Most of the overseas trips I’ve been on at dis point in my life are wif my family, which are obligatory to uphold family ties. Unfortunately, I’m usually on autopilot most of those times, which means I tend to not remember a whole lot of what happens during them.
There’s oso non-leisure trips. U noe for like, serious academic or work reasons. My school’s been rlly pushing students to go for these overseas programmes, so dat it can “look good on your CV“. Ofc, all just abt status… and fake images…. and LinkedIn 🤮
So now it’s a mix of feelings I’ve developed towards travelling abroad, from my experiences.
On one hand, it’s sorta cool getting to see wat u normally only find on TV and social media in real life. Like, rite in front of ur face.
It’s like oH, look behind, dats Big Ben 😲. Ooh, look out over there, it’s Mt Fuji 😮. Eh, dats the Mount Merapi, which killed like 350 ppl…..wait…
Unfortunately, there’s oso a lot of work involved before, during and after the trip itself. Stuff like packing, long journeys, loss of personal space, some planning, cultural differences, potential conflicts, transit, etc. All of those, not-so-fun travelling stuff.
Though, not gonna lie, hotel buffets make up for a LOT of those problems.
If I’m being real, I dun rlly have any interest in travelling anywhere specifically. I mean, as cool as certain places across the world look on my screens, there isn’t a part of me dat thinks “Damn, I’d like to be there…”
Unfortunately, dat sorta makes me a lame guy. We’re apparently supposed to love, and look forward to travelling. Alright then… guess I’ll work on dat…
.
.
So I’ve been trying to garner more interest in wanting to go to places. And I think Instagram caught on to wat I’m trynna do.
Recently Instagram suggested to me the account of a place in Japan called Hamamatsu Flower Park (@h_flowerpark).
It is essentially a lively botanical garden in Japan. It has a modest size, abt 300,000m². For comparison, our Singapore Botanic Gardens is abt 820,000m².
But there’s oso the nearby Hamanako Garden Park, which oso seems to be worth visiting. If u were to tally up both parks’ sizes, it wld be almost 900,000m².
There’s quite a diverse amount of wildlife within it, wif abt 3000 different plant species, as well as their local avian creatures, who tend to chill abt over there. They even have a few rides and fun stuff to do inside. The social media team does a rlly good job promoting all the special features of the place.
On top of dat, there’s oso a whole-ass hour video of a tour of the entire place, on YouTube. We get to essentially see most of it. Though, prolly not to satisfactory depth. Only thru being there urself, can u feel the magic of the place.
At least, dats wat I’m assuming…
Ayyy, dats a nice concept, yea? Very nice, in fact. Big gardens are something dat I find fascinating, those rlly pretty places dat surrounds u wif aesthetically pleasing grass and flowers.
There’s oso other places of interest within Hamamatsu. From wat I’ve seen, there’s the museum of musical instruments, Lake Hamana and… sand dunes…yea…
I think dat all sounds and looks pretty cool. And definitely appealing enough for a visit. So yea, I guess I’ll look forward to going to Hamamatsu one day….
…But considering how I am, I’d probably get a lil sad upon realising I am alone at a beautiful place. And even if I had ppl wif me physically, I noe dat I wld still feel down, without the right ones around.
But dats where the Rosé at the back of my phone comes to my aid, and makes me less mentally lonely.
So when I see something nice, like a rose (hehe), I can be like “eh, noona, look at this. It’s pretty, isn’t it ☺️?” And she’ll just smile….becos dats how she’s posing in the photo card….
But I will be glee anyway, seeing dat. So hopefully I see many nice things which I can pretend to point out.
Besides dat, I’d oso pretend dat she’s the goofy and curious one, and dat she wants to see more of the place.
Well in dat case, u wouldn’t wanna let her down, do u? Guess we gotta explore the hell out of the whole park, then 🤷
It’s the perfect excuse, only becos I prolly won’t do it if I were by myself…
……….
…What? U think dats weird? U think it’s weird how I inject scenarios and personality into my Rosé card, hmm?….
….Don’t worry, I find it pretty weird too 😞….
.
Actually, after writing all of the above, I realise dat even in my own random fantasies, I tend to find myself being the “support character“. It seems to be the position I’m most comfortable in. Perhaps I wld only rlly like to travel, if I noe it’ll make the “main character” happier.
But I guess that’s fine, and maybe it’s not such a bad thing. I can’t force myself to enjoy something just cos I’m expected to. But ensuring joy for others is something I genuinely like. So at least there’s a driving force coming from that.
As long as the “main character” is someone I can appreciate as a cool person, and who won’t leave me behind, I wldn’t mind just being the sidekick…
23.10.2025
Leave a Reply