Japan December 2023

Japan trip Day 0: from 12/19/2023 (tuesday) to 12/26/2023 (tuesday)

Before the trip to Japan from Los Angeles

Before I flew to Japan, I was in a horrible mental state. I reached my third rock bottom. My first rock bottom was during 7th grade when I was betrayed and bullied. My second rock bottom was when I attemped suicide for the first time in Fall 2020. My third rock bottom hit me when I was severely drunk in the Halloween Cal Japan party in October 31st, 2023. After Halloween, all the rejections and negative social cues I had accumulated over the semester finally spilled over from being over-filled. It did reach a point where I couldn't ignore them anymore. I couldn't keep pretending that I was fine. I wasn't fine but I was good at hiding it. After the party, all of them hit me hard. My social confidence reached near zero. I avoided almost all social events because I was scared of meeting people and being judged. Even for the one or two social events I went to, I couldn't speak at all because I was too nervous. I wanted to let the words out of my mouth but I stood there in silence watching the TV rather than talking with the people at the event.

My autism was at its peak again and I felt like a slave unable to do things I want to do.

By the time finals came around, I was depressed, burnt out, and suicidal.

Luckily I ended up passing my finals and my classes with all As but my mental state was still in a bad spot.

After my last final, I met up with Kim and Jacky to attend Steven's graduation. There was a moment when I was talking with Kitty and my anxiety and nervousness boiled up again with each pause. Every time I thought the other person found me boring, my anxiety got worse and worse. I felt like I was speaking too fast.

After the graduation, I returned to LA and stayed for two nights before leaving my flight to Tokyo with Canyon.


Total budget expenditure of Japan
initial $1308 (round trip flight of $1066, and 6 nights hotel: $205)
sidequest $282 (round bullet train to Osaka and Kyoto from Tokyo: $235, and one night Osaka hotel: $47)
escort for 65 minutes: $250 in Shibuya
massage for 60 minutes: $180 in Kabukicho
local train travel for 6 days through Suica card: $100
Arcade, Gacha, Photos, and Claw machines: $60
Gifts: $80 ($15 charm for me, $25 figurine for David, $13 tshirt for me, and $13 tshirt for champ)
Expensive Food: $100 ($70 in monster hunter bar, and $30 in shaun sheep village cafe)
Local food $175 (ramnen, udon, rice and curry, 7 eleven, vending machine drinks: pocari sweat, water, coffee)($25 per day, snacks, lunch, and dinner)

Total: $2600

Throughout the flight, I took melatonin beforehand and I was knocking in and out. For the few moments I was awake, I memorized some common Japanese phrases like "sumimasen" for excuse me. I played some Resident Evil Revelations 2 and that's about it.

Day 1:

On December 20th Wednesday, we arrived in Haneda Airport. The airport was really clean and we didn't have to wait too long in security. We took the train to Nishikasai in Edogawa City where our hotel was located. The train was really clean and it had seat warmers underneath. It was about an hour and half ride total with one transfer. The problem started when a lot of people got on the same train and it became packed. I could barely move my body as there were people all around me. It became hot due to high number of people and my anxiety made it worse. Within minutes, I was sweating in my two layer jacket. After about 20 minutes of heat, we made it to our stop. For a brief moment, I was in disbelief. I couldn't believe that I was in Japan. It was a dream of mine for a long time but I couldn't because I was poor and scared of traveling. Somehow I made it. We checked into our hotel with dinosaur clerks and left our luggage in our room. After that, we walked around the quiet and almost empty neighborhoods. Some things we noticed was the high amounts of vending machines everywhere offering bottled water at 100 yen or 70 US cents. Everything was clean despite never seeing a trash can in public. There was also a high level of public trust and low crime rates as some shops put merchandise outside for sale. There were a lot of unlocked bikes everywhere. If that happened in the US, people will steal it. It was also dystopian as there were a lot of large-scale apartment buildings that were very uniform, almost as if it were made in factories. A lot of people bike there. There were rows and rows of parking spaces for bicycles. Parents ride bikes with their children in their backpack. Parking spaces for cars are small and they have car elevators with multiple floors for cars.
We ended the night with a beef bowl and miso soup which was delicious and cheap for the price of 1000 yen or 8 USD. They don't charge additional tips or tax there. In the US that might amount for almost 16 USD with additional tips and tax leading to 20 USD.
The toilets are automatic with seat warmers and bidets to wash your ass after poo. If you press warm or hot water, it comes in that temperature with no delay. If you did that in US, there will be a 5 to 30 second delay before the running cold water becomes warm.

