it begins // itinerary
My vacation has begun. 0.09034908 years off work! my flight is not until monday morning (march 18), but I am already in full vacation mode. I don’t think this particular post will be very interesting, and I will likely delete it and all previous posts once the trip actually starts.
today is both exciting and nerve wracking. i exist in a limbo state where I am about to be on the other side of the world, and sort of just have to occupy time until i leave for los angeles tomorrow. time is flowing so slowly, like sap running down a tree. i am approximately 75% packed, just gotta finish doing laundry and moving clothes directly from the dryer into a suitcase. i have all the technology adjacent stuff packed already.
The goal is to pack everything into my backpack and one suitcase. i am allowed 2 checked bags, but I am trying to fit everything i want to bring into one suitcase so I can return home with an entire suitcase full of souvenirs.
I may as well post an itinerary here.
march 19 - april 1 : tokyo
3/19 - arrive in tokyo, find airbnb, figure out money, get situated, die of jetlag exhaustion
3/20 - I have tickets to a hop-on / hop-off sightseeing bus that has a few different routes you can go on. drives all over tokyo and stops in some cool spots.
3/20 - Art Aquarium museum in Ginza
3/21 - gonna check out the tokyo skytree and surrounding area
3/22 - maxell aqua park shinagawa
3/23 - unko museum (this is the weirdest thing i am doing the whole trip. its a poop museum? but like cartoon poop emojis not actual poop.)
3/24 - sushi making class in asakusa with follow up sake tasting tour
3/25 - teamlab borderless: MORI digital art museum
3/26 - full day trip to hakone with a tour of hakone and a couple stops at good places to get pictures of mt. fuji
3/27 - teamlab planets tokyo
3/28 - gonna check out shibuya sky, an observation deck on top of a 230 meter tall building, and then explore shibuya
3/29 - the most important day of my entire trip, i am taking a train to nagano to go to jigokudani monkey park, where monkeys bathe in a natural hot spring.
3/30 - no plans. might go check out yokohama
3/31 - also no plans, might go to kamakura
4/1 - check out of airbnb, take train to osaka
april 1 - 8 : osaka
4/1 - check into airbnb, meet up with my roommate and his dad, who are also visiting japan this week too
4/1 - checkout osaka nightlife. i have heard osaka is supposedly the “nightlife capital of japan.”
4/2 - no concrete plans, but i want to visit the nearby city of nara, where there is a large park with free roaming deer that will bow back when you bow to them, and you can feed them crackers
4/3 - no concrete plans, gonna freestyle it and find something cool to do
4/4 - meet up with my japanese friend in kyoto, where he wants to give us a tour
4/5 - meet up with my japanese friend in kyoto again for continued tour
4/6 - meet up with my japanese friend in kyoto again for even more adventures
4/7 - my roommate and his dad leave to go to a formula one race and then resume their japan vacation by heading to tokyo. i don’t have plans this day, but i may double back to tokyo for the kanamara matsuri (penis festival) because that is hilarious
4/8 - check out of airbnb, go to ???
april 8 - 9 : ???
Originally had a reservation at a very fancy ryokan in Hakone here, but I cancelled it because it is ludicrously expensive and I added Beppu to the end of my trip to get the same thing without having to go halfway back towards Tokyo. Need to figure out where I am going and where I am sleeping on this night.
april 9 - 11 : hiroshima
I have not booked anything in Hiroshima yet. There is a peace park for remembering the atomic bombs that I want to see. There is also an island off the coast of Hiroshima called Miyajima that is apparently amazing. May go check this out. My plan is to book stuff here after talking to the owner of the airbnb in Tokyo, as she owns a travel company in Japan and has lots of advice about stuff to do
april 11 - 14 : nagasaki
Similar to Hiroshima, I have not booked anything here yet. I have a feeling I will long since be beaten up and very tired so this may be sort of a relaxing stay at home segment of the trip. Not sure.
april 14 - 16 : beppu
This is an onsen town, highly recommend googling Beppu japan. The city is near two volcanoes and there are extremely hot water vents all over the city. There is a local specialty of cooking food using the insane steam that blows out of these vents. The city’s main focus is Onsen, which are like hot spring baths. I can’t go into public onsen because I have tattoos, but also wouldn’t go to one anyway because it’s a giant public bath you share with other random dudes. Not my thing. But Beppu has many rentable private onsen, where you get one all to yourself by the hour for pretty cheap. I am staying at a very very very very nice ryokan that has an in-room private open air bath that gets water straight from the hot springs.
The entire purpose of these last 2 days is to bathe in hot spring water and relax / recuperate from a month of constant walking. I will be beat by the time I get here and this will be extremely welcome and serve to make me think fondly of the trip for the rest of my life because my most recent memory of japan will be the most relaxing 2 days of my entire life.
April 16 - Fly from oita airport back to tokyo in the morning, then fly from tokyo back home later that day
