Tokyo Time

It was about 10pm when I arrived at my accomodation on the 1st of Feb. I had a good flight over from Europe and thoroughly enjoyed a shower upon my arrival. I tried to wind myself down and get some sleep but jet lag was definitely a thing. I had booked my first week in Tokyo in an apartment as I knew that I was likely going to have jet lag. This way I had my own kitchen to cook some food and a nice space to just chill out in.

The first (and last) time I visited Japan was in 2013 and I wasn’t even in Tokyo for 24 hours then, so I thought a jet lagged week trip would make up for that a bit. On my first day I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and went to find myself a power adapter and some other little bits and pieces. The brief outing was more than enough for me today, so I headed back to my apartment and ended up napping some. The rest of the Thursday and Friday was pretty much a write off. My body had no idea where it was or when it was. On Friday I did a bit of work and I got showered and dressed and all ready to go out. Today was Setsubun, the bean throwing festival that celebrates the beginning of spring. As soon as I realised I was going to be here for it I thought that would be great to go check out. Once I was ready to go, I was exhausted. Every intention I had of going just turned into a long sigh and a lie down in bed. There was just nothing of me to muster up to go at this point. I had been wide awake since about 2am and just as it was time here to head off, I was a zombie. I let myself just slump back into bed as I really had booked this time to listen to what my body needed. Forcing myself to catch trains, and walk, and be in crowded busy places, and then get back… I knew was just not going to be fun and exciting for me at that point in time. These are the times though where if there was someone else who was excited that would hype me up and I would of pulled on my shoes and led the charge. But when it’s just me, sometimes I let myself choose not to use that drive.

On Saturday morning I got myself ready and headed out to Akihabara. Woohoo! Finally I was starting to feel a bit more like a normal person. I was definitely on the up after yesterday. I would have liked to spend lots of money in Akihabara (figurines, manga, cuteness) but I have a flight to catch next week where my luggage needs to be un 20kg, so I can’t be upping that until after I fly. I did pick up a few little things though. After being out for a few hours, I headed back to my apartment to drop off some things. I was going to head to a Meet Up event but after I got back I lay down and I ignored the alarm I set for myself instead waking up 5 minutes before I should have been at the event. So, after sighing I decided to still just head out for a bit of a night time walk around Shinjuku instead. Still just listening to my body tell me what it wants to do.

Before coming to Tokyo, one thing I had decided was that I wanted to check out Tokyo Tower. I booked myself a ticket and made my way there. The view was pretty awesome and it was cool to check out this iconic landmark. I then visited Zoji-ji (Buddhist Temple) that is close by before making my way to Shibuya and Harajuku for some walking around and shopping. I then got a message from someone on Reddit who had just arrived in Tokyo that day so we organised to meet up in Ikebukuro.

There was enough time before I was going to meet Ryan, so I headed back to my place to drop off some things first. Exciting part, was I didn’t lie down and pass out here. No, no. I walked straight back out that door and back to the train station. We met up and then made our way to find some food for Ryan ( I had already eaten), and grab a drink. After the food we found a Highball bar and had a couple more drinks and chatted more. It was really nice, especially as on my own I don’t tend to go out to the bars so much. I prefer drinking with someone and instead I tend to use night times as a good time to catch up on the work bits. So for something different and to meet someone new it was a good evening. We then made our way back to the station and said goodbye.

I was definitely feeling the couple drinks I had. I didn’t really drink at all for the weeks I was in Croatia, so I was out practice and team that up with some jet-lag it was fun navigating my way home. I was proud of myself with that one. Anyway, once I made it back suffice to say, I passed out very nicely and actually the drunk blanket I think helped me not wake up at 2am. instead I got to sleep in till 5am.

Feeling a lot more with it now and having the ability to concentrate I decided to really focus on getting some work done on the Monday. Tuesday was going to be my last day in Tokyo, so I thought getting a bunch of work out of the way so that I could use that day to either explore Shinjuku Gardens to take a day trip to Mt. Takao. I hadn’t quite decided which one yet. I did take a little break during the afternoon though to head to Sensō-ji.

That night I got a message from Ryan (reddit dude) asking if I wanted to come to Tokyo Disneysea with him the next day. It hadn’t been on my radar at all as I hadn’t really looked at going to theme parks on my own. After looking into it and umming and ahhing I decided that gardens and mountains were something I can do alone any time. It is also likely that I will be back here again alone at some point and can do those things then. However going to a theme park with somebody is an opportunity that had presented itself and I thought it would be fun to spend the day with a person.

Oh boy, was I glad I decided to join Ryan. It was so much, He is an experienced park goer and has already been to DisneySea multiple times. It was really fun actually going with someone who knew a lot about the park and also the rides. We went on so many rides. We kicked off the day on a Gondola. During the day we floated on magic carpets, sailed through seas with Sinbad, coasted our way through ups and downs and all around, and ended with an epic plummet to the ground. It was sooo GOOD! I really do love rides, and theme parks, and this park is so incredibly well done. Everything is designed beautifully and the themes of each land merge seamlessly into one another. There is so. much attention to detail it’s insane. The crowd was decent in size. The longest wait we had was almost an hour, but the way the lines have been designed there is so much to look at. Also when you have someone to wait inline with and chat to about all the things it’s not that bad. I probably wouldn’t come during peak seasons though, this was the ideal level of crowd and everything that it didn’t stop me enjoying anything.

I’m really glad Ryan invited me along and I’ve got a new friend to hit up when I am back in the UK later this year. It was a really nice way to spend my last day in Tokyo. By the time we left the park and I got home it was almost 9pm. So I packed up all my things and got myself organised for checking out the next day to head to Haneda airport.