Japan

Being born in Japan is interesting to most people as I live in the United States and most people were born here. At the age of 5 my mom moved my family to New Jersey, my extended family still lives in Japan as well as my dad. The opportunity to go back home and experience the culture and country is the one thing I wouldn’t give up for the world. This past year I was grateful enough to spend a month in Japan (the most time I’ve spent there since leaving) to see my country as I wasn’t able to before. My siblings (Nina, Hana, and Daichi) had joined me on this adventure where we were off to the Japanese Alps. Arriving early in the morning around 5am and checking into our hostel around 7am we were off to the Kamikochi trails. Luckily waiting outside was a taxi, hesitant to bring us to the trails as a big typhoon was about to hit and the trails were difficult and so high up we wouldn’t be safe. The taxi driver even called one of his friends to see if we should even attempt the hike, but as the friend said we were allowed to do whatever we wanted we were off. Still hesitant he drops us off at the entrance, before taken off he gives us his cab number so he would be able to pick us up after we were done. We walk towards the entrance of the trail and see the incline was steep. After 20 minutes into the hike it started to down pour like nothing I’ve seen before with wind blowing at high speed. We continued forward through the storm and even though it was summer we were all freezing and wet. A couple of monkey cross our paths with one following our journey and a bunch of other creatures like birds and insects. After a couple of hours we finally get to the top as the rain starts to slow down, we finally take a break and take in the view. Honestly I haven’t seen anything more beautiful in my life time and the torture we went through to get to the top was all worth it as it was breathtaking. The scenery was vibrant green with flowers of yellow and red breaking through the ground and the sky grey with white fog covering what was below us. We were so high up we could only see the mountain tops and valleys that ran down. We chowed down snacks of crackers, trail mix and a couple candies our grandma gave made us before leaving her house. After soaking in the view the rain and wind started to fall once again. The picture is of my brother as we made our way down the mountain. We finally get to the end of the trail we eventually made it to the main road freezing in the rain. We realized we wouldn’t be able to call the taxi driver from earlier so we made our way down the road. After about half an hour down the road a van with passengers had driven past us and noticed we gotten off the trail and were drenched asked if we needed a ride. We were so grateful we didn’t have to walk back the 5 mile long road and without question we jump in the back. The van had drop us to a bus station where we made it back to the hostel. The old ladies who ran the place gave us all hot tea to help warm up and told us about the dinner specials later that night.The experience of a beautiful country with amazing sights and amazing people who surprises you with the compassion they have for strangers. Being able to experience both worlds basically on the opposite ends you see the differences of cultures and makes you think of the world as a whole and how big this world is.