WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE
Japan is Where I’d Take My Partner To
This far-away place fascinates him like nothing else
The food. The Culture. The people. Nature and modern technology at the same time. Society and traditions. There is so much to explore in and about Japan.
And it’s on top of his list.
We almost traveled to Japan in 2020 before the pandemic hit. And no, it wasn’t the pandemic that stopped us. It was his passport. While I could have just flown across and walked into the country with a stamp-in visa, they wouldn’t have let him in. My husband would have to go back to his home country to apply for a visa.
This was of course part of our research. While living in Thailand back then we thought it would be great to fly across for a two-week vacation to Japan. The problem was just my husband would have needed a visa and wasn’t able to apply for one in Bangkok.
They told him to fly back to Namibia, get a visa to Japan, and then fly back.
Guess what, we aren’t rich enough to fly twice across the world for a holiday in the expensive country of Japan.
So, we didn’t go.
But since then, my husband hasn’t stopped watching videos on Japan’s food culture, their architecture, and impressive railway systems. There’s no other place on earth he’d love to visit rather. Not now, at least.
But, fast forward two years, we are back in Thailand and no step closer to flying to Japan. One of the reasons being they don’t accept tourists in or only after a long quarantine period.
So, since you’re asking which place or country on earth we would take our partner to — it would be Japan. Without a doubt.
And trust me, as the privileged person in our relationship with one of the strongest passports in the world in my hands, I am the one doing all the research trying to get us both to the destinations we want to explore.
I surely haven’t given up on Japan yet, especially since I also want to board down the world’s best powder snow one day, but right now is not the time to do it.
While my husband is having by now a temporary residency permit in Germany which allows him to apply for visas from around the world in a second nation, he will never be able to travel the world in the way I did it.
With no preparations and just moving from one border to the next one with no visas in hand.
At least not with his current passport.
Every journey we go on has to be planned in advance. Paperwork must be in order and visas obtained before leaving the home country (or Germany at least).
But one day, I’ll promise, I’ll take you to Japan!
This was a writing prompt response to Warren Patterson’s challenge “Where I’d Take My Partner To”.
I’d also love to invite you to read an article on traveling on the Transibiran Railway Road while chatting with workers from North Korea. Dimitrios is sharing some very sad and painful experiences about the people of this hidden country.
Read more on our challenges of traveling across the world with two different passports:
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