Japan Day 8
Today marked my last full day in Japan, a bittersweet finale to an incredible journey. I left the day’s schedule deliberately open, giving myself the flexibility to soak in every last moment without the constraints of a fixed itinerary. My morning began with a reservation at TeamLab Planets, a mesmerizing exhibit that promised a blend of art and technology—a fitting start to the day. The experience would deposit me near the iconic giant Gundam statue, a symbol of futuristic innovation that has long captured my imagination. With only these two anchors, the day was wide open, and I was eager to see where it would lead me. I woke up early, as had…
Japan Day 7
Oh man, was I excited for today. As a giant nerd who’s always loved anime, manga, and video games, exploring Akihabara, the electronic entertainment district of Tokyo, had always been a dream of mine. Despite being exhausted from the previous day, my excitement kept me awake in bed around 6:00 a.m. With a full day of walking ahead, I needed to relax a little before starting my day. I tried the provided slippers but soon realized my size 13 feet weren’t going to fit. So I grabbed my own sandals and made my way to the third floor, where the men’s bath was located. The bath’s quality and cleanliness pleasantly surprised me. Though…
Japan Day 6
Another full day of travel today. I woke up very early and decided I would just walk around a bit in the morning. I didn’t know what time the first bus ran, but I did know that where I left my luggage would not be open until 8am. I gathered up all my stuff and headed out to the lobby to hang out for a minute and get a little bit of stretching in. The lobby of the hostel was pleasantly peaceful at 5:30am. I’m finding that I’m fond of waking up early and watching the world come to life. I was going to stop by Lawsons and grab some Monster to wake…
Japan Day 5
Today was a trip to Hakone, and I may have bit off a little too much for 1 day. Honestly, with all the traveling I did in Hakone I should have scheduled two days to see everything. Despite wracking up 15 miles of walking today, I had a great time seeing all the sights. Traveling in Hakone presented some of its own challenges that I’ll get into, and I missed out on some things that originally I had planned. I woke up early and grabbed a taxi to Kyoto Station. This was my first time managing to communicate my intent fully in Japanese. No need to use a phone or map to show…
Japan Day 4
Another early start to the day. My goal for today was to make it out to Nara park in the morning, take a look around and get to see the “cute” deer out there. Spoiler alert, the deer were not cute and I would go so far as to call them assholes, but we’ll get to that soon. I had my days crossed and my train mishap was actually today, not on the trip to Osaka, but the outcome was the same and I made it out to Nara well before things were open and all was quiet. In fact, today was full of new public transportation challenges. The subway station right outside…
Japan Day 3
Today had a day trip to Osaka planned. The train ride did not go as planned by any means. I’m still learning how the train system works in Japan and the JR Line that I boarded this morning was the correct line to get to Osaka, but the particular train I boarded only went as far as Uji! I didn’t realize my mistake until we stopped at the Uji station for about 10 minutes, afterwards we started heading back to Kyoto! I hopped off at the next train stop, caught the next train and double checked it was bound for Osaka, I lost about 20 minutes on that one. Thankfully, my jet lag…
Japan Day 2
Despite being completely exhausted when I got to the hotel last night, I found myself awake at 12AM, 3AM, and finally 5:30AM. I decided I was not likely to get more than 6 hours of sleep this evening and opted to shower up and head out. I had booked the Kyoto Samurai Experience before arriving in Japan. It is about 15 minutes South of Nijo Castle. The experience didn’t start until 10AM, so I had ample time to set out and explore. I checked the different options to get to Nijo Castle and all of them were around 25 minutes, whether that was a combination of bus and subway, or trains that didn’t…
Japan Day 1
Traveling across time zones is always difficult for me and this was no exception. The time difference is 14 hours. Between the 13 hour flight, 2.5 hour train ride, and trying to figure out how public transportation works I was feeling quite overwhelmed. To make things even more hectic, I brought an expired debit card and didn’t realized until the first ATM I tried declined my transaction. Thankfully with my JR Pass I was able to make the trip from Haneda to Kyoto without the need for cash. Figuring out how to get cash is going to be a problem for tomorrow, for now though I need to get some much needed rest…
Intro
Tomorrow I set out on my first overseas trip. My destination is Japan, which is a bucket list item for me. I want to ensure I can hold onto these memories better than I usually do so I’ll be documenting my trip here. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!