Henry didn’t have too many requests for the trip, but the one thing he absolutely wanted to see was the world exposition in Osaka. Before he mentioned it, I didn’t know anything about it, but it ended up being a very fun, and very long day. 

While it felt all too quick, today was our last day in Tokyo. Despite only spending 4 days here, I found myself scrambling a bit to make a plan for the day. Thankfully, I think it was a lovely ending to our time in Tokyo.

Today, I finally got to see an iconic landmark, Tokyo Tower. I even got to climb all 600 steps outside of the tower up to the view point. It didn’t stop there as we strolled through Roppongi Hills, and by the end of the day, my feet were killing me. 

For our next day in Tokyo, we went on a bit of a festival tour, ending up at three different festivals, one for beer, another for meat, and finally, ice cream. I also got to see some parts of Tokyo I never really had a reason to visit. It was a stellar day with good company.

For our first full day of our trip, we had a few things lined up, but it was mostly going to be a chill exploratory day. Henry had found a crying baby festival taking place at Senso-ji temple in Asakusa, so we centered our day around that and played the rest by ear. 

For Golden Week last year, my family came to visit, and it was a lovely time together. This year for Golden Week, my friend Henry was coming to visit. After a few hours together I knew I this would be a great vacation. 

Sakura, or cherry blossoms were in full bloom recently, and since this might be my last chance to see them here in Japan, I decided this year I was absolutely going to do hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. 

As I teased in my last article, my unexpected invitation ended up being twofold! The second part was taking part in a cosplay meetup. I might have worn a cosplay costume for Halloween, but this was the big leagues. 

I was having a pretty slow day at work when another teacher struck up a conversation. Before I knew it, they had invited me out to karaoke on Friday night.

When I woke up on Tuesday, my body felt heavy, and I just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. Despite what I expected, today would be my last day at one of my schools. 

Unlike the other places two weekends ago, Asakusa ended up being a great place I’m glad I explored. It reminds me of what I like about Japan and was just what I needed after a series of misses. 

I’ve been feeling like I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately, so after a pretty good week, I wanted to explore a little this past weekend.

What should have been a routine 7-11 run became quite the kerfuffle. I gathered my items, headed to the counter, and as I went to pay, I realized I forgot my wallet.

Last week, I had a two hour long zoom meeting talking about all the different things to consider for those leaving the JET programme.

I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort lately. Or more specifically, what we think of as our comfort zone. Lately, I worry my comfort zone seems to be shrinking. 

Any kind of journey has joyous highs, but also inevitable lows. This past weekend might have been the low point of my time here in Japan, but I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. 

For the first time in a long time, I woke up in the middle of the night, and for a few sleepy seconds, I had absolutely no idea where I was.

As the Christmas season draws close, in some small way I start to get excited for the holidays. In a much larger way, I start to dread having to buy presents for the people in my life.

Ideally you’ve noticed, or perhaps you haven’t, but I haven’t really been keeping up with the proposed schedule I set for this blog.

I’ve always enjoyed singing, at least for as long as I can remember. But, a rather unexpected side effect of moving to Japan is that I feel like I sing less often.