Japan Journal #2: When Things Don't Go According to Plan

I've been home for 5 days or so, and I've had so much trouble getting myself to write this post. As a blogger, there's a lot of weird pressure to put a positive spin on everything for the sake of the reader. I kept getting stuck on how I was going to spin the last week of my trip to be some sort of positive learning experience. And I'm not even someone who aims to be "inspirational" or anything. I fully embrace negativity in most aspects of life and blogging. While I definitely learned a lot during my trip, that doesn't make some parts of it shitty. And that's ok. So I'm just going to take the time to write an honest post, because I think that's more valuable and interesting anyway.

If you missed part one, you can read it here. Buckle up, girls and boys. Where did we leave off?

A TERRIBLE THING HAPPENED

As some of you may know, I've gotten into CouchSurfing - a site where you can find free accommodation/friendship while traveling. I hadn't done any surfing, I had only hosted people and had wonderful experiences. For a month before our trip I spent AGES trying to nail down as much budget accommodation as possible and had 2 CouchSurfing hosts lined up for the last leg of the trip.

Ok, anyway, we took 7 different trains (9 hours) to get from Tokyo to Kyoto and went to our host's apartment. Within 15 minutes there, we felt so uncomfortable that we had to leave. The apartment was one of the most disgusting places I had ever seen in my life. Trash everywhere, things rotting, grime coating everything, and to top it all off - cockroaches. Kyoto isn't a poor, rural area. This is a big, modern city and the rest of the apartment building did not look at all like this guy's apartment. I don't have high standards at all, but it was unacceptable. I felt grossed out and I felt offended and I felt sort of duped. Why would somebody invite people into their home if it looked like this? You don't make money. It's completely voluntary. You can have literally any other hobby. Play a video game! Ride a bike!

So it's 11 pm or so and we're alone at night in a new city with nowhere to stay. I was really upset, both because of the circumstance and because I had spent so much time trying to find accommodation and I had fucked it up. I try not to be hard on myself, because he had 16 references and only one mentioned a messy bathroom. It's just hard to have plans that you worked hard to make fall apart. So I cried in my pajamas in a weird cowboy themed restaurant in Kyoto (surreal) for a few minutes then started looking for hotels. We ended up having to drop a surprise $120 to stay in hotels for the next couple days. A good thing that came out of it: I got to experience the public bath they had, which was one of the weirder/most relaxing times I've ever had. We had a place to stow our luggage and sleep, so we put everything behind us and focused on visiting many of the beautiful shrines in Kyoto. What's interesting about Kyoto is how much older it is than Tokyo. It felt very different.

Fushimi Inari Taisha was one of my favorite places in Kyoto. You may know it from the Thousand Torii Gates (the rows of red wooden gates featured in many photos). I didn't realize it was actually a mountain that you climb until I was too far in to turn back. It was hot as fuck, but I'm so glad we took the time to go all the way up and explore the little paths that ventured off the main path. There were wild cats living there!

Another shrine I loved was Kokedera, the moss shrine. It's smaller and less well known than the big ol' Kiyomizudera or the bamboo grove (both of which I went to), but it's sooooo enchanting. It felt like I was in another world. And now I really want to get some moss terrariums in my life. BEAUTIFUL.

At this point in our trip, we felt sort of lonely. Many people had insisted that that a lot of Japanese people would be coming up to us randomly to use their English or take photos of us, which is a weird promise to make anybody. And it totally didn't happen. Ever. It's hard to explain how isolating it is to be somebody who isn't Japanese in Japan. It's to be expected, of course, but it's really intense how separate we are. We're not necessarily treated badly or anything, we're just made to feel like we live in separate, impenetrable bubbles. A perfect representation of this loneliness was one day we were walking through a market and we spotted a white guy on a bike. He wasn't the first non-Asian person we had seen, but we also had learned on this trip that non-Asians are not always English speakers! SURPRISE! He spotted us and smiled, then I smiled, which made him grin even bigger and blurt "Hey, guys!" I hadn't seen someone so excited or outgoing in a long time. It brightened my mood entirely, and then he was gone.

