So I failed to keep up with the monthly writing, but since my last post, I spent a few weeks in Mallorca working and attending a beach box camp, which I planned to write about but maybe I’ll do a bit of a double feature after New Years when I go to Sri Lanka with them. I’m skipping it because we have an opportunity to write what this blog was originally meant for….travel updates. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous about coming back to writing these after such a long hiatus, especially with how smooth my writing had become by the end of the 2019 trip, but there’s only one way to get it back. Also, some people in my life were nice enough to go back and read the old ones and tell me that they liked that the writing style was similar to how I tell stories in person, so here we are. Added caveat that I am writing this on the plane home, so remembering 23 days ago is difficult, bear with me.

Okay, to preface this trip, Japan has been at the very height of my list for years. I love Japanese culture. The food is some of my favorite, I love gaming and I keep up with a few anime. I was actually between coming back through Japan or Europe when I left Asia the first time, but heading to India for yoga dictated that decision. I had a plan to go to Japan in 2020 but we all know what happened there. I know that I travel a ton (read: way too much) but I actually haven’t done any travel just to travel since before COVID. These days, I’m visiting family, working or playing volleyball, so this trip was explicitly for travel. No volleyball plans. It kept getting pushed off but luckily, a friend from when I was younger who lives there mentioned that she would be moving back stateside after this year, so I may miss my chance to visit if it wasn’t this year. I had a ton of travel this year, so I just booked the tickets and actually didn’t plan anything concrete. I had a loose outline, flights and a hotel my first and last night.

I was able to find a direct 12 hour flight from Rome, so I wasn’t too beat up when I arrived. Immediately upon arrival, I acknowledged that even though I have a penchant for picking up languages easily, I won’t be learning kanji in 23 days, so there is inherent difficulty here. The metro/transit systems in Japan are wonderfully full of signs, a stark contrast to Italy, and Google Maps functions super well with them, even telling you what platform to go to and what the cost will be. On top of that, in the airports, you can grab this beautiful metro card that you can keep reloading and just tap to move around.

Like I said, it’s been about 6 years since I traveled just to travel, meaning it’s also been about that much time since I really stayed in hostels. For this trip, I would be solo and as much as I love doing things alone, I didn’t want to spend it entirely alone, so I went through and intermixed hostel stays with hotels. Tokyo was quite expensive on short notice, so mostly hostels, not that they were that much cheaper, but I was banking on the social interactions. My check in wasn’t until 3pm, so I roamed around eating ramen and looking at all of the cool stores, like my first Pokemon Center and Jump Shop. The first night, I stayed in an expensive hostel called The Millenials that boasted beautiful capsule beds and a free beer hour…but I didn’t experience that. About two months ago, a friend from Beachbox messaged me that he had a Japanese friend coming to Rome and asked me to set up some games with him. I met Ken and after we played, he told me to let him know if I’m ever in Tokyo….to which I replied, I’ll be there in two months. He asked if I wanted him to find me some games, and I told him the trip is not about volleyball but I’d love to grab dinner. So the first day, I sent him a message.

When Ken arrived, I was staying in Shibuya, a very touristy area, so reasonably, he asked if I wanted to have a touristy dinner or go to see some local stuff. If you know me, you know the answer. He took me off to the other side of Tokyo to Kanda to get some yakitori (literally grilled bird) and have some drinks. He also invited a friend who didn’t speak much English but I assured him that lack of a common language is not an issue for me these days. When we arrived, I ordered a whiskey highball and Ken informed me the bar had a game called chinchiro. Chinchiro makes no sense for capitalism, but it does make sense if your culture loves to get drunk, which the Japanese seem to. The rules are as follows: When you order a drink, they bring you a bowl and two dice. You roll the dice and keep both in the bowl. If one comes out, it counts as rolling an odd number. If you roll an odd number, you pay double, but you also receive a double. If you roll an even number, your drink is half off. If you roll two of the same number, your drink is free. If you roll a five and a six, your drink is a double and it is free. If you roll all four variations in one visit, they bring you a gigantic fish bowl of your drink for free. You can quickly see how this game is bad for capitalism but good for getting drunk. So we played the game as Ken ordered me tons of different plates to try all sorts of dishes and taught me various things about existing in Japan. There was only one other group in the bar and they were very curious to learn about me but didn’t speak much English. In standard Sam fashion, I was trying to learn the Japanese words for things I was doing (ordering drinks, asking where the toilet is, etc.) so we were engaging with them a bit. When the fishbowl arrived, we each filled a glass and then I offered the rest to the other table, because I don’t want alcohol poisoning. I did not know three things at the time: the more traditional version of saluting a drink in Japan has both people finish their drink and the man closest to me was very excited to meet someone who lived in Italy/practice his English and he was wildly drunk. So when I handed him the fishbowl, assuming he would share it with his group, he had other plans. He finished that entire fishbowl to my utter surprise. From there, we ended up interacting with the other group more and they asked (read: forced) me to join their table, which wasn’t really fruitful as I still had to look over to Ken for translations.

