{"id":10779,"date":"2022-06-03T16:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T07:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kota-yoshida.com\/?p=10779"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:39:30","slug":"trip-notes-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kota-yoshida.com\/en\/trip-notes-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Is Love | Trip Notes | Kota | Oneness Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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love is love<\/h3>\n
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 <\/p>\n

\"Hey, I'm Jamie. Hehehe. How's it going?\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With a big lollipop, which is not commonly seen in Japan, he appeared with a smile.<\/p>\n

He was slender, with pale skin, brown hair, and long hair,<\/p>\n

and was shorter than the average European or American man.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His voice was very calm, but there was something innocent about him,<\/p>\n

and everyone he met treated him like an old friend. He was a kind person.<\/p>\n

I would be staying at his place for the next few days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We met through a service called Couchsurfing, where travelers can stay in local homes for free.<\/p>\n

I often used this service during my travels.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He was an enthusiastic Christian, but also loved spiritual thinking.<\/p>\n

He told me he had welcomed me because he had received a revelation that something good would happen.<\/p>\n

I also liked that kind of thinking.<\/p>\n

Especially when traveling, I had started to sense that before something happened, there were often signs.<\/p>\n

And I had a feeling that I would learn something important at this place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The place was Kingston, which used to be the capital of Canada.<\/p>\n

Due to its military location near the US border, the capital was moved to Ottawa, another city.<\/p>\n

As a remnant of this history,<\/p>\n

the old fortresses and cannons from that time have become tourist attractions,<\/p>\n

and many tourists visit them.<\/p>\n

But after a long journey, I had no energy left to visit tourist spots.<\/p>\n

I was completely exhausted. All I wanted was to just zone out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When you travel for a long time,<\/p>\n

the extraordinary journey itself starts to feel like everyday life.<\/p>\n

Even when visiting a new place for the first time,<\/p>\n

there is a sense of freshness that fades away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I told Jamie about this,<\/p>\n

he said, \"Yeah, travel is tiring. You don't have to force yourself to go out. Ah, why not go somewhere in nature? In the end, it's all about nature,\"<\/p>\n

and he gave me directions to a forest spot where even locals don't usually go.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the afternoon, I walked alone through that forest.<\/p>\n

Maybe it's more accurate to say I wandered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was no one around.<\/p>\n

It was just nature and me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I could really feel how much that healed my heart.<\/p>\n

Since there was truly no one else,<\/p>\n

it felt like I was the only human in the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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In the evening, when I returned safely to his house,<\/p>\n

he invited me to go with him to visit a friend, saying, \"I'm heading there now, want to come along?\"<\/p>\n

When we arrived,<\/p>\n

there were about five young men in their 20s gathered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They all seemed to be immigrants,<\/p>\n

and their English was not perfect.<\/p>\n

Even though I was in Canada, an English-speaking country,<\/p>\n

the space was filled with languages other than English,<\/p>\n

and surrounded by people I was meeting for the first time,<\/p>\n

I found myself unsure of where I was.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I even started to question what I truly was.<\/p>\n

Experiencing this kind of sensation was something<\/p>\n

I had gone through many times during my long journey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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One time, one of them was talking about not getting along with their partner.<\/p>\n

At that moment, Jamie straightened his back<\/p>\n

and looked his companion straight in the eyes, speaking words that<\/p>\n

I still sometimes recall even years later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"People often misunderstand, but love,\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love isn't just a stronger form of liking.\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love is... love.\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"LOVE is love! You know, it\u2019s like... hmm,\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With an expression that seemed to say it was hard to explain in words,<\/p>\n

he continued, creating an atmosphere and saying,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"It's vast, cosmic, inclusive...\"<\/p>\n

As he stretched his arms out widely to the sides,<\/p>\n

he suddenly made a gesture as if to pause,<\/p>\n

and silently thought for a moment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was a philosophical and difficult topic,<\/p>\n

and I think he was choosing his words carefully<\/p>\n

since none of us, except Jamie, were native English speakers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After thinking for a bit, he took a deep breath,<\/p>\n

and with his arms spread wide from the inside out, as if holding a huge balloon,<\/p>\n

he boldly said with all his strength,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love is, love.\"<\/p>\n

It was the same thing he said earlier,<\/p>\n

but he repeated it with big gestures and movements.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love is love!\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love is love.\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\"Love is... love.\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"love is love\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love is... love.\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The words were repeated passionately again and again,<\/p>\n

with gestures, a serious expression,<\/p>\n

and a direct gaze,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Love is love.\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Though he was just repeating the same words,<\/p>\n

I strangely felt that I truly understood the meaning of \"love\" for the first time and was moved.<\/p>\n

It was indeed not just the stronger form of liking,<\/p>\n

love is love, as I felt it deep in my heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A warm, soft light in warm tones<\/p>\n

began to overflow from deep within me.<\/p>\n

It was the same feeling of gentle comfort<\/p>\n

that I felt when someone was kind to me, or when I was kind to someone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That feeling, which I had experienced many times in my life,<\/p>\n

was love, and for the first time, I became aware of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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I am not the only human in this world.<\/p>\n

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Right now, I am here.<\/p>\n

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I am myself.<\/p>\n

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Love is love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“People often misunderstand, but love,,, Love isn’t just a stronger form of liking. Love is… love.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/kota-yoshida.com\/?p=4812","footnotes":""},"categories":[38,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trip-notes","category-works","en-US"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t