Japan…….. When I learned to fly

 

In life there are always turning points, moments in time that define who you are and what you’re capable of. For instance take a baby bird, there will come a time in a baby birds life when its parents will push it out of the nest not knowing whether it will fall and hit the ground or spread it wings and fly for the first time. Well this story is very similar to that.

I had done 2 solo trips at this point but both through a tour company. I basically traveled with training wheels. Going, seeing and doing but with someone else making sure I had a room, transportation from place to place and providing a basic itinerary. Now I’m not knocking the tour company thing because I did learn a lot, but I really wanted to do my own trip this time. I just had some fear and lack of knowledge of how to find cheap flights, book rooms and ultimately find my way from place to place in a foreign country.

I had just met this girl and we had gone out a few times in a few weeks. We discussed traveling and shared some stories of our adventures. She told me of all the places she had been and was actually going to be going to Japan in 2 weeks and that I should come. I was immediately interested in this idea. Come on its Japan, temples, beautiful countryside, Yamazaki whiskey (my favorite) and of course the SUSHI!!!! Plus it was my chance to go on a trip without a tour company and learn on the coat tails of someone else. I know what you’re thinking, “you just met this person and you’re going to go to japan with them in two weeks?” Yep, I mean whats the worst that could happen? we get into a fight and I get stranded in Japan? I took my chances and booked my flight the next day, or I should say she booked my flight.

The Fight

Well of course as you probably predicted we got into a fight, on the flight to Japan. We landed in Shanghai for our first stop and she literally tried to get on a different plane back home to Russia. I was literally in a state of complete panic, she had all my flight info that was in Russian and she was the one with the game plan. Luckily for me I was able to defuse the situation a little, I mean we literally just flew from Florida to China and we we’re so close. I convinced her to get on our next flight, that we we’re both really tired and that once we got there everything would be ok. Or maybe I was just telling myself that? We boarded the plane and things seemed to have calmed down.

The calm before the storm

When we arrived to the airport in Tokyo everything seemed to be going smoothly, we were both happy to finally be there and I was ready to go to our hotel, drop our bags off and go get some sushi. Well it didn’t quite go like that. We spent about and hour and a half in the airport as she changed where we were staying 3 times, each time sending me to the tourist info point to wait in line and find the best and cheapest way to get there. She even attempted to change it a fourth time to which I said “absolutely not!” I didn’t fly across the world to sit in an airport.

By the time we arrived to the hotel it was late and we were both exhausted. I was starving and needed to eat but she only wanted to sleep, so I went to a little noddle bar around the corner from the hotel,  got a udon noodle dish which was pretty great and really cheap and ate alone. When I got back to the room she was asleep and I was exhausted so I took a quick shower, got into bed and thought nothing more of what had taken place.

When I awoke in the morning I couldn’t wait to go exploring, little did I know she had made other plans. While I was at the noodle bar she had booked a different room to stay at. Now there was nothing wrong with this place, it was in a nice location, had a nice shower and a decent amount of space. Well she needed more space and now wanted her own room, even though we already had separate beds. So now instead of splitting the cost of a room we would now be paying for a room a piece, not to mention instead of going out and exploring, we would now spend half the day packing up and heading to our new hotel.

Sweating bullets?

I was starting to get frustrated because I felt like an entire day in Japan was completely  wasted going to and from hotels and as my frustration grew so did my anxiety. What did I get myself into?  I had no idea how to be on my own and I put myself completely at her mercy. This trip had only just begun and was feeling  like an epic disaster.

Flight School

On the metro I began to ask some questions, “So what are you using to find our rooms?”. “Booking.com and AirBnB are good to check out” she said. Both of which I had never heard of at the time believe it or not, so I made note. Little did I know just how useful this would be in my future. I also asked how she thought the best way to get from city to city was. Her response shocked me a little, she planned on flying to each city. This did not seem to be the most cost-effective way to go from city to city, especially since I had heard a lot about Japans Bullet trains, but I didn’t say anything to avoid fighting. Once we arrived, we checked in, dropped off our bags and decided to go get some sushi.

The Hype is REAL!