Ken’s friend assured me that I really needed to try some specific spicy ramen so we headed off to another spot. Everything was in Japanese and there were just pictures of increasingly redder ramens. It was explained that there was normal, Italian, which is double, American, which is half, African which is quadruple and Alien, which was eight times spicier. I informed that that is backwards and Italians don’t eat spicy food and then I ordered a normal while they ordered an Italian. Upon my first bite, whatever spice was in the ramen set my entire mouth ablaze and I could no longer feel my lips. Ken’s friend was shoveling the double spicy version into her mouth while loudly exclaiming “Ohhhh mecha karaiiii!”, which means “Oh, super spicy”, like an unhinged anime character. Then my first order of gyoza arrived and I couldn’t taste them at all because I couldn’t feel my mouth. So we all know what I needed next. I told them I wanted to hit a 7-Eleven, a staple in Asia cultures and something I missed dearly from my time in Thailand. I then had Ken and his friend, another self proclaimed ice cream lover, suggest me some items. I grabbed an ice cream and headed home for some well deserved sleep.

Social Interaction

So the first hostel had no real social area. They had a cafe/bar but that doesn’t convey the same social vibe that something like a living room in other hostels does. It’s impossible to tell who is a customer and who is staying there, so there is less inherent mixing/interacting here. I woke up very early and had a missed call from Ryan so I roamed a bit and chatted with him. I was on a mission to have my first matcha latte. I found some at a cafe with some cool anime art outside. Next, it was time to hit Don Quijote, a several storied store filled with everything you could think of and usually at least one entire floor of character goods, so I got to see what was up for offer for cool souvenirs. I didn’t grab anything yet as I have a few more weeks and didn’t want to be lugging things around for weeks. Then I headed over to Harajuku to check out the shops and was a bit surprised to find that it was a lot of international stores and tourists shopping, which is not really my vibe. Then I found the gachapon shops and spent at least an hour walking through and looking at all of the options, which is actually mind numbing. From there, I had to relocate to a new hostel in the north, where I was hoping for a better social area, but again, a cafe/restaurant. The food was great and they had free breakfast so I was hoping to interact in the morning. I had planned my first Airbnb Experience night out for my second night so I could have someone take me around and potentially meet other travelers.

I relaxed a bit before going out and when I arrived, was immediately handed a Strong Zero, which would be like the Japanese version of a Sun Cruiser. We did a quick walk through Shinjuku and then ended up at an izakaya to try some food and have some drinks, similar to the night before. The group consisted mostly of Americans, a Canadian and a guy from France and most people had just arrived in Japan so we tried a number of different dishes and chatted. From there, we went to a spot to try sake and experience some local music, which was a ton of fun. After the tour ended, the group wanted to try out karaoke, so we rented out a room, which is a cool experience that I didn’t try my first time around in Asia. I sang Love Song by Sara Bareilles and then opted out of future singing. Then we saw a darts bar, so we ended the night there playing darts. Overall, a fun night but it wasn’t doing anything good for my sleep schedule.

