I’m starting this blog primarily so my parents know where I am in the world since neither one of them have social media. I don’t really expect it to be much else. It may turn into and outlet for writing, since that’s something I enjoy but don’t do enough of.

Back in December things had been slowing down considerably at the office, which was fairly normal for the type of consulting work I’ve been doing. Having finished a six week backpacking trip in Europe early in 2013, I definitely had the itch to get back on a plane. One day I see flights with Air Canada to Tokyo for $1200 and without thinking I pull the trigger for a January departure.

I had always wanted to go to Japan. I’m into anime and the shopping culture there. I also heard snowboarding was amazing there. But beyond that I knew absolutely nothing. I had also never travelled solo internationally before, but it was only for a week so I figured it would be fine.

Once reality set in that I was going, I realized I didn’t have enough holiday time to make the trip work, so I went and asked my boss for a week of unpaid leave. He gladly took me up on the opportunity to save the department some money. As a side note if your young and have limited vacation days, I’d recommend trying this if your job allows it.

And that was it. Less than four weeks later I was on my way, leaving in a Newfoundland storm now being called Dark NL, due to all the power outages. I was going somewhere with lights. A lot of lights.

I grossly underestimated how big, bright and overwhelming Tokyo was going to be. I had never been anywhere this intense, let alone by myself. I landed around supper time at Narita and got the 70 minute train to my hostel near Asakusa station.

K’s House hostel was an island of comfort in an otherwise chaotic environment. The staff there were friendly and spoke English. My room was clean and cozy. Once I got settled I headed out to the Akihabara district I had heard so much about. It’s the hub for electronics, video games and manga culture. It’s now one of my favourite places in the world and I can’t wait to go back, but at the time my first impression was “this is fucked”. So many people and shops and lights. I ended up just grabbing MacDonalds and walking around that first night, not going in anywhere.

The next day was a bright crisp day and my initial anxiety was gone. I set out for Tsukiji fish market, the world’s largest wet market, and a big tourist attraction. I wandered around there all morning, eating sushi and other random street food. It’s not too far from Tokyo tower so after exploring I went to the top of that. On top of this effilé tower like structure was the first time I got a sense of how massive the city was. You can barely call it a city. It essentially doesn’t end, as it just goes straight to the horizon in most directions.

From here the rest of this trip was life changing. The food, friendly people, infrastructure, and culture were all amazing. I headed to Nagano for snowboarding (probably another post) and then spent the last couple days in Shibuya at the Cerulean Tower hotel, which was ridiculously nice. I won’t go into all the details of the rest of my time in Tokyo here now. I may come back to edit this post later. For now here are some photos in no particular order taken on my phone. Note: must get better camera for future travel.