i raised the japanese flag before i even got there

DAY 1

when we first arrived in japan, i was instantly amazed at how everyone walks on the right side of the road. by right i mean left because they walk and drive on the left side of the road like in australia and england, i don’t know why or how they got that influence because it’s an asian country.

so everyone walks in a single file line to the subway, onto the bus, onto the elscalator. no one pushes or cuts, IT’S FREAKN AMAZING. coming from a place like korea too.. where people don’t give an eff and just shove their way through

almost everything in japan is RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. well, coming from cheap food in korea to japan.. and the exchange rate was really bad for me. clothes, cosmetics, and all that good stuff was out of the question but it was really nice to look at

taylor and i got the train pass which we paid almost $400 dollars for. it was a good deal because taking the train from tokyo to kyoto was already 200bucks!!! also, we had to take the trains a lot because we were traveling around japan and we needed to take the fastest trains because of our time crunch

in tokyo, we stayed with sitashi. we found him on couch surfers. he’s been EVERYWHERE. egypt, istanbul, thailand, korea, you name it, he’s been there. BUT NOT AMERICA so i’m hoping he will visit and i would introduce him to you guys. his apartment was SOOO TINY. think… annie’s room. and that’s his entire apartment, including the bathroom, kitchen, and sleeping area. when we first arrived, it was kinda awkward.. because the place was so small and i had to put on my make up so he was just sitting there watching me hahaha. i ddn’t wanna go in the restroom and leave taylor alone with him because that would even be more awkward. 

we went out to dinner and things got a lot less awkward because the three of us share the same passion, traveling. we talked on and onnnnn about traveling and i didn’t feel like i was talking his ears out because he was really interested in everything i was saying. then he told us a really awkward story about what happened in malaysia, how some random dude grabbed his penis to distract him while another dude stole his wallet. HAHAHA i guess when he got comfortable with us, things got a lot better

the famous crossing in shibuya

that night we just wandered the streets and didn’t do much really. just a lot of sight seeing. went back to his place to sleep and to wake up early for disneyland!!

DAY 2

disneyland.. is really hard to blog about. it’s so hard to put such a magical and beautiful place into words!!! so they had popcorn with different flavors and it was sooooooo delicious! curry popcorn! TO DIE FOR. and apple cinnamon! omfg. also, the way it was set up was soo cool. different areas were themed by countries so there was like an america section, italy, india, medieval, and under the sea and center of the earth theme. gahhh we were sooo overwhelmed

so sitashi works at 9am and has to leave around 8. he asked us to come home by 11 so we could shower and he could sleep by 12. he’s a really light sleeper. we came home at 12 and felt soooo guilty and that was when we were like goshhh why did we couch surf, having a curfew sucks ass!! but he was really nice about it….. but we still felt really bad.

DAY 3

the next day we had to leave the apt at 730 because sitashi had a work meeting. we went to two gardens and we were already SO sunburned from disneyland. it was so painful getting a new sunburn on top of the old one! the first garden was really nice because we got to see the view of the city in the background while we enjoyed the nature and peacefulness of the garden. but was SO EFFIN HOT THOUGH. my dress was soaked in sweat in the back… 

the second garden was cool cause we had like an audio tour guide that was on a smart phone! so fancy! so we wore that around and saw the flowers that bloom only once every 60 years and we came when it bloomed so apparently there will be a lot of luck this year!! but it was deadly hot.. and my deadly i mean i was SWEATING BALLS. looking for refuge in the shade 90% of the time because my sunburn was hurtinggg

then we went on our bus tour where they took us to see the view of tokyo on top of an observation deck. our tour guy was super nice and cute. i got comfortable with him fast and i started to realize i do that with a lot of people. he had something in my face when we were taking a picture and i was already screaming at him like he was one of my best friends

when we were going to the temple, i got super excited so i ran up the stairs and tripped and cut my toe. i was bleeding like a bitch but my survival skills kicked in and i made a pretty creative band aid

after the tour, i really really wanted to see the skytree. it was recently constructed and it’s now the tallest tower in the world. getting there was kind of a mission but we went anyway even though we told sitashi we’d be home by 8pm to go out with him that night. little did we know, it took us a lot longer than we thought but it was so worth it! the tower was SO BEAUTIFUL AND MY NECK WAS HURTING FROM LOOKING UP FOR SO LONG. 

