Searching for Quiet

 

Illustration by ImageFX

Summer is almost at an end.

Even after our summer break, I can’t shake off this uneasy feeling. Of course, I’m grateful for the two weeks away from school, work (and the kids, haha!), but sometimes I wonder—are two weeks really enough to quiet the mind and reset?

Last year was especially difficult for me and my family, marked by the grief of my father’s untimely passing. We had expected it in some way, but we never knew when the moment would come.

2025 has been the first year I’ve felt somewhat settled since moving to Fukagawa in 2021. Yet, despite all the adjustments—working hard, adapting to Japanese culture, learning to live with four seasons—I still feel like a bird trapped in a cage. On my drives to work, my body is on autopilot, but my mind is always somewhere far away.

Illustration by ImageFX

I crave an escape. A place where I can be alone with my soul, where time doesn’t matter, where freedom feels real.

And I know I’m not alone. Somewhere out there, many of us are carrying this same restless weight.