You can be wiser to know what you want to know.  You can be much wiser to know what you even don't know whether it exists or not. Also, you can be much wiser to know what you don't want to know.   -Masakazu Yamazaki- 

This is my 4th essay.  I finished my 3rd essay about Thailand and gave it to my editor this evening.  Reading it, she said to me, "Not bad" as the devil wearing Prada told coldly about the job performance to Ann Hathaway.  I was somewhat relieved to hear her voice which sounded OK.  She continued to say without showing her emotions, "The next theme is Your Ideal Vacation. Write what you like."  I thought she should not say in that way, but I didn't tell her anything what I thought, and said "Just great" soundlessly.  Then, "Sounds easy to write to me and I will get back to you when I finish it," I said with a healthy smile like a concierge in the lobby of a traditional hotel, and then left the magazine company.

Ideal Vacation.  It is so undefined, therefore, I will think about it if I have 10 days summer day off.  It really depends how to define vacation.  The first thing came to my mind when my editor told me the next theme was an overseas trip. It is nice to visit sightseeing sites and museums as an ordinary trip, but I would like to stay at a summer resort to relax and be easy for my ideal vacation. Hey, I start feeling happy just to think a travel plan…   

I have a breakfast buffet where custom made omelets are served in a restaurant of the hotel.  It is nice if the restaurant has tables outside.  Colorful birds never seen before come to under the table to pick crumbs.  I give a piece of hushed brown potatoes to them because the crumbs are not enough.  I do the good and right things in this world for the after-life.  Then, changing to a swimming wear, I go to a poolside in the hotel or the private beach to read books for a whole day.  When I am tired to read, I swim in the pool. It is a fun option to do people watch.  You will see many tourists from Europe, Asian courtiers and North America in the poolside and the beach.  Among them, it seems to me that tourists from European countries know well how to spend vacation in the resort.  If you ask them about ideal vacation, they may told you, "We do nothing, that's the vacation, then, what?"  

Pizza, sandwich, or local foods are fine for lunch.  I don't care if I can have beer.  I am getting sleepy in the afternoon because the parasympathetic nerves are activated, and it is already the sunset time after taking a couple of naps. As for dinner, it is ideal if we have a grilled lobster and turquoise blue tropical fish with a bottle of white wine in an ice bucket in a restaurant by the beach.  On the way back to the hotel, we stop by shabby souvenir shops, and the day is over.

We repeat this daily routine from the day after arriving at the destination to the Day 6.  In the Day 7, we move to the city where leaving for Japan in the Day 9.  In the city, we go to huge shopping centers where air conditioners are working so hard. The temperature inside the building is so low; it seems like for polar bears. 

In the morning of the Day 9 (or midnight of the Day 8 depending on the flight schedule), we leave for Japan, and arrive at home in the late afternoon.  We have one more day left and it is for the time to adjust jetlag and rest for work of the next day. It may sound a bit acquired that the last day of vacation is the day for rest, but I think you understand what I am telling you. 

What about the destination?  Imagining resort sites in southeast Asian countries where I have been before, I am telling you this so far, and it may be a good choice to go to the same place because of no need to hustle so much.

But I remember what a certain philosopher suggested.  "Someone says it is not recommended for travelers to bring a smartphone or a laptop to connect the Internet, and also the travelers should immerse themselves in only visiting places.  I don't support these opinions.  In order to be wiser, it is important to try to know in what you aren't interested, and going trip is one of the best ways to come across the unknowns.  If you become a stranger in a visiting place, you probably meet what you don't ever know, then you are likely to type a new search word in your device.  As a result, you become a wiser."  So, let's visit a new place for my ideal vacation.

Beaches of the Mediterranean Sea or Caribbean resort sound nice, and also staying at a resort hotel in Greece and visiting historical spots seems an ideal plan.  While good plans come to my mind endlessly, I remember the destination I actually planned before, which is Sri Lanka.  

There are couple of reasons for visiting Sri Lanka.  There are lovely colonial-style resort hotels by the sea, it is a still rare destination, and it is possible to visit Buddhist ruins as well as enjoy shopping in the capitol city of Colombo on the way back to Japan.  If I am tired of reading books on a beach chair, let's take yoga lessons offered by the hotel.

This is all about my ideal vacation.  It looks not so bad, I mean it seems like perfect.  I hope to make this vacation come true.

Dear my editor, I wrote as I like because you told me write what you like.  May I have a "flower mark" again this time?

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I appreciate if you also read the Japanese version of this article "理想の休暇を妄想する" in my Note.