Sanjana Sanghi Instagram – This time, 5 years ago as a media student, I was given the most incredible opportunity by the Government of India to represent our country in Japan, with the goal of understanding the Japanese media-sphere and enhance their understanding of our’s. I hadn’t ever been outside of Asia at that time, and Japan was beyond anything I’d seen in Asia itself. On our very first night, I remember forcing my friends to sneak out, as we took a late night train, staring down at Disneyland, right to Shibuya square in Tokyo, because popular culture had made me believe that’s what Japan was all about. That’s when my tryst with sushi and uniqlo both began and I can’t imagine life without either :’) But my trip was about none of that – I lived in the Japanese country side in Sato San’s home for a few days, atop a mountain, with hot springs sprinkled all around us. She and her husband, didn’t know a word of English, and we, had yet only learned how to say thank you properly in Japanese, which we said a lot, and couldn’t pride ourselves over knowing the language. The days I spent with them, cooking, bringing produce, fishing every morning, running the order of a Japanese home – made me learn, and thank god, for the rest of my life, that human emotion far transcends the menial limits of language. Our connection was far beyond words. I didn’t need words to communicate, anything. I got to know them, and they got to know me. The day we had to leave their home, there were laughs, tears, and heaps of gratitude. I’ve still not been able to make sense of that experience, and I don’t think I want to. It’s purity lies firmly tucked away in my heart. Missing that time a little extra today. But take some time out, and travel. I promise it’ll be worth it.