After eight months traveling in Asia, Leslie Davis is back in Japan for 2 1/2 weeks. She is using this time "to get grounded": sorting out taxes and boxes, seeing friends and reorganizing her backpack for the next stage of her journey. This will take her through Indonesia to Australia, New Zealand and the Cook Islands, where she hopes to pick up a job crewing a boat to the west coast of North America. Her goal by May 15, 2001? Victoria, British Columbia.
As wacky as they come, Davis is also exceptionally well organized and clear-sighted. She came to Japan with a plan, she left with a plan, and so far, no problem. "In India, where you're constantly under pressure to buy blessings for good luck, I heard myself repeating, 'I don't need them, I'm lucky enough.' "
Although Calgary is her hometown, the 8 1/2 years she spent in her house in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, are the longest she has lived anywhere.