I have this instagram friend who I’ve never spoken to in person, but I love his writing terribly. It is funny, it is raw, it evokes certain feelings of nostalgia, somehow. His is the only writing I enjoy enough to read all of his articles and get inspired actually, even to write this article.
Now, anyone who knows me even a bit, or has exchanged two sentences with me, doesn’t matter if they like me, love me, or hate me, they know, they know how much I loved my time in Japan.
I sometimes feel like I don’t get enough credit for being a brand ambassador of Japan. I have talked about it so much, two of my friends actually did an entire trip to Japan, and the rest of them are now planning their trip to Japan. I must get some commission out of it seriously.
Now, in a nutshell, I visited the northernmost part of Hokkaido to the southernmost part of Okinawa. I ate Sushi, Ramen, Okonomiyaki, Onigiri, etc. and I also drank beer, soju, sake, etc. and I also spent a lot of time in 7/11, Lawson and Family Mart. I made a lot of friends since I was on exchange - from Asia, Europe, America, India too and I spent a lot of time in clubs getting drinks for free from girls, guys and couples. I did all of this and so much more, and I have never ever been happier.
To break it down, my exchange university was in Kyoto. I loved Kyoto, the sky was the perfect color of blue, the Kamogawa river flew in the entire city, and by its banks is where I hung out with most of my friends, and met friend’s friends, drinking beer, taste testing kit kats or watching Uranus. On my last day, I made it a point to cycle by the length of the river, from Kamogawa Delta to Gion-Shijo. Now the thing is, when I was in Kyoto, I remembered every damn place in the city, I just regret not having a travel diary back then where I could note all the places that I went to. Shijo was my favorite area - it was the IT place with all the roadside singing, clubs and bars and karaoke places.
But it wasn’t all about drinking too, I met so many kind and wonderful people in Kyoto in my university. And hearing their stories, seeing how much they could befriend and love someone within weeks, was everything to me. I basically sobbed when on my farewell dinner all of my friends presented me with a diary with huge letters to me. I am proud to say I could build these friendships in just a matter of three months.
I did travel to Tokyo quite a bit, to see the city, live in Shinjuku, Shibuya, meet my old friends who settled in Japan, and see Mt. Fuji, Hakone, the Ninja Village, but most of all, what I remember is my time on the roller coaster in Fuji-Q highland. The Fujiyama roller coaster looked deadly, and if not for the peer pressure, I would have NEVER sat on it. While it slowly climbed to its peak, I swear I could see my whole life flash before my eyes. I was on the verge of tears, if not for the safety harness, I would have jumped right out of it out of fear, which is counterintuitive but it was my flight response. My friend sitting beside me was screaming the entire time, he was swearing, remembering his mother, cursing himself while I sat the whole of the 4 minutes silent. Not a word or a sigh or a breath escaped my mouth. I was terrified. But at the end of the ride my adrenaline kicked so hard I could barely believe this is what I had done. I was jumping, screaming, my heart was beating really fast, I felt like kicking someone, I had lost it. I called my best friends after the ride and I was really sincerely feeling sorry for them that they weren’t doing what I was doing. I guess they would’ve felt the same about me after their SkyDiving but okay.
While also in Tokyo, I met up with an old friend of mine. For the longest time I thought he didn’t like me, and I also then started not liking him because of it, silly huh. It was awkward and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to meet with him, but there is this thing about reconnecting with someone on a foreign land. And also met another girl that I had not spoken to much in my college time, but when I met her, it felt like everything fell in place. I spent that night getting extremely drunk, in Shinjuku and Shibuya, walking miles, changing multiple bars, losing my lovely earmuffs in a club and not knowing how I ended up back in my dormitory (which was beautiful by the way). I know till this day, if I was as irresponsible as I was in Japan anywhere else in the world, I’d be murdered, or worse.
That’s it for part 1. Honestly, I would write a page for every day I spent in Japan, and every person I met in Japan, so this is barely scratching the surface.
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