Changes in Values Regarding Travel

How are you spending this year's Golden Week? The news is full of talk about people returning to their hometowns and going on trips.

Golden Week is exciting, isn't it? In my second life, every day is like Golden Week. That's why I can enjoy every day with excitement.

Today, I would like to write about how my perspective on travel has changed as I have aged.

Travel in my youth

When I was young, I used to show off how good I was at traveling. I would enjoy sightseeing and activities to the fullest within a limited budget and limited time. And I would brag about it.

I didn't actually have any money, so it couldn't be helped, but I loved finding ways to get the best service for the lowest price compared to the regular rates.

Visiting famous tourist spots was a given, but I also liked to venture into places people didn't usually go and boast to my friends about having pioneered them.

Travel now

Even now, I can't quite shake the focus on cost-performance, but as I've aged, my approach has shifted toward buying space and time with money.

Instead of spending time searching for high-quality hotels that are as cheap as possible, I now book a reputable, higher-end resort hotel from the start.

In the past, I felt proud of finding the cheapest options, but now I enjoy traveling by thinking that money is secondary as long as I can spend time in a pleasant space.

Changes in preparation time

I am more of a well-prepared type who plans carefully. Not just for travel, I don't act on impulse; I prefer to spend time preparing in advance to gather information and find my own optimal solution.

Travel preparation in my youth was exactly like that. I was diligent, so I would even make handmade travel itineraries.

However, that has become a thing of the past. Nowadays, perhaps because of accumulated habit and experience, I don't prepare as much.

I have started deciding on day trips on the morning of the day, and I leave things to my wife or sons, with my own research decreasing significantly.

I feel like this is less about increased trust in my family and more about a decrease in my own active participation, which makes me feel a decline in my activity levels.

I used to be the organizer for trips with friends often, but now I realize I've become reluctant, thinking, 'I wonder if someone else could do it.'

While writing this note, I think I will keep this point in mind from now on.

I have trips to Cebu in July and Belgium in October planned. I haven't started on them yet, so I need to begin my preparations.

Travel is all about the preparation leading up to it, so I will build up the excitement as much as I can.

Changes in spending on souvenirs and sightseeing

When I was young, I was very tight-fisted when it came to souvenirs and local specialties.

However, now, if something is only available here, can only be seen here, and is something I truly want, I think I should just buy it without hesitation.

My wife is the same type of person.

Last year, when we went to Hokkaido, we visited our destination's flower garden. We enjoyed the very beautiful flowers. There was an alpaca farm at that location. The admission fee was 500 yen.

Me: "Shall we go in?"
Wife: "What should we do?"
Me: "Don't you want to see the alpacas?"
Wife: "Well, I do, but..."
Me: "Then let's see them."

I said that and paid the admission fee.

We fed the alpacas and touched the adorable alpacas, and it was 5 minutes from entering to leaving.

500 yen for 5 minutes just to see alpacas. Is this expensive or cheap? Thinking in terms of cost like that is a mindset from when I was young in the first place.

Experience is priceless!

I will buy experiences that can be bought. Cost-performance is secondary.

After all, the experience of feeding an alpaca is something you can only do right here and now!

The fun time we spent at the alpaca farm will surely become a lifelong memory.

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Tourist spots always sell soft-serve ice cream.

At Hitachi Seaside Park, in the spring, there is Nemophila-blue soft-serve ice cream colored like blue Nemophila flowers. In the autumn, there is Kochia soft-serve ice cream, themed after the red Kochia plants.

In Hokkaido, there is blue soft-serve ice cream at the Blue Pond, and lavender soft-serve ice cream at Farm Tomita.

It's not that delicious.
But it's something you can only eat here.

I'll eat it when that happens.

The memory of sharing a single soft-serve ice cream with my wife will stay with me forever.

"It wasn't very good, was it?"

This, too, becomes a fun memory lol.

I ate Furano's lavender soft-serve 20 years ago, and I still remember the contrast between the incredibly beautiful scenery and the not-so-delicious soft-serve ice cream.

Honestly, the lavender soft-serve in Furano this time was incredibly delicious.

I highly, highly recommend it!

Since it makes me want to write about it in this note,
this memory will likely last a lifetime.

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