I’ve always had an affinity with the road. The endless stretch of tarmac beckoning me to follow — on wheels. An odyssey. A new adventure. Countless lives, passing me by — played out in droves. So many different people. But, above all, I’m free. My woes and troubles, left behind, further and further, until they’re…
Tag: Travel
Two Months in Kofu
I honestly don’t know where time went — one minute I was bidding my family goodbye as I walked past the departure gates, and the next thing I knew, a little over two months had passed since I started my new life in Japan. I’m not sure if anyone expected a regular stream of new…
Finding Your Feet in Kofu (Unitas Student)
I have to admit, I was heavily aided in my preparation to live in Japan (shoutout to my school’s coordinators, James-san and Hide-san for letting me harass them to no end about the various nitty gritties that I was quite unnecessarily bothered by on hindsight). Yet, there are some aspects to living in Japan, or…
Kofu, Week 1 — New Beginnings
Before I left Singapore for Japan, I told anyone who had to put up with my annoyingly incessant conversations about the latter that I was looking forward to the many challenges that would invariably fall my way as I navigate foreign lands on my own. Hoo boy, did I get one the moment I stepped…
Nomadic Affair — Chapter II
I was debating for a bit, if I should be publishing this, mostly because I didn’t want to overly dramatise moving abroad, and partly because I didn’t want to jinx what could possibly by the biggest life decision I’ve made in my entire life, all 30 years of it. As I write this, less than…
No More Trains Left
I found myself at a crowded train station, packed to the brim with folks from all walks of life. Some were friends I grew up with, mucking around by the playground when I was a little boy. I spotted a few of them, and I waved. They waved back. The train platforms stretched to no…
Chinatown: Tradition’s Last Frontier
I’ll admit — when I was younger, I never enjoyed going to Chinatown. Not only was it out of the way — requiring bus/train transfers — but it was run down and seemed to be in a perpetual state of chaos, like a large colony of ants scattering about after being sprayed with water. Wide,…
Commentary: Travel Writing
For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a travel writer. When I discovered my passion for writing some eight years ago, it was the very genre that prompted me to make a career out of it. Grandiose dreams of travelling the world and writing about it sprang to mind,…
Pursuing the Autumn Dusk: A Photo Essay
Highway after highway, the bus carrying several passengers, including myself, strode effortlessly along. I remember looking out of the window, watching neat rows of houses pass me by. “I wonder how life is like in those neighbourhoods,” I would muse over and over. Eventually, the houses disappeared, and we crossed over a deep gorge —…
Directionless in Tokyo
On 28 October, 2018, together with my parents, I embarked on what was my first ever trip to Japan. Although it was meant to be a family vacation, it was also an opportunity for me to ascertain for myself if Japan really is how I had made it out to be. You see, for the…
Nomadic Affair 