Destination: 'Jane’s Place'

Jane
Jun 25
2 min read

Updated: Jun 26

15.3.25

This morning, Akari, a 20 year old architecture student, flew back home to Osaka, Japan. This was her first overseas trip on her own. Just two and a half weeks earlier, I’d picked her up from the nearby train station. I thought Akari was a boy’s name, so I was surprised to find that ‘he’ was a young woman.

She came as a ‘wwoofer’ - to help me in whatever I needed around my home - gardening, artwork, baking, archiving…. in exchange for meals (that she would cook), a room, and the opportunity to get to meet and live with an Aussie family.

A few days before Akari left us, I asked her where she was heading next.

'I’m flying straight home,' she said.

It took a moment to sink in.

‘You mean… you came all the way from Japan just to stay here — and now you’re flying straight back?’

She smiled. “That’s right. That’s exactly what I planned.”

'Really?'

I was stunned. I hadn’t realised that her entire trip had been planned around staying with me. Now her time was up and she was heading home. It seemed so odd to me, and even wasteful of such a big trip.

I continued to probe. ‘Why spend all that money to come here - to my strange home, with its odd collection of people and only one shared bathroom?’

Akari smiled again.

‘Because I read your profile and I looked at your website. I liked that you live as an artist and care for your old mother, so I thought staying here would be inspiring and an adventure'.

And so the days passed. Akari told me about her life and family in Japan. She met mine and learnt about our culture. And she left her touch behind — on the painted wooden benches outside, in the Dali mural on the cracked driveway and in the jars full of tasty baked Japanese bikkies.

I thought back to other travellers who had come from far away just to stay at my house.

It began to dawn on me that my odd, wacky home has slowly taken on a life of its own.....

Somehow it’s become Destination Jane’s Place.