As some of y’all know this is my 6th time in Japan. Ive been to quite a few places here now and have a good enough grasp on the language to get by and hold the smallest of conversations. However,every visit I’ve come here with someone who’s never been here and had to run the gauntlet with them every time. Including last time, which was the first time Nikki came with me. I feel bad because we were moving so fast trying to do and see all the things.

So this time when we planned the trip, we didn’t plan. Well I mean, we barely planned. Out of 19 days, we mapped out 3 days to spend in Korea and 2 days to visit Naoshima Island (a very cool place I will blog about after we visit.) and that’s kind of it. We have a few days that we have been setting up on the fly currently to meet with our friends here, but besides that it’s no pressure on us to do anything.

We’re acting like we live here.

This time, besides Naoshima and Korea, we aren’t even leaving Tokyo. As a matter of fact, in the first two and a half days here, we haven’t even been farther than like 20-30 minutes from our airbnb. It’s truly freeing. No walking 2500000000000 steps and coming home with swollen feet and cankles. No worrying about if this place is busy or where exactly to eat and make reservations. No rushing around to get to the next place to see the next thing. We just play it all by ear. If we want to go out for 2 hours and shop or visit a cafe and then go home and nap, that’s what we do.

And today, that’s exactly what we did. We woke up and went out to get some stuff at Uniqlo and a few other places. Then came home, had a snack and napped for like 3 hours. Then we went out and got an early ramen dinner in Ikebukuro, went to sunshine city (a mall also in Ikebukuro) and then just took a taxi home. No stress. No painful feet/back (yes we’re old). Most importantly, completely relaxed for our flight to Korea that is in ummmmm about 8 hours from now. We have to wake up in 4.5 hours though cause we have to trek to the airport and be there early to get through customs and immigration. I should go to bed huh?

But the content. I said I’d work to be consistent this time so I could jot down my thoughts and memories from this trip and that’s what I’m going to do. So here we go…

Today was a rainy day in Tokyo. It rained from the time we woke up to the time we laid down. So the activities I described us doing above; We did them all while out in the rain. The rain doesn’t stop Tokyo though, it just brings out a massive amount of umbrellas. Seriously I’ve probably seen 10s of thousands of umbrellas today and I didn’t even get off the train anywhere that crazy like shinjuku or shibuya.

Exhibit A

Yes. I rep the loser Miami Dolphins even all the way out here. Don’t say anything. I know they are trash.

Ok back to the heart of the blog. I think the thought I’m trying to convey is that, a vacation should feel like a vacation. Taking time to stop and smell the roses is important. In a time where we have all kinds of shit to stare at on our phones and all kind of distractions in the world, it’s nice to just drop everything and be present in the moment. I definitely don’t do that enough. My mind is always thinking about something and having a million tiny anxiety attacks a day. It never allows for me to focus on the now and just… idk… relax.

But now, handling the trip the way we have. It’s changed that. We’re able to step back and just… Chill. Like chill hard. People watch. City watch. Watch each other (not in a weird way). Eat slowly, walk slowly (well as slowly as is polite in Tokyo. Real people here living their lives and you want to respect that and move at their pace) and think slowly.

You should try it out sometime.

Anyway here’s a couple photos of some of the food me and Nikki had today. I promise later blogs will have more photos, especially these next few in Korea as it’s both our first time there, but these last two days we haven’t done anything or gone anywhere that’s made me pull my phone out to take nice “blog content” photos. I will soon though…

Peace