My school has two new teaching advisors for the Japanese teachers since there have been changes in the curriculum this year.

These teachers rotate through the schools and give help give feedback to the teachers on how to improve their English lesson. One of them carries a world map satchel, so I’ll call him Mr.World.

Mr. World likes telling me all kinds of stories and chatting about different things. Today he asked me where I have been so far in Japan.

So I told him I’d been in and around:

• Tokyo
• Nara
• Osaka
• Kyoto
• Tochigi/Nikko
• Chiba
• Kamakura
• Saitama
• Odawara
• Okinawa
• Hiroshima

Pretty impressive stuff. And then Mr. World asked me:

Which place did I enjoy the most?

So I took a moment to ponder.

I thought about my experience living in Ikebukuro, Tokyo for six months and getting to go to Kamakura with my language school. I thought about feeding the deer in Nara and my first time in Japan walking through a ton of greenery in the form of fields for farming. I remembered going to Kyoto and being rained out on our last day (of two) there. My solo trips to Nikko, Odawara, Hiroshima, and Okinawa.

Despite having to make progress on my debt, pay for grad school, and keep myself alive/protected from elements/fed, I’ve managed to go quite a few places. I’m pretty impressed by how much I’ve done and how thoroughly I’ve gotten to explore areas.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t have an answer to his question. Sure, it sounds cheesy, but every place has its good points, so I can’t just pick one.

Mr. World said my diplomatic answer reminded me of Aubrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. He always brings up great references, even if they’re a little beyond my time.