The great deferral, or: I am spoiled

I’ve been to Japan three times.

In 2015, I went with four friends, one of whom speaks fluent Japanese, and figured out how to do the thing. It was my first time anywhere in Asia – or anywhere east of Italy, for that matter. I fell in love, like people do, and the reasons don’t matter but the love does.

In 2018, I went by myself, for two weeks, because I got enough miles on my business card to afford a free flight. I ate alone, hung out alone, wandered shrines and temples alone, and never really talked to another living soul. I think I spoke maybe 10 sentences the entire time.

In 2020, I went with my partner emerita, on a trip that was supposed to be fairly routine for us, but ended up being different, because a global pandemic spread while we were there. A few days in, museums started closing, but restaurants & shrines stayed open. In one of the more iconic pics of me that has ever been taken, I am at the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan and one of the most visited religious sites on the planet. It was taken on March 05, 2020.