Hi there! This is Satomi. Thanks for visiting my blog.
I’m a 28 year old female brought up in a small town in Japan. After working in Tokyo for 4 years, I quit my job and ever since, I have been living the dream of traveling around the world. In this blog I would like to share my experiences and thoughts on the road.
My love for travel dates back to when I was 5. In 1993, my family moved to NY for my father’s job. I spent 4 years of my childhood in Long Island. Back then, whenever we had a holiday, my father would rent a car and we traveled all across America. I would not forget the first time I saw the desert or the first time we encountered a wild moose in the forest. These memories are the treasures of my life.
After coming back to Japan at the age of 9, I became an anime nerd and didn’t travel anywhere until I was 20. In the 2nd year of university, I went to study English in Melbourne for 1 month and in Winnipeg, Canada for 1 year. I started to travel again in Canada where I often took the 18 hour Greyhound bus to visit the Rocky Mountains or to see my friends living in the west. Seeing the sunset over the Great Prairies, waking up in totally different landscapes, sitting next to a guy who just came out of prison, my journey was filled with many excitements. I was glad to be by myself because I had plenty of time to rethink about every experience and every thought that came up to me during the travel.
After finishing my studies, I found a job at an engineering company in Tokyo. When I received my first paid holiday, I went to Bangkok where I was enlightened by the beauty of Asia. Before that, I was only interested in traveling to English speaking countries that had high hygiene standards. I fell in love with the street food, the tropical fruits, the glittering temples and the lady boys. With just a little bit of money, Thailand entertained every minute of my stay. I even discovered that using water instead of toilet paper keeps the bottom clean as ever. After that, I traveled every holiday alone to somewhere exotic.
In the early summer of 2012, I met a German traveler on the streets of Luang Prabang, Laos. He was traveling around the world by himself. He said that he is planning to visit Japan later in the year, so I told him that he can stay at my home in Tokyo. And he really did. His stories were amazing and it made me dream of traveling like him.
When he left, I set my goals to start an around the world trip. I was devoted in gathering as much information as I could and to save every penny possible. In less than 2 years, I achieved my goal. My salary wasn’t so high, so it was quite tough. I remember eating the same food for 5 days, living without heating for the whole freezing winter and giving up most of my luxuries. Sometimes I felt miserable. It was something I could only do because I had a goal. When I told my family that I was leaving, they didn’t stop me. They were surprised by the amount of money that I saved from my small salary and they knew that I would go even if they stopped.
Quitting my job was a weird feeling. I suddenly didn’t belong to anywhere and felt like my presence is disappearing from the whole society. After a week passed I got used to it and my last days in Japan flew fast staying with my grandma and visiting Kyoto with my friend.
It has been almost 6 months since I departed on August 11, 2014. When I look back at my journey, I realized that I had already forgotten about so many things. I also wanted to let my friends know what I was up to without bombarding their Facebook timelines. This is the reason why I finally started a blog.
I would like to thank my German friend Nils who set this blog and domain up for me. Who would have thought that our friendship will continue until now when I first encountered you in Laos? I am extremely thankful to you.
Also a big thanks to my French friend Romain for helping me out in the world of WordPress. Without you it would have took me another few months to publish my first post. Merci.
As I believe that “the journey is the destination”, I will continue to enjoy each day of my journey to the fullest. I hope that by reading my blog, you will become interested in countries you never thought about going before.
