Country and Journey ~Kino's Journey~ [58]

The theme this time is straightforwardly "country."

Kino's Journey is a light novel series that has been published up to 21 volumes so far.

As the name suggests, it's a story about the protagonist and the people around them traveling. The character Kino has a personal rule of staying in the same country for only three days, and travels to various countries.

I like this series and have been buying it for about 10 years since I was in junior high school. There's no relationship between the number of volumes and the timeline, so I don't feel the passage of time much.

There are multiple stories in one volume, and each story is self-contained, making it easy to read. The length varies from a few pages to several hundred pages, with funny stories, touching stories, and stories that satirize the current world. It's truly never boring to read.

The world view is detached from reality, so rather than feeling like you're traveling, I personally think it's a book to enjoy the "discomfort" born from encountering various cultures and people with different values.

"What's common sense to oneself is nonsense in another country."

This is a given in the real world, and when you travel abroad, you can feel such discomfort almost daily.

A country is just one of the easy-to-understand boundaries, and even within Japan, there are different cultures and people in each prefecture and region, and you can feel discomfort even when traveling domestically. Also, in Kino's Journey, there's no such thing as a world map, and some countries move, so in that sense, a country is both a boundary and a collective meaning, I think.

I think this "discomfort" can be rephrased as "stimulation." It tickles your curiosity, or you feel a fresh sensation, it's a positive stimulation.

Seeing things you've never seen before or interacting with people with different values provides a significant stimulation (=discomfort). These become larger the more you experience them firsthand rather than just hearing about them. Even when Kino and others visit countries based on information from other travelers, the reality is often more shocking or the country has changed in various ways,

so indeed, "seeing is believing."

Personally, I think it's more suitable to receive stimulation when you're young. With the flexibility to adapt to new things and the physical and mental toughness of youth, you can incorporate new values into yourself one after another.

I don't think age is much of a barrier to having new experiences, but it can be an advantage. It certainly has been in my case.

Until the time comes to start a family, I hope to have as many stimulating experiences as possible and solidify my own values.

That's why, in my 20s now, I am traveling alone overseas.