Interviewing Western students on their dream travel destinations

 Sarah Austin |  Lifestyle Editor

With COVID-19 limiting travel for many, I set out to create a piece where I ask students their travel goals if they had nothing holding them back. This week, I caught Western senior Felicity Martin to chat about her bucket list dream.

If you could leave tomorrow and go anywhere with no financial or personal responsibilities, where would you go?

Japan.

What draws you there?

A lot. I like the culture. I watched anime a lot growing up. I have really come to (like) the spiritual and architectural side of Japan. It’s sort of weird. Going through therapy is weird seeing how Japanese culture has affected my upbringing. I want to be able to close that gap.

Is there a specific thing or place that draws you in (cuisine, architecture, natural beauty, nightlife)?

Ikebukuro. There’s this shrine, I don’t know the name of it but there’s this monk that visited a shrine and a local monk showed up and it was totally there. When they were cleaning it this sun ray hung over the center of the shrine. 

What key things would you do while there?

Visit every novelty cafe. The cat cafe, succubus, butler cafe. The Portlander cafe where everyone wears flannels and pretends to be a Portlander. I really want to get a bowl of ramen from a small town, something that an everyday person in the community would eat. Not that it is authentic in presentation and composition but in its execution, in a manner of speaking.

What barriers keep you from actually going?

Money and responsibilities. Money is the biggest, but if I didn’t care about my responsibilities to other people I would find a way there. Oh, and I don’t know Japanese ⏤ I would want to when I go.

If you had a week off of responsibilities, using your current funds, where would you go?

The (Tsubaki Grand Shrine) in America.

Where is that?

In Washington, it was the first shinto shrine built in the US.

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Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu