Hidden away in a corner of Japan’s fruitiest prefecture, I was volunteering on one of the best farms that ever happened to me. I wove my bike through rice fields and greenhouses of cherry trees. On clearer days, I soaked up a splendid view of Mount Fuji. One morning, I even found myself at the top of this ever-aesthetic volcano.

We were weeding. We weeded and wacked weeds like it was our life calling, until May turned to June, until the cherries reddened and the peaches yellowed and began to blush. When we finished all the plots, the first weeds had grown back, and we started going at them all over again.

While the shenanigans and friendships of this farm-stay deserve their own post, at the orchard I also had time and clarity to entertain myself with how much can be achieved when taking a counterintuitive path or perspective in life.

• How when I first arrived to the farm I was actively avoiding wifi in order to do something, anything that was actually productive with my creativity.
• How in order to appreciate the sky, sometimes you just have to look down, at the reflection of the flooded rice field right in front of you.
• How the first two weeks in this landlocked Japanese prefecture got me more sun-tanned than a month in an Indonesian beach town.
• How I used to dread Mondays and relish Saturdays and Sundays, but now Mondays were mid-week grinds because Thursdays and Fridays were our off days.
• How eating more before and during an attempt to summit Mount Fuji, helped me avoid throwing up at the high-elevation summit.
• How being born into a financially stable life and attending university with a bank account that grew every year from academic scholarships made me a very not money-motivated individual.
• How hitchhiking or Couchsurfing to save money made me more generous.
• How hitchhiking is often more comfortable and direct than methods of paid transportation.
• How living my life to the biggest I want it to be, on a world trip that has so far involved van camping, Bali villas, and cruises, costs less than being a vegetable at home.
• How hitchhiking alone in Morocco or Colombia feels safer than walking alone after sunset around my university campus.
• How being hurt grows you.
• How the first time I actually shared a roof with my uni roommates was after our graduations, on the other side of the world, because during uni we were always moving in and out of our house too fast.
• How getting invited to a $600 VIP booth with endless flutes of champagne in Shinjuku, Tokyo put a scowl on my face because the music was lame and the people were fake, while getting ignored in the corner of a salsa bar in Roppongi gave me a smile you couldn’t wipe off my face, because the music was saudade-inducing and the people were doing what they love.
• How so many Japanese people have idolized France for all their lives, yet the reality of finally visiting Paris has lead to the installment of a 24-hour hotline in the city’s Japanese embassy, so that tourists suffering from Paris Syndrome may seek counseling.
• How I lived for 22 years in a country with right-side traffic, but I adjusted well to biking and running on the left-side of the road, so much so that when I got to South Korea, I was still walking on the left, head-on against a storm of right-sided pedestrians.
• How traveling nations with a far lower standard of living than the United States, allowed me better access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and affordable, balanced meals.
• How eating the right portions gives me energy and makes me feel full, while overeating makes me feel insatiable.
• How choosing to commit a month to farm work over anything else during my time in Japan (involving turning down an offer to join a road trip around  the main island with some of my closest friends from home), landed me on the top of Mount Fuji.