The next morning, I woke up early again, so I walked around a bit and intended to grab the locally made free bagels at the hostel, but when I returned, they were entirely out. There’s always tomorrow (well, literally tomorrow, as I was leaving the next day), so I headed over to Akihibara, an area famous for electronics and video game/anime merch. In Japan, they don’t tend to rate things 5/5, they rate things that are good 4/5, so when you look on Google, most things are between 3.8-4.1, which would not be great in other countries, but I quickly learned that anything over 4 is likely good. I found a ramen spot with a 4.4 so I headed over. I have to add here that Japanese people love lines. So do.Americans, but not as much as the Japanese. I, however, despise them. This was the only place the whole trip that I waited for and it was well worth it. The ramen was super creamy, the pork belly was insanely tasty and the egg was perfect. Also, I learned about keidama here, which is the ability to ask for more noodles for your remaining broth, so I ordered more, which I definitely did not need. It’s also a sign of enjoyment to slurp your ramen, which is not common for anywhere else I’ve spent time, so this was a weird thing to do intentionally and listening to a restaurant of people slurp food the entire time was new to me.

I also want to stop here and mention that I had some initial anxieties about doing this trip alone and those worries were unfounded in Japan. In Italy, it is such a social culture that doing anything alone is a bit odd. In Japan, so many things are set up to be done alone or with a small group that it was perfect (and actually a bit more difficult when I was with more than two other people). The ramen shops specifically have basically bar seating so coming alone is preferable. We’ll get to more of that later, especially when I mention Ichiran, but back to story time.

Okay, now with a belly full of noodles, it was time to explore Akihibara. Most of the anime that makes it over to the US tends to be Shonen, which means it is geared towards boys, not that women don’t watch it, but it is a lot of people with powers/muscles fighting other people/demons/aliens/etc, So when I entered a seven floor mall entirely dedicated to anime, I was expecting floors and floors of Goku and Gon. I would say that most of the ones I entered were about three aisles of anime I knew, and then about fifteen of inhumanely proportioned women with more weapons than clothes. I was borderline alone in the aisles I was looking at but the others were definitely not empty. Regardless, I found a bunch of amazing action figures and merch for stuff I really love. On top of a lot of the figures we get, they had a ton of figures for very specific scenes of anime that would be obscure (or I definitely would not be displaying in my home). I had the set goal this trip of finding a key chain for my motorcycle keys and for my ear plugs, so that was the goal of the day. After quite a bit of searching, I found two that I liked in the same store. Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist holding a bunch of kittens for my ear plugs and Goku and Chichi on a motorcycle for my motorcycle keys.

If anyone is keeping count, we’ve hit day three, which means no matter what you do, jet lag comes for you. I was getting wildly sleepy, but I was very far from my hostel and refused to end my day at 5pm, so I found a well rated Thai massage place and booked an appointment. It was an amazing massage and I definitely fell asleep more than once. Now I had made it to 6pm and wanted to drag out my day a bit more to keep from completely destroying my sleep schedule.

Next up, I grabbed a red bean taiyaki and ventured around a few more shops. From there, there was a Capcom store which I entered. It’s very common to have games similar to Dave n Busters where you can win the more expensive action figures. Essentially, the boxes are on two bars and you use a claw to flip them in between the bars. This was all over Japan, but in this specific store, they had so many that it was a popular place for the people who are serious about it. I sat and watched as a guy expertly won three different figures. Then I started nodding off so I went back to the hostel. 

Upon waking up, I went down for some bagels and found that the options were insane. Walnut and sweet potato, match and white chocolate and a few others. I grabbed one and some yogurt and planned out my last day in Tokyo. I made my way over to Shinjuku to see the Godzilla hotel and finally taste some gyoza. Afterwards, I went to a pet shop to see some puppies and then try a more traditional dessert at a fancy shop.

From there, it was the main attraction and one of the main reasons I booked the trip, heading over the Tachikawa to visit my childhood friend, Courtney and her husband. After about an hour of trains, they came to pick me up. They work in Tachikawa on the military base and were coming from work, so they took me with them to the gym. Unfortunately, my entry pass to the base did not include access to the gym. So what do you do when you can’t go to the gym? Easy answer: go to Taco Bell. This was my first time on a US military base, so I didn’t realize that all of the restaurants on base are the American version and don’t have the menu/taste differences of being in another country. We’ll still count that as Taco Bell in a new country. Afterwards, they showed me the base grocery store, which honestly felt like walking through. Grocery store in the US, including them having things like Liquid Death. We made the drive back to their home, which was a beautiful mix of Japanese and more modern and I got the chance to meet their dog, Goose. Not only was this a great stop on my Japan trip, but a great chance to do something I miss living abroad, sit around and catch up with people and hang out with big, cuddly dogs. To add to the semi-American experience, they had just had a party and had a fire pit, so they made me smores. My sleep schedule was still a bit messed up but they go to sleep early, which was perfect. Finally a non-hostel bed and I was off to sleep. 

