There’s a genre in Japanese anime and manga called Isekai, which translates to ‘other world’ and depicts a protagonist that has been transported to another dimension or reality.
For Fariqqin Anuar, each time he travels to Japan, it becomes a moment of Isekai.
“It feels like you’re going to a magical place,” the 34-year-old told AsiaOne. “Every time I go, I’d say ‘I’m going to get Isekai-d to Japan’.”
Fariqqin has been to the country more than 10 times now, and he still hasn’t had enough.
It’s this insatiable awe and love for Japan that compelled this Singaporean to want to visit all 47 of its prefectures solo, and he’s inching closer to completing this goal after two-and-a-half years, with four more locations left to see —Kochi, Ehime, Ishikawa and Fukui.
From the northernmost Hokkaido to the southernmost Kagoshima, from the streets of Tokyo to the mountains in Akita, Fariqqin has been on a mission, which he documents regularly on his personal Instagram.
The road to this feat, though, came with its share of bumps and detours.
Painful loss and dashed dreams
So strong was Fariqqin’s desire to immerse in Japanese culture that he had initially wanted to relocate there. But then the Covid-19 pandemic struck, bringing the world to a standstill and thwarting his plans.
All he could do was wait.
“I kept looking at my calendar thinking, when can I go to Japan?” Fariqqin recalled. I [remember] looking at the news every day — when would the travel restrictions be lifted? When?”
But when they did and when it seemed like he could finally realise his dream, the videographer was dealt with an even bigger blow after losing $30,000 in life savings to a scam.
The incident sank him into a depression.
“It was hard to move on with life,” he reflected, revealing that there were times he felt suicidal.
Despite what had happened, however, it was the thought of seeing Japan again that kept him going. And in the face of adversity, he decided to reshape his expectations.
Going to Japan was still the goal — but not as a long-term resident, rather a loyal visitor. “It was the one thing that kept me motivated,” he told us.
But first, he had to pick up the pieces and rebuild. So for three months, Fariqqin took up multiple jobs in order to save up — from contract work making videos, to working in retail, to signing up as an emergency medical-services provider.
Fast forward to Jan 6, 2023, and Fariqqin was on his fifth visit to Japan. While he had considered this two-month trip to be a “sabbatical”—a reprieve from a traumatic experience as well as from the drudgery of everyday life — it was then that the idea to visit all 47 prefectures was born.
And with this newfound goal came a renewed sense of will. “It keeps me moving forward; you have something to strive for.”
‘I realised it was an earthquake and went back to sleep’
Fariqqin shared that he didn’t exactly have a thorough masterplan to cover every prefecture. The journey so far consisted of a series of trips that would last up to two weeks each, and where feasible, he would take day trips via public transport to some locations to cover more ground.
“[Some] prefectures you can get there fast, maybe [in] 45 to 50 minutes. So [I’d spend] a day to go there and explore as much as I could.”
To manage his budget, Fariqqin — who now works full-time as a videographer for an agency in Singapore — would limit flights to only one per trip, with his main mode of transportation being the train.
When it came to accommodations, he would try to stick within a reasonable price range for boutique or capsule hotels.
“For S$50, you can get a pretty good hotel,” he said, adding that he’s willing to splurge a bit more (around $100 to $150) to stay near a train station for convenience.
Travelling light was essential, and he would only have a backpack and small shoulder bag in tow.
His adventures have amounted to around $25,000 to $30,000 in spending so far, he shared, keenly aware that this is around the same amount he had lost from the scam.
But this hasn’t made him second-guess his choices. “Honestly, no regrets about the spending. Zero.”
Navigating his way around the country has been easy as he’s fluent in speaking Japanese, having spent more than a year to master the language by enrolling in a language school and regularly taking video calls with native Japanese tutors on a platform called Italki—something he still does to this day.
The locals he has met on his travels were often surprised when they find out what he was doing. “I always use this as a conversation [starter]. They get very shocked. It’s a rare thing to complete, and more so because I don’t live there,” he said. “There was a Japanese guy who said, ‘Isn’t that impossible?’
“They are amazed and always ask, ‘Why do you want to do this?'”
On his adventures, Fariqqin has encountered some dangers along the way, including typhoons and earthquakes, which Japan is notorious for. But the avid solo traveller seems to have handled them well, recounting a “funny story” experiencing his first earthquake at a hotel in Tokyo one night.
“My bed was shaking, so I woke up in a state of confusion. Then I realised, oh, it was an earthquake and I just went back to sleep.”
He survived unscathed, pointing out that it was a relatively mild quake. “I did look outside the window and saw people were still shopping … everything was as per normal, so there was nothing to worry about.”
Cultural richness
The self-proclaimed Japanophile, who grew up enjoying Japanese music and anime, noted his deep admiration for the country’s strong sense of culture, respect and cleanliness.
“Regardless if it’s Japanese music, anime or wrestling, their culture is embedded in every part of them,” he said.
“[And they’re] very big on cleanliness. So, it’s a breath of fresh air for me as someone who has travelled solo to a lot of other places.
“It’s something that you want to strive to be as a human being—being helpful, being respectful.”
In his praise of Japan’s cultural richness, he pointed to the diversity between the country’s various prefectures. As he put it: “Different prefectures have different charms, different dialects and different cultures.”
Japan became his sanctuary
As much as this endeavour has fed Fariqqin’s desire to explore the country, it was also a chance for him to find solace.
“I’ve said this to myself a lot—that this is the place where I healed my broken self,” Fariqqin expressed. “It’s a much-needed experience for me.”
Even amid the bustle of travelling from one part of the country to another, Fariqqin still observed his daily prayers and adhered to a halal diet.
“I won’t miss my prayers, because religion has helped me to reach a good place,” he said.
“I’ve gone for Friday prayers there, I’ve prayed in the mosque and attended khutbah (religious sermon) with Japanese [Muslims]. Seeing Islam in a different culture was eye opening.”
Food was tricky for him to navigate as a practising Muslim. “It’s challenging having to avoid pork, and in the suburbs where halal restaurants are non-existent, I’ve relied on eating sushi and bread.”
‘I’m still hungry to explore Japan’
Now that completing this feat is within his reach, with one more trip in May to cover the remaining four prefectures, Fariqqin revealed that he initially felt an “existential crisis”.
“What should I do after? Do I need a new goal?” he had thought to himself, before deciding that he would consider travelling to neighbouring Asian countries that he had yet to visit or even a little further like Turkey.
But above all, Fariqqin would still keep revisiting Japan, as there are still areas in some prefectures that he hadn’t found the time to see or places that he might have missed.
Fariqqin said candidly that his family, friends and colleagues didn’t quite understand his need to do this and the weight of what he’s about to achieve.
“My mum is worried for a reason. She’s worried about my future [as] she knows that because of the scam that I have nothing. So I have to assure her that I have to do this.
“It’s not something that I’m wasting my money on. It’s for my happiness.”
And what about his initial dream of relocating there?
Fariqqin acknowledged that it would be difficult for him, a foreigner, to find a job there and make a living. But at some point, he would want to settle in Japan.
“My parents are still around and I still have responsibilities here,” said Fariqqin, who has three other siblings. “But I want to retire in the countryside.”
For now, though, he has his sights only on discovering all that the country has to offer with every visit. “I’m still hungry to explore Japan.”
“It might be a sickness,” he joked.
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