Furusato or why I always wanted to go to Japan

Five centimeters per second - that's the speed of the cherry blossoms until they fall to the ground and at the same time also the name of one of the most beautiful and romantic anime from Japan. When you ask people if they ever want to travel to Japan, there are usually only two extremes: either they have little or no interest in the country, or they DEFINITELY WANT to go to the land of the rising sun from an early age!

I've always been one of those people who would most like to live in Japan. Maybe because I only knew from Japan how long cherry blossoms take to reach the earth and maybe because there are untranslatable words in Japanese that describe entire emotions, states and situations. Maybe because people in Tokyo are queuing up at a small takeaway, knowing that the chef will be retiring soon, and that's how they say thank you.

It was the television's fault

If I had to write down all the reasons why I really wanted to go to Japan, I could list them to the moon and I'm sure I would always come up with something new. I first came into contact with Japan shortly after my family and I emigrated to Germany. It was the television's fault. The anime “Ein Supertrio” was running there at the time, as well as a few other cartoons that I didn't even know were produced in Japan at the time. Even as a child, I was impressed by the idea of ​​three beautiful powerful women in high heels fighting for justice.

Later I watched many more animes and wanted nothing more than to live in these fantastic worlds myself. The message that women can be breathtakingly beautiful as well as incredibly strong, intelligent, funny and emancipated definitely resonated with me. As a child, I was certain: I want to be like that one day! So my interest in Japan only grew.

From anime and manga to Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto

I quickly realized that I was personally attracted to the extraordinary. The magical, inexplicable and mystical, which I felt so much as a small child and yet could not classify. In any case, the small German villages in which I lived over the years could not satisfy my hunger for the strange and extraordinary. Although I tried, I never really felt like I belonged. I was too drawn to the unusual. And it was like the unusual was chasing me. As if the books, movies and manga chose me and not the other way around.

Each story seemed to reach me at the right time, in the right place. Increasingly, I wondered what it was about this country that produces such creative and fantastic works. What started out as anime and manga gradually grew in size. As a teenager, I became increasingly interested in Japanese literature and started reading Haruki Murakami's and Banana Yoshimoto's novels. Losing yourself in her books felt as warm as coming home. A piece of home abroad. Furusato. So contradictory that it made sense again.

Known strangers

A foreign country seemed so much closer and more familiar to me than the country we had emigrated to, despite thousands of kilometers away. And by then it was clear to me: I definitely want to go to Japan! In this country where artists live who are so incredibly talented. I wanted to know what inspires her in this country for her works, where does this deeply poetic melancholy come from, which I have felt so often myself, and to get to know this completely different perspective on everyday life, to feel it on site: I wanted the subway there driving, tasting the delicious food, getting lost in Tokyo, smelling the smell of rain, walking by the sea, seeing the sky and wondering if the cherry blossoms were really as unreal as they were portrayed to be. But the years passed and as so often in life, I said to myself: "Sometime..." There would be a new year next year. Maybe there was a reason for the time.

Cherry blossoms in Japan: A childhood dream came true

I've traveled a lot over the years and found that I had far more interests than I first thought. I visited countries that surprised and changed me. I've seen dolphins and whales in the wild, danced to rock music in Vietnam and driven through landscapes where I saw more reindeer than people. The longing for Japan was still there, but not as strong. But the child in me was once again louder. It still wanted to go to the land of its dreams. So I decided without further ado that I would definitely travel to Japan in 2018. And not just at any arbitrary time, but at the best time to visit the cherry blossoms. However, I only made this firm decision after a few glasses of sparkling wine and lots of confetti on New Year's Eve. A bang too much, sparkling laughter and my childhood dream simply convinced me.

There were only a few hurdles: I hardly had time to plan and organize extensively. In addition, I had actually only started with the actual planning in February. How I ended up in Japan and felt like I experienced all seasons there, even though I did a lot of things differently than recommended, you will find out in my next blog post Last minute to Japan: is that possible? Until then, I hope you enjoy my gallery of untranslatable words from Japan. What's your favorite word?