The next day, they worked until the evening, so I relaxed in the morning and then her husband drove me to the train station so I could go see some parks. There was one very near called Tachikawa park so I roamed around a bit before taking the train over the to park containing the Studio Ghibli museum. I made a pit stop for some ramen, but this time in a place that spoke no English and had no tourists. Here, and commonly, you ordered from a ticket vending machine and hand them the tickets. I used Google Translate and found char siu park ramen, my favorite, and the button to add an egg. In front of the seating, there was a higher bar and then the kitchen, so you could watch them cook and they placed your order in front of you to grab and put on the bar in front of you. As soon as I sat, they put a bowl with an egg in front of me. Confused as I had just sat down, I wasn’t sure if it was for me, if it was already hard boiled but left in its shell or what, so I left it. When my ramen arrived, the cook made an odd face at me and pushed the egg forward. I thought maybe the egg was soft boiled and I just had to de-shell it, so I did it over the soup and luckily I did. It was an entirely raw egg, so I quickly worked it through the ramen hoping it would cooks some of it while it was still hot. 

Quick pause to explain here, there is what is referred to as a “ramen egg”, where it is soft boiled and usually marinated in soy sauce, but it is also common to add a raw egg to the ramen. At no point in my trip did I even know which one was going to arrive when I ordered but there it is. Another fun fact: Salmonella does not exist in Japan due to their excessive regulations, so you can eat raw eggs and even raw chicken, with apparently no fear. I didn’t try the latter, but had quite a few of the former. 

Okay, now that I’ve eaten my raw egg ramen, I headed out to the park containing Studio Ghibli museum. It was a nice big park and I roamed around for a bit and watched people play various sports. Upon finding the Studio Ghibli, I was happy I didn’t invest too much time in trying to get tickets, as the building was cool, but a lot of it was under renovation. Before heading back, I had a matcha espresso latte, which is a psychotic mix of flavors, but was a good pick me up to keep me awake to head off to dinner with Courtney and get the chance to catch up.

I spent the next morning with Goose and hit up a 7-Eleven to grab some breakfast. At this point, I had found the 7-Eleven onigiri, specifically the one that includes a marinated boiled egg and my life was changed. Not important yet, but good for context. I had my first real big travel day which required me to head back into Tokyo by train and then catch the romance car to Hakone, which is a training with wide view windows for seeing views on the way. One of the appeals was the ability to see Mt.Fuji if it was clear, which I did but in general it was super far away and it is a regular train ride. Hakone is a city that has been famous for hundreds of years for onsen, which are traditional Japanese hot springs. I had some reservations on this part as I love all things hot water, but Japanese are mostly banned in spas, pools and gyms in Japan so I wasn’t sure how this would work out unless I booked a private one.

Upon arrival, all of the restaurants here were closed so I grabbed some snacks and headed to my hostel. This was my first exposure to having to take my shoes off and wear slippers the entire time I was somewhere, which I would learn is very common, but very odd to leave your only pair of shoes at the entrance of a big hostel. Regardless, I checked in and spoke with the reception about their private onsen. They had indoor and outdoor which switched halfway through the day for which one was for men and which was for women. They informed me not be shy and that onset is traditionally fully naked, you rinse off before and then get in. This may have been a bit more off-putting to me a few years ago, but living in Italy/Europe has a lot of being naked around strangers if you play sports, so a regular day. Anyways, I went to walk about it and try some fried rice ball sticks and then came back to hit the onset and then go be social, as this hostel actually had a centralized common room. On the walk back, I saw a sign for yoga in English but it was mid day, so I wouldn’t do it. Another part of the sign was in Japanese so I translated it and it said zazen meditation, yoga and breakfast at 6am. I really wanted to experience zazen while in Japan but had planned to do that in Kamakura my second week, so I had no intention of waking up before 6am.

