It’s a quiet morning in the summer of 2016 as Kelly Barnhill walks the streets of Takasaki, Japan.
The black asphalt steams in the distance as water spouting out of sprinklers is slowly vaporized by the blazing sun.
Red and gold lanterns hang over the walkway, exchanging paths between black electric power lines.
There’s not a trash can in sight, yet the streets are spotless of debris.
Kelly walks in and out of shops that line the street by herself. It’s a way for her to pass the time before she has to go to softball practice for Team USA.
She strolls past a convenience store selling everything from basic food items to household goods. Sights of dumplings and Onigiri rice balls line the streets with different restaurants’ menus.
Having visited Japan once before, Kelly has a checklist of things she’s looking forward to seeing in her second trip to the country. She smiles when she sees a local man walking his tortoise up and down the streets and gets excited when she finds two of her favorite Japanese candies — Poki and Hello Panda.
But then she locates what she has been looking for.
From the outside, it looks like a fabric shop, but Kelly knows it’s much more than that after spending years studying the country’s culture.
It’s a store that sells Japanese dress wear, specifically kimonos and other accent pieces that go along with the traditional style commonly worn by Japanese women.
She walks inside and strolls around the shop, immediately noticing the hues of yellow, green, red and blue that add life to the dull-colored walls and thin wooden shelves. Headless mannequins are fully dressed in multi-hundred-dollar kimonos.
She tries on a bluish gray yukata, an informal kimono worn during the summer and spring that’s normally made out of cotton instead of silk.
It’s accented with eggplant-colored flowers, but the hues are too dark for Kelly.
A purple yukata then catches her eye. Thin lavender bows are printed across the fabric, weaving in front of and behind clusters of bright pink flowers.
It’s the yukata that steals her heart and her attention for a culture she could love forever. The kind of love that makes you homesick for a place you’ve never lived in.
Possessing a love for traveling throughout her entire life, Kelly has been to places she will always remember thanks to her experiences with youth, college and international softball. But Japan is the place she loves the most.
She has traveled there with the United States women’s national softball team a total of four times and will be back again this summer for the WBSC Women’s World Championship.
The All-American pitcher for Florida has used her athletic talents to pursue her passion, one that takes root and shares memories the same way her favorite sport does — exploring the world once place at a time.
* * *
Long before Kelly stepped foot on Japanese soil for the first time, she and her father, Jeter, frequently went on road trips across the United States.
Jeter would try to strike up conversation with his daughter, but the movement of the family’s BMW frequently caused her to doze off.
“If any vehicle moves, Kelly instantly falls asleep,” Jeter said with a chuckle.
Their trips were often low-key. Jeter didn’t enjoy listening to music as much as he did talking with Kelly. He scolded her when she pulled out a book — her favorite way to pass the time — saying she was missing the natural scenery around her.
Their expeditions were fun by nature, but they weren’t on a whim and there was always a destination: national youth softball tournaments.
Driving was always the plan, rather than flying, because it gave them more time to spend together. Jeter also wanted Kelly to see the United States.
“I didn’t want Kelly to miss out on that,” he said.
Jeter would Google search their routes ahead of time, look at the places they were directed to pass through and plan pit stops accordingly.
Together, they saw the rugged-layered mountains of the Badlands in South Dakota, the World’s Only Corn Palace just off Interstate-90 in South Dakota, the first Jell-O Factory in New York, the slate-white cobblestones on the front of the Alamo in Texas and even the eruption of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.
But surprisingly, their favorite place they ever visited was the SPAM Museum — an exhibit focused on the production of canned, precooked meat products — in Austin, Minnesota.
What could have easily been a 10-minute visit and something that crossed off their been-there-done-that list turned into a four-hour excursion.
The museum was full of interesting displays, including a bright yellow wall lined with pictures of SPAM cans that could measure a person’s height.
They’re not sure why they enjoyed the quirky little museum, but Jeter recalled a possible link as to why it became one of the highlights of their trip.
As a child, Kelly loved going to the renaissance fair in her hometown of Marietta, Georgia. She and her family would eat fried turkey legs and macaroni on a stick, as well as check out paintings produced by traveling artists.
But the thing that excited them the most was a juggling act.
Every year, a performer would juggle three things — a handheld chainsaw, a machete and, of course, a can of SPAM.
“It was fun being there with her just enjoying it,” Jeter said.
