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coreytravelogue · 25 days

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Tokyo, Japan - Sept 2, 2024

Well that day has arrived, the day I am to return back to my life, return back to my country and everything that goes with it. My week in Tokyo is complete as is my 2.5 weeks in Japan and it has been a vacation/adventure with many hugs and lows but mostly highs. To quote one of my favourite anime, it has been educational.

This blog post I am currently writing while I am waiting for my last free breakfast, you heard me free breakfast. Finding breakfasts was a bit of a thing for much of my time in Japan but funny enough it ends where I am a place with it but there is a Denny’s just down the road. Seriously, where was Denny’s when I needed them in Sapporo or Kyoto, kidding aside. Lessons learned.

I will probably be writing this blog while I am at Narita because I do have a long wait at the airport. I don’t think there is very much else I can do in Tokyo at this point, outside of doing Disney Sea and seeing Tokyo second Tower I have done everything but that was the point of this week. Tokyo is a huge city and I wanted to give myself a full week to be able to do everything without feeling overwhelmed.

Now I am continuing to write this in Narita while I am having lunch, I am having Japanese sushi for the first time. Shocking yes but I was hoping to have sushi sooner but sushi seems expensive and harder for me to find here than I thought. Finding ramen super easy, okonomyaki easier and curry easy too….in fact a lot of other types as well bush sushi not so much. I am a bit surprised but Vancouver I think has far more sushi places than I have seen per capita in Japan.

So where do I start? Part of me wants to start from Sapporo and get myself back to Tokyo but I have already covered everything up to Tokyo. I guess we start with Tokyo then we work ourselves full circle. I have a feeling by the time I finish this I will be in Calgary but oh well I want to try and get this right.

I arrived early, too early for Japan airports I think but they deal with much more traffic than Vancouver’s or even Pearson’s does. It will be another 90 minutes before I can drop my bags off and another 2.5 hours before I board.

Anyways let’s rewind to a week ago. I said goodbye to possibly my favourite part of my h whole trip which was Hakone. I took the long bus rides wearing my shoes barefoot because clothes do not air dry quick in Japan due to the humidity. I eventually found myself in Shinjuku station and soon came to find it to be the most confusing train station I have ever been to. Apparently it is 5e second largest train station in the world, I do not doubt it but it is definitely the most confusing train stations I have ever been to and I have been to a fair few train stations in my life.

Getting around in Japan up to this point was fairly straight forward but getting around in Tokyo proved to be a bit of a different story altogether. Most places up to that point only really had one company running the transit but Tokyo has at least 3 maybe more. Thankfully they all take the Suica card but many of them require you tapping out of one company or type of transit and tapping in another. If tap in the wrong place and try to leave you can’t escape unless you go to a gate tenant who can let you out.

I am so happy with where I stayed in Tokyo, sure it is 45 minutes away from metro Tokyo but it is so simple to get there. All I needed to do what get on the Shinjuku line from anywhere and ride it east till I got to my station where the hotel was just a block away. Not only that but a grocery store was a block away as well. I never fully explored this neighbourhood and I would come to regret it but I checked in and the hotel was just like the Tokeidai but a bit more modernized and with so many free shit. I literally felt spoiled staying there shocked with how cheap it was. Probably cheap because of how far it is from the metro area. Free coffee anytime, one free drink (beer, juice or other drink they had), and buffet of other stuff that I didn’t indulge in because I take pride in being a fairly self sustaining person. They even had a fun thing laundry room, thankfully since I was able to master using Japanese washing and drying machines I was able to handle this no problem now. The room itself looked nearly the same as at Tokeidai, maybe with less features and an air conditioning system that I think was broken but oh well. The room had a few to thoug it was just another hotel and part of a track of some sort. Either way I liked it more so I could tell when it was raining or not.

With everything settled I had a few hours left in the day so I decided to to to Ahkibara to hunt down Blu-Ray anime titles that I cannot get in Canada. This was when I got to learn just how fast and busy Tokyo is I compare to everyone else and why am so happy I chose to start elsewhere.

