“Hey, how was your holiday?” A colleague asked me about my trip this morning.
“Ok, so-so, not that fantastic.” After I replied, I then realised that I have been giving the same reply to this question posed to me in the last few days.
“Is this a fair assessment of the trip?” I asked. Definitely not. The truth is, while I did not quite like some parts of my trip, I had also enjoyed some parts of the trip and there were many “little things” that warmth my heart. Here’s a few that I would like to keep in my memory:
1) Watching sunrise from my hotel room (“A beautiful morning”)
2) The nice people that I came across – the tour guide, tour leader, the new friends I made, the sales people in the department store, the waiters and waitresses in the restaurants, the strangers on the road, etc. Despite the language barriers, all the people in Japan are patient, helpful, friendly and courteous. Ha, I had also learnt to bow a lot in the 6 days there :-)
3) 2 year ago, I ate my first Japanese ramen in Hokkaido, and since then ramen has become one of my favorite food. Unfortunately I have not been able to find ramen of similar quality in Singapore. So since day 1, I had been asking where could I find a ramen restaurant, and finally on the last day I found it.
4) Really love the supermarkets in Japan, especially the snacks section where we could sample different types of local snacks. Do you believe it, all in all I brought home half-a-luggage full of Japanese snacks!
5) A teenage boy in our tour group who is autistic. He and his family gave me the opportunity to understand autism better. In addition, he made me realized the importance of being truthful to oneself and others.
6) Two tour mates offered me their member cards at the Hard Rock café and the airport duty free shop respectively, so that I could enjoy the member privilege discounts. In fact, one of them saw me in the shop from a distant away and walked all the way to ask if I were buying something from the shop, and if yes, she could help me to pay first.
7) There was a family of 5 with 3 young children. The little boy, aged 7, liked to run loose when his parents took care of their other 2 kids. Without fail, there would always be someone in the group who looked out for him and made sure that he did not get lost or run into trouble. The true spirit of teamwork!
8) Last but not least, just doing nothing but strolling down the small lanes in Japan leisurely, seeing, feeling and experiencing the local culture. No rush and no stress!
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