On the Bullet Train

I was recently (12/2019-1/2020) in Japan to see all of my friends again some of which I haven’t seen since 2014 and to really boost my confidence and travel experience because I intend on working and living in this lovely country. This trip had to of been one of the most stressful I’ve ever been on. Since before I could even board the first plane things were going wrong and I was so stressed upon arriving into Narita Airport that I felt like turning around and giving up. However, luckily I’m not that kind of person and I’m glad I pushed through it, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen this lovely view which was just one of many. Once I arrived I made my way to my friends house which took a further 4 hours and stayed with her in Tokyo for 3 days before using the bullet train to go to Kyoto for 7 days.

Before I could board the Bullet Train I had to exchange my pass into a ticket, which was yet another problem. Instead of the usual bullet train being 2 hours and 20 minutes it ended up taking nearly 6 hours to get there which is quite extreme. Before I realise this had happened I thought about how I felt when I saw my friend in Tokyo, I was going to call her and seek help because I felt so much better after seeing her that I had forgotten about all of my troubles on the plane, I thought she could help me and make me feel better again. But, I didn’t call her I just thought of it as another test of independence and I had to overcome it alone. This is when I decided to just change my ticket, take the 6 hour route and anticipate the moment I could see my friend I haven’t seen in five years, longing for this horrible feeling to go away, which it did until I had to come back to Tokyo which took 6 hours too.

It was on the second train from Kanazawa to Kyoto that I stumbled across this amazing view. In between sleeping and keeping myself occupied, I noticed the sun was shining through the window, it was very bright and that’s when I moved to shut the curtain and noticed what I was missing outside. As the bullet train was moving so fast I realized I had to capture this moment and quickly grabbed my phone to take the picture. It truly was a moment that gave me confidence again in my travels and I treasure this photo dearly. It is just a perfect photo to me because even without filters and photoshop.. it’s an astounding view and brings back memories every time I lay eyes on it. Of course this photo is one of hundred I took on my trip but I believe this one has the best story behind it and is one of the most important to me. I sent it to my sister, one who offered to lend me an expensive DSLR camera who our late father gave her, said it would have been a perfect opportunity to use the camera if I took it to truly capture the moment. But I couldn’t agree, sometimes the best moments are captured on just a normal smartphone in this case IPhone 7Plus and no matter how expensive the camera sometimes it’s the moment you can feel not just the photograph.

During the train ride I was so distracted by how bad my experience had been so far that I was forgetting some of my main reasons for travelling in the first place, of course I wanted to see my friends and me being 17 at the time, going all around a foreign country alone... it made me realise that I’ve overcome all of these difficulties and it opened my eyes for new aspects of visiting my friends too. That was when I just sat back, enjoyed the train ride and view thinking that if I can overcome all of this alone then nothing scares me. This will definitely not be the last time I travel, it’s moments like this I treasure the most.