Sapporo wasn’t a ghost town, it was certainly active but active with mostly locals as people only really go there in the winter time. The city worked at just the right speed for me. Kyoto was much more busier and faster but still for me to deal with, it was only really the heat I couldn’t handle. Hakone is area with lots of villages and towns. Practically the quietest place I was out unless you went into the tourist spots then you would see it much busier but even then not as bad as Kyoto.

Tokyo makes Toronto, London or Istanbul look like a golf cart in terms of speed. So many people and so many moving around in all directions. I immediately got overwhelmed but just the scale of crowds, noise and just distraction everywhere. With that I went after as many places as I could find in those few hours that my patience would incur and I came dry at every turn. In fact that would be a reoccurring theme.

I came to learn that Japan is not much of a Blu-Ray or even DVD culture, was not going to disc culture because they seemed to still be very into CDs in Japan but not movie discs apparently. Most of what I found was new anime or anime I never heard of but not a sniff of anything I was looking for which was mostly old 80s and 90s anime.

Mentally exhausted from failing at shopping I turned to a brewery I actually had in Vancouver, they export to Vancouver weirdly and noticed they had a hefe so I had to part take. Their hefe wound up being at least in my mind the best Japanese hefe I had, there was a can of something else that was close but pound for pound if I have to give the crowd someone it was from this brewery. As per usual and because I didn’t eat all that much like the schmuck I am I binged drank and regretted it because I woke up the next day with a hangover. I should mention I also had a headache for much of that day and the next. Not so much I think from the amount of beer I drank in Japan and I drank a lot, too much I could say but I think it was because of the heat. A friend told me that I may need to replenish electrolytes and she was correct which lead to me drinking Japanese version of Gatorade be it Aquarius or something Sweat.I also picked up groceries since I’m as going to be here for a week.

Tuesday was a full day at Disneyland Tokyo, the day was a mixed bag of rain and scorching sun. With that I had a very fun day spending the entire day riding Disney rides. I started with Star Wars Tours which I think was the best version I have been on followed by the Beauty and The Beast ride which only this park has I believe. I am not really a fan of these movie rides that just retell the movie in ride form but this one was easily the best one of all of them in really trying to get you in as if you were in the movie itself.

From here I would just knock through as many rides as I could periodically eating Disney food because I heard Tokyo Disney food was the best of the Disney parks. I never ate at the others or what I did at wi didn’t care for but the food was certainly decent. I think I hit 85% of the rides, the ones I did not hit were kiddy rides or rides whose wait times were just too ridiculous. The ride I wanted to get on the most was Splash Mountain as it was one of the few that was keeping its original design while the others were going with Princess and The Frog theme. I get it, the original is linked to Songs From The South which have a racist history but the ride itself and in its current way holds a deep connection with me.

The first time I ever went to Disneyland Splash Mountain was one of the first rides I fell in love with, it was also brand new. Now over 30 years later it is changing but Tokyo’s is staying the same, I assume to see how the others fair first. I was able to ride it twice. While it is different from the California version it still is for the most part the same and close enough for me. That ride always takes me back to being 5 years old. I would have ridden that ride many more times but it was the 3rd most popular ride in the park. Most of the rides you could get on in 10-25 minutes where Splash Mountain, Beauty and The Beast and the Betamax ride were all 45 minutes and higher with Splash’s wait time only getting higher as the day went. Unlike California when the ridership dies down when the sun goes down the ridership just increased.

One shocker was the Pirates ride was the quickest to get into, in California it almost always is 30 min unless you fast pass it or which ever but here I could just walk in and within 5 minutes on I am on the ride so I went on it twice.

I got a picture of myself on splash mountain but I was done by 8pm and made my way home in a hap hazard fashion having a hard time with figuring out the Tokyo transit system once again. It was one of the few days in Japan that I wasn’t drinking beer.