people in japan are very helpful and nice. one time, at the garden, i didn’t have enough money to go in, the worker spotted me! then, when going on the bus, taylor and i didn’t have small bills to pay the bus fare, the bus driver just let us on anyway. even when their english is limited, they will try their best to help us. i was so amazed at how generous and nice the people are in japan

when we got back to sitashi’s apartment, it was already 9 but he had friends over. thank god he started to drink already because we ddnt want him to be mad at us but he was soo nice about it. his friends hung out with us and we were just talking for the longest time everrr

DAY 4

the train to kyoto was SO FASTTTT holy efffff. we got there and checked into our hotel. it was really nice and clean and only 50bucks for a night!! so worth it because a hostel here is like 30 bucks a night/pp. OVERALL, we really enjoyed couch surfing, just the part where it kinda felt like we had a curfew sucked. it’s a great way to meet locals though because they show you all the good spots. liKE THE CURRY PLACE WE ATE AT OUR FIRST NIGHT OMGG the naan was soo good and the curry was so rich and creamy mmMMmm

we went to the famous nijo castle and then attempted to go to movieland (the hollywood of japan) but it was already closed. booohoo. we ended up in gion, the only town in japan that has geishas! i only saw one geisha walking around but still!! pretty freakn cool. i was in shock though by this guy doing some kind of magic trick with a glass ball.. it felt like i was in a trance

kyoto at night

taylor and i had dinner at the cutest little bar that was all decked out in old rock music decorations. the owner was a little japanese rocker dude hHAHAAHHA then we got beers and sat by the river and drank. it was really niiice and chillll

DAY 5

the golden pavilion

ryoan-ji zen garden

the next day we went to the golden palace where i seriously thought i was gonna have a heat stroke. it was so hot and we’ve been sweating so consistently everyday for so long that my body was like “IM OUT OF SWEAT, STOP MAKING ME SWEAT!!!!” saw the golden palace, beautiful of course. went to the zen garden, peaceful and nice. then we headed to NARA which was an hour away. i got bento lunch on the train ride to nara. bento lunch is the cute japanese boxed lunch. it was so cuuutesy

nara is a cute little town with wild deer. we went there and hung out by the lake for a while. then we saw the 5 story pagoda temple and that’s when i started to see the wild deer! it was sooo cool to see wild deer roam amongst people

after nara, we went back to kyoto. we had late dinner in gion and headed back to our hotel.

DAY 6

we checked out of our hotel and went to the train station. we wanted to eat at the udon fast food place that we saw the day before but couldn’t remember where it was! so we had to literally RETRACE OUR STEPS FROM THE DAY BEFORE. it was so freakn funny cause we were so precise. then we found it and i ordered my udon from a vending machine and a ticket was dispensed. i went into this tiny ass place that was HOT AS A SUANA and everyone was gulping down their udon super fast before rushing off to their trains. no chairs! taylor and i stood and gulped down bomb ass udon. i still can’t get over how good the tempura and tofu was in the udon!! then we hung out at the train station and drank heinekens in fancy wine glasses while waiting for our next train. from there, we drank more beers on the train…… day drinking is always a bad idea

finally got to hiroshima but we were SOO TIRED. in hiroshima, we stayed at a ryokan, which is a traditional japanese guesthouse. the doors were sooo tiny!! the owner was a very sweet and cute old lady. she took pictures of us and added us to her collage of visitors. then we went to the A dome

the A dome is the only building that remained untouched after the atomic bomb. some people refused to have it in hiroshima because it reminded them of the deaths of those lost during the first atomic bomb so they wanted the building demolished BUT others fought for the dome to stay untouched. it became a historical site where people can come and be reminded of what has happened in the past and not to repeat such a horrific act.

the A dome is in the peace memorial park. we saw different memorials and it was nice to have a mini history lesson but it was hard to not feel somewhat responsible for what happened… even though we weren’t alive during that time. at that park, within 30minutes, i got over 10 bug bites. i was in so much pain that we had to eventually leave

we ended up at some nice area where we had dinner at a cafe that was similar to denny’s but the food was better than denny’s.. and asian. i had a traditional japanese meal with rice and fish and we got shaved ice for dessert.

that night, we ended up at sam’s bar, which is an american themed bar. it was so elaborately decorated!!!! we were freaking out cause there were AUSTRALIAN FOOTY JERSEYS TOO!! we met the owner and he told us that many foreigners visit the place and bring him gifts. so he would use them to decorate the bar. he also knows manyyyyy baseball players and some famous dude in the MLB!!! it was pretty cool, we drank our asahis, ate popcorn, and enjoyed the ambiance. for a couple hours, it felt like i was home.

we took the taxi back to our guesthouse (and we only did this once because taxis are MOTHER EFFIN EXPENSIVE!!!)

