Solo travel: Hiking alone in the mountains of Japan as an ENFP
I am an ENFP according to the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality type test. If you know your MBTI, ENFP is known as a Campaigner, someone who is enthusiastic, free-spirited and can get along really quickly with others. We’re the ones who light up in conversations, who feed off group dynamics, and who rarely enjoy doing things alone. Solo activities? Not really my thing.
But when I was living in Nagano, Japan, I decided to challenge myself. As part of both personal growth and my work gathering content, I set out to hike through the Kita-Yatsugatake mountain range by myself: a solo day trip.
It turned out to be an impactful day trip, one that revealed three distinct lessons to me about silence, health, and self-reflection.
Silence is Louder Than You Think
The first thing you notice is the silence. Out there in the mountains, with no chatter, no footsteps, no hum of the city: only green, blue with a scent of nature, all encased in stillness.
What’s fascinating is how loud your own thoughts become in that silence. It’s almost forceful. The quiet amplifies the inner voice you may have been ignoring, pushing all your worries, goals, and questions right to the surface.
For someone like me, who usually goes with the flow and loves riding the energy of others, that sudden stillness was both unsettling and profound. It became an invitation, maybe even a demand, to pause, reflect, and face the thoughts I had neatly tucked away. Silence, I learned, truly is golden in more ways than one.
Health Isn’t Just About Being “Fit”
I’ve always considered myself active. Back in the UK, I spent much of my youth training in karate and believed I had a strong baseline of fitness. But after moving to Japan, I hadn’t been exercising consistently.
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That hike, which took me up to elevations of 2,000–2,700 meters, reminded me of a humbling truth: consistency is the real superpower of health.
Sure, I thought I was fit, but the mountain disagreed. Climbing slopes, descending rocky paths, and breathing thinner air left me struggling in ways I didn’t expect. Muscle strain and fatigue showed me that health isn’t a permanent status; it’s something you have to nurture daily.
Self-Reflection is Unavoidable in Nature
Being alone in nature forces you to reflect regardless of your wants.
As city dwellers, many of us go months without any deep connection to the natural world. The disconnection is subtle but damaging, often weighing on our mental well-being. The irony is that you only notice what you’ve been missing when you finally step outside and let nature remind you.
For us ENFP types, who tend to rush forward and keep our minds busy, sitting with these reflections isn’t easy. But out there among the trees, the lakes, and the mountain air, I realised how essential it is. Honest self-reflection, both mental and physical, is not just helpful, it’s necessary for growth and wellbeing. I am also certain that nature would force self-reflection regardless of your personality type, as the connection with nature and the requirement as humans to maintain that connection is on a deeper level than personalities.
Afterthoughts
Maybe this experience was unique to me, or maybe you’ve felt something similar. Have you ever gone out into nature alone, whether hiking, walking, or even just sitting in a quiet park and found yourself confronted by thoughts you didn’t expect?
Was it overthinking? Or was it the kind of self-reflection we often avoid in the rush of daily life?
For me, that day in Nagano was a reminder that sometimes solitude and silence are exactly what we need, not just to connect with nature, but to reconnect with ourselves.