Wednesday was another very chill day as well, one I really needed. Up to this point had to map out and figure out everything I was doing from breakfast, transportation, lunch, activities, dinner and whatnot. This entire day was already mapped out for me as I paid for a tour to take care of the day for me. I don’t normally do tours because I like the control and the flexibility but this was one of the best tours I have ever been on.

Got to Shinjuku early because I wanted to get a book bag as my carry on was getting packed, my travel side bag I am afraid the strap will break off at some point not counting the holes forming and the tote bag I brought as a spare now has a hole it. So off to Don Quixote because they ar expensive and they got everything. The book bag was pretty pricey but I needed some on thing, anything to hold stuff better than the situation I had with my side pouch at this point. I am definitely going to have to consider life without my side pouch or to retire it soon. I think it will be retirement as I do not want to lose that pouch, me and that pitch have been through so much and that pouch alone symbolizes the adventures I have been on. The backpack works well enough it just irritates me because I have many back packs at home that could have worked just as well. Lesson learned, I should have just brought my luggage and have it half packed and that would have been sufficient.

All things considered I didn’t buy all that much shit, I thought I would but I didn’t. I wound up only buying nick nacks and some small random Eva shit along with nick nacks for others. Enough to fill a book bag either way.

The tour was nice and started with a lunch buffet that was first class. It was set in a hotel that looked like it was for the super rich and the buffet looked like it was for the super rich. I after so much of my time living off of 7/11 sandwiches and wraps for breakfast and lunch it was nice to eat hearty and it did.

The tour then went to the Open Air Edo Japan museum which reminded me of the Burnaby Museum as it was all buildings that were hundreds of years old. The weather was not shit either so we were able to appreciate it. Following that we went to Ghibli Museum which as a wonderful experience. Such a fun and unique museum that was that I spent 2 hours in. I was expecting to buy lots of merchandise there but as per usual there wasn’t anything I felt I wanted or needed. Just two booklets and a map of the museum. The day ended with me going to the grocery store to buy some craft beer and food and I enjoyed both in my hotel room watching Amadeus.

Wednesday was the true start of my Tokyo chapter as I took a train the far west end to Jayne hat a group of anime related statues, following that I went to two museums. I am not sure if I had time to Jayne hat much after that as those museums and getting to those museums took much of the day. After that I went on an adventure trying to find food and failed at every end. Tokyo does not have a shortage of places to eat it’s that they are all more or less the same, buy and/or expensive for a budget traveller. Drinking and eating at craft breweries is especially expensive but thinking about it no different than in Vancouver at this point but that is unfortunate. Had overpriced food and beer at one craft brewery and then went to another bar which had better food and beer. During this time when the rain started. For the res to fly trip Tokyo would either be overcast or a shit ton a rain. By this point it was a shit ton of rain.

Thursday was the most productive day I had in Tokyo, I finally mastered the transit system as was able to Jayne hat for a full 8 hours or so all of the statues in the north east end everywhere I could. Unlike other times I had the help of Trip Advisor whom had a map of all of the statues and stuff of that nature. This is what helped me get the majority of my Jayne hatting done that day, without that app I would have been at this to the very end. I got all of the statues I wanted to do, I did miss a few and I know there is more. For every statue one finds on that Trip Advisor or Google there is usually 1-2 statues that are not on Google. Well as easily as others.

I ended the day with another grocery prepped meal with beer and Amadeus before I passed out.

Friday I completed the rest of my Jayne hatting expedition then tried to go to go to the Ebisu Beer place but they had a festival that only accepted cards……..what is it with breweries and not liking cash? Another night with grocery prepped food and beer.

By Saturday I had accomplished all I wanted to do and decided to try more anime shopping, unfortunately I did not get far with it and didn’t get very far in finding food options either.

I did so well planning for this trip in just about every detail but planning for food. I am not used to going to places where almost everywhere has a wait list over 15 minutes. The only way I would have been able to fix this was to map out the places I was going to eat as well and make reservations online with those places beforehand, if not then suffer though eating at ramen or curry places. Not the worst thing but most of the places I saw were just ramen and curry.

