Hi, all! I’m back from my adventure in Japan – thank you so much to PitFace and Ironscarf for writing amazing guest newsposts while I was away. It’s so lovely being part of a site where someone’s always willing to jump in and help out (and you two in particular are some of the very loveliest people I know). :)

I’ve kept diaries off and on at various points, but never for very long because I don’t really have the patience, the memory, or the organizational skills. I do usually bring a sketchbook, but I generally only use it for things I see that are particularly notable or picturesque. Before I left on this trip, though, my Russian tutor asked me to write three sentences a day in Russian so I could continue practicing. I had already bought a sketchbook, so I figured what the heck – I’ll combine my drawing and my journaling into one awesome travel diary!



My technique was to take short notes on my phone throughout the day of what we did and odd things we saw. It’s nice to be able to draw things in person, but my family who I was travelling with rarely let me sit still long enough! At the end of the day or whenever we went back to the hotel, I’d jot down the interesting bits with a few drawings here and there. The drawings and the Russian both varied in quantity and quality depending on how tired I was. (Apologies to any Russian-speaking DDers for the many, many mistakes you might spot – I’m still learning, obviously!)



I really enjoyed the process of journaling this trip! It was a nice quiet activity at the end of each busy day; there’s really only so much Japanese-language TV you can watch when you don’t understand a word of it! I think it made me a bit less frantic about having to get a good photograph of everything, because I knew I would have another record for my memories. It made me pay more attention to the little things going on around me, the funny quirks that otherwise would have slipped out of my mind in a day or two. And of course, it was good Russian practice – I think I expanded my vocabulary quite a bit. I think it even helped a bit with the isolation of being on a fourteen-hour time difference from most of the people I talk to on a daily basis. And perhaps most importantly, I think this will be a lovely keepsake to take out in a few months or a few years when I want to remember our big adventure.

Do you keep a diary? Have you ever journaled while travelling? How do you like to preserve memories, either of travelling or just of daily life?

MILESTONE



Detective-comedy comic Bruno Harm has reached 25 pages!

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