Mustard’s Thoughts: Tokyo…

After 33 hours of flight time, ten hours of lay-over, and a connecting flight that made for a Taiwan sunrise, we had finally made it to Japan. Moreover, Tokyo, to be exact. Although we have now moved on from this bustling city and on to our next destination, I’ll give you my personal thoughts and insight on this eclectic city, and my personal feelings on finally traveling again.

There are plenty of cliche adjectives to explain a huge bustling city: crazy, exciting, bright, crowded, impressive, exhilarating, expensive— the list can go on, and in all honesty, it can all sum up Tokyo. Think of New York, but with an epic Japanese Sci-Fi undertone. As you walk the cross-walk you can’t help but notice white collar business men, every one of them holding their signature “book-bags”, contrasted by young Japanese residents flaunting their flashy and stylistic Harujuku culture, which, I can only imagine how many of the “business-men” I saw having the same Harujuku heart, only to be unveiled at the right hour. Or how the streets glow with an electrified intensity that seems to illuminate into the forever night sky, as if bringing the iconic anime, Akira, to real life. In a nutshell, it’s pretty badass.

We definitely packed in quite a bit for our stay in Tokyo, and the first thing any grade-a tourist would do?…google search: top ten things to do in Tokyo.

This included hiking through the Meiji gardens making our way to the shrine, weaving through a sea of people to the Senso-Ji temple, waking up extra early to catch the Tsukiji Fish Market, and many other “to-do” things in Tokyo…

But ultimately it was the “in-between” things, the things that just sort of happened that made this experience so great: the amazing people we met within this short trip (Vivi, we love you!), an awesome festival we stumbled upon with the most legit bands a free festival could offer, a cheap bento box date in a neighboring park with my love, 100 yen tamago-on-a-stick (they sell it all over the Tsukiji Fish Market; don’t confuse it with ice cream), but maybe most importantly—the indescribable feeling of being out in the world again. Being free, wondering when and where our next stay will be. We could of landed anywhere: Cairo, Seoul, Jakarta, the places we had only talked and dreamt about up until this moment. It just happened to be Tokyo. But I guarantee the feeling that came about wouldn’t of been any different. I think it was this that made the trip amazing. And I’m sorry if this isn’t really relevant to Tokyo anymore, but it is relevant to what traveling and “getting out there” can do to ones self. I promise you that many more posts in the future won’t be this corny, and will actually be more helpful, but as you can tell, the fact that were traveling is still settling in. Get out there and make stories y’all…

All-in-all, it’s an amazing city. It was an absolute privilege to start our travels in Tokyo and become hazed by it’s onslaught of street/restaurant style eats, array of colorful sub-cultures, and beautiful temples that take you back in time–but it was time to move on. After arranging our next stay through HelpX (be sure to stay posted with mustard and mayo’s experience at the Nakagomi Orchard!), we were on our way. It’s bye for now Tokyo. Whether or not we meet again, an indefinite to say the least. But do we travel on, conquering the unknown? A definite at it’s finest…