Overdue - Day 25

Well, this post has been long overdue now hasn't it? I've been in Hokkaido for about five days now, and I'm more than slightly ashamed for being so doggone tired (and maybe lazy too) to gather some energy and hack out a satisfactory post about this place that I love so much. 

Which is why I'm hacking away at my phone now. Full blessings from my dad, too - he doesn't need me to watch the GPS like I usually do to let him know where to turn, where to go because it's a mountainous road right now, and these roads are pretty straightforward. Just keep driving straight and try not to drop off the side of the mountain. 

Digressions aside, I'm finally in Hokkaido. It's funny really, I thought I'd be in tears when I arrived at Narita airport almost a month ago, simply because of the fact that I was finally in Japan, the country I loved so much besides my own. 

No tears. Not even a sniffle. 

The whole time I was in mainland Japan, I thought there was something wrong with me because if I loved Japan so much, then where were the emotions? I know myself well enough to be able to tell you that hey, if I really love something I'll definitely cry over it and get all weird (lord knows Milk calls me that often enough when I start tearing up). 

I simply thought I didn't love Japan as much as I'd always thought I did, and boy was that thought depressing. 

It's nice to be proven wrong once in a while. 

When we arrived in Hakodate four days ago, nothing could have prepared me for the sudden rush of pure emotion that I felt - all of a sudden it just hit me like a bag of bricks that yes, I was indeed back in the place where I felt I belonged. 

It was only then I understood: Japan I loved, but Hokkaido was home. 

Everything around me was the same and yet so different. I felt like a child again, going to places and then exclaiming as I recovered a long-lost memory. I cried when I revisited places I'd been when I was younger - I simply don't know how to put into words the pure emotion of needing to be there, the longing of wanting to visit the place again for so long and finally being there, finally back in a place where I felt like I belonged. 

Finally surrounded again by the mountains and the sea - finally home again, and I don't know how I'm going to be able to leave in four days. It was difficult enough the last time - I broke down in the toilet where my parents wouldn't see, because I don't know how to explain to them how I could feel so much love for a place that wasn't my own country.

I love Singapore, but I love Hokkaido too, and both places are my home. It's as simple and as complicated as that.
Location: Nakafurano Nakafurano

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