I had scheduled one night where we'd stay in a hostel, and it ended up being one of our favorite nights of the entire trip. The owner was sooo nice and his friend introduced himself to us. He studied English, so he wanted to speak with us and we ended up chatting for hours into the night. A hostel guest from South Korea also joined us, and she was an absolute doll. It was really fun talking about the differences in our languages and cultures. In Japan there are vending machines literally everywhere outside with soft drinks, cigarettes, and alcohol. We told them that we have snack vending machines in America and everyone at the table started HOWLING with laughter. There was laughter abound that night.

OUR TRIP CUT SHORT

We had been alerted by our friend who got us buddy passes that people were getting stuck in the Tokyo airport for weeks, so very sadly we had to leave early and from the central Japan airport. Our plan had been to spend our last days in Tokyo, but, again, my plans were falling apart. It was hard. There were a lot of things I didn't take photos of, because I assumed we would be back. Since we had made friends with the hostel owner that night, I asked him if he had any openings at the hostel for one more night. He didn't, but he agreed to let us stay at his other property for a meager $30. I was so grateful.

After that night we headed to Nagoya and managed to fly out of Japan on the first available flight. And, WAY outside of our plans, it was to Hawaii! Getting to fly business class on an international flight almost made up for what happened next.

omg

We were stuck in Hawaii for 5 days. I know, I know, it sounds just AWFUL. But let me clarify. For one, there was the initial (and very long) "where will we stay for less than $300 a night" panic. Luckily, I found out that Lindsay from Lindsay's Library lives in Honolulu and she graciously let us sleep in her beautiful home. We stayed with her way longer than we should have, but she was so nice and made us feel so welcome. Every day at 4:30 am we went straight to the airport. And then we waited through all of the flights, getting our hopes up that we'd be let on and being crushed each time it didn't work out. If you're flying with a buddy pass, you never make any progress on the standby lists. You're always lowest priority. Also, when we first got to Hawaii I made the joke "I can't wait for the Hawaiian music that I assume plays all the time." The airport actually never stops playing Hawaiian music. I nearly went insane. Thankfully, one day we were able to go to the beach, and another Lindsay and her husband showed us around the island a bit. It was so lovely. I never thought I'd go to Hawaii, or at least I wouldn't until I was much older and richer. O'ahu is a beautiful island and I'm delighted we made new friends during our short time there.

Aloha, mother fuckers

But the airport wore me down so much that I was crying multiple times a day by the end of our lengthy lei-over. Delta help desks are much meaner and less helpful than one would think. But airport strangers are much kinder. A woman I was having a friendly conversation with about Hawaii and Japan and traveling shook hope back into me by giving me $100 while her husband wasn't looking, completely unprompted. She told me she was "being obedient." I'm not religious, but I can't help but start tearing up just typing this. People are amazing, you guys. They really are and I'm so grateful for everyone that I've had the opportunity to meet on this trip.

We did finally get out of Hawaii. Seattle was where we had our lowest moment, however. I'll keep it short. Delta's servers went down. Great timing, right? We got in at 11 pm. The flight to Minneapolis was at 12:50. Then it was delayed to 3 am. But we were still giddy, because it looked like there were plenty of seats and very few people on the standby list. The gate agents started working through the standby list late. We were two people away from getting cleared. They suddenly were unable to clear standby people for seats, even though there was plenty of room. The flight was about to time out, meaning they would have to cancel the entire flight if they didn't push out (look at all this airport terminology). They closed the doors on us even though there were ten seats open. I sobbed like a baby in public.

A bunch of flights were all cancelled and there was no way out. We caved and had to spend $400 extra on tickets to Phoenix then Minneapolis through a different airline. It was so dreadful, but I'm happy to be home. It was hard to adjust initially, coming from a society that's generally very quiet and polite then ending up at the Seattle airport where rude strangers are coming up to me or complaining loudly to nobody in particular about being stuck in the airport for a few hours (cry me a river). Honestly, my amazing time in Japan feels very far away now and I already want to go back. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to go there with good friends, for the time I had there, and for the people I met throughout the entire journey.


