In the middle of the road on Zamami it hit me. It was a thought, a very simple one. At that moment, I saw some kids playing on a steet. Some time ago I was a kid playing on a street in my neighbourhood in Lviv, just like these kids. Despite all the odds, God knows how I made it to this secluded island in Japan. Kids I was playing with didn't make it here - I am not sure what they are doing, but I am confident they stayed put, still walking the streets of Lviv. They might have families, even kids like these those I was seeing. My friends didn't wander off the beaten path. They never saw this.
I had not idea I will ever go to Japan at all. Of couse, it was even harder to imagine I would ever be on this island. But there I was, thinking about people that made a different choise. Honestly, I don't think their choise was a bad one - I am jealous, even. Whatever their choices were, whatever they ended up doing, my choice led me to Zamami.
A small island with almost no people. The atmosphere of pure peace - separation leaves no chance for external anger to come through. There is no war. Nor is there anything to speak of. It is just nature. These Japanese kids who are playing on that island have no idea what world around them has to offer to them. I am sure they want to leave the island and live a big life somewhere - but me, I would stay of that island. I would work by writing code or something like this, run on the beach, listen to music and read. I would live by the sea and worry only about storm and earthquake - nothing else. That would be mine, very different and difficult, choise.
