Growing up on Spirited Away, I never forgot the polluted river spirit Chihiro helps cleanse a quiet reminder that the places we pass through carry the weight of how we treat them. That image has stayed with me as I’ve planned my international placement: every journey is a chance to either burden a place or leave it a little better than I found it.
Getting there and around
Where possible, I’m choosing rail and coach over short-haul flights, and when flying is unavoidable, I’m booking direct routes and offsetting emissions through verified carbon-reduction schemes. Once on the ground, I’m relying on public transport, cycling, or walking rather than taxis partly practical, partly a nod to Miyazaki’s world where the most meaningful discoveries (like Sophie’s wandering castle) happen slowly, on foot, paying attention.
Packing like Nausicaä, not like a conqueror
In Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the protagonist studies her environment before acting on it, refusing to dominate what she doesn’t understand. I’ve tried to pack in that spirit: reusable water bottles, cutlery, and tote bags instead of single-use plastics; digital documents instead of printed ones; a capsule wardrobe to avoid overconsumption. Small choices, but they add up across a whole placement.
Living locally
I intend to eat seasonally and locally, shop at markets rather than chains, and support small businesses in my host community echoing SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Money spent locally stays local, and it forces a kind of humility: you eat what the land actually gives, not what you’re used to.
Energy and waste
In accommodation, I’m committing to the basics that rarely get taken seriously enough: short showers, lights off, unplugged chargers, and diligent recycling and composting where infrastructure allows. It’s unglamorous work more like Ponyo’s mother patiently tending the sea than any dramatic gesture but sustainability rarely announces itself. It’s maintenance, not spectacle.
Aligning with the bigger picture
I see this placement as a small, personal contribution to SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) not because one person’s choices will bend a global curve, but because habits are contagious. If I travel visibly and consistently in a low impact way, it normalizes that behavior for the people around me, the same way San in Princess Mononoke doesn’t single handedly save the forest but insists, stubbornly, that coexistence is still worth fighting for.
Ultimately, I don’t think of sustainable travel as a checklist of virtuous restrictions. It’s closer to what these stories keep returning to: the idea that we’re guests in the places we visit, and guests who pay attention leave things intact sometimes even better for whoever comes next.
