After my incredible visit to Okinawa, I returned to Tokyo for a few days. My three months in Japan was coming to an end – I had achieved what I had come out here to do, and it had been amazing. Without a doubt, the most fulfilling and exciting three months of my life. My next stop was Seoul, but returning to Tokyo gave me a few days to catch up with my friends and digest all that I’d seen. To be honest though, I spent these 4 or 5 days feeling kind of melancholy. The rest of my trip… of course it made sense to visit Korea and Taiwan while in this part of the world, but I have to confess, my heart wasn’t in it in the same way it had been for Japan. Japan was the reason for my sabbatical, and it was what I’d been researching and planning for 4+ years. How could anywhere else live up to that? I was sad to be leaving, and couldn’t reconcile that I wouldn’t be in Japan again for a few years. It left me feeling pretty glum.

My plan had been to visit South Korea, Taiwan, and then fly on to the Americas; travelling overland through Canada and checking out some other places before heading back to London. But I had had such a good time in Japan… what was the point in leaving? An idea had been forming in my head over the past couple of months; perhaps I should stay in Japan longer. For 3 more months, or maybe more! There was so much more to see, and so many more opportunities. I had been making use of my rudimentary Japanese every day but was frustrated at my lack of fluency. Therefore at this point I had all but decided I’d like to return to Tokyo after Taiwan and join a language school.

So that’s why this post isn’t going to be a summary of my time in Japan. I ended up going back for a few more weeks (not joining a language school, but that’s a story for another time). Japan is my favourite country in the world and I still wanted more. The glaring omission of my trip to date was that I hadn’t visited Hokkaido, Japan’s second largest island. I wasn’t happy with the idea of returning to the UK having been to just 4 of Japan’s 5 main regions. What kind of brag is that?

While I did fly to Seoul and spend six weeks travelling Korea and Taiwan, I’m going to write about my few weeks in Japan first to keep them all together. See you in the next one for my visit to Hakodate, Hokkaido.