Time to Read:
I am on the Shinkansen bullet train on my way to my last destination on this round-the-world adventure. Did I save the best for last? That remains to be seen, but I certainly saved one of the biggest and most iconic cities in the world for last. Tokyo, here I come!
My plane ride home (paid for entirely by points, I might add – a fact which brings me unspeakable joy) is visible on the fast approaching horizon. It is not today. It is not tomorrow, but it is close enough that its presence is part of the picture of the landscape in front of me.
I will leave Haneda airport at 5:45PM on July 15th. I will then arrive in Newark Airport at 6:05PM, also on July 15th. Do I get immeasurable amounts of joy saying ridiculous statements like, “my plane ride home is only 20 minutes”. Yes. Yes, I do. Do I understand that my plane ride will, in fact, be much longer than 20 minutes. Indeed, I do. Will I continue to make that stupid joke with a dumb grin on my face as if it is the most clever thing in the world? Yes. Yes, I will. It will be the longest and most nostalgic 20 minutes of my life.
And, I am more disappointed than I should probably mention that, when switching my flight from Narita Airport to Haneda, a flight that left at 5:25PM on July 9th and would have landed in NYC at 5:20PM, also on July 9th, I lost the ability to say that I would be traveling back in time 5 minutes. I loved saying that so much.
Why did I switch my flight to be 6 days later when I am already missing my husband at an “off the charts” level?
As Inigo Montoya once so eloquently said, “Let me splain.”
It has to do with how I like to do endings. You see, while the end is not here yet, it is in sight. The next four days will be my last 4 days of the linguistic portion of the trip. Being a person that is into making a big deal out of beginnings and endings, when I planned this trip, I always knew I was going to need an epilogue – some glorious way to celebrate a journey well-traveled, some way to wrap up my experience in my mind and in my heart, to mark the transition from one way of living to the next.
As it happened, when I was originally planning this trip, I happened to stumble upon an Australian company that offers swim camps around the world. My last day in my itinerary in Tokyo was scheduled to be July 3rd. And they had a swim camp scheduled to leave from Tokyo on July 2nd. What better epilogue for this trip could there be? So, I signed up. It is the most expensive thing I will do on this entire trip, by far, and probably added a handful of months or longer that I’ll need to keep working while the rest of you all are enjoying retirement, assuming you will have the luxury of retiring. But, it was just too worth it, at least, to me.
I started this trip, swimming the Mediterranean on the southern coast of France, in its bright blue, freezing cold January waters. And when I did, I was quite aware that my love for swimming and my love for languages come from very similar places. They are both about immersion. They are both about submersion. They are both about humility, diving into something so much larger than myself, but through which I can navigate with the steady rhythm of my own efforts, of one simple stroke after another. They are both about being able to put myself in a world that is not native to me for a chance to enjoy one that is deep, rich, beautiful and populated with so much to see, experience and appreciate that, without the willingness to put my head underwater and open my eyes, I would not get a chance to witness. Swimming these 6 months in the linguistic waters of 7 languages, 15 countries and countless cultures has been one of the longest and most glorious swims of my life. What better way to celebrate it than swimming along the coast of my final stop. I’m sure I will spend many hours with my head in the water watching the memories of the last six months float by and find their place into the deep recesses of, not only my memory, but the fabric of who I am.
One cannot travel so far and so long, especially when the travel includes jumping out of the comfort zone of a native language, without being changed in some pure and fundamental way. I wanted to come on this trip for so many reasons – not the least of which was to be able to share, connect and exchange bits of humanity and connection outside the borders of my home, my comfort zone and the world that is familiar to me. I hoped, in that process, the world inside of me would expand. It has. I hope, when it is time to come home, I can bring some of that expansive vastness that I got a chance to see, touch and experience with me.
It is not lost on me what a luxury it is to have taken this time and experienced this trip. I am dripping in so many different kinds of good fortune that have allowed me this opportunity. My hope is that, on the other side of this journey, what I have gained includes things I can somehow find a way to share. I hope there are at least a few folks out there that have gained something from traveling with me – for those who have,
Back to my flight home. So, I came into this trip, planning to close it up wth an epilogue in the sea. But, it wasn’t until I reached Japan 5 weeks ago and rode the Shinkansen the other direction than what I am riding now. that I realized that that epilogue needs a punctuation mark at the end of it. And this trip deserves an exclamation point.
When I arrived in Japan, I had flown into Tokyo and took the bullet train to my first stop in Kyoto. Now, I have just left Kyoto to head towards my final stop in Tokyo. On the way from one to the other, if you look out the window, at some point, you may see an iconic site staring back at you stretching upwards towards the sky.
That is Mount Fuji. It is one of the more famous mountains in the world and also, as I understand it, one of the most touristy protrusions of earth and volcanic rock that you will every find yourself on. It is the last mountain to make it onto the list of quiet, secluded submersions in nature (especially if you take the more popular trails). But, it is iconic nonetheless. So, I decided, if my epilogue needs an exclamation point, Mount Fuji it is!
I changed my flight and signed up for a 2 day guided hiked up the mountain. That will be the last thing I do before I get on a plane homeward and bring this amazing experience to a close.
On that note, if you are reading this and we know each other well enough that you have my email address or phone number, and you want to get a postcard from me from the top of Mt. Fuji, make sure I have your mailing address!
Up until this moment, riding the Shinkansen to Tokyo, looking ahead at only four more days of language study before my swimming adventure begins , the process of nostalgia and reflection is already starting to settle in. My swim programs starts on Thursday night, July 2nd, exactly 6 months after I got on a plane in Rochester, NY to get this party started.
So, this adventure is not over yet. Not at all. There are tremendous adventures in front of me. Miles, or, really, kilometers to swim, to climb and to fly, but the beginning of the end has definitely begun, and here, on the train back from whence I started my Japan journey, I am feeling it.
I’ve traveled almost all the way around the world, all the way 13 hours into my own future. I am not ready to go home yet. But I am ready to start getting ready, and I know, with my epilogue and exclamation point in tow, I will be ready when the time comes. I may be in the land of the rising sun, but I can see the setting sun approaching on the horizon in front of me and it is every bit as beautiful as the day that it lit.
Whoever you are, and however much of this journey you have shared with me, thank you for traveling with me along the way.
Tokyo, here I come!
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