The sentimental backstory behind Kelly’s affection for the SPAM Museum helps illustrate what she values in the landmarks she visits. She doesn’t care about the specific features of the attractions themselves, but rather the deeper meaning behind them.
And she still has numerous places she hasn’t gotten to see.
Kelly’s bucket list starts with traveling to Germany. Jeter was stationed there for five years while he served in the Army. His interest in Germany’s culture sparked her own.
Her fascination with the country expands beyond sightseeing its castles and other popular stops. She wants to experience its language and history, evident in places like the Berlin Wall Memorial.
However, Kelly said one of the hardest things about traveling is finding a way to get there. Things like money, time and method of transportation can get in the way, but softball has given her that opportunity.
* * *
The first time Kelly went to Japan was in June 2016 with Team USA for the Japan All-Star Series, a three-game series that takes place in three different venues.
About 31,400 fans were packed the Tokyo Dome, home to the Yomiuri Giants — a professional baseball team in Japan — on the night of the first game. It was the first softball game held in the Tokyo Dome, ever.
The size of the fan base was astonishing to Kelly. She was amazed at how much the people of Japan loved the game of softball.
“It’s so cool to see that no matter what culture or language, doesn’t matter your race or religion, a love of the sport transfers across all of it,” Barnhill said.
Team USA went on to lose the first game in the series 5-1 on June 23.
The series continued over the next two days in Sendai, Japan, with Team USA losing again by a final score of 2-0 on June 24 and winning 5-1 on June 25.
Softball is what led Kelly to Japan, or at least secured visits to a place she’s grown to love throughout her life. But her passion runs deeper than that.
Kelly’s interest in Japanese culture started when she was in middle school.
First, she started off reading anime and manga. “Skip Beat” and “Naruto” were some of her firsts.
The artwork was intricate to the last detail, creating action-packed themes that made the storylines captivating and easy to follow along.
When Kelly visits Japan, she brings back Kimmidolls, collectable figurines with a specific meaning and design for each one. She has collected them since her first visit to Japan. Four trips later, Kelly has around 20 Kimmidolls.
Among her favorites are named Ayumi and Masayo, or respectively known in English as “adventurous” and “true.”
Ayumi is white-haired and wears a sky blue kimono. She sits on a bookshelf in Kelly’s room in Gainesville. She reminds Kelly on a daily basis to live the adventure of life, have the courage to explore possibilities and encourages her spirit to explore and dare.
Masayo, a purple-haired doll dressed in blues and greens holding a light-colored bouquet of flowers, sits next to Ayumi. The doll stands for an authentic and pure spirit, telling people to live true to themselves and cherish everything that makes them unique.
Another way Kelly invests in Japanese culture is by using an app on her phone called Duolingo, which is designed to help her learn the Japanese language.
Originally, she was hoping to take some classes at UF, but her schedule as a student-athlete is too time-consuming to permit it.
* * *
As a 21-year-old junior, Kelly has no idea what she wants to do in the future. At all.
She knows that softball and traveling are a part of the plan in some way, but the logistics of things aren’t figured out yet.
Traveling has played such an intricate part of her life since she was a young girl. It’s one of the few themes that have remained constant.
She’s interested in playing for a professional team in Japan once she leaves UF. Making $100,000 a season is a no-brainer. But for Kelly it means more than that.
Kelly is one of the top pitchers in all of college softball.
In her career, Kelly has thrown four no-hitters and one perfect game, and she also notched a 0.81 ERA in her first two seasons at UF and has a 0.74 ERA in 2018.
She has also received some of the highest accolades possible for a college softball player. She was named the 2017 USA Softball Collegiate National Player of the Year, the 2017 espnW Player of the Year, a 2017 Honda Sport Award winner and was given a 2017 ESPY for Best Female Collegiate Athlete.
But there’s still one thing missing from Kelly’s trophy case that hasn’t escaped her mind in the slightest — an Olympic Gold Medal.
It’s a bigger dream that’s led her on this path around the world, literally.
Kelly plays to win because she wants to be the best. Trophies, medals and awards mean nothing to her. But knowing she is playing at the highest level and representing her country means everything.
Playing for the gold medal has been the same dream since she was a little girl and it’s the biggest honor an athlete can have in her eyes.
“There are few greater things than standing on the podium listening to your national anthem,” she said.
Kelly Barnhill has gained an appreciation for other cultures through traveling for softball tournaments.
