The Story
For the first time, I’m trying to write down a trip while looking back on it. I used to think a trip was something that ended entirely in the moment, something I shouldn’t try to hold on to, something that simply flowed away with time. But now I want to cherish those hours and put them back inside myself, one by one.
Once a trip is over, it feels so cold. For months it kept flickering in the back of my mind, teasing me, and then on the way home it’s already gone. The moment I get home, I unpack and toss the dirty clothes into the laundry basket. I take off the bag tag I agonized over, put the suitcase away at the back of the closet, and it’s already a complete stranger.
Still, this time there is a “trip of looking back,” so I feel as if I’m still traveling a little.
One country I had never been to, and one I was visiting for the first time in 35 years. Even before leaving, I was looking forward to seeing how each would look to me now, after all I’ve seen, and what I would think of them.
This time, I had already decided to keep a record after I got home. So I wanted the way I traveled to flow on purpose, and I chose to ride a lot of trains. Being in the middle of landscapes, time, and people flowing by feels right to me.
I’ll make a notebook that connects those hours and each of those scenes into a single record.
So I decided not to finish the cover at the start.
As I move through the pages, I sew up the cover from time to time. By the time the record of the trip is finished, this cover will surely be sewn up too. A cover that takes its time to be completed is a good thing.
I bought a notebook at Muji with a kraft paper cover and an orange cloth spine, so I chose a similar color from my collection of 100 colors of Tant paper (a Japanese colored paper) and cut out the letters “EURO.”
I’ve cut all kinds of paper, but the one I like best for cutting is still Tant paper. It cuts crisply.
Strictly speaking, there is a genre called kirie (paper cutting), and there are many black papers that cut well. But if you want many colors and good cutting, I think Tant paper is the one.
I cut out all four letters, but it looked kind of silly, so for the “U” alone, I cut up a leaflet from the Chocolate Museum I visited in Cologne.
That brown-and-purple design goes so well with the orange paper.
I like cutting the edges of tickets and brochures I bring home and using them as decoration. Unplanned colors come in, and using scraps of a thick brochure that I’d throw away sooner or later makes a good keepsake.
I wrote the dates and country names with a white pen, and the outline of the cover was done. All that’s left is to pass thread through these little holes I poked, a little each day. Before bed, little by little. This will be my daily ritual of stitching the trip together.
Now, let me start remembering. The smell of each place, the feeling in my feet. I may visit again someday, but this might be the last time.
Visual Story Details
Subject: A handmade travel notebook with a kraft paper cover. Letters spelling “EURO” are cut from orange paper and sewn on with needle and thread. The “U” comes from a leaflet from the Chocolate Museum in Cologne, and the dates and country names are handwritten in white pen.
Mood:The lingering feeling after a trip ends, and the quiet time of putting memories back in place one by one, a little each night, without hurry.
Theme: Making a reflective travel notebook by hand. Putting the memories of the trip back in place and joining them by sewing paper, without rushing to finish.
Artist: Kazue Shima (Visual Story Artist)
