It's worth not making it worth your time

Most of the points of interest in the middle of the country seem to be located around the south coast, but I decided to go north after my last post, on some strangers’ recommendations, with little to no expectations in regards to what I would find. That’s pretty much exactly what happened.

If I took a different route, I would never have found about the stories of Polish orphan children finding shelter in Tsuruga in the 1920s, as well as the stories of Jewish people who were granted lifetime visas in the 1940s, as told in the Port of Humanity museum. I wouldn’t say that this tiny museum calls for a detour on your itinerary, but it brings a very relevant point of view on what’s been happening in Europe during the past year. I’m glad I got to visit it.

If I had chosen to go south, I would never have found about the Toyama Bay Cycling Route either.

After having ridden the Shimanami Kaido route last month, I’ve been looking at other cycling routes to explore, but the country is in the middle of a serious heatstroke, which makes it difficult (and honestly, dangerous) to plan and enjoy a day on the bicycle. I would have loved to ride more japanse roads this summer, but I progressively gave up on the idea as the temperatures have kept rising since I landed here.

There’s probably a cool story out there about riding this route from the beginning to the end, but I’m unable to write it (yet). What happened last week was that I managed to rent a bike from an old rental store just outside of the train station, rode a small portion of the route just for a few hours, before stopping to swim in the sea. That’s all that happened, and because I had no expectations at all, this was more than enough. It was actually a great day, exactly because not much happened.

I wouldn’t have found about the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary art in Kanazawa, which boasts an impressive collection of artworks, for what I consider to be a “small town” museum.

I haven’t kept track of all the museums I’ve visited in the past year, but one of the things I’ve realized is how little exposure to asian (or “eastern”) art I’ve had until now. I’m not an expert in any way, and I can’t really tell in detail how the curation differs, but I now know that I’ve mostly been exposed to a specific type of art until now, this specific type being very “western” (american and european, very broadly).

I’ve seen some asian artworks while in Europe, and I’ve also seen artworks from European and American artists here in Asia. But the past year has been a deep dive into a different reasoning and vision of art, that I never really had the chance to experience before.

The picture above is weird and it wouldn’t exist if I didn’t stop for a coffee while walking around in Toyama.

I usually need a very long time to know if I like a picture or not. There are some pictures I took years ago, that I still don’t know if I like. I haven’t forgotten about them, I just don’t know if I like them or not.

I don’t think this picture would be representative of what I usually or most frequently shoot, but for some reason, I already like it.

There’s no real pattern or reason linking all the places I’ve been to, except for the fact that you can travel between these small cities on local trains.

I could have travelled between Kanazawa and Toyama in about 18 minutes with the Shinkansen, but I chose to take the local train, that stopped 18 times along the way, to complete the same route five times slower. It was much cheaper to do so, but that wasn’t the reason why I did it. I didn’t have any meaningful reason to be in Toyama so quickly, so given the two options, I just wanted the slower one.

The JRailPass website states that “Seeing Japan by train is a great way to enjoy an authentic Japanese Experience”, and while I don’t disagree with the fact that some of these routes are incredibly scenic and beautiful, I’m happy I got to sit on a regular commuter train, that was just doing its job as a local train: picking up and dropping people off in cities and villages in the area. I didn’t see anything spectacular along the way, but I’d say that this ride was just as authentic (if not more) as any train ride listed on any curated list of “most scenic train routes”.

I think I’ve always needed a why to visit a place, but I feel this has changed. My point is not about telling you to always go off the beaten path, or go (or avoid) some place simply because it’s famous or exotic. What I want to suggest is something that’s in the middle, that would be to try “just going places, instead of going places specifically for a reason”.

It might have been very obvious for many people before me, but I only just found that there’s something beautiful about going places for absolutely no reason. You’ll either find nothing, or find something you were not looking for.

In any case, your curiosity won.

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