We’re friends, right? Good. We’re going to tell you our story like we told a good friend. In a text.
Ok, so it's been a few days. We should have posted sooner, but, we've been drinking in Tokyo.
Because our mental energy and logistical skills were primarily applied planning the big picture trip (Jackie's a millennial, and prefers "big picture thinking"... (: ) we hadn't planned anything really in the country (a big mistake if you want to go to the Ghibli Museum). This has left us feeling both free to just explore, but somewhat concerned that we are being aimless and missing out (looking at you, Ghibli. #QOMO).
As a result, after our plan-free sauntering, we set aside some time, sat with our laptops, made "cannot miss lists," and started building a calendar for the month. We now have a plan that's coming together, and some tickets for surefire Japanese fun.
What have our last few days looked like?
Some (normalish) things we've done
Realized we packed too much. No less than 35 minutes in Japan and we were mentally throwing things away
Gotten stressed about money (sorry nomadicmatt, but $55/day in Tokyo is Crazy JR train)
Woke up before 3 AM and struggled with time adjustment
Cried
Listened to Lizzo
Organized our 328 square foot apartment to make it feel like an extravagant 400
Gotten eaten alive by mammoth Japanese mosquitos (DEET, save us)
First scoffed, then relished, the best playground slide ever
Eaten 50% of our meals from the grab-and-go at cobinis (a lovely and elevated Japanese term for convenience stores such as 7-11)
Gone grocery shopping (perhaps our favorite travel pastime)
Attempted to win a ginormous box of Oreos from a crane game
Walked miles and miles and miles... er, kilometers
Got touristy, visited places, snapped photos
Washed our hands after (and while?) using the toilet
It's been spontaneous, surprising, exciting, emotional, and more. We've got big plans and can't wait to share the next part of our Japanese adventure with you. In the meantime, here are...
Some stray observations
Heather loves sunglasses. The Japanese seem indifferent, with a rare pedestrian donning them.
We love early morning workouts. The Japenese appear to prefer evening workouts as evidenced by gym opening times that in some places are as late as 2 PM.
Walking around Akasaka (our 'hood) felt like walking onto a movie set. Well-maintained buildings and grounds, impeccable fashion, and eerily quiet given the number of people walking to and fro purposefully.
Speaking of walking purposefully, we are having trouble staying out of people's way. At times, we look like big (Jackie) & very big (Heather) American fawns attempting to walk on ice.
Japanese toilets are simply delightful. To paraphrase Peter Griffin "Why are we not doing this!"
The elderly are elderly only in name. The joie de vivre of the retired is inspiring
So far, Japan doesn't seem as "bonkers" as we expected....we shall see
Oh, and there is a Japanese Bachelor.
コメント