I was looking back at photos from my Japan trip in 2018 and I couldn’t help but smile and laugh. I honestly don’t know why I was so emo that trip. I wasn’t the best person to be around then and I’m am SO grateful to my childhood friends for sticking it out with me. We had made another girls trip to Australia (namely Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania) back in 2014 and I was also really emo on that trip too!

In the past, I wasn’t great at expressing myself. For instance, I didn’t really have the courage to voice out my opinions or speak my mind and would usually go with the flow. But that meant that I would take offence easily and get more frustrated because I didn’t know how to say how I felt in the moment. I really thank the Lord for delivering me from this weakness in communication and these days, I’m a lot better at standing up for myself and being open and honest about my thoughts and emotions. But coming back to Japan, I had been living in Sydney for a while whereas three of my childhood friends remained in Singapore. Perhaps I felt disconnected and distant to them and so when we were together in Japan, the reality and differences of our ‘growing up’ into adulthood was beginning to get to me. I’m not sure why that I was so blinded during that point in time that I couldn’t enjoy the moment and relish that we’ve grown and that we are becoming independent and individual women. Perhaps nostalgia and the ‘good old days’ got a hold of me and I couldn’t quite accept the reality of growing up. But this trip was definitely a lesson to learn. Part and parcel of life is that we grow and our desires, habits and lifestyles change. You might find that the friends whom you used to love hanging out with no longer vibe with who you are becoming and that’s when the reality of drifting apart can be painful. Thankfully, I learnt on this trip that my girls are truly keepers. They are very chill in personality and they continue to be a safe space for me to be myself, to learn and grow at my own pace, with no judgment or pressure and I really appreciate that. 💕

I definitely want to go back to Japan again to explore more of its rural areas and be more insightful and helpful when it comes to sharing these sorts of information and itineraries! So forgive this different take on a travel post.

From memory, we visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and (if I remember correctly) the Kawaguchi area (lake surrounding Mt Fuji). Again, I’m sorry that I won’t be able to share an itinerary on this post. Here’s why..

To be honest, I admit that I’m not the best at planning itineraries (I find it a chore) and I was definitely not the most enthusiastic about it in the past (previous version of Sarah). BUT I have changed and I realised that I should not be a deadweight to my travel buddies (I’m sorry Nat for being the worst friend ever in that regard). Moving forward, I will put much more effort into these kinds of things. Although, I really hope that I will eventually marry someone who loves to plan cause then that makes one of us. 🤪 And… I can remain as the photographer/videographer-memorabilia person in the relationship. AHAH.

My favourite cities were Kyoto and the Kawaguchi area. As you guys might know by now, I love beautiful landscapes and I was so drawn to the tranquility of it all. It was really nice eating authentic matcha ice cream (one of my favourite flavours!) as we walked through the town in Kyoto. I loved looking at the traditional architectures of the houses in the area! As for the Kawaguchi area, it was breathtaking looking at Mt Fuji from across the lake. I actually flew my drone over the waters at sunrise. It was quite the sight! But I don’t think I ended up editing the footage. 😅 We splurged on a nice ryokan-style hotel that overlooked the lake and the sunrise and sunset was glorious the two days that we were staying there. Dinner was also really bougie because we would have a private dining room to ourselves and the meals were just impeccable with its presentation and spread (as with Japanese culture). I don’t think I took proper photos of the food because back then, I was really into videography (not so much photography), so I don’t have any to show for (sorry!).

Other memorable moments include eating really delicious crepes from a pink food truck parked across a mall in the Harajuku area (it was our mini birthday celebration for my friend, Grace) and interacting and feeding the really cute deer at Nara Park!

I will end off this post with some of the photos I took during the trip. You can tell from my edits that the photos were pretty moody. I will say though that it rained a fair bit during our trip so the gloom was inevitable. This was also the trip that I tried getting into film photography but I only used a roll of film (which I still have with me and have not developed to this date). Clearly I was never really into it unlike the rest of my siblings. Digital girl I shall remain!

You can also check out the cinematic short film I made below (cue in my emo monologue).