Fed up I decided to go to the Gaza district and drink at a German brewery. The best hefe of the trip was there but I don’t call it Japanese. To me it doesn’t count if the person who made that beer is not Japanese.

I followed that by going to a German bar where I had a German altbier for the first time since 2019, it was terrible but it was nice to have a true one again. Followed that up with a dunkelweizen but by that point I was drunk. It was a reminder that I shouldn’t transit in Tokyo shit drunk because it took an extra hour just trying to navigate to the right place back to my hotel. My wits we all gone by that point.

Sunday my last day was really a super chill, my only plan was to go to the Tokyo Tower when the sun went down. That day was essentially walking the streets of Tokyo in the pouring rain and going to Tokyo Tower. After that as I came close to my hotel I noticed a Brewery restaurant was sitting real close to it all along and a statue trip advisor or Google never caught. The beer and food was really good here, I had squid and octopus for the first time. I would have gotten sloshed there but I go there just 30 minutes before they were to do their last call so my last day ended much like my other days here in Tokyo; grocery food, grocery beer and Amadeus (it’s a long movie).

So there we are, that is my week in a nutshell. I only have an hour before my plane boards so I guess I got this done in time.

I feel I need to do a proper wrap up of my Japan trip but I don’t think I will have the time to do a proper wrap up right now, I am tired of writing about this but I also want to write in my personal diary.

Victoria is coming up in the next few weeks, I want to use that time to do a proper Japan wrap up as this trip is still being digested. In all honesty it is not even done yet. I mean it’s not over till I am back in Canada to be honest. I am not looking forward to the flight. I hate flying being scrunched up with strangers, never knowing if my nose will close off my airways, never knowing when I would be able to sleep, fucking around with apps that done work sitting on uncomfortable seats with babies crying all around. Not fun but it leads to and ends great trips like this.

Coming here I just hoped that time would be slow with me here.Time is what you make it and I strived to make every minute, hour, day and week count and feel I did everything I could with this trip. I have no idea whether I will be back or not. I would definitely like to come back, just not in August. Anyways time to stretch out my legs because I am going to be sitting down for 10 hours soon enough. You will hear from me soon on a proper Japan wrap up, I would like to think being back in Canada with this trip in th existence behind me I could have more perspective on what has been one of the most interesting trips I have ever taken.

Shazbot nanu nanu.

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strayflowersstarsandlove · 11 months

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Okonomyaki (leeminho)

The ache on your lower back and in between your legs really doesn't stop you from climbing on top of the chair and reach for the highest shelve in your cupboard so you can retrieve your two favourite mugs. Because that glorious first sip of coffee after a rather rough night deserves to be from the silliest Pikachu mug or else it is wasted. You grab the bright yellow Pokémon shaped mug and another pink one with a little silver enamel owl depicted on the side, and then turn on both the electric kettle and your coffee machine so you can make yourself coffee and tea for Minho.

Minho. Just thinking of him sends shivers down your whole body, the vivid pictures of your intense night still burning in the back of your head, your muscle memory still making your arms and your legs twitch a little. God. He was a fucking God. He literally looked like some Greek statue of a divinity, he ravaged you in the best way possible. You could not stop thinking about him and and the way his arms muscles flexed and throbbed and the strain and effort on his face giving way to the utter bliss as soon as he relieved himself and the wild look in his eyes and the sounds he made and the way his veins popped to the surface of his skin on his arms and hands as he gripped you and - the loud whistle of the kettle signaling the water's boiling over abruptly makes you snap out of your daydreaming. You chuckle to yourself as you shake your head, only now realizing you were gripping the edge of your kitchen counter for no apparent reason, and proceed to pour the hot water in the pink mug with the little tea bag hanging from it.