Day 2: December 21st Thursday

After knocking out, I woke up early and went exploring around the neighborhood. I found out that the residents bag up their trash into separate parts and leave them outside with labels and covered in green nets for the garbage people to pick up. They burn most of their trash instead of using landfills to conserve land use. Also to make recycling easier, everyone tears off the plastic wrapper of plastic bottles before throwing them away. As I further explored the neighborhood and the local Lake Park, I also realized why I loved Japan's scenery so much. People there are obsessed with nature. They like to have plants outside their homes in so many pots. In parks, nature is a huge componentt. It was weird having a local open park have a huge lake with wildlife like red-crowned white cranes. I watched a lot of old people do exercise and taichi. There are no dogs allowed in parks because they would dirty the areas. I also saw a mini dry garden with gravel in various symbols. Before returning back, I got a Boss rainbow mountain blend from a vending machines for 140 yen or 1 USD and it was still warm. The can itself was thick in layer which made it difficult to crush. After my coffee, I returned back to my hotel as I saw the local residents getting ready for school or work.
Last night, I knocked out pretty early around 10:30 pm while Canyon knocked out late. He told me that while showering, he knocked out like 2 or 3 times standing up because the warm water made him sleepy. We went to the local 7-eleven and bought some sandwiches. I never saw a 7-eleven worker work so hard or enthusiastically in my life before. He always seemed energetic as if he was always giving his 120%. On one hand I was impressed but on the other hand, I was also worried. In my mind I thought "Dude, chill out, it's just a 7-eleven job". That was something I realized which was the increased standards of performance for every job. We took almost a 2 hour train ride to Grandberry Park in Minami Machida. The girls over there love Snoopy as there was a Snoopy Museum with Snoopy statues. We went to the local arcade stores with rows and rows of claw machines. We lost a lot of 100 yen coins for nothing. After that, we went to a photo booth where they the machine took photos of us and photoshopped them to the point where our eyes were big like anime eyes and our face was smoothed out pale. There were a lot of girls putting on makeup and styling their hair on styling areas next to the many photobooth machines. That scared me a little. I have seen photoshops here alongside filters but this was on a massive scale I have never seen before until now. We don't even look like people anymore, we look like dolls. After that we went to Shaun the Sheep Cafe and ate some custom Shaun the Sheep styled waffles and parfait. The entire restaurant looked like the home from the TV show. In Japan, there is almost a themed cafe or shop for most TV shows, anime, and video games. We walked around the neighborhood near the mall. It was very peaceful. It was suburban and it was the closest thing to what foreigners think of Japan in terms of how people live. I went to some shrines and to the graveyards. Everything is well-maintained and clean. They have an underground parking lot with entry and exit gates just for bicycles.
After that, we headed to Shibuya and saw the large scramble of people crossing. We went to the Shibuya 109 building. It was 10 floors with almost all floors for women design clothing. Throughout the entire building, we two were the only guys in there with everyone else being girls. Japan has advertisements everywhere from street advertisements on walls, on windows of buildings, on trains inside and outside. Even on the streets, they have large trucks with rectangular advertisements. Some have poster advertisements for video games or for hosts (guys that girls pay to talk with). One had a guy in a maid dress and I told Canyon that "femboys are real". However, most of the trucks, had large LED signs to show videos of advertisements with music blasting. We went to Don Quijote in Roppongi. There were 8 floors and each floor had its own category ranging from food, clothing, stationery, etc. In the 7th floor, there was kitchenware at one end and on the other end, there was a mini section for tourists to buy keychains or magnets. In the middle, there was a whole area for female costumes. Not halloween costumes but more for erotic activities. There were costumes like schoolgirl, lingerie, office lady, fairy, succubus, teacher, bikini, sportsgirl, etc. On the staircase, there were numerous signs saying "8th Floor: Tenga". I didn't know what Tenga was. I thought it was a video game or a type of electronic. I go up there and I see sex toys and naked sex dolls everywhere. I saw a Tenga box which was a fleshlight. It surprised me that in a department store, there was an entire floor dedicated to sex toys.
After that, we continued our walk to Tokyo Tower. We went to the Tokyo Tower Red exhibit. Canyon got to see his favorite Persona Tactics display. We played some VR games here and there. One of my favorite ones was a jumping VR where you have to jump to hit the points. The hardest part was when you have to jump high and lift your feet as well. That one made me fall on the mat which was ok. We also did the 360 VR game where we wear slippers and slide on the floor to move in game alongside with our head and hand controls. It was a sliding game and it was tough. My favorite part was when the cute glasses girl with short hair was helping me set up the machine. She seemed so happy just to be helping me despite not knowing that well English that I fell for her. Unfortunately I didn't ask her out because language barriers and anxiety. After that, we went up stairs, I drove on the simulation and played R6 with Canyon. We didn't win a single match which sucked. My favorite moment was on the way back, we went to a large shrine. We went up some marble stairs and found a large shrine area surrounded by high-rise skyscraper buildings. It was fascinating to me how there is some culture still standing despite extreme capitalism and modernity.