I went down to the onsen and men’s was the outside one. I entered the door and there were no other signs other than “Leave your clothes here’ but it was a big open room with some lockers, so here we go. The next room was a room with several small stools with basket bowls, shower heads and shampoo/soap in front of them. I sat down to rinse off which felt psychotic as the stool was so much smaller than me but then the next door led to outside, No one was outside so I had the thing to myself and it was a nice hot spring surrounded by rocks. I relaxed there for about thirty minutes before rinsing off again and heading upstairs. I stopped by the common room, which was completely empty, so we are oh for three on social hostel interactions, but that was fine as I was exhausted from the how relaxing the onsen was. I headed up to bed to read and immediately fell asleep.

Due to how early I feel asleep, I woke up at 5am. I was up, and Hakone isn’t very lively at its peak time, so I shot a message to the temple about the meditation and they didn’t respond. It wasn’t far from me so I walked over there and they were expecting me. It was a beautiful temple and the head priest gave me some instructions he had printed in English. The yoga teacher was also there and spoke a little bit of English. They ran me through how zazen meditation worked, which is Japan’s equivalent of India’s breath work meditation. Essentially, you sit in a specific pose and focus on your breathing. With the added caveat that the practitioner stands with a large stick walking back and forth and if you lose focus, he comes and hits you with the stick. The mediation is broken into a 10 minute meditation, a 10 minute break and an another 15 minute meditation. The first set I sat and meditated. He had explained there was a way to request the stick, but I didn’t quite grasp it, so I just tried to stay focused. At the very end, the yoga teacher requested it, I think to show me how it worked, but I didn’t try it. Then when the break came, she explained it  to me. At any point, you can bring your hands to prayer from your lap and the practitioner will come over to you, you both bow and you remained bowed. The practitioner then hits you on the shoulders with the large stick, you bow again and return to meditation. Fair enough, I’ve fallen asleep more than once in meditation.

Next, we sat down or some tea. Neither of then really spoke English so in the coolest move of all time, the head priest, in his traditional robes, lifted his hard, reached into his giant sleeve with his other hand and produced a phone. I pulled mine out and we chatted a bit with Google Translate. He explained some things about the temple and how old it was. He also explained that zazen was brought to Japan from Indian. After the tea, we did some yoga which was great after a few days of travel. It’s always a bit hard to follow a flow when someone is doing it in their second language, but the teacher was great and we managed. From here, it was time for the traditional breakfast of rice porridge. Alongside the rice porridge, they brought me salted kelp, pickled plum and pickled radish. I assumed I wouldn’t like salted kelp, would be fine.with pickled radish and would like pickled plum because I love plums. Wrong. Pickled plum is wildly sour and I wasn’t expecting it. The radishes in Japan are commonly used and function more like a potato than I feel like they do in the states. The salted kelp added to the rice porridge was actually insanely good. We continued to chat while we ate before they offered me a tour of the template.

When taking some pictures of the temple, I had noticed that a lot of things had the TriForce from the Zelda games, so now that we had a rapport, I needed to know why, but I wasn’t going to tell him why I was asking. I asked about the triangles and he explained that it is the crest of the Hojo clan, one of the oldest in Japan. Amazing, but now where do I find them? Nerdy jokes aside, they toured me around and showed me some old statues of Jizo and brother that are 700 years old. From here I set off to do “the Hakone circuit”.

I came to Hakone because I wanted to onsen and see Mt.Fuji and thought there would be hiking. The Hakone circuit is a bit more of a touristy track, the “Go on this train, stand in this line, take this cable car” type, which tends to not be my favorite. Luckily, a friend from my first tour was also there so we went together. We started with an outdoor museum, which was a bit odd of a stop as most of the art was from European artists, including an entire building dedicated to Picasso. Special mention to the tower with walls entirely made of stained glass, pictured above. From there we took a cable car, which was nice as the leaves had started changing. This is also where I got my first real view of Mt.Fuji, although from this southern view, it was far away and had no snowcap. The next stop was an area where they cook eggs in volcanic water and the shells turn black, but inside they are normal hard boiled eggs.

