Episode 231 - Together Is Happiness

Judith and I visited Japan again in this summer.

This time with our friends -  a team of 10 travellers.  We rented two cars and started our journey in Nagoya.  This journey was a little bit unusual as it was the first time we travelled overseas with people other than our family members, and we were entrusted with the task of organizing the trip.

Although I considered myself to be an experienced traveller, I was actually worried at the bottom of my heart once taking up the task.  Could we get everyone happy with our planned sight-seeing points; restaurants; typed of cars; and hotels?

I designed a detailed plan for the purpose of this journey.

Could we meet the needs of all the members?

My expected answer was a "No" and the outcome was again a big "NO" - my plan only carried out elliptically.

Some of the locations we visited were not top sight seeing points as I originally thought; we did not have our lunches and dinners at some prestigious restaurants; due to the time management (my fault entirely), we failed to visit any shopping arcade other than the airport shopping centre; we missed an exit in the highway;  we encountered bad weather in the middle of the journey; we even got stuck at the airport for six hours due to mechanical failure of the return flight.

Was this journey a total failure?

Contrary to what I thought at the beginning, this trip turned out to be a success and all team members, including Judith and me, are still enthusiastic for the time we spent together in those five days. 

We were in fact happy with the unexpected challenges and problems that we met and faced together, and of course the tastes of the ordinary local restaurants and the local produce at the service areas en route.   Facing the uncertainties and enjoying the uncertainties, the friendships among team members were tightened.  This was the beauty of self-help travelling.  The sight seeing points and other initial plannings, if they did count in the success, played a secondary role.  It was the togetherness that counted.

For Judith and me, this journey would continuously bring back beautiful memories to us (and hopefully to all members of the team) in the future.

We of course would like to thank all members for the trust they placed in us for organizing this little journey.