Wednesday, February 6th 2008

There’s a faint drizzle of snow in the air, but no snow on the ground. Downtown it was raining. the dormitories are empty, except for the scarce few that will be leaving soon – me among them. Many are travelling, more are moving out before the new batch of students arrives in March, and some are leaving for good. I have said goodbye to friends I might never see again, I’ve said goodbye to friends I’m going to miss sorely for two months before I’ll see them again, and I’ve introduced, and been introduced to, people only days before they left this place. I helped a friend moving her things to her new place downtown. “I can’t believe I’m moving downtown!” she said. “I can’t wait to get off this mountain!” said another. “I can’t wait to get home!” said someone else.

The wind is picking up again, hurling the frail snow crystals around in the air. I can’t wait to get off this mountain. I’m stuck here on campus another semester, but during the vacation I’m taking the opportunity to get off this mountain. I’m backpacking, through Japan, alone. I’m not too worried. I’m a quiet, but sociable girl with touristy interests, and my expected behaviour is not likely to attract trouble. The scariest part is walking out the door.

The plan is to travel in my own pace, and go where I feel like, when it suits my pace and my mood. I haven’t planned a thing. Not quite true, but close enough. This is an exercise in traversing the unknown, me allowing myself to be spontaneous, figuring out how to get around and how to find what I need and improvising when necessary. Improvising isn’t a new thing for me, but I’ve usually had a framework around it all. Now I don’t have that framework. My journey has a beginning and an end, but I have to fill in the blanks in between. That’s about a months worth of blanks.

I’m starting from Beppu early morning the day after tomorrow, taking the train to Oita to get my bus to Kumamoto. I plan to stay there a day or two, and then move on to Fukuoka, probably by bus again. From Fukuoka I want to go to Yamaguchi, making my way north-east from Kyushu to Honshu. After Yamaguchi I’m going by random until I have to be in Tokyo in the middle of March, meeting up with my family before travelling around Japan with them. They already have a set plan, so to avoid seeing the same places twice I’m seeing them with my family.

Doing all this, on my own and as much as possible in Japanese, will be fun, tiring, embarrassing and scary, perhaps alternating, perhaps all at once. But I’m looking forward to it. Japan has changed me a little already, but maybe this will change me even more. I don’t think I’ll be much different when I come back, but perhaps there will be more “me” in the person you thought you knew. Or maybe I’m deceiving myself and you’re the ones that knew me all along while I was wandering in the unknown.

It’s time to get out in the wind again, and through the whirling snowflakes and pick up the first ticket. The journey starts today, here and now. Perhaps I should start packing…

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We're celebrating Chinese New Year tonight. I hope this will be a merrier goodbye than most.