So I’m sure you’ve heard how amazing the sushi is in Japan. Since I’m from Florida and avid spear fisherman and my brother is also always coming home with fresh fish. I found it hard to believe the sushi could be better than what I was accustomed to. I mean how could it possibly be better than caught that day fresh? Well let me tell you, WOW! Sushi in Japan is absolutely amazing! Just another level compared to anything I’ve ever had. I think it’s the way they cut the fish, its like an art form. Plus the wasabi, it’s not the fake stuff. It’s literally wasabi stem that they then grate using a shark skin grater, my mouth is literally watering right now as I’m telling you about it. So as my stomach filled with the delicious fish, my worries seemed to fade. Maybe it was all going to work out after all. After dinner we agreed to get up early and spend the entire day exploring the big city.

Tokyo…..FINALLY! and the Cherry Blossom

During breakfast at the hotel we decided on an itinerary for the day, Shinjuku Gyo-en national park, the Tokyo Tower and Zozoji Temple. Now I said “we decided” but really she didn’t have a lot of input on the matter and luckily I had done a little research the night before after dinner, and by research I mean I just googled some of the top things to do in Tokyo. Always a good way to get some good ideas for places to see when you’re ill prepared. So I’ve kind of always lucked into a lot on my travels and this trip had a similar feel. As I said in the beginning this was a spur of the moment/ last second trip that I didn’t really have much time to plan for but luckily it just so happen to be the cherry blossom season. If you go to Japan this is definitely something you should plan around, generally March 22 to about mid April.

•  Shinjuku Gyo-en National Park –

  

  is a giant park with some amazing views of the beautiful cherry blossom, a.k.a. sakura flower. It has roughly 1,500 cherry blossom trees and is perfect place to take a nice walk through or even bring a blanket to lay about and have a picnic. It’s really an amazing place to relax and take in the majestic flowers. As I walked through the massive park I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a white and pink wonderland. Big open spaces filled with Cherry blossom trees everywhere. Some had already bloomed and fallen creating a bed of Sakura Flower on the ground and others in full bloom. I remember sitting underneath one of trees looking up and thinking  “I had died, gone to heaven and in heaven the trees grew cotton candy instead of  leaves or flowers”. It truly is a beautiful event and one definitely worth experiencing. When we had our fill with the park and the flowers we headed to the Tokyo Tower.

• Tokyo Tower –  The second tallest building in Tokyo which has some pretty impressive views. It does resemble the Eiffel Tower in some ways however it is slightly taller and is painted orange and white. Although it’s not as beautiful as the Eiffel tower it isn’t as crowded and is easier to get to the top and back down. Plus it has a special glass floor viewing area (not for the faint of heart or fear of heights).

When I saw that the Tokyo Tower was somewhat of a copy of the Eiffel Tower I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go the top, since I didn’t get a chance to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Plus it is a little taller. Unlike the famous tower in France there wasn’t any long lines and we were able to go straight to the top with little waiting. I’m not going to lie once we reached the top I could feel my knees begin to buckle and my hands shake a little. You are definitely high up in the air and your body knows it haha. Once I took a look around at the view that nervous feeling faded and was replaced with “awe”. Just a 360 degree view of enormous city as far as the eyes could see. On the way down we stopped at the glass floor area of the main deck. This was really cool, it’s literally you a glass panel and a long way to the ground. Once we exited the tower we headed over to the Zojoji Temple which is very close to the tower.

• Zojoji Temple – Not a must see, however if you do go to the Tokyo Tower it is basically right next to it. It does have a decent photo-op with the temple and tower in the background. The main gate is also original which is pretty cool. The Zojojo Temple was the first temple I had seen in Tokyo but unfortunately my counter part’s feet had began to hurt, so unfortunately I didn’t get to really explore everything. Another reason why it’s not so bad to travel solo, you don’t have to worry about anyone else’s feet. I did manage to walk some of the grounds and got to examine the original gate which was pretty impressive.

 

The fall…..

Once we got back to our hotel the future of the trip and what we would do for the remainder was brought up. We had originally planned to go to Hiroshima, Osaka and Kyoto. Well it seemed now that her plans had changed again and now she wanted to stay in Tokyo for the rest of the trip. As great as Tokyo was I didn’t come to just see the city, I wanted to explore more of what this amazing country had to offer.

We began to argue again and it seemed I had to make a choice, stay in Tokyo or go off on my own. However during the argument things got heated and some things were said. There was no going back now. I literally felt like the baby bird that was just pushed from the nest, it was like a slow motion free fall and I had no idea if I would fall splat all over Tokyo or spread my wings and fly…….