All rivers flow into the ocean

My grandmother is Japanese, but she was left behind by her parents in a small town in Anhui Province, during World War II, China-Japan War (1937-1945). Later, she moved to Shanghai with her adoptive parents and didn’t know of her origins until she was 40 years old. I retraced the places mentioned in her story, travelling along the Yangtze River in China, and east to the Sea of Japan, trying to find clues that might connect with the shaky and rootless feeling in my heart. However, this search became vague and difficult, like moving forward in a fog.

Much later, I realized that I’ve never really landed and taken root. I constantly migrate from one place to another, just like my grandmother and my mother. I asked - What is home? Is it the place where we were born and raised? Who are we if we don’t know our past and history?

But no matter how far we wander, All rivers flow into the ocean.