arigato, j a p a n

at my twenty-third birthday party, i was asked what was one thing i wanted to do in this upcoming year of life that i'd never done before. after thinking about it, i decided i wanted to travel alone. i'd heard good things about it, i'd heard bad things about it, i'd heard growing things about it. i wanted to see for myself. what there really was about it. 

and now i've done it. japan was the first solo adventure i've had, i didn't know anyone where i was going, i didn't have a set agenda. i had flights. i had reservations. but everything was flexible. as the day grew closer, it was the day i was leaving, and my family was leaving, and it was an emotionally rough day. i was exhausted. i was stretched.  i had been emptied of both energy and effort and want. i didn't feel ready, i didn't want to go. i wanted to curl up in my bed and just feel the emptiness. but japan was surprisingly filling and welcoming and good. 

i landed in osaka kansai airport. i'd heard my fair share of horror stories of the subway and train systems, so going in with awful expectations, it was surprisingly easy. the info desk was helpful and they gave me loads of maps that i used excessively. i took a train directly to namba station and began walking the streets, taking in japan, looking for my capsule hotel, stunned by the bright lights, the amount of humans, the number of bikes flying up and down the sidewalks. i found and checked into my hotel, and found my cocoon for the night. i put my things in my locker. tested the bed. arranged things. then started looking for people who seemed as alone and lonely as i felt. i found a girl who seemed so. she was french and willing to take to the streets with me in search of food. our ages were the same, our lives were completely different, we were both teachers, in japan. we found food. yakisoba and okonomiyaki, staples of japan, delicious staples. so the first night was surprisingly good. i was giddy. i'd made a friend, i'd made it to my hotel, i'd made it. 

the next day, alone again. left to wander. with my backpack. still nervous about the trains, so i decided to walk all the way from namba station to osaka castle. it was far. it took me an hour and a half of sweating and map-reading. but it was beautiful. and different. and worth the 7km round trip walk. i went inside to the 8th floor and got a 360deg view of osaka. there were foreign families and japanese families. and groups of friends. and i pretended to be apart of them. pretended they were my family and my friends. is this a normal symptom of traveling alone? does this happen a lot? am i creepy? 

that night, i was couch-surfing with a korean girl who lives in osaka. i met with her and her friends along the dotonbori and they took me to a korean restaurant for dinner (in japan, eating korean). there were two japanese girls, a korean, a spaniard, and two americans. and not a common language amongst us. and it was such fun. they would translate for me. they would translate into japanese for them. i tried to use my little korean and my little spanish. there were misunderstandings, there was laughter, there was a common friendship made. and we continued to chocolatey desserts because we didn't want the night to end. but it eventually had to, and jihee took me to her tiny apartment in another part of town. my bed took the only floor space she had. but it was cozy, and it was so nice to shower. and she was so welcoming. 

the next morning, early, i took a train to kyoto. i had a bike tour (that ended up being private) and exploring kyoto via bike was the best way to see it. we biked to a shrine, a zen temple, another temple, and the philosophers path. to the imperial palace of old, through the streets, up hills, around lots and lots of people. no accidents. i forgot how much i like cruising on a bike. and kyoto is my favorite city in japan. the small streets. the old architecture. the winding pathways. the attitude. the colors. the smells. everything. i wish i'd had longer there.

took a spontaneous trip to nara that afternoon to see the deer. they were great sports, taking selfies with me. herds of deer and herds of people. sunny days.

back to kyoto before my overnight bus to tokyo. ordered ramen from a vending machine. you punch in the kind of ramen you want and any sides, pay, the waitress gives you a ticket and shows you to a seat and they deliver ramen minutes later. for vending machine ramen, it was mighty delicious. 

got to tokyo around 6am. only mcdonald's and starbucks were open, with plugs in the former and wifi in the latter. spent my morning alternating between them. took the subway to tokyo station and found a sky bus tour around the downtown. stumbled to shinjuku station and got lost. met up with stefan in starbucks. found chris somewhere between starbucks and crossing the street. found tatiana at mcdonalds. picked up seoul hiking group hikers randomly throughout the area. we were all lost. luckily we found each other. left at 8:30pm and arrived at fujisan at 11pm. donned headlamps and O2 buddies and started hiking at 11:30pm from the 5th station. the beginning of the hike was beautiful. clear, crisp skies. bright and shooting stars. clouds and city below. at 2am (and the 7th or 8th station) it started getting windier, rain began. soon it was pouring and we were adding layers and rain jackets. hats and gloves. ponchos. we kept going. through the wind and rain, through the soggy exterior and soaking socks. we trudged on. 4am we had 1.8km to go. 4:40am, 800m. the last 200m were the worst. the altitude, the weather, it got steeper, my headlamp started flickering and dying, i kept tripping over rocks. the sky began lightening. 5am i passed through the last gate and made it to the cloudy, windy top. entered the first building i saw to try to get warm. others joined me. we moved to the next building to get hot ramen and warm milk and hot coals. we were shivering, turning blue, soaked to the bone, at the top of mt. fuji. after an hour, the sun started peaking through, the clouds shifted. the sky became a work of art. and it was worth the five and half hours of climbing through wind and rain and altitude. the views on the way down were glorious. the clouds, spectacular. i'm glad we climbed in the dark, because seeing what we'd accomplished in the daylight was horrifying. we'd climbed up the side of the mountain, and now could see all the way down to the tree-line far far below. we conquered the mountain.

back in tokyo that night. we celebrated our climb with conveyor belt sushi where you pay by the plate. we drank guinness at an irish pub. and we slept long and hard. 

the next day, the last day, the day i flew back. stephanie and i took the subway to shibuya, one of the busiest crossings in tokyo. we posted up in the starbucks and watched the people below flock to and fro. it was a quiet sunday morning. 

from the airplane, we could see fuji-san and it was even more impressive from the sky. i was at the top of that! special thanks to the little girl sitting by the window that took this fantastic picture for me. arigato, japan. thank you, japan. 

 i survived it. the alone-ness. the wandering. the subway system. the overnight bus. and it was good. i gained courage. i gained confidence. i gained friends. i was filled again, after being emptied. i understand why people enjoy traveling alone, there was a lot of freedom in it. but i also understand why people don't enjoy it, you have to be content with being alone, exploring alone, always being alone. you do make friends, you are surrounded. but you're still alone. and there's a lot of pressure in being alone. but i think the freedom out-weighs the loneliness. i could do anything i wanted.