiences. But I still enjoy it when I do devote time to it, so moving forward, I'll keep this blog for long and perhaps deeper reflections while experimenting with Instagram for shorter, more spontaneous postings of photos.

Alright, enough blablabla. Some pictures from the last few weeks:

At a hidden gem in Fukuoka called funadeya 船出屋
The meal at funadeya that made me tear up because of how soulfully good it was. Wholesome food, homey vibes.
Might be the only toilet picture I'll ever post, but I thought it's worth showing. At funadeya.
Trying some vegan products. Only after getting home did I realize that the soy taco meat had beef extract in it. This captures what many plant-based products are like in Japan: mostly plant-based but with a tiny amount of animal-derived ingredients 🙃
A microbiotic meal: brown rice with adzuki beans; miso soup; picked radish; a stew of eggplant, tomato, and white beans, sesame tofu (that is not made of soybeans but sesame paste and starch); seaweed salad; creamy tofu salad; carrot, cabbage, and tofu skin salad; simmered frozen tofu; sautéed carrots; and tempeh.
View from a hilltop in Okinawa City
The day when I felt the least amount of vystopia since beginning my trip 💚
I want something like this at all future potlucks and dinner parties I will host :D
Vegan Ramen at an otherwise very non-vegan restaurant :P
Tokyo Skytree Tower
Oh, the joy of being at vegan events surrounded by vegans who just get it
Miso tasting and note-taking at a shojin ryori workshop. Being in "student mode" & learning about food felt SO great.
Mari Fujii, author of The Enlightened Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan, explaining the design and functioning of Ōryōki, a set of nested bowls for zen Buddhist monks
Shojin style dinner at the workshop. Shojin Ryori needs a whole single post. I have another Shojin ryori cooking class lined up soon :D
Kotoku-in, Kamakura
As the Germans say: luften luften luften!
Small town railroad aesthetics
Trying precooked, packaged food
Such a beautiful & special place in Kita-Kamakura. Have to make a post about it on Insta ;)
Savory soy milk
Lunch plate at Isso
Roasted Japanese sweet potato: the most satisfying food by itself imo
Yokohama
Frühlingsfest in Yokohama?! But they misspelled ü 🫢
They got the ü correct here though. Somehow I thought it was funny they wrote "garbage collection" in German :D
I've always been fascinated by human migration history and people's lives in diaspora, so I went here. And I think it's still related to my project, as Japanese immigrants greatly contributed to fruit and vegetable farming in South and North America.
Yokohama Chinatown
LOTS of people at Yokohama Chinatown
Vystopia is so real. And so painful.
I've seen a lot of cute things too, so let me end with a cute one 😊