Even when I have almost a year to prepare it’s still a hectic last couple days before a big trip!
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what’s your itinerary?
Land in Tokyo on Thursday, hanging out for two days. Going to Kyoto for a few days, Nachikatsuura to see Nachi Falls and then back to Tokyo for the rest of the trip. I never travel internationally so a bit anxious! I’m sure it will be fine but you can’t really shake that til you experience it.
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im in Tokyo on Friday still in case you wanna grab a drink or hit up some game shops or both !
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Once I get my bearings I’ll hit you up if it works!
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Sitting here in a park in Amsterdam drinking a beer after biking around the city and not to be hyperbolic but I hate the USA and want to be here forever
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Cafe de Spuyt is a great place to catch a beer if you’re a drinker. Yeah Amsterdam feels pretty magical. I recommend a trip to Leiden as well if you’d like a train day trip.
Vacation honeymoon is real and an unrealistic standard of a place, but yeah america is the worst
The whole time I was in Amsterdam back in 2017 all I could think of was that if there were the equivalent of biergartens (or whatever the Dutch term is) in the US, it would be filled constantly with out of control drunks being loud and getting in fights, kind of like the small chill bar near where I used to live that nevertheless had constant brawls outside it almost every weekend.
Also I have to say that while yes, vacationing somewhere gives an unrealistic impression, it doesn’t give a completely unrealistic impression, and so much stuff is absolutely improved outside the US!
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In some ways more realistic maybe? Residents of a city tend to get pretty pessimistic about where they live. People visiting get to see all the good parts with fresh eyes that a resident takes for granted. I need to remind myself of this every so often when I remember I live in a city that gets a lot of tourists. People come here for vacation, so why the hell don’t I enjoy the benefit that I can do that any time?
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I guess I meant unrealistic in that the places the hotels are and where we’re vacationing are not necessarily places where I would be living. Like the average amsterdammer doesn’t live in the canals. But you’re also right we take where we live for granted! I keep saying I need to take free walking tours of the cities I live in
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Yeah, I imagine Amsterdam carefully cultivates that area to match the foreign perception we get from TV and such.
The subreddit for my city is currently going through a phase where tourists and residents alike are obsessed with the bug zoo. I hadn’t thought about that place in a while. It rules.
I’m in San Francisco on my layover
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Late follow-up but how did this go? I’m hoping to go to Seoul (and Busan) this fall, and would love any suggestions based on what worked out for you.
I was actually so tired from Japan that I used my time there mostly to rest, I just did a lot of walking around.
I did accidentally hike to the top Namsan mountain and that ended up being really fun!
Just walking around Itaewon was honestly really fun.
I know it’s a big nightlife place on the weekends, but i was way too tired for any of that.
Hopefully I can go back again soon and see more.
As far as public transportation goes, I ended up getting a Namane card and I had no problems with that.
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Cool, thanks for following up!
do you want/need things to do or is more of a just chilling in SFO-type layover?
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It was just a temporary thing, I’m home now after an incredibly long day of travel!
The biggest shock of all my trip was leaving Japan and using the public restroom at the SFO airport. I thought I made a mistake coming home. Apocalyptic in there. I will post some more fun thoughts soon!
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Japan was unbelievable!
Just got back from my first trip there late last night. I got a decent night’s rest which was needed because my synapses were feeling zapped by the time we left. I recovered enough to recall what all we did:
I went with my partner and we landed in Tokyo after what I thought was a tough plane ride. I’m not used to international travel and don’t really like flying so a long haul like that was a little rough for me. I’ve been stuck in my routine for a while but I’m glad I got out of it. We checked in to a lovely hotel - OMO5 Otsuka which we both thought was really cool and we then spilled out onto the street to figure out how to exist in Tokyo during our first night. I ate some food that I don’t think was vegetarian and we stayed up until 9 to try to combat jet lag. The view from our room was stellar and we were right near one of two trams left in the city and that was cool to see.
