Initial Planning Travel

Anxiety Leading up to Japan

Okay, so I just wanted to talk about how anxious I am leading up to my Japan trip. I’ve been consuming Youtube content non-stop for the past few weeks trying to make sure I’m not showing up in another country like some kind of giga-cringe tourist. I have everything organized and ready to be packed, but… do I??? (; o_o)

I’m worried I’m gonna forget something! I still need to put together my deck for Singapore.

I haven’t planned out all my days or anything but I do have some plans…

  • 9/13 – Arrive:
    • Land in Narita Airport ~6pm and get through customs.
    • Buy a Suica card
    • Go to Hotel in Hamamatsucho
      • Put luggage down
    • Eating some takoyaki day 1
  • 9/14 – Pottery and Card games
    • 11 AM Pottery class with someone I met on discord
    • ~3-4 PM EVO Cafe playing some Grand Archive!
  • 9/15 – teamLabs Borderless and Shopping, then Dinner!
    • 11 AM Heading to teamLabs Borderless. Probably going to spend a lot of time there
    • I’m planning on exploring Tokyo and just like walking around and shopping a ton, idk lol
    • 6:30 PM Izekaya with a bunch of dudes I met from reddit/discord
      • Probably gonna try to get them to go to nijikai or sanjikai or even yonjikai lmao
  • 9/16 – No plans?? OH WAIT.
    • I thought I had plans for the 16th, and I actually didn’t but now I do because I thought teamLabs was yesterday and it wasn’t lol. Wtf lol. Whatever.
    • Later, I’m headed to Akihabara to check out the anime shops and card shops.
    • No plans for tonight. Maybe pachinko and get some pics of Golden Gai?
  • 9/17 – Sumo Tournament
    • 1 PM heading to a walking tour before Sumo tournament
    • Sitting with a few people in the box seats watching and enjoying Sumo
      • They’re gonna provide a cheering banner and I plan on using it haha
    • 5 PM dinner with the tour group
    • Post Dinner – Off to izekayas haha
  • 9/18 – Neko Matsuri
    • THERE IS A CAT FESTIVAL!!!
      • Cat themed items, cat themed foods, etc etc.
    • Meeting up with Arcaelo to hang out. He and I played GA in Houston and he’s gonna be in Tokyo around the same time as me so it should be fun AF haha
  • 9/19 – Traveling to Kyoto via Shinkansen
    • Planning on seeing Kabuki theater in Kabuki-za in Tokyo at 11 AM
    • Heading to Kyoto on the bullet train
      • I hope the Hello Kitty Shinkansen is running lol
    • Probably gonna arrive, put my luggage in the hostel and then walk around
  • 9/20 – No plans (Shrines in Kyoto?)
    • Been looking at some videos of “off-the-beaten-path” shrines
  • 9/21 – No plans. Nara?
    • Maybe hit up Nara for shika koen? idk.
  • 9/22 – Iga
    • I’m SUPER excited for this. I have loved Iga ninja since I was a child and it’ll be awesome to see this in person and experience all the history for Iga. So pumped.
      • Ninja House tour
      • Ninja Museum
      • Ninja exhibition
  • 9/23 – No plans (Maybe Osaka?)
    • If I end up in Osaka, I’m gonna hit the slums of Nishinari and hang out with some locals
  • 9/24 – No plans (If Osaka, idk)
  • 9/25 – No plans but heading to Tokyo
    • Have to head to Tokyo so I can stay overnight and catch my plane
  • 9/26 – Flying to Singapore
    • Getting to hotel and hanging with Brytwing and Kon
    • Eating Mala? O_o
  • 9/27 – Checking out Singapore
    • Eating Chili crab with the Aussies maybe?
  • 9/28 – Ascent Singapore
  • 9/29 – Ascent Singapore
  • 9/30 – Checking out Singapore
  • 10/1 – Heading home
    • Not excited for this day lol. It’s like an 18 hour flight.

So those are my plans. We’ll see if I stick to them. I’m very much not opposed to just like, winging it and meeting locals and having fun. I feel like I’m under-prepared but I also don’t really care. I’ll just deal and it’ll be fun. I am looking forward to just doing whatever, filming random shit, taking random pictures and then planning my next trip to Japan lol.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty nervous, even with all this stuff planned. I just feel like I am gonna miss half of this stuff and/or wish I spent more time in Tokyo over Kyoto or vice versa. I feel like I already have to plan a MUCH longer trip for next year. I’m really nervous, really anxious and really really excited. I think it’s going to be awesome. I’m absolutely pumped for Iga, amped for Tokyo and excited for Kyoto.

Maybe I’ll refund my return ticket lol.

(edit: I had the dates for the dinner messed up because timezones, how do they work?)

By Trent