Back to Japan!
I’ve been planning to head back to Japan for a while now, and we’re finally here after 24 hours of flights, not showering, eating janky food and talking to strangers. I’m so excited to be back. My friend who I met last year decided that he was able to join me on this trip so I am even more pumped because at least I can face all my anxiety with someone I know lol.
The plane ride was actually good
I actually had a decent time. I sat next to this woman, Laurie, and she and I spoke at length about the economy, the president, artificial intelligence and the decline of western civilization. She is from Canada and travels a lot too so we had that in common too. Shout-out to Laurie– you’re cool people. Anyway, we talked a bunch and came to an agreement about the elbows, sleeping and personal space lol. There’s nothing I hate more than silently fighting this social battle with the person next to you over the arm rests, and when you concede ground it’s gone for like 5+ hours. Nothing I hate more. You know where I’m coming from with that I’m sure lol. She’s headed to Vietnam for the next 4 weeks so we exchanged contact info in case I decide to head over there after my 2 week stint in Japan.
Nippon ni Youkosou
So we landed, parted ways and then I was off. When you disembark, there’s a spot in the airport where it has “Welcome to Japan” written in a number of languages as well as a little mural. Literally EVERYONE takes a picture in front of it and I’m no exception. I traded photo taking with a couple and asked them about their trip too, but it was a brief conversation and nothing to write home about.
After going through customs, where I messed up on the forms and the QR code and had to get back into line a bunch, I was finally done! I was actually in Japan and boy was I excited. I paid for my eSim and contacted my friend and we met up immediately, getting a couple Strong Zeros and bus tickets to Tokyo station. He apparently got interviewed for television and they asked what he was excited for and he answered, “Japanese Culture, Akihabara and Strong Zeros” which is hilarious. We left Narita and headed toward our hotel.
The Walk to Aki
Walking from Tokyo Station to Akihabara takes like 30+ minutes. I’m glad we did it because I got to see so many good places to go eat in the area before we actually got to the hotel. I will say, Japan is like… filled with incredible restaurants so no matter where you go it’s usually really good. Yesterday we proved it by going to a random hotpot place after wandering around and drinking a bit.
Staying in Akihabara is a little tough because the girls trying to get you to go into the maid cafes are soooo cute and I hate saying no to them lol. God giving me his toughest battles on day 1 haha.
I’ll get more pics of the Aki street life in future posts since I’ll be in the neighborhood all week.
APA Hotel
I don’t agree with the conservative stuff the head of the APA Hotel chain does, and have heard many times that it’s cringe, but if they don’t have the best prices and easiest check-in/check-outs I don’t know who does. It’s always a pretty decent sized room for the price and usually in some prime locations. I wanted to book the room at the “Under the Station” hotel, which is under Aki Station but they didn’t have a thing on booking.com so I didn’t bother since I have like 3 other people relying on me. If I didn’t, I’d have booked a hostel for night 1 and figured out the rest from there. Staying in unique places is all part of the fun.
Auld Lang Syne
We were in an arcade playing crane machines and the “closing time” song came on. At least it’s not the actual song “closing time” because I have heard that WAY too many times in the states lol. uj
Urusai Gaijiin
I went to the conbini and outside there were some kids shotgunning Strong Zeros. I asked “Where’s a good place to hang out” and they pointed me like 15 minutes north. It was already pretty late so I didn’t wanna walk all the way there. I will, however, check into pubs up there today and find us a decent haunt for tonight. The kids were clearly like, off-put by us so I didn’t wanna bother them. Then I asked a group of people where was ok to smoke and hid off the beaten path and smoked some cigarettes. We ran into an Aussie in an alley (you’ve heard of elf on a shelf?) on our way back and had a short conversation with him. He was on his last day. It’s wild to hear about other people’s Japan experiences and how different they are from yours. I think he was a bit drunk because it was 2 AM to be fair, but I am always open to talking to strangers and hearing about their lives.
Back to the Room
Got in, laid down and immediately passed out. It was very late and I’m on ~5 hours of sleep so I’ll probably end it here and get some breakfast. See you all in a few days after I get some pictures!
All I know is that I’m super happy to be here, eating great food, buying great onigiri and shotgunning great numbers of convenience store beers at 2AM with the kids outside lol.