Day 3: (December 22nd, Friday) (Spring)

I woke up late at around 7:30 am. After we got ready, we headed down to the local McDonald's for breakfast. In the menu they had regular muffins, and they had double muffins with double patties, eggs, and cheese. My favorite was the sankaku pie with choclate filling. I also loved the fries which you could put inside a bag and put sweet-spicy powder seasoning to make the fries taste delicious with bursting flavor.
We then took to the train to Akihabra. I told Canyon I hired an escort so I would part ways with him later on for a few hours. They had a lot of anime advertisements in Akihabara. On tall buildings, they had giant advertisements featuring anime characters for TV shows, movies, and card games. We went inside a mini-tower mall. They were selling V-tuber brand vodkas on the ground floor. As we went up, we saw a lot of figurines being sold from almost every anime and popular video game franchise. Compared to the US, they were cheap too. A One Piece Yamato figure would cost $50 in the US but I bought one for my friend for $25. A brand new OLED Nintendo Switch cost around $230 compared to $350 in US. In other areas, there were large glass panels selling card collections. I saw a first-generation Charizard Pokemon card selling for 828000 Yen which is almost USD 6000. Before leaving, he shook my hand and said "Live with Honor", and I said "Die with Glory".
After that, I left alone for Shibuya. The place to meet my escort was in a shady area. I chug down my Taurine or my D energy drink. I was scared of being robbed by some Yakuza. I go inside the place and the counter guy takes my cash 26700 yen for 65 minutes. I go to the hotel next door and pay 3000 yen. Inside the hotel room, it was definitely made for sex. They had dim lights, a bed with heaters and motion capabilities. They also had a small faucet next to the bed for cleanup. I waited for about 15 minutes before she showed up. She was wearing a coat and short pants which made me wonder how was she not freezing. We both introduced ourselves. I told her "nihongo ga wakarimasen, gomennasai" (I do not speak japanese, I am very sorry). She said ok. She told me that I can do everything except sex or penetration. She started undressing and told me to shower. I was nervous and started undressing. She said "Dozo" (after you or if you may) after tying up her hair and being fully naked. I head into the shower/bath room (toilet was in a different room) and she joins me. She adjusts the temperature if its too hot or cold for me. She washed my entire body including my dick with water and soap before I helped wash her. After drying ourselves, she made me use mouthwash. After I laid down in bed, and she laid down as well, I asked her what to do now. She said "kiss" with a playful smile as she made me put my left arm behind her neck. I told her I don't know how to kiss because I have never kissed a girl before. I told her that I had girlfriends in the past but never did anything because I was too scared. When she heard that, she was so surprised that she slightly covered her face with both of her hands before turning away. She said "ok" with a thumbs up.
I put my face really close to her and froze for a few seconds. Then she looked me in the eyes and smiled. I put my other arm around her as well, I closed my eyes and started kissing her. We started with soft kisses on each other's lips before our tongues connected. With each kiss I pulled her tighter and tighter towards me. I felt her tits rubbing against mine. I started touching her boobs and pinching her nipples. She stopped kissing and started sucking my nipples while rubbing my dick. That was a new level of pleasure for me. It was so good that I almost couldn't handle it. After that, she started sucking my dick especially around the tip. After a few minutes of sucking, I stopped her. I pulled her towards me and started kissing her again. Then, I started licking her body before sucking on her tits. My right hand was fondling and pinching her other nipple before I started fingering her. I used my index and middle finger in a upward arc motion. With each thrust slowly in and slowly out, I could feel her body vibrating. With each thrust, I could also hear her soft moan and heavy breathing while my fingers started getting wet. She told me to be softer so I went slower. After a while, I stopped. I laid down next to her and asked if I could have sex with her if I paid extra. I told her that I did many of my first times with her and I wanted her to be my first sex partner as well. She said "Hontoni?" (really?). I said Yes. She said Ok but to keep it a secret. I said "hai" (yes). I took out a condom and she put it on for me. As I laid down she used her hand to hold my dick before inserting insider her warm vagina. After being fully inside, she started off slow. Hair clip fell off as her long hair became free. I was laying down face up while she was riding me like a cowgirl. As she was riding me, we kissed together and I fondled her breasts. After that we switched positions to missionary which was more difficult and uncomfortable. Then, we switched to doggy styles and I clapped some ass cheeks with noise. I was having a really good time being intimate with a beautiful stranger. Both of us were also really warm from the "cardio". Since our 65 minutes were running out, she decided to suck my dick to make me cum near the end. Unfortunately, I never came. I felt bad because I wanted to cum inside her to show that I had a really good time. She said it's ok before we showered together again. I gave her an extra 5000 yen before she left. Then I got fully dressed, paid an extra 1000 yen for going overtime at the hotel. After that, I started heading toward Akihabara to reconnect with Canyon.
