Not sure who Pablo is? Peruse a few posts back.
And seriously, how fun of a word is "peruse?" It's functional yet bourgeois, fun yet inpersonal.
Ok enough of that.
Today. Wow. Today I met Pablo's wife, his two kids and his wife's friend. I'm going to leave their names out just to protect anonymity. They have nothing to hide. I just don't trust this internet thing sometimes.
The funny thing about not having a plan and places to be is that I can do things like I did yesterday:
Leave Kyoto
Take the bullet train west to Hiroshima
Take the bullet train back east to Okayama
Book a hostel on the train
Play guitar in a restaurant and have the time of my life
Go to bed
....and then wake up today and met Pablo's family for a walking tour of Kurashiki. What a hilarious and eventful day it was. His kids are the most energetic kids I've been around in a long time AND multilingual: they speak Spanish and are learning Japanese and English. Me? Oh. I know English.
His wife is uber-impressive. She grew up in Japan, moved to Ireland to learn English and then learned Spanish AFTER moving to Spain with Pablo. So today she spoke all three languages in the group as her friend's English wasn't great. She exudes peace and tranquillity. Never too high. Never too low. And if you knew Pablo you would know that they balance each other quite well. (Both have told me that).
Her friend was super as well. Very friendly and personable and for someone that says her English isn't great, she spoke it pretty well.
We toured around Kurashiki stopping in shops, a museum, had green tea at a cafe, had lunch and stopped in an old, traditional Japanese house which was really neat to see.
All of that was cool for me. But you know me, oh fictional reader.....you know I like conversation. And it was fascinating hearing more about his wife's life growing up and what life is like now. Oh and by the way, she needs the mother of the year award as her two boys were running full throttle all day long and she just calmly kept her cool. She raised her voice one time when one was in slight danger of a car. Otherwise she let them be boys which I thought was awesome.
A day like today doesn't happen without the following:
Travel
Hostels
Speaking to people in hostels
Curiosity
And yep: showing up
A day like today can't be found in any online itinerary or travel book.
A day like today is just what I want from travel:
To be around people just talking and learning and sharing.
Like seriously, how lucky am I? I hung out with people who, just 9 hours earlier, were complete strangers. And now, at the end of the visit to hear her say, "Anytime....you are welcome with us in Spain.".....wow.
My first thoughts when I hear that are:
"What? Are you kidding me?"
I now know that those thoughts are born out of that old, distorted belief system:
That u don't belong
That people don't want to be around me
That I can't be me
That I need to perform for love
That I don't deserve good things
But here's the really:
I do belong. I do deserve good things. I do deserve to be happy. And I can love others. I can share with others. I can do life with others and enjoy the ride.
....just like I did today.
Thank you guys for another amazing and incredible day in Japan.
This is the best ever.
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