OK, so that was my attempt at the kind of headline we love to hate: the clickbaity, non-story, non-synopsis type that keeps sites like Upworthy in the black. These headlines provide the smallest glimpse of a story, which is probably why we distrust them. Occasionally the story is one worth reading, but more often than not the headline is an attention-grabbing mask for a shapeless but emotionally driven story.

Of course, I don’t consider my relocation from Japan to the Netherlands to be uninteresting or shapeless because I lived it. I won’t regale you with the trail of decisions that led my husband and I here. I will say, though, that as much as we loved life in Japan, we enjoy a different, less-frenetic kind of happiness here. Living in Japan was my dream, and being there fulfilled me on such base level; every day was a gift from the universe to me.

I was visiting a friend in Osaka when I learned about hi.co. I opened my account the same day while we waited on our deliciously greasy order of Ohsho gyoza. (“Geography, photography, and community building? SIGN. ME. UP.”) Up to today I have shared on here only a few snapshots of eastern Asia, all of them from 2014. From here, I’ll use Hi as a writing-meditation tool to help me sharpen my focus and cultivate my writing voice.

You’re welcome along for the ride!