I Like the Song "Nijikan Dake no Vacance", a Pure Kind of Freedom Pulled Out of a Busy Life

I am back in Japan again, this time for INFOCOM'26.

Ever since my first trip after the Spring Festival in 2025, I have been in love with traveling solo with a backpack here.

On that first trip I took my first overnight bus from Osaka to Tokyo. The streets at night felt relaxed, or maybe it was just me finally relaxing. I spent four hours circling Lake Kawaguchi under Mount Fuji, and in Fujisawa I had a bowl of chirashi and a pork cutlet that made me unreasonably happy. I rode the Enoden line from Enoshima to the sunny coast of Kamakura, and the trip wrapped up with a shopping afternoon in Akihabara.

The second trip was all about wandering around Kansai. Kyoto deserves its reputation and I did not want to leave. Outside Kyoto, the places that made me happiest were not Uji or Nara but Mount Hiei to the north and Wakayama to the south. Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei was not crowded at all, and it gave me a different kind of quiet. I took the cable car across the mountain and came down on the Shiga side to Lake Biwa. Small prefectural towns have their own flavor. Wakayama Castle has its charm too. The gardens are well kept, and the castle on the hill looks just right against the blue sky and white clouds.

This time, on Aki's recommendation, I went to Tohoku, mainly Sendai and the Matsushima coast. I really like Sendai as a small city. Everyone seems to flow around Sendai Station, office workers, university students, high schoolers and travelers coming and going, and together they make the little city feel surprisingly busy. I also experienced my first earthquake here, on the sixth floor of Donki while shopping. That was a unique life experience.

Kobe left a deep impression on me as well. I tried the Rokko Farm ice cream and Kobe beef, and the view from Kobe University was worth the trip on its own.

INFOCOM itself, funnily enough, did not leave much of an impression. Probably because networking is not really my field lol. I will end with a photo of the streets of Shibuya. Next time I hope to make it to Hokkaido!