in this week’s newsletter: latest journaling flip through, thoughts on completing one full travel journal, and other reflections along the way
dear penpals -
it’s been a while since i’ve sat down and filmed a longer travel journal flip thorough and that’s simply because it’s taken me until now to finish journaling all the spreads i’ve missed since halloween (yes, it’s been a long time coming). but a few days ago, i committed to intentionally setting aside time to actually record memories instead of passively carrying around this brick of a journal in “hopes” i would journal.
and i’m glad i did.
as a personal rule, i never re-open a finished journal and will only re-read it once at the end of the year (or in this case, whenever my journey in japan comes to an end). no real reason, but i always think there’s something beautiful about seeing your growth and progress when you forget where the starting line was - it paints a bigger and more full picture of just how far you’ve come since day one.
so i flipped through this journal for the last time for the next little while and can’t wait to see how it feels to open it again after more memories and more adventures are made.
so here is the second half of my travel journal (see the first half here!) that brings us to my journey up until december - 109 days since i packed my bags and said goodbye to canada. that’s a lot of memories within these pages, and i’m always in deep gratitude for every one of them.
click on the image or the link to the video here.
lately, as i work through my second book of my travel journal, there’s been this feeling of distance from wanting to fill it. i find myself reaching for my daily sketch and gratitude journal and having more joy in filling it out over my travel journal, and this divide has been nagging at me for a while now and i couldn’t figure out why.
it wasn’t until i was brain dumping my thoughts when i realized that the word “travel” in travel journal doesn’t feel right anymore. being here in kamikatsu, recording the things and adventures i do here no longer feels like traveling - but living.
before, i would record every time i walked the dogs in the forest trail near tiny home. i would record every time we went into the city to eat 回転寿司 [ka·i·te·n·su·shi] (meaning: a conveyor belt sushi restaurant) for dinner. i would record every time i studied in the cafe. i would record everything as if it would be the first and only time that it would ever happen again… but it isn’t.
i’ve walked the forest trails many times and find the trees calling me to seek comfort in their shadows, i’ve eaten far too much sushi at the classic kaiten sushi places, and i’ve studied at cafe polestar so many times even friends back in canada know the layout of the place.
i’m learning what it feels like to shift from occupying space to claiming it. from being a stranger to being in community. from passing by a village to living in it.
so maybe these “travel journals” will look different from this point onward, or maybe they’ll stay the same (i am a sucker for consistency), who knows. but what i do know is that at the time of writing, i’ve officially passed 164 days of traveling and living here, and it’s a milestone i’m willing to celebrate - in all it’s ebbs and flows and changes.
109 days and counting...
Nicely written post Mina but I wasn't able to access the video this time. Am I missing something?
Thank you for sharing your flipthrough! That is so cool you got to visit Traveler’s Company?? I want to keep my memory keeping journal simple like yours. Having things to journal about helps me to explore new places and things...otherwise I’d bundle up and home and hermit from humans. LOL. 🙈