Last Updated: Jan 1, 2024

The Endless Journey

Why I Need More Lifetimes for Japan

Donny Kimball
5 min readSep 15, 2021

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A misty trail along the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route in Wakayama Prefecture
This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium

As I sit down to write this, it’s 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning and I am traveling on a bullet train bound for Shiga Prefecture in western Japan. Prior to opening up a new story in my editor, I was lazily gazing out the window at the bucolic countryside. Lost in thought, I soon found myself pondering just how many lifetimes I would need to experience all the destinations on my ever-growing bucket list. The damn backlog is basically like a hydra. Every time I hit the road, I discover two or three more allures such that I never make any progress. My only hope is to be of such service to Japan that when I die, I am reincarnated here and able to continue the adventure.

As noted several times in previous articles, I quite literally invest every single yen that I earn working as a freelance digital marketer in Tokyo into traveling. Being transparent, I barely have any savings other than a few months of float should the proverbial fecal matter hit the fan. Other than this, I invest everything else into traversing the prefectures. While I am not sure if it’s healthy to spend every last yen of my disposable income, what I can tell you is that I am happy to be of service to Japan. Besides, it seems the more time, energy, and funds I invest into this amazing place, the…

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Donny Kimball

I'm a travel writer and freelance digital marketer who blogs about the sides of Japan that you can't find in the mainstream media. https://donnykimball.com/