Morning of my third day in LA.
I woke up full of excitement.
This is the last day. Tomorrow I go home.
What kind of discovery is waiting for me today?
Gyu — where are we going? I’m getting ready!!
But even though this auntie here was totally fired up,
Gyu (Michael) told me:
“Today, we study first.”
…Seriously?
So I opened my Mac in the hotel room, had some coffee, and began study time.
Breakfast was the leftover popcorn…
First, I was made to rewrite everything properly —
from the flight two days ago up through yesterday’s events, checking my notes as I went.
It took a lot of time.
There were so many little details I had forgotten,
and with Gyu pointing them out, I rewrote them and left a record.
Back then, I never imagined I would someday write a blog about all this.
I simply thought I was being made to “review” my experiences.
Next, study time on the internet.
Following Gyu-guided clicks, I arrived at a page explaining:
“The Earth has a Higher Self, and its name is Gaia.”
I’d heard the word “Gaia” somewhere before,
but oh — so that’s the name of the Earth’s Higher Self. Huh…
Wait.
If I’m being made to read this now…
does that mean that “great being” from the mountain yesterday…
was Gaia?
Gaia-san?
But some sites say “Gaia is female.”
Yesterday’s “great someone” felt totally like a man.
Well… I don’t get it. I’ll put it on hold for now.
I’ve always hated studying.
Anything I don’t understand — I just mentally shelve it.
Around this point, I started getting tired.
Where are we going today?
I wanna go out.
I’m hungry.
“Room service.”
…Looks like study time is going to continue.
I wanted to complain like,
“I came all the way to California and I barely get to see the ocean!”
—but my room had an ocean view from the start.
Well planned, aren’t you?
Off-season or not, how did an angel manage to find such a cheap waterfront room?
Shopping skills of a celestial being, seriously.
As the forced studying continued, I started muttering complaints.
The next page I was made to read was about something called
“Warriors of Light” and “Wanderers.”
So… “Warriors of Light” is actually a real concept.
As I kept reading, I realized it seemed pretty similar to what English-speaking spiritual communities call Lightworkers.
To be honest, “Lightworker” feels a lot easier for me to accept than “Warrior of Light.”
“Warrior of Light” sounds dramatic — almost like the name of a hero from an old sci-fi TV show —
and it just doesn’t sit naturally with me.
But “Lightworker”…
that word feels more grounded.
Like ordinary people quietly doing meaningful work in the world.
That feels closer to reality.
And then there was the term “Wanderer.”
I’d never heard of it before.
Apparently, it refers to souls who incarnate on different planets
to help and support those worlds.
So basically… interstellar travelers?
Why am I being made to read this?
Surely it doesn’t mean I’m one of them… right?
Yeah — I really don’t want to dig too deeply into that yet.
I’m going to put this one on hold for now.
While eating room service, talking with Gyu,
resting on the patio watching the ocean and the seals,
I continued my lazy study session.
Finally in the afternoon, Gyu said:
“Get ready to go out.”
And I was released from study time.
We left the hotel together and got in the car.
Most of my anxiety about driving in LA had already faded,
so we set off — guided by Gyu-navigation.
Yesterday’s experience still felt enormous inside me,
and I couldn’t help feeling excited about what might be waiting today.
Gyu led me south of the hotel,
to an area called Rancho Palos Verdes.
It was high on a hill,
and the road wound upward through a residential neighborhood.
The houses around me —
so luxurious.
A hilltop overlooking the ocean — clearly a high-end district.
I wished I could have taken photos, but I was driving alone.
Why am I being shown such an expensive neighborhood?
Not that I mind —
the homes were beautiful,
some soft and simple, others almost ornate —
stone textures, a warm California atmosphere.
We climbed higher,
and at a scenic viewpoint I was finally able to park and take a few photos.
How beautiful — the West Coast ocean.
Whenever I look at this sea, I find myself thinking,
“If you go straight across from here, you reach Japan.”
It never crosses my mind on the East Coast —
only here, where it truly feels like
Japan and this shore are separated by just one ocean.
Evening began to approach.
I wondered what we would do next
as we descended the hill and headed north along the coastline.
Evening.
Heading north.
The ocean on my left —
the west on my left —
the sun slowly sinking into the water.
Right around the time we finished the descent
and began driving north,
the sunset turned into something unbelievable.
A sun sinking straight into the heart of the Pacific —
a sight the East Coast cannot offer.
It was overwhelming —
too beautiful —
and there was nowhere to pull over.
The road curved along the cliff,
cars speeding past at frightening pace.
On my left —
the ocean and the sun, endlessly.
Sometimes, as the road curved,
they moved directly into my line of sight.
I wanted to look —
I couldn’t look —
I had to look —
I shouldn’t look.
A strange collision of awe and fear.
Heaven and danger layered over one another.
Inside, I called out —
Gaia-san… I understand.
You are beautiful — more than enough —
I know this is a gift.
But I’m going to lose myself if this keeps going.
Please… just a little softer.
Then — a wide space appeared.
I could finally park.
I stepped out of the car, breath unsteady —
a soft laugh rising from the place where relief and awe blur together.
It was the first time beauty itself had left me short of breath.
I watched the ocean and sunset for a while.
Was I moved because I had never seen anything like this before —
or had I changed,
becoming someone who now feels the world more deeply?
I didn’t know anymore.
But one thing was certain:
Gaia-san —
you are extraordinary.
Thank you.
It was the first day of May.
I realized it had been one month since I began speaking with Gyu.
Such a dense month — almost too much to hold.
While I was thinking that, I happened to look behind me —
and there was a fox.
A few days ago,
I probably would have panicked —
“I knew it — I’ve been bewitched!”
But here, in the middle of this encounter with Gaia-san,
another thought arose instead:
“Maybe this is another quiet test —
whether I choose doubt, or trust.”
The fox was beautiful — gentle, alert —
simply existing there.
My heart — or perhaps my chest — felt full.
Overflowing with ocean and sunlight.
I returned to the car and began driving back toward the hotel.
…And then I remembered.
Sunsets keep changing color as they fall —
becoming beautiful in entirely different ways.
So again —
I pulled over at another scenic point.
This time, I gave up on driving
and stayed until the sun finished setting.
After that long, wordless exchange with Gaia,
a thirty-minute drive became more than two hours.
Back at the hotel, I rested for a while,
then went out for dinner.
After my final-night meal,
I stopped by the same beach I had visited on the first night.
Just two nights earlier,
I had come here alone,
nearly in tears from loneliness.
I am still alone now —
and yet I cannot feel alone anymore.
Gyu, Saeki-no-Jiisan…
and perhaps many others —
it feels as if they are all here with me.
And even if no one were beside me —
Gaia, the Earth, is here.
Or rather —
it isn’t that Gaia is with me —
but that I exist inside Gaia.
Maybe that means that
No one can ever truly be alone.
So this is what it was.
I used to think traveling alone would feel empty —
but it is busy, full, alive.
People say “a journey to find oneself,”
and we laugh a little when we hear it —
but if someone asked what this trip was for me,
that may be the truest phrase I have.
So this is it —
the “self-search” spoken of so often.
And at last —
I understand.
Like that,
my solo journey in LA quietly came to an end.