Essay

Journeys and destinations

By Samantha Loong

音声ダウンロード

Perhaps it's sitting trapped in a metal can thousands of feet in the air that forces you to think about what's good in your life. Things like sleep, appetite and space. Being able to lie down flat is also good. As is food that you can actually taste. None of these things, for me on my budget anyway, are available when I take a long-distance flight. Some say that life is about the journey, not the destination. In my case, I beg to differ.

After more than eight hours on a plane, I am a mess when I reach my destination. Having not been able to do two of my favourite things — sleeping and eating -- for prolonged hours leaves me looking and feeling less than human. It's a wonder the airport immigration officials deem me fit to enter the country.

In order to try to fool me into thinking that air travel is a fun thing, airports have tried to turn themselves into destinations. Some -- like Singapore's Changi Airport — have succeeded, with locals making special trips in the weekend just to hang out at the airport. Being the ever-cynical air traveller however, all I see are overpriced, under-flavoured meals, branded goods that I have no interest in buying, and more ways to suck money out of me when I've already spent hundreds, if not thousands on my flight. There is no real "free" in "duty free" and security checks also make you feel anything but.

Star Trek has it right. I love the idea of being instantly transported from one place to another. But much like the flying car I'm still waiting for, real-life technology still has a while to go before it fully catches up with science fiction. And perhaps it's asking a bit too much for us to trust that machines will correctly and safely disassemble and reassemble our molecules at either end of our journey.

In a way, air travel for me is already like having myself pulled apart, except that I have to do the putting-back-together myself. Perhaps I should see life as a series of destinations, and the journeys in between as a necessary discomfort from which I usually emerge a little worse for wear, but alive.

For me, the destination is clearly where it's at. It's where I get attached to the people, the food and the culture. My current destination is mikan country --Ehime. And I have already found myself attached to one of its many characters. The local city mascot looks like a cross between a hamster, a raccoon dog and a taiko drum. What's not to like?

Is life really about the journey? I don't know about that. Just beam me up and get me there.

旅と目的地

筆者は飛行機に乗っての長旅が苦手だ。快適な睡眠と美味しい食事という大好きな２つのことを与えられない状況は不快で、とにかく早く目的地に着きたいと願うのだという。

The Japan Times ST: November 15, 2013