After filling up your cup with coffee you sit on the counter top and gently stir the warm, delicious liquid mixing in with the little splash of milk you had preheventively poured in as well, and as soon as you put down the metallic spoon on the marbled surface of your counter you hear light footsteps coming down the hall and soon enough Minho enters the kitchen, still damp hair from the morning shower, a soft smile and tired eyes as he acknowledges you, his stare quickly taking in you just sitting there in just a pair of boy shorts and one of his plushy cardigans he must've left behind sometime ago, "good morning, I made you some tea", you greet him lazily, pointing at the pink steaming cup near the sink, "Oh, tea but no food? You're a princess aren't you? Not just a pillow princess, a real, proper one", he says smirking, picking up the cup with one hand and placing the other on your exposed thigh, then leaning in to kiss you as you giggle and nuzzle against his face, tasting the minty toothpaste on his tongue, breathing in the aftershave and shampoo scent lingering on him, "I'll make us some quick breakfast, are Japanese scallion pancakes okay?", he asks politely and you nod enthusiastically, your mouth already watering in anticipation.

You're not sure if your boyfriend is more skilled in bed or in the kitchen, he moves so swiftly and with so much confidence it seriously makes you question just where and when he learned to be so fucking good in both fields. Alright maybe you were feeling just a little too needy for him, like you just could not get enough of him. He got you wrapped around his finger like that and you secretely loved it. You stare in awe, quietly sipping on your now cold coffee as Minho whips up the eggs and flour in a bowl, his trained arms making fast progress on the batter, his veins bulging out as he cuts up the scallion, his strong hands pressing down the blunt, smooth edge of the knife as he chops up his ingredients and expertly flings them in the frying pan. There's just something about his prominent muscles and his black tshirt moving against his torso as he sautees the pancakes, flipping them up and down with just a twist of his wrist, the focused look on his face as he checks the fire and oil crackling around the food: "those look incredible, you look incredible, you know that?".

You chew on the inside of your lip, eyeing your breakfast being elegantly plated right in front of you as Minho smirks, he cleans up the edges of your plate with a paper napkin and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively," mmh thank you sweet cheeks", he stands in between your legs dangling from the counter and then cuts up a piece of pancake and feeds you, placing his arms at your sides so you're basically trapped in between him and the counter, he stares at you expectantly, his lips slightly parted and his eyes intent on your face, "mas-iss-eo? Is it delicious?". An explosion of flavour and earthy richness settles in your mouth and you nod frantically, your eyes almost rolling to the back of your head as to emphasize just how good it tastes, "I'm hiring you as my private chef, these are just as incredible as they looked", you finally say after swallowing down the last piece of food. Minho clicks his tongue on his palate and cuts up another piece of pancake, stabbing it with the fork and bringing it up to your lips, "are you not gonna eat breakfast with me? ", you ask confusedly and he smriks again, directly placing the food in your mouth and then proceeding to kiss your jugular right as you swallow, "oh I am gonna eat. I'm just having a little appetizer first",he whispers along your collarbone which he kisses ever so slowly.

You wish you had the time to react but before you can even realise it Minho is pulling down your cardigan in one swift, super fast move, leaving your bare skin exposed and in the direct line of his eyes which become big and black and hungry by the second, his hands squeeze your breasts in a firm but not painful grip as an exhilarated sound escapes his lips, "you have the best boobs in town I fucking swear", he groans, his mouth then quickly finding your nipples which he sucks on avidly. You gasp. Thankfully you had already swallowed your food or else you would have probably spit out at least two pieces of scallion as the air leaves your lungs and you instinctively reach froward for him. Your run your fingers through the silky soft tufts of his dark brown hair that he had been growing out a little longer and you absolutely love it, particularly so when he buries his whole face in your chest and it tickles your ribcage.

You tingle. You start to tingle all over as he works his mouth and his tongue on you, his hands now pressing down your thighs to keep you as still as possible even when you pant and squirm and try to press yourself against him, "Min-", you breathe out, feeling your cheeks burning up and your lower insides throb, "you can eat, I don't mind", he mumbles, still not really detaching his mouth from you , his hands blindly reaching for the fork and platter that clink against the counter, and you find yourself chuckling, your eyes closing in delight as you savor this random outburst of lust and love and hunger and think you could easily get used to this.

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