“I live in my own little world. But its ok, they know me here.”
― Lauren Myracle
And, our journey started from Eishoji Temple now comes to an end in nocturnal Totuska.
Through this series Our Hometown Totsuka, I’ve written what it means to go abroad and how it helps you grow as a person. Living abroad is a challenging journey, but it is definitely an eye-opening thing that allows you to experience life in a whole new way.
Fascinating people you’ve never met, out-of-the-box thinking you couldn’t come up with if you stayed in your home, and knowledge you can learn through interactions with many different people with various backgrounds. The possibility of your personal growth is immense and endless. At the same time, it is also about learning yourself in the process.
Totuska is her hometown. And it’s also my hometown. At the end of this series, let’s think about what home means to all of us. There is no definite answer to this topic because it depends. Sometimes home is where your heart is, sometimes it’s where you spent your childhood. For me, home is where I can find myself.
I have been to abroad for study and work. And maybe in the future, I’ll go abroad again. Will Totsuka remain my home? Not sure, but a part of me knows that Totsuka is the place my journey began but this won’t be a place that provides me with the answer to my question. Somewhere else in the world, someone, something is waiting for me to be discovered. I believe so. Let’s keep walking, keep learning and keep growing.
Last but not least, here are night scenes of our hometown, Totsuka. As the district experienced urban redevelopment which finished in 2013, old neighborhoods were obliterated. And store owners of the old shopping street were asked to move into a newly built shopping mall or move out. Today’s Totsuka is a mere shadow of what it used to be.
