Back in 2018, I took my first trip to Japan. As a person with intense (and at the time, untreated) anxiety, taking my first solo trip anywhere was a daunting prospect. Traveling to the other side of the planet to a country where I only spoke a little of the language was terrifying. It was the greatest thing I could have done for my anxiety, and it changed me as a person. I ended up going again the following year (that trip report will follow another time).
Considering the amount of time I spent lurking this subreddit while planning, it seems appropriate to finally share my experience while I sit here pining for my next journey. Below are edited excerpts from the travel journal I kept on my first trip.
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7/17/2018 โ New York, 78ยฐF
This is it. Itโs really happening. Iโm sitting at the airport, and thereโs nothing left to do except get on the plane. Itโs daunting to think about. In less than 24 hours, I will be on the other side of the planet, the furthest I have ever been from home, and I will be alone. I still donโt know what possessed me to do this. I canโt even go to the grocery store without risking an anxiety attack. But here I am.
7/18/2018 โ Tokyo, 93ยฐF
I made it. I am exhausted. Pretty sure Iโve been experiencing micro sleeps since I left Narita.
It took almost an hour to navigate customs and immigration, acquire my rail pass, and board the train to Ueno. All-in-all, it was pretty easy to do, since everyone spoke at least a little English. Check-in at the hotel was somehow even easier, despite being done completely in Japanese.
I struggled a little with buying dinner. Iโve never ordered food before, and itโs hard to parse the super polite Japanese used by service workers. I did ultimately acquire the mushroom burger and melon soda I wanted from Wendyโs First Kitchen, even if I felt silly at the time. Practice will make better. Weโll try again tomorrow.
7/19/2018 โ Tokyo, 91ยฐF
The Imperial Palace Gardens are incredible. Itโs refreshing to see so much green in the middle of the city. Itโs like an oasis, a dozen little paths and streams run in and out of the trees and around the pond. Iโve probably sweat out a quarter of my body weight at this point. As quickly as I drink water, I sweat it right back out again. At least thereโs a breeze from time to time, and some shady benches to stop at.
I had lunch at a little ramen shop across from Akihabara stationโs Showa-dori exit. I didnโt particularly care for Akiha
... keep reading on reddit โกHi all, me and my partner are planning a trip to Japan (as part of a wider travel trip around Asia-Pacific, hoping that Japan and other countries in the region have borders open, etc.), and weโre looking at roughly a 3 week stay in the country.
Weโre looking forward to the temples, museums, food, and just general urban exploration, and it will be the first time either of us have visited. If you have any pointers/advice, anything absolutely must-do that weโve missed/or can be skipped, just let me know. The ordering of days for each city is interchangeable, there are a few things in each area we have planned for activities to do, but I have left it as just โarea explorationโ so itโs not too long of a post. Our itinerary is as follows:
OVERVIEW Tokyo - 12 nights (2 'day trips' - Fuji Five Lakes & Yokohama) Kyoto - 6 nights (2 'day trips' - Osaka and Kurama) Hiroshima - 2 nights Fukuoka - 3 nights
TOKYO
Day 1: Fly into Tokyo from Taipei (so no jet lag but may be a late arrival)
- Standard arrival stuff (JR Pass, pocket wifi, anything else worth picking up/arranging at this point?)
- Drop bags at accommodation (looking at Shinjuku area), get food and chill
Day 2: Ginza & Tokyo Station area
- Hamarikyu Gardens, Ginza exploration, Imperial Palace & Gardens
Day 3: Kagurazaka & Akihabara
- Yayoi Kusama Museum, Akihabara exploration
Day 4: Chiyoda & Ikebukuro
- National Museum of Modern Art (in Chiyoda), Ikebukuro exploration, Ikebukuro Sunshine City
Day 5: Ueno & Nippori
- Shitamachi Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Yayoi Museum, Yanaka Ginza
Day 6: Asakusa & Ryogoku
- Senso-ji, Ryogoku Edo-Tokyo Museum, Sumida Hokusai Museum
Day 7: Lake Kawaguchiko Day Trip
Day 8: Shinjuku
- Gyoen Garden, Shinjuku exploration, Omoide Yokochi, Kabukicho & Golden Gai
- Have seen a lot of things about the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, is this worth visiting?
Day 9: Harajuku & Shibuya
- Meiji Jingu, Yoyogi Park, Harajuku exploration, Shibuya exploration, Tokyo Night Market (Shibuya - apparently this is fairly new?)
Day 10: Kichijoji
- Studio Ghibli Museum, Inokashira Park, Kichijoji exploration
Day 11: Yokohama Day Trip
- Ramen Museum, Chinatown
Day 12: Free Day/Okubo & Nakano
- Currently got this day semi-free as we will need to do laundry, and do some relaxed exploration around the above two areas (e.g. Nakano Broadway) but also if we miss anything beforehand hopefully we will get an opportunity here
KYOTO & OSAKA
Day 13: Tr
... keep reading on reddit โกI don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Do your worst!
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies ๐
It really does, I swear!
Theyโre on standbi
Pilot on me!!
Nothing, he was gladiator.
Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
When I got home, they were still there.
What did 0 say to 8 ?
" Nice Belt "
So What did 3 say to 8 ?
" Hey, you two stop making out "
I won't be doing that today!
[Removed]
This morning, my 4 year old daughter.
Daughter: I'm hungry
Me: nerves building, smile widening
Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.
She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.
Thank you all for listening.
You take away their little brooms
There hasn't been a post all year!
It was about a weak back.
Why
Itโs pronounced โNoel.โ
After all his first name is No-vac
What, then, is Chinese rap?
Edit:
Notable mentions from the comments:
-
Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits
-
French/Finnish art
-
Country/Canadian rap
-
Chinese/Country/Canadian rock
-
Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap
There hasn't been a single post this year!
(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)
Nothing, it just waved
Him: I can explain everything!
(It's his best joke yet I think)
Bob
So that I could frequently say, "I am going to walk 5 miles now."
Edit: My most popular post on Reddit! ๐ Thank you for the awards.
Just to clarify, 12345678
Me grabbing a soda from my (what I thought was) half full 12pk...
Notices there's only 2;
Me: "Awe man... This is a damn bird box!" Her: "What the hell does that mean?!" Me: (Pulls both cans out & shows them to her) "It's only got Toucans."
I'm not ashamed to admit the look on her face was glorious.
I was just sitting there doing nothing.
Where ever you left it ๐คทโโ๏ธ๐คญ
