Woah, I Went to Japan

Published: 2025-03-13

Does anyone know that Twitter post about how after you turn 20 there's always someone in your life in either in Japan or Italy? Because I'm starting to think that's a lottery run by the universe because I went to Japan almost completely out of nowhere! I was woefully unprepared, absolutely shocked that it really is that much better anywhere else in the world, and am already pre-planning my trip back.

This trip was a complete surprise to me, and was only even scheduled two months beforehand. Basically, my mom convinced her friend’s family to let us go with them on their trip (the friend’s uncle was running in the Tokyo Marathon). My mom and I had been talking for ages about going to Japan together, mostly for the food, and she figured this might be the last chance we’ll get with me transferring to a school in Canada very soon.

It was a risk, especially going into both our first very extremely foreign countries with a little less than 7 weeks of prep! But I’m so glad we had all that time to wander, even if I’m sad I couldn’t get reservations for the Nintendo Museum or Pokemon Cafe.

Kyoto

The flight there was horrendous by virtue of being 14 hours long, though I did get luckier than I usually do on plane rides in terms of the people around me. Pretty much as soon as we landed in Haneda airport at Tokyo, we took the bullet train for two hours west to the Kyoto area.

Kyoto was so beyond gorgeous, with lots of incredible historical and cultural sites! I particularly loved Nara Park! I knew about the deer, but I had no idea they bowed back at you to ask and thank you for treats. The deer even waited at the crosswalks with everyone else, it was genuinely wild and I am wracking my brain trying to understand how these deer are so well-mannered (well… they bite too but that’s okay).

We only spent 3 days here, including the journey back to Tokyo, so I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I probably should have. I’d like to go again, definitely to give the journey through the Senbon Torii another shot in the morning when it’s way less crowded…

Tokyo

The rest of the trip was spent back in the Tokyo area, which was where I really started having a blast. Kyoto was really cool, but the energy in Tokyo was so electric and I couldn’t help but be swept up into it!

Admittedly, a lot of my time here was spent thrifting rather than doing more touristy things. I was just so excited about how cheap everything was relative to what I’m used to (As I write this, 100 JPY is about 67 cents in USD, which is wild when you’re from a very notoriously price-gouged part of the US).

Most of the things I got were for friends, but I found a lot of Final Fantasy and Persona merch to take home, which was very exciting!

My favorite part was definitely Ikebukuro, for that reason. I’ve seen people calling it Akihabara-lite, which is true to an extent, but I think it’s way better! Akihabara, to me, felt very touristy. Prices were very marked up in all but a small handful of stores, and it was all appallingly crowded to boot. Ikebukuro had all the same-feeling shops but way cheaper, and I love that!

One of the specific highlights of Ikebukuro for me was the Plaza Capcom, which had a floor full of the cheapest arcade machines I’d seen (all 100 yen per play, on anything) and a floor full of gashapon machines! We went to the cafe there too, which admittedly did feel like getting tortured (I had no idea what the crossover was, they kept playing the same 30 second anime clip on the loudspeakers over and over again) but the food was pretty okay at least.

I was also a huge fan of Sunshine City, a massive mall with an indoor theme park (Namjatown, which was also incredible, though I only went for the gyoza). Ikebukuro was also home to my new love, K-BOOKS, a chain with storefronts dedicated to selling secondhand merch from games, anime, idols, pretty much anything. They even had a store for game-centric doujinshi which was, quite possibly, the most joy I’d ever felt in my entire life over a store.

Mount Fuji

Towards the end of the trip, we went on a guided tour to Mount Fuji, and it was great! My legs were getting really bad from all the walking at this point, so I went into this day very worried about how I’d fare. It was hard, especially trying to climb the 400 steps to Chureito Pagoda (spoiler, I didn’t make it), but most of the day was luckily a bus ride up to the fourth station atop the mountain.

The tourist traps along the way were ridiculously overpriced, but I did have some very delicious shine muscat and red roman grape soft serve ice cream!

Mountains shouldn’t be a shock to me being from America, but the view was so stunning, I couldn’t help but be awed.

The Second Great Persona Period

I like categorizing my life into different eras much like a historian would with the world’s time periods. It’s funny to me, first of all, and also helps me keep track of when I’m interested in what (since I tend to jump around through the same 5 interests a lot).

I liken the time from around December 2020 to June 2021 The Great Persona Period, because that’s when I actually sat down and finished Persona 4 for the first time, sending me into a haze where I bought an entire Playstation and set up various emulators just to play through the rest of the games.

I mention this, because I was excited to find some Persona merch on this trip! It was a long-dormant interest by the time this trip had rolled around, but I still liked the games enough to keep up with my collection.

I got some pins and a tote bag and had a normal enough time doing so. It wasn’t until we’d found an ita bag store in Nakano where I went completely over the edge because I found a bag and some attachments for it that reminded me of Ryoji Mochizuki. I started a pinboard for some inspiration and to collect some assets for printouts to put inside the bag, which reminded me how much I loved this guy & his character.

And now I’m here, replaying Persona 3 Reload, riding off the coat-tails of reading the P3 Manga, and preparing myself to read all the rest of them. I’ve even started posting art again, that’s how dire this second era is looking to be. I mention all of this, because unfortunately this will be the main takeaway from this trip for me. I will forever be the guy who got into Persona (again) because I went to Japan and I hate that.

Home and Being Existential

Oddly, in this week back from the trip while my legs heal, I’ve been thinking a lot about my own life; what I’ve been doing with the time I’ve had, and how I really need to start changing soon to get where I want to go. I feel like I’ve been taking the time I have for granted, mostly that I have a healthy body (all things considered, at least) that I really don’t treat with respect. I keep thinking about the girls I saw hiking up Mount Fuji in heels, and while I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point, I couldn’t even climb up to the shrines I wanted to see and that sucks!

Apart from fitness, I’m lucky to have saved enough as a kid to be able to survive between schools and between jobs for almost a year while waiting for the next semester to start. I’m lucky to be able to even transfer abroad at all! But all I’ve been doing with this time is doomscrolling, replaying games I already have hundreds of hours in, and doing the most basic of basic chores. Granted, I’m very severely burnt out and do need the rest, while also figuring out how to navigate what I’ve only just now realized is autism. But still, spending an hour a day, if that, working on projects I care about isn’t any way for me to live.

So, I’m downloading some random self care app, buying a blank planner, setting screen time limits on my phone, and taking some baby steps towards making the life I want to live.

Also, apologies if this is incoherent and nonsensical, I am very tired and this was written very stream-of-conciousness style. I’ll make a separate blog post soon talking about the ita bag (once it’s done, of course) so stay tuned!