Maybe I will make a list of things I learned after all.

• So much about how airports work.
• I know so little Japanese.
• I knew enough Japanese.
• If something sounds interesting, but it's a little off the beaten path - do it.
• Start conversations with people. Meeting people was the best part of our trip and we did far too little of it. Only good things came from the conversations we did have. At a bar in Kyoto we met a random French man who we ended up going to the best tonkatsu restaurant in the city with. It was a great night. In Hawaii, we got $100 off a car rental just because we took the time to have a friendly conversation with the woman at the counter. You can find kindness anywhere you go, it's incredible!
• If you feel uncomfortable, do something about it. Fuck politeness, even in Japan.
• Don't ever think that things can't get worse. They totally can.
• When planning, severely overestimate how much money you think you're going to spend on a trip.
• Try the free samples.
• Don't take the tentacle sushi off the conveyor belt, it's not worth it.
• Let yourself sit still if you need to sit still.
• Press all of the buttons on the fancy Japanese toilet.
• Book bloggers are STILL the nicest people in the world.
• You can never prepare for everything.
• Take time to really appreciate every good thing in your day.
• Always bring duct tape with you.

If there's anything you want to know about traveling in Japan or about Japan in general, please let me know! I'm considering going more in depth about certain topics people are curious about. I certainly didn't get to cover everything in these journals.

Japan Journal #1: Tokyo

Sensoji in Asakusa. We got there early before the market was open.

Week one of my two week Japan trip is over! I've done a shit ton of stuff so far and explored a lot of Tokyo. My calves hurt just thinking about it.

Thank god most of the cats were squishy faced, munchkin cats, or both.

I slept through a level 5 earthquake my first night. I managed to fix my sleep schedule within one or two days. I visited the beautiful big temple and crazy market in Asakusa. I saw millions of wildly inappropriate anime girl figurines/videos/manga/body pillows in Akihabara. I avoided going to any maid cafes because NO. I visited Meiji shrine then shopped in the madness of Harajuku. Considered becoming gothic lolita for half a second then realized I would be too beautiful and I would have too many friends. I went to a mother fucking cat cafe and felt pure bliss. I wandered around bustling Shinjuku and checked out the street food in cramped Piss Alley. I went to a Japanese stationery store and a Japanese bookstore, fulfilling all my paper-y Japanese dreams.

Piss Alley, where the restaurants are outside and the space between the wall and the counter is about the size of a person

I took an hour train out to Kamakura and saw the Pacific ocean from the other side. I saw a giant Buddha. I then proceeded to play on the black sand beach, sit in the ocean, drink a can of some sort of pineapple alcohol from 7 eleven (on the beach, it's legal), experience more bliss than I did in the cat cafe, get my first jellyfish sting, and get peed on by my boyfriend for the first time (jellyfish related), all with Mt. Fuji in the background.

You can't see it because clouds, but Mt. Fuji is right above the right-most building.

I went to a conveyor belt sushi place where I had the most delicious salmon, tuna, and calamari I've ever had in my life. The calamari made me feel way too confident about tentacles, so I grabbed a tentacle sushi plate and almost threw up at the table. I'm still queasy about fish 3 days later, which isn't great when you're in Japan, but that just means I have an excuse for eating tonkatsu (fried pork, you have to try it if you haven't) every day. Like I need an excuse.

Our first meal in Japan was bentou boxes, featuring the beloved tonkatsu on the bottom and in the red bowl.