DAY 7

the next day we went to miyajima. it is the island off of hiroshima. on that island, there was also wild deer!! that was a delightful surprise. we saw the floating bridge shrine then walked around to eat and shop. miyajima is famous for the decadent oysters and i splurged on two HAHAHA they were SOOO JUICY AND DELICIOUS MMmmmmMMM. rushed back to hiroshima to take the train but we missed it… but it was ok because we booked the next train and ended up getting food real quick and hopping on the next train. i got really good sushi for the train mMmmm

wild deer on miyajima ilsand

the floating shrine

hakata, fukuoka

in fukuoka, we just wandered around and looked for potential places to bum at that night because we didn’t book a hostel or hotel or anything! we went to canal city mall where it was reallyyy nice and had hourly water shows. we ate dinner at an italian place, got pasta, pizza, and sangria, YES, TOTALLY SPLURGED ON OUR LAST NIGHT. then we got our things and went to the manga cafe

this manga cafe.. is like… a world of it’s own. we booked a chair for 5 hours and we had access to the drink bar. the drink bar consisted of soda, tea and juice.. no alcohol, boo hoo. there were SHELVES AND SHELVES of manga and a little basket for us to pick out books to sit there and read. we got there at midnight so a lot of people were already sleeping. there were areas to sleep, and even a shower room to use. THERE WAS A 30MIN LIMIT to shower so i did a power shower and made it just in time. we tried to nap but most of the time used their wifi because WIFI WAS SO HARD TO FIND IN JAPAN! i’ve been spoiled in korea dude… cheap food, wifi everywhere. it’s a higher living standard in japan though so i think it’s totally worth it.

did i mention how CLEAN JAPAN IS!!!! I LOVE IT

DAY 8

watching the sunrise on our last day in japan

so at 5am we had to leave our comfortable sofas and ended up waiting at a convenience store where i bought my breakfast and ate it on the steps. i felt like a total bum. sat in front of the train station and waited because the first train was at 5:50. drunk people were sleeping on the side of the road, these people would totally get fined if they were livin in america

THEN A FIGHT BROKE OUT and a train station security came out, taylor and i thought he was gonna do something about the fight but he COMPLETELY IGNORED IT AND WENT STRAIGHT UP TO ME. he asked me why i was sitting there……. WHAT THE FUCK??? there was a fight going on and this man just comes up wondering what the fuck i was doing with my duffle bag at 530am, OBVIOUSLY WAITING FOR THE TRAIN SIR. so i told him that and he was like, oh yes, you go down there to take the subway. i was like NO SHIT it’s not running right now and he did nothing about the fight O.o

maybe japan is more worried about lost girls than stupid fights caused by drunk boys? who knows

took the subway to the bus. waited for the bus. took the bus to the airport. waited for the plane. IT TOOK FOREVER TO GET HOME and we were sooooo worn out and tired

so there was this guy in front of us in line at the airport and he only had a small duffle. when he opened it, i only saw one T SHIRT. i was so scared he was a terrorist or some shit so i told taylor about it. THEN WE FOUND OUT THAT HE WAS GONNA BE ON OUR PLANE. fuck fuck fuck. he had a military haircut and an american passport so taylor assumed he was a soldier or something. so he couldn’t be a terrorist right…? but before boarding, he was all antsy and kept asking when we were allowed to board the plane. taylor was freaking out because she thought my paranoia might of been right……. AND THEn out of no where he started to talk to us and we found out he’s a retired navy soldier that lives in korea. OH THANK THE LORD. after talking to us we felt a lOT MORE AT EASE because we knew for sure he wasn’t a terrorist but he kept insisting on staying in touch so i just gave him my email.. FML. my korean phone really did die in the rain that one drinking night! i couldn’t completely blow him off because i usually dont give an eff about blowing guys off but he fought for my freedom so i HAD TO BE NICE

i was so worn out and tired that when i got home, i slept from 2pm to 7am the NEXT DAY. what a fun trip with minimal sleep that was made up for when i got home so i was all ready for work the next day =)