I’m going to stop here (and I’ll do it again later) to mention my general disdain for tourists starting lines places that don’t need to have a line, just so they can take a picture with no one else in it even though they are in a place filled with people. Forming a line does not give you any sort of special privilege to have the spot to yourself and no one is required to join your line, even though tourists love to do it. I only put this rant here because as has likely been mentioned in this blog before, with Alex Ranghieri, we having the running joke of being “Team Egg’ as he always had a hard boiled egg with him when we met him. Ryan and I send him pictures of us together when he find hard boiled eggs. The shop that sold hard boiled eggs had a giant black egg out front so I wanted to grab a quick picture of me holding the egg in front of to the egg. Because I have a basic understanding of photography lighting, I walked over to where the light would be on me and the egg and asked my friend to take a picture. She took the picture and before I could walk away, someone walked up to me and said “Do you not see the line?” To which I replied, “I genuinely did not, but why are you in a line? This is not an attraction and the good lighting is this way?” And walked away. Take a single picture and walk away. I promise it will do just as well on your socials and you won’t waste all of your time waiting in line and taking a million pictures of the same thing. End rant, thanks.

Okay, back to story, I went through the shop and looked at all the cute black egg merch. Japan really excels at making every type of merch for every thing you go to. They also make things insanely cute. Like everything is cute there for everyone. In the US, we only market this type of cuteness to children and that is a mistake. I looked at everyting in the shop and then grabbed what I came for, the black eggs. Unfortunately, they only come in a pack of four and there were two of us. So I definitely included more hard boiled eggs in my diet that day than originally planned. After that, I grabbed an egg custard ice cream(to balance the diet) and we were on our way.

The next stop was a pirate ship ride across a lake but all I had eaten was an egg and ice cream, so we stopped for some noodles. This was my first try of dipping noodles and apparently, I ordered them cold. I don’t really like cold food (ice cream is dessert) and this was no exception. Overall, everything was good, but the work to Enjoyment ration was not there for me. Now that I had eaten something, we finished this wildly touristy circuit and got on the pirate ship. There was a nearby teahouse that the head priest had suggested me so we stopped there for some local mochi and tea before taking the bus back. After my 5am zazen adventure, I was actively falling asleep on the bus, so straight to bed. 

The next day, I had my adventure to Fujikawaguchiko, north of Mt.Fuji, a place I was excited to bike around and maybe hike Mt,Fuji. As I stayed in a popular Japanese hostel chain in Hakone, called K’s House, I had a discount to stay in one in Fujikawaguchiko, so I assumed there was a nice way between the two, wrong again. The reception informed me that it would require a few bus transfers. My first bus was delayed, so I missed the second one by two minutes and sat in a parking lot for an hour waiting. Then the next one dropped me in Gotemba Premium Outlet mall, which looked insanely like the outlet malls in America. As soon as I arrived, my sister, Nicole, called me, with whom I’ve been to many outlet malls, so I answered on video to show her and walked right to my next bus. Surprise, my bus was left and it left me. The next one arrived in two hours, so I walked over to Shake Shake and got a black sesame milkshake, which was insane, and watched My Hero Academia until my bus arrived.

At this point, I arrived at 5pm, which meant it was dark and there would be no Mt.Fuji today. Again this hostel had a common area, but no one in it (well, one person, but he was working). So I read a bit before heading out to find some ramen. The place I found closed as I arrived so I walked across the street and had some absolutely insane Indian food. I think it may have been the best naan I’ve ever had and I spent two months in India. Now time for some rest before a hiking/biking day.

Finally, time to rent a bike and maybe do some hiking,. Surprise, it is pouring rain. Luckily, Japan loves umbrellas so every hotel seems to have some free ones at the entrance. I went out to walk a bit and see the lakes. I decided I should grab some matcha and get out of the rain before stumbling upon an apple pie shop. So foolish, I didn’t even think about Fuji Apples. Absolutely insane apple pie. From there, I took a cable car up the hill to a Mt.Fuji view point and to see the lake view. This cable car had some art of a bunny just absolutely whomping a raccoon and I thought it was odd. Maybe the raccoon is evil and so he had to do those things. Upon reaching the top, they had little statues of the two and I was wrong. The bunny is a psycho. He set the raccoon on fire and tried to drown him. We are Team Raccoon for sure. 

