In Japan, sakura symbolizes the ephemeral nature of life. We must live by moments.
Two weeks ago, my family and I spent five days indulging in Japan’s whimsical cherry blossoms. We traveled through five different cities mostly in the Kansai region, admiring sceneries coated in exquisite shades of pink. For a brief moment prior to the trip, I shamefully mocked at people who traveled to Japan for blooming sakura (cherry blossom). “Seriously, what’s the big deal with bunches of flowers and branches?” Boy, was I wrong. Dead wrong.
In Japan, sakura symbolizes the ephemeral nature of life. When the wind blows, millions of sakura petals fall to the ground in bursts of pink rain. A transcendence of tender blossoms signifies fleeting beauty and rapid demise. Though extraordinarily beautiful, sakura in Japan, has often been affiliated with mortality.
Yes, someday, we all die. Why such morbid thoughts, especially for a travel website which thrives on open-mindedness and positivity. But traveling, indeed, is uniquely based on the idea that everything eventually comes to an end so why not live in the moment therefore to treasure every little bit of life. Traveling this spring is all about maintaining a positive attitude and owning it.
Spring means time for vacation, so our editor-in-chief, Desiree Constance Choy shows you how to get in shape with “7 Moves For Your Awesome Spring Vacation Body”. Need ideas on where to go? In “Bikini Season Can Wait! Hit The Slopes For Spring Vacation”, Sofia John gives you an inside scoop on skiing in Vermont. With a few besties, this might just be the coolest vacay before all the snow melts away. If you’re planning a romantic getaway or wondering where to go for the sweetest honeymoon, here are gorgeous inspirations in “18 Of Spring’s Romantic Destinations”.
Want to have the right attitude when you travel, but don’t know how to attain it? Our new contributor Jerry Leon’s video of canyon swinging in Interlaken, Switzerland is the perfect example of challenging the adventurist in all of us. The thrills we don’t conquer today will be tomorrow’s regrets. What if it’s not us but others who don’t have the right attitude regarding traveling? In Lizzy Monroe’s “10 Commandments To Avoid Talking Like A Bratty Traveler”, our Coffee and Street Market Enthusiast from Stanford provides tips on dealing with people who don’t necessarily want to talk about traveling all.the.time.
Living in the moment is opening yourself up to enlightenment by all sorts of crazy experiences. If a traveler never allows that to happen, then to travel is to invest in a lost cause. Nadia Cho sets the perfect example in her popular article, “What It Means To Be An Asian-American In Europe”, where she confronts the discomforting reality of being judged in Madrid. But maintaining the class act that she is, here’s the takeaway lesson:
“If you truly want to learn about the world and its people, go beyond the surface level of seeing the sites and delve into the history and structural reasons why the world is the way it is. As travelers, we especially have to be wary of such issues because we are active agents in transmitting patterns of human interaction wherever we go.”
How spot on is she?
Life is incredibly fleeting. It is this very idea that I’m constantly thinking to myself, “How can I do more?” Sure, building this platform is a never-ending daily grind. But there is a world bigger than mine, so how can I partake in changing other people’s lives? During Jetset Times’ recent trip to Panama, we met Neil Christiansen, President of Give and Surf, a foundation he created to help indigenous children receive better education in Bocas del Toro. As our Creative Director Lena Kazer describes in our feature interview, this inspiring social entrepreneur knew what his calling was three years ago, wasted no time and began changing lives. To this day, I’m deeply grateful for the chance he provided for us to give back. Why wait when the opportunity is presented right in front of our faces, in the form of the sweetest kids eager to learn.
Now is the moment. Living in the now is not only audacious but undeniably powerful. Our contributor, Jason Canter had a few days to spare between jobs. In “Why You Should Travel Before Starting Your Next Job“, he sailed, skied, tanned on a beach and wine tasted all within a week. That, to me, is the best version of grabbing onto life’s freeing moments and running with them.
This is where the world stands today: six weeks ago, MH370 disappeared from radar and hundreds of families are still grieving for the loss of their loved ones. A sixteen-year-old high school student stabbed more than twenty of his schoolmates in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. A total of thirteen school shootings plagued United States last year. This week, South Korea’s ferry disaster left almost 300 people missing. Their families want answers that are taking too long to arrive.
So, what are you doing with your moments? How are you living in the now? I was at a cafe in Taipei yesterday and the owner asked me what sakura petals felt like in my hands. She had never seen them before. “Other customers came back and never picked up a petal. They couldn’t tell me what sakura felt like,” she said.
I would never travel somewhere and not feel a thing or never indulge in the moment. So I told her, “they are paper thin, extremely soft. It felt like touching a baby’s skin. When I had bunches of them, they were ultra light, like air. Yet, they looked delicately pale and pretty, as if I had petals of dreams in the palm of my hand.”
I remember gusts of wind swept them out of my hand into spring air and they were gone. Moments, that’s all we’ve got. So live them bravely.
Much love,
x
