Hi, dedicated reader of my blog. It has been 270 days since my last post. If you assumed that I had been killed by that enchilada plate in Santa Fe, you were partially right. However, I did make it back from New Mexico, and I've had a pretty unbelievable stretch since then:
I applied to business school
I got into business school
I proposed
She said yes
I chose a business school (Michigan; Go Blue)
I quit my job
I flew to Japan
On all of these points, I am extremely lucky. I am lucky to have the opportunity to go back to school. I am lucky to have a partner willing to marry me and move to Michigan. And most of all, I am lucky to be able to quit my job and travel. I've watched my fair share of YouTube videos and read numerous blogs of various young people romancing about their "wanderlust" and encouraging others to leave everything behind and explore the world and find themselves and try exotic foods and marry an Italian.
But no matter how cheaply you travel, it is a luxury. The amount of good fortune that has come my way over the past six months has given me even stronger perspective than I had before. Specifically, that I am lucky, and that what I write between now and the first day of graduate school - no matter how weird or inane or (wannabe) funny it is - will be with tremendous appreciation for everything that made these past, present and future experiences possible.
With that caveat out of the way, we are off on the first trip of the extended summer.
Days 1 - 2: Vancouver and Tokyo
Our trip to Tokyo was broken up by a five-hour layover in Vancouver. If you've never been there, Vancouver is a larger, more Canadian version of Portland. The city is worth a visit regardless of where you live or what you're into, but my favorite part is the best dim sum in North America (sit down San Francisco).
My Japan reading led me to believe the train system there was the most challenging escape room in the world, so we decided to get some light practice in and take the train to Richmond, a heavily Chinese neighborhood just outside of downtown Vancouver. After walking around for a bit, we stumbled into an authentic dim sum restaurant on the second story of an exclusively Chinese shopping center. We were the only two people of a large and completely full dining room speaking English. This meant that we definitely found the right spot, but also that my chopsticks anxiety was peaking.
Nothing says I'm ready to fly for 10 hours like ingesting a kilogram of MSG.
We took the train back to the airport, and after a short wait boarded the flight to Narita. This was my first time traveling this far west, and since our flight left in the early afternoon, we were chasing the sun the entire way. Tough to sleep on a 10-hour flight void of darkness, but it did really help the jet lag.
After crossing the date line (shoutout Flat Earthers), we arrived in Japan the next day at 4:30pm. We took a 90min bus into Shinjuku, one of the more popular areas of Tokyo, where our AirBnb is located. On the way, I got really tired on the bus. And listen, there are few times that I get this tired, but this was "you are going to have to pry my unconscious body off of this bus" tired. But I looked at Marisa. And she looked at me. And she gave me the look that I wasn't allowed to go to sleep, because we hadn't had sushi, and she said for weeks that we were going to have sushi the night we got into Japan. So after unloading our things and showering some life back into my body, we found a small and delicious sushi restaurant just a few blocks away.
Night 1, Blowing through our yen.
Then we fell asleep for 12 hours. In separate beds. I love being engaged.
Revived and hungry, we dedicated today to eating in Asakusa, which is about a 35-minute trip from Shinjuku. Tourists best know Asakusa for the Sensoji Temple - which was nice if not very touristy - but we were there to eat. We began the day at a soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurant that featured a long line of locals. Although the language barrier in Tokyo thus far has been pretty significant, everyone has been nothing but kind to us. (I am very good at saying thank you and can count to four, but that's about it.) The staff sat Marisa and I, cross-legged on cushions, and gave us our cold soba noodles with tempura shrimp and a warm dipping sauce. I forgot to take a picture, but that would have blown my cover as an American anyway. This meal, from the food to the experience, was exactly what we were so excited about leading into this trip.
One beautiful aspect of these restaurants is that the seat turnover is very quick. You are there to eat, and then to pay, and then to leave. I get a little aroused by efficiency.
We left and began our street food tour. We had sweet deep fried cakes (age manju), pork steam buns, gyoza and a warm bread filled with matcha ice cream. It was after the ice cream that I was recruited to a local sumo academy, but I politely declined. Needing a break, we popped into Don Quijote, a chain super market-type store that carried a lot of the Japanese cosmetic products that Marisa had spent a lot of time researching. She found what she was looking for, but the store was overstimulating. Each product's display case had a small monitor playing an ad. Combined with the lights, it felt like I was at a makeup casino.
We wrapped up our afternoon with a walk through Ueno park, where the cherry blossoms were beginning to bloom. Then it was back on the train and back to Shinjuku, where I am wrapping up this blog while Marisa naps away her jet lag. Again in separate beds.
Hanging out with a few of my friends at Ueno Park.
Dinner tonight is still up in the air, but we plan to hit Memory Lane aka Piss Alley for a special Friday night in Tokyo.