After weeks of navigating train timetables, temple etiquette and the quiet complexities of solo travel through Japan, I landed in Palau sometime around 2am. The air was thick with heat, even at that hour. There were no signs, no crowds and no sense of urgency. Just a soft breeze and the kind of calm you…

I didn’t go to Japan looking for peace. I went because I’d never travelled alone for this long and I thought Japan might be a good place to start. But somewhere between the neon buzz of Shinjuku and the sacred stillness of Mount Koya, I found something else: a kind of quiet that wasn’t just…