I told him about everything that happened with the escort. While walking around, I found a mystery vending machine. I put in 1000 yen and got a mini humidifier. We then went to small retro stores where they sold out video game consoles and discs. I also learned about 10% tax free discount for tourists. Tax is integrated into the prices beforehand but if we show them we are tourists, we can get a 10% discount by removing the tax. However, we have to show them our passports for scan. We went to the arcade tower of 8 floors. The first 4 floors were just UFO catchers which we lost money to because the claw machines always drop the prize before the last minute. The 5th and 6th floor were Rhythm/Dancing/Music games. The 7th floor had Street Fighter 6 which I abused Modern Controls Zangief. Then on 8th floor, we played Gundam Seed coop. We went around looking for figurines because Canyon wanted to buy a Persona 5 Haru figure. In the anime tower we first went, they also had an entire floor for dolls. Not anime figures, but dolls like barbie dolls if they were more anime. As we exited into the main street, that's when existential crisis hit me. In the arcade center, watching the people repeatedly play the claw machine fail after fail made me depressed. When we stepped outside, there was something waving her hands on the glass wall. I thought it was a robot in a maid costume but it was an actual girl instead because it turned around and went back in. As we walked further, there were girls in maid costumes in fur coats but no long pants, only stockings and skirt handing out maid leaflet cards. I was also reminded of the people in the train using their phones before they do long work hours.
My biggest fear is being alone and misunderstood by others. I strongly believe that in order to live, one must have a purpose and must love something about their life to justify living. When I saw the maid girls and the overworked people stuck to their phones, I wondered, where is the purpose and happiness for them? Is this their everyday life until they are dead? Is this a dystopia? Why do we even exist if we are going to wake up, work, and sleep for the large majority of our lives? Is this our fate? We stopped being like humans, and more like machines with our efficiency. Japan is a hyper capitalistic country where everything is extremely competitive. Everyone is working hard like machines. The collectivistic culture removed the flaws and unique individuality of most people. Each person is like a cell keeping this large organism alive. That scared me. The reality that each person is not necessarily unique or special. We are like everyone else. Yet, I still strongly believe I am inherently different based on my life's experiences. I am still delusional. I still believe that I am bound to do great things and be better than average compared to most people.
"As long as there is delusion, there is hope".
The other thing that scared me was anime. Capitalism is focused on efficiency. They extract the best qualities out of a product, and mass produce them for public consumption. That is not natural yet it happens anyway. Anime is one form of that. Cuteness is taken to an extreme level to the point where it is not natural anymore. The anime characters are not even humans, they are based off of cats with their small face and large eyes. However, we see a trend towards adoption of plastic surgery and other methods to achieve somewhere close to flawless beauty. Same with other aspects. Porn mass produces artificial sexual intimacy pleasure. Our eyes can't tell the difference between real and fake. Same with Kpop and streamers. People form pseudo relationships with people they have never met as their friend or lover. There were a lot of posters of the Kpop group TWICE advertising chicken legs for Christmas. Anime didn't feel right. Nothing felt real anymore which sunk me deeper into my existential crisis. I started questioning myself, my whole life, and my future. Multiple times I considered suicide that day and the day after.
Back to the trip and away from my existential philosophy. We continued our search for Canyon's Haru figure. We did find a small Haru figure for him. He also bought two monster hunter world/rise monster figurines. We bought a NIkkei glass figurine stand for Pan. I also found a whole second floor of japanese hentai and porn. There were shelves with labels of porn actresses for their hard copy movie discs. I recognized one of the actresses which was the secretary in Yakuza 0 Real Estate Mini Game.
We had an hour before our Monster Hunter Bar reservation. We decided to go to the nearby mall and take photos outside with the colorful Christmas lights. The colors were beautiful in how they lighted up the trees, but they weren't necessarily natural. At that time, I didn't realize this. After photos, we headed to the bar. I finally got to eat a real life replica of the Monster Hunter meal of the large meat assortments on metal grill sticks. I ate a three colored Dango with sad face. We took some photos of the weapon figures from the various monsters in the form of longsword, greatsword, bow, etc. There were a lot of HR 999, MR 999 players that visited the bar and left their contact info. We played the video game stands and got our asses kicked.