From there I grabbed some dango, which are sticky rice balls on a stick that are usually covered in a sauce or coating and these ones were branded with Mt.Fuji, again Japan’s merchandising game is strong. There was a bit of a hike to a shrine so I did that, especially because the trees blocked the rain and then headed back down. Next I took the train over to Chureito Pagoda. The trains were sweet because they are sponsored by a local amusement park which has the Japanese version of Power Rangers, Naruto and Thomas the Tank Engine, so they are decked out. From the station, I walked up the pagoda, which is about 400 steps. This is a gorgeous view and an insane photo op as usually you can see Mt.Fuji if it is clear from behind the pagoda. Unfortuntely, due to the weather, no Mt.Fuji, but still an awesome view.

Side note on Mt.Fuji, it is uncommon to see because as soon as the weather changes, clouds form around it and it disappears. So it is a bit of an exciting thing as even when it is clear, it can disappear before you get to a better viewing point.

On the way down from the pagoda, I stopped at a shrine that had some signs on how to cleanse before entering the shrines. Usually there is a fountain that is some cools statue (rabbit, dragon, etc.) and has several little ladles with long handles. You grab the handle with your right hand, scoop some water and then pour some into your left hand. Then grab the handle with your left and pour some into your right here. Next you grab again with your right hand and point a little into your hand and put it in your mouth, which you then spit out (not into the main fountain) and then lift the handle in your right hand so the water pours down the handle, then you put it back. Now you’re ready to enter. There are few things you can do at shrines, which vary based on the diety, but usually you can throw some money, ring a bell and bow for good fortune, buy onomari (which are various charms) or buy some seal art which differ by the shrines. I didn’t really do any of those and mostly just looked at them.

On the way back, I made a quick stop for some yakitori and Japanese sweet potato…never skip the Japanese sweet potato. Then my shoulder was hurting so I booked myself another massage. I stopped at the local Lawson and grabbed some Mt.Fuji themed snacks and read until my massage. It was dark by the time I got to my massage and when I knocked, a man opened the door. It was immediately clear to me that he was blind as the lights were very dim and he was navigating with taps. He motioned for me to remove my shoes and then guided me upstairs. This was my first Japanese massage so I didn’t realize that you stay entirely clothed in the clothes you arrive in, which aren’t always great for massage. When I entered the room, it was entirely dark. He told me to lay face down and I awkwardly asked if I could turn the light on so I could see where he was pointing to. He chuckled and “Oh, sorry, I can’t see”. He was quite a bit smaller than me, but I never judge a massage by the masseuss’ size and I was right not to. I have a horrible knot my left shoulder that is at most released for a day at time. Masseurs around the world have tried to tackle it to no avail. This man crushed my soul to try to get it out and to his credit, it was gone for about two days. Anyways, great first Japanese massage, now to dinner.

I had abandoned meeting people in hostel at this point and a friend had suggested me an app called “nomad table” which essentially let you throw events around a city and people could join a chat to come join you, so essentially the social part of a hostel and it worked great. The only downside of this versus a hostel is the people are not physically in front of you. I used to several times and almost every time at least one person arrived late and then you have the awkwardness of “do we leave without this person or wait?”. I only mention this here as one of the two people coming with me came about 45 minutes late so ended up missing the local spot with the well rated local version of ramen, so we headed to another one with the vending machine. I had some insane ramen and gyoza before the other two went back to rest for a long hike in the morning and I snuck off for some well rated late night ice cream spot.

The next day, I had my big trip down to Kamakura, where I would be relaxing for the week and working in the evenings. Ryan called me in the morning and as I walked out of the hostel, I saw Mt.Fuji in all of its glory. Truly insane. This is why the Japanese include it in a lot of their art. I was tempted to make my way back over to Chureito Pagoda to get the shop, but as I had a few hours of travel ahead of me and had to work at 4pm, I opted to grab some more apple pie and sit with a view of it. After a few hours of trains, I arrived in Hase, just outside of Kamukura, where I’d stay for 5 days, exploring in the day time and working in the evening.

That brings me to the halfway point of the trip (especially as I did less things during the working week), so I’m going to stop here and write a second past of the second half. If you stuck around the read all of this, I appreciate you. Let me know if there are other things you want to know about. Until next time, arigato!