I went to the Pokemon Center in huge, busy mall where a Hawaii festival was happening and spent way too much money on stuffed pokemon, a weird pokemon bag, and a coin purse. Do I use coin purses? No. But do I love Inkay? Yes. I wandered through random markets by accident and got fresh melon bread from a bakery. I've walked by a million vending machines and I'm charmed each time I see one. I've eaten all sorts of strange snacks, mystery fish, and sodas with strange names (Lemon Squash and Orangina are the most delicious. Not into Calpis, believe it or not). I've gotten countless butt baths on fancy toilets. I caught a Farfetch'd in Pokemon Go (region exclusive, bitches. But you can maybe get it from an egg, I don't actually know). I almost played Pachinko, but I the minimum was $10 and I was willing to invest maybe $5. I've gotten used to Japanese money for the most part (why is $5 a coin??). I had sake at a Japanese bar, as well as the most delicious peach and kiwi sour. YUM.


I had an amazing experience staying at an AirBnB with my friends and getting to live off a subway stop right in the city for 5 days. I loved sleeping on the floor in a tatami mat room. I love the weird deep bathtubs. I love how beautiful rural Japan is. I love the seemingly haphazard placements of beautiful houses along small, confusing alleys. Everything here is so different, I don't even have words to explain it. I can list all of the factual things that are different, but that doesn't explain the feel or the smell or the beauty of this place. But I have been keeping a list of some differences that I find interesting that nobody had told me about.

DIFFERENCES I'VE NOTICED

• Streets are a free for all. You kind of just walk wherever you want to.
• Most people bike on sidewalks. They also don't say anything if they're behind you and need to get by.
• Blush is worn bright, unblended, and very high up on the face. A strange trend.
• There are caged areas for people to smoke outside, but smoking is still totally cool in restaurants, bars, hotels, etc. CONFUSING. Saw the chef at a restaurant smoking in the kitchen, because ~anything goes~.
• There are virtually no benches.
• There are also virtually no trash cans. When there are trash cans, they're very specific about trash v. different types of recycling. They're also mostly on the sides of big vending machines.
• I don't think I've seen a vending machine with food. Only drinks, beer, or cigarettes.
• Smiling at people on the street is not generally received well.
• In addition to on the subway, nap time happens at McDonald's. Still curious as to why this is.
• Public drinking is completely acceptable, but walking while eating is super rude.
• Single serving consumption seems to be the norm for buying just about anything. No bulk buying here. Or, at least, it's generally not a better deal.
• Most of the storefronts are wide open and people wheel goods out onto the sidewalk.
• Backpacks are often front packs!
• So many stores require you to take an elevator up to a different level on a huge building.
• You can buy anything at 7 eleven and they're open forever and you have no need to ever go anywhere else.

Yesterday we took a 9 hour collection of local trains to get out to Kyoto. We also had the most horrific experience once we arrived where we were supposed to stay. We opted for homelessness and ran the fuck out of there. What happened to your friend, Julianne in this new, strange city?? Tune in next time.

Leaving for Japan

Hey, everybody. I'm currently sitting in an airport waiting for my flight to Tokyo which is going to depart in an hour. I've never left the country before, so I don't really have any idea what to expect. I'm just so grateful to have the opportunity to visit a place whose language and culture I've studied for many years of my life (though off and on).

This is a journal I received ages ago (of course it's Tolkien-themed). I never used it, because I wanted it to be a travel journal. I've never left the country, though, and I haven't strayed that far from Minnesota. So it's blank.

I've always wanted to travel. I've done a ton of travel reading and learning about expat lifestyles. I've always felt restless when I feel too comfortable. Now I'm actually confronted with an experience where I'll undoubtedly be uncomfortable and confused a lot of the time. I'm about to get exactly what I want, and I'm interested to learn if how I see myself and my desires actually lines up with who I am. So, in short, this trip is a big deal to me for many reasons. Also, cat cafes.

I'll be going to Tokyo, then Kyoto (a much older city), then back to Tokyo before leaving. I'll be gone for two weeks. So the blog will be a little quiet with sudden random posts. There will maybe be one book review up within the next two weeks, but it will mostly be journals of my experience in a vastly different country from my own. Here's hoping some of the 700 kanji characters I've studied and learned before this trip will be helpful. Here's hoping I don't get too lost. Here's hoping I learn a lot. Here's hoping I surprise myself. I'm excited to fill my journal.

"Home is behind, the world ahead."