The next day we got up and went towards Harajuku to see what we could find. We hopped on the Yamanote line (which we had taken the night before) but it was a different experience at 7am. I’ve seen the movies and the tv shows where people get stuffed into the train barely contained. A few onlookers standing there with a concerned expression on their face. I didn’t realize until I saw it in person that the onlookers could be either horrified or sad that they didn’t make it on. I saw them while stuffed into the train myself watching them struggle in and wondering how the car didn’t explode. I thought to myself “I’ve made a terrible mistake coming here.” We rode just a few stops and managed to get off - I followed the examples of others and just politely shoved my way through. Spilling out onto the street we found Meiji Jingu Shrine nearby and as we walked in and saw the giant gates Immediately the vacation started and we were in the good times.
Meiji was both a great peaceful park and beautiful shrine but also a good beginner place to learn your shrine manners and see what it’s all about. After that we went to a bunch of silly shops in Harajuku and the contrast between the two made for a good day.
The next day we jetted off to Kyoto on the Shinkansen which was crazier than I thought. I knew it moved fast but it felt like we were in a jet plane that hasn’t landed yet but is just above the runway. Everything blasting by so fast - I took a picture and the telephone polls are just ripped apart in the photo from the motion. We waltzed into a pretty decent hotel and then decided to get something to eat. Miranda knew about Nishiki market so we went over there and that was cool. I then experienced the most unique part of the trip. After Nishiki we walked into a mall and by chance decided to exit and just keep walking - and we stumbled upon a shrine with a fire ceremony - and then beautiful river - and then a geisha district - and then an incredible Pagoda. I wanted to get a better look at it and oh - we stumbled our way up to Gion and winded our way to Kiyomizu-dera (out of this world) and then the final pagoda and then exited winding back down the street where unbelievably it wasn’t too late in the day at all! And we met an 84 year old potter, got some keepsakes went to a sake tasting and bought gifts for people. The unplannedness and discovery of this part of the trip was quite magical to me. I had not done much research at all on Kyoto as Miranda had planned most of the activities there so I experienced it with fresh eyes unspoiled.
The next day we went to Fushimi Inari first thing in the morning. It took us a bit to get there and at 7:15am it was maybe considered late. I had heard of this place but did not know just how popular it was with influencers online. They were taking photos everywhere and filming themselves running out the gate and being annoying overall. The first half was pretty annoying! But another magical thing happened. Annoyed by all the influencers I decided to not worry about taking any photos myself and after we got up to a certain distance they all basically disappeared and the place washed over us. It went from a kind of bad experience to an excellent one. I had heard someone else mention they went late in the day and although it was crowded it wasn’t filled with the types of of people working as diligent for selfies so maybe that’s a good idea.
We did a lot of other fun things but after a few days we took off towards Nachikatsuura in Wakayama. I mentioned this to a few people in Tokyo after and they were quite surprised we went down there. “What’s there?” They asked. Well we took a train from Kyoto to Osaka and then Osaka following the coast all the way to Nachikatsuura. It took about 5 hours total. It’s a little blue fin tuna fishing town. We got there kind of late and were staying at a resort and we had to walk in the back door to get there. The resort was built in all these little hills popping out of the ocean so they drilled massive tunnels to connect them. As we walked through these tunnels that I assumed were for some old military base because why else would they exist (I think it was just for the hotel) we eventually came to the hotel which was like this fancy opulent place that was also super dated and felt kind of like Great Wolf Lodge. It was a cool mix of styles and had 5 hot springs inside. I liked the old styles and fashion going on. After a brief 10 or 11 hours there we got up and hiked to Nachi Falls which was out of this world gorgeous. It is part of the sacred pilgrimage route in that area and there were people on pilgrimage and there was a heavy magnitude to the feeling of running into people doing that and praying on the route in a place that felt like an ancient hunting lodge. The forest there is quite old as well and beautiful to see. I would recommend it!
We took a long couple of rides back to Tokyo and at this point I was a bit burned out. We ended up staying in Shibuya which was insanely busy. I probably wouldn’t do that again but made the best of it. I’m feeling a bit burned out now so I’m going to sleep while I can. I’ll finish up tomorrow and maybe share some photos. I know many of you have visited, lived in or even live there now but maybe you still enjoy hearing about it :)
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I love hearing about the stuff outside the city. I feel like I missed out a bit by mainly sticking to Tokyo - not that I didn’t love the city though.
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