Day 4: (December 23rd, Saturday)

We got up and headed to the Tokyo station to catch a bullet train to meet Yoshiki in Osaka. It was about $130 to go from Tokyo to Osaka. I didn't want to ask Canyon to return my money after I pay for his ticket so I bought mine separately. I bought an unreserved while he bought a reserved one. I got on the first train which was very spacious with an oval window for a view alongside a binder to block the sunlight. You had more than double the legspace compared to an airplane. Half an hour into the train ride, Canyon told me that he got on a different train because the conductor told him that the first train wasn't his. He got on the train with 4 stops directly to Osaka. I got on the train with 18 stops. He ended up reaching Osaka in 2 hours while my trip took 3 hours.

Looking back, the 18 stop train did ride slower because the photos I took were less blurry. The farther I got from Tokyo, the more suburban the places became with more single family homes and less skyscraper buildings. One of my favorite sights were the rivers and the walking platforms on the side. It looked so relaxing to just take a walk and sit down. I could be enjoying a hotdog from 7-eleven while gazing at the river right below me with the sunlight reflecting into my eyes. Aside from rivers, most of the view were rural areas. Some had large factories but most were farmland with long roads in between and small houses. The peaceful scenery was a strong contrast from the business of the major cities where every second counts. Usually, the horizon was in the shape of the various buildings at the end. Sometimes, there would be hills or the beautiful shining ocean. For a brief moment, there was a small village area with a lot of snow. I do fantasize about taking a whole week off and just walking around in the rural areas. Compared to the views of California when driving along the highway, it's more lush and green. There are fewer empty valleys because each farmland has at least one or two homes in between. The sky has more clouds in contrast to California's sky which is just a sea of blue and nothing else. The roads are smaller as not that many people drive in Japan compared to the US highways. Every now and then, I see the iconic electric metal towers in between. However, California's valleys sometimes have these beautiful rows and rows or trees whether its for oranges, apples, or vineyards to make wine.

As beautiful and relaxing the scene was from the bullet train, I was still suffering from my existential crisis and not trying to kill myself. I didn't want the rest of my trip to be ruined so I decided to confront my thoughts by writing about it. I took out my small green journal that I usually use to write book chapter summaries and my muji black pen. I decided to write. The large advertisements of anime, kpop, and maid cafe made life seem artificial. The large amounts of people playing gacha machines and claw machines coin after coin never stopping reminded me of life's chase for happiness. That made me question the value of life itself. I also felt horrible because I saw some people living as machines where their sole purpose is to work, eat, sleep, repeat. Before this, I already knew life was meaningless and everything we did would only last temporarily before the waves of time washes everything away. Knowing this, I knew we all had to create our own meaning of what life means for us. However, what I saw in Japan made me question if there was any. I did find two important lessons.

One: Everyone has hope as long as they are alive. Everyone knows things will get better at some point or they have something to look forward to. It could be reading a book, playing video games, or meeting up with friends after a long day of work. The moment someone loses all hope, is the moment, they commit suicide as they have no reason to continue suffering.

Two: Happiness is found when there is meaning in suffering. Every action we do is an effort to solve a problem. In that sense, every action is part of the overall suffering of life. However, if we believe in our actions that it will make our lives better, then we can turn that suffering into happiness. That is why some people feel happy working while others don't. We all have a void in our existentialism and we try to fill that void with whatever meaning we can muster.

After I reached Osaka, I regrouped with Canyon who was waiting around an hour in the train station. We went inside a bookstore and bought the final Bleach manga volume for Sam. We walked to our hotel. In Osaka, the places are more cramped. The roads between streets are small and the various neon signs in between make them even tighter. However, they make for really good photographs. I love the minishrines hidden within cities. We were walking through a mall area and we went through a small passageway with marble stairs. Suddenly, we were in a small shrine areas with paper lanterns and mini temples with incense offerings.

We wanted to get food so we tried to find an udon place. It was underground. The underground mall felt like it's own tiny neighborhood. We were walking around for almost half an hour to find our udon place. It felt more traditional there with small restaurants with cloth names hanging on ceiling. There were wooden doors and walls. Customers would eat on the large wooden bar area where the chef would serve them their food and drinks. We eventually found our udon place and it was 10/10. I never tasted an udon broth with so much flavor before. It was perfect. The udon, egg, green onions, beef, and tempura were in the bowl and the broth came separate in a small vase so we could pour as much or as little as we wanted.

We then went to Dotonbori because we are Yakuza 0 fans. There were a lot of people. It was packed. There were large neon signs filling almost the entire building wall. Aside from neons, there were large displays of crabs, dragons, and Japanese cartoons popping out as advertisements for restaurants. Whenever we walked down the street, there were mini neon and LED advertisements hanging on walls continuing down forever. There was a large Don Quijote building with it's own built in ferris wheel on top. Canyon was impressed by the trilingual workers who could speak English, Japanese, and Korean or Chinese (based on their language pins which said "I can speak Korean" in korean letters). As we explored more, we found the occasional american restaurants like KFC, McDonald's, Baskin Robbins, and Wendy's. We eventually made it back to our room and I knocked out. Canyon said he was going to rest for a bit before heading out into the nightlife but he ended up knocking out on the chair instead. Our legs were in pain because we were walking for hours and hours nonstop everyday trying to see everything. Back in the U.S., we rarely walk or stand up for this long.

Day 5: (December 24th, Sunday)(Yoshiki)

When we woke up and left for Kyoto at 8 am, there were still some drunk people in the morning walking around and making noise after partying all night and all morning.

We took the local train to Kyoto station and went to the Fushimi Inari Fox Mountain Shrine. We met up with Yoshiki after almost two years. It was also filled with tourists like Dotonobori. We prayed for our wish by tossing a coin into the prayer box. Then we bowed twice, clapped twice, and joined our hands for a prayer. Then we bowed again before leaving. The temple area was extremely clean and beautiful with rich red colored temples. As we went up there were mini shrine hallways created by thousands of vermilion torii gates. As you walk through each one, they offer you good fortunes or blessings. However, there were a lot of people there so I led our group into a detour. We went into a path separate from the main walkway. We went deep inside the forest surrounded by bamboo trees covering the sky. After the forest, we continued walking and checked out mini shrine areas with their own vermilion torii gates. It felt authentic as it was quiet and peaceful with no tourists. My favorite area was when there was a shrine area below the pathway so we could view it's entirety from a birdseye view. In some other areas, there were people cleaning the shrine areas with brooms to pick up the fallen leaves and branches. As we continued up the path, there were small homes in the forest. One had a large porch area with a vending machine. We all bought a Pocari Sweat from it and I took picture of the cats relaxing on the porch. As we continued, the incline increased so our legs were taking a toll. Eventually, we made it back to the main walkway at the top. The Fushimi Inari pathway doesn't have an end. When you reach the top, it goes into a circle loop around the main shrine areas before circling back to the way you came from. There were significantly less tourists as not everyone could make it to the top. It was a beautiful sight. Each shrine area was a village with mini shrines with temples and offering areas. We all made another prayer at the top before we walked back down. On the way down, we saw a really nice view of Kyoto. Some of the shrines also had fox statues where people offer coins for good luck. Before leaving, I bought a white amulet for good health and ate some dango with beef skewers. We went to a restaurant and ate ramen. We had to take off our shoes and eat sitting down on the floor with short tables. It was a fun experience. I also felt fear for the first time in a while. The waitress bought the check and when I grabbed it to look at the prices, Yoshiki said, "Give it to me". I have never seen him so angry before. His tone and his eyes showed the face of a man who was seeking revenge for the death of his family and his honor. I immediately gave it to him and joked about how scary Yoshiki was. After that, we went to the Kyoto tower and ate some mochi ice cream pancake dessert. I fell in love with the recepionist because she had glasses on and she was very cute. I never asked her out unfortunately. After that, we went to another large temple area that looked like a small castle. The floor of the courtyard was just a sea of small smooth rocks. We took off our shoes to enter the temple as the priests enchanted prayers.

Then, we headed to an indoor onsen. We stripped naked, covered our dick with a small white towel, and washed ourself sitting down on a stool in a mini shower area. After cleansing, we went inside the onsen. It was very hot. I almost thought that the water was boiling. For the first few minutes of dipping myself inside the water, I was boiling. Then slowly, my body got used to it. It felt similar to jumping inside a pool of cold water. Initially, it's really cold as my body is freezing. Somehow after a few minutes, my body heats up and adjusts to it. In the onsen, I sat down deep in the water and closed my eyes to relax. I was in there for almost half an hour but it felt like an eternity of relaxation and peace. I used one of the wooden buckets to pour the water on my head. It burned because I forgot how hot the water was. My body was used to it because they had been in the water for a while but my head wasn't. My head was sweating a lot because of how hot the onsen was. Then, we showered again, dried, and wore our clothes. I only wore a t-shirt without my two layered jacket becaues I felt hot. When I went outside in the 0 Celsius weather, I felt fine. Everyone else was wearing wool jackets with scarfs but I was just wearing my drifit shirt feeling fine. I had cold immunity for almost half an hour. We then headed towards Kyoto station. We bought self-heating Bentos for the train ride and Yoshiki gave us DK barrels from his Universal Studios Japan workplace. We said our farewells and hoped on our train back to Tokyo. Unfortunately, since it was night time, there wasn't much sightseeing to do through the windows other than the occasional city stops with their bright building advertisements and roads filled with cars. The bento was delicious. Even though it was refrigerated beforehand, the self-heating system made it taste like cooked food. We got back to our hotel, ate some McDonald's and headed to the local arcade store. