I made my way through the winding streets of this small rural town, looking for a grocery to stock up for the next couple days of backpacking. The lanes and alleys were largely empty, but for the occasional slowly passing motorist. I imagined they were taking their time to observe and study the incredibly out-of-place foreigner walking on the side of the road with his futuristic bright white backpack.

I found the grocery, where I meandered through aisles studying packaging, doing my best to parse photography and cartoon mascots to determine what I was looking at. Somewhere between the dried squid and shrimp crackers, a woman passed behind me, then stopped to greet me. She had an enormous smile on her face for such a small woman. I couldn’t help but reflect this smile back at her. She started speaking in Japanese, I picked up on a word or two and determined that she was surprised at my presence there. It’s truly rare to see gaijin tourists in the middle of a rural vacation village, let alone in it’s off-season. I laughed, cracked a bigger smile while bowing, and we said our goodbyes.

Later, in the parking lot, while I unpacked and then repacked my backpack, the same woman made excited sounds and waved happily at me while headed to her car. It hit me then how excited I myself was, that I was there, then - I was so out of my element I couldn’t help but feel an intense happiness and contentment. I was out of place, but in exactly the right place.

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