After travelling to many countries around the world, I felt the desire to write a travel diary during my visit to Japan from 19 January to 31 March 2011, the year of the tsunami. The idea of ¿¿writing the diary was to convey the simplicity of living in the moment without any preconceptions or expectations. Japan's language and culture were unknown to me. I tried to write carefully, in a detached way, about everything that was happening outside and inside of me. Despite my aim to remain detached, I lived through everything with an extreme intensity of perception, observing and noting every detail that happened.

During a trip to a culture different from that in which you have lived for many years, everything is muddled up, body, mind and habits, it is impossible to return from a trip and stay as you were before! With the right attitude, everything can seem amusing and exciting, with many surprises, curiosity and intuition. This happens in life every day, but when you travel to other countries, other cultures, everything is tripled, it's as if you lived another life in this life. The places, situations, people you meet: everyone leaves you something, a message, emotion or perception. Travel today is not very difficult, but living the journey is another matter entirely.

I took advantage of an Association that allows you to be housed in a family, and work on organic farms in exchange for room and board. In addition to working closely with nature, the best thing is to live and immerse yourself in local culture. I met simple people, amazing people who shared everything they had. The disastrous tsunami took place during this trip. I was about 800 kilometres from Fukushima so I did not feel the shock, but I could see and experience the reaction of the Japanese in the face of a tragedy like that. Aware that they live in one of the most dangerous places in the world for these natural disasters, often exacerbated or even set in motion by human factors, I could see the calm, solidarity and organization of this culture. A Japanese lady told me that her daughter had been killed in an earthquake in New Zealand: it had been her dream to go to New Zealand and she died there doing what she had always wanted to do! This story revealed to me something very significant about Japanese culture and the Japanese attitude to life and death.

I wanted to describe in this book what I felt and saw during my visit. I hope that you who read this book will share my insights, ideas, questions and more. This book is presented as a meditative reading. Please read it slowly as if you were making this trip alongside me. I hope you enjoy the journey. Meditative reading.