People from every corner of the world come to Nara — and they never stop coming.

There is something in this ancient city — a stillness, a depth — that calls to the traveller regardless of where they are from. And in the course of those journeys, people meet, and sometimes give one another words.

A memory surfaced, quietly. Years ago, a friend from Taiwan gave me four characters and said they described me perfectly.

He smiled as he said it: "This is you." Those words have lived quietly inside me ever since.