Places That Changed Us: Kumado Kodo, Japan

It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it was one of the best trips of my life that changed me in ways I could only recognize years after.

Looking at it quantitatively, it was a good tour of Japanese cities and nature: Tokyo, Nikko and its hot springs, the Japanese Alps, Kyoto, the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route, Hiroshima, and Osaka. Used to backpacking in Argentina, I counted on being able to improvise my trip. Though people didn’t speak my language and I didn’t speak theirs, their response to my approach was obvious when they looked at me funny as I bought bus tickets just ahead of travel, or showed up at the Kumano Kodo tourism office saying I wanted help to find an accommodation for the night.

“You are doing Kumano Kodo and you didn’t book your stays in advance?” the nice woman at the office asked, unsuccessfully trying to calm her voice. She spent the following 20 minutes booking me rooms in traditional houses. I owe her some of the most beautiful nights I’ve ever had. I also felt incredibly safe and looked after by strangers. I was lost most of the time, staring at Google Maps trying to find where I had to go. When I asked people for directions pointing at the map, they walked with me until I found the train, bus, or street I was seeking.

I quickly fell in love with everything Japan has to offer, from the street food perfectly wrapped in gorgeously designed papers and the amazingly detailed crafts, to the thousands of temples shining with fall colors and syncretism, to unique museums like the Tobacco and Salt Museum. I also felt incredibly alone for the first time. I was seeing, feeling, and experiencing so much, but I had nobody there with me to comment on it. I spoke with some people I met along the way, but most of the time I was in silence, alone with my own thoughts. Japan changed me, I see it now, in teaching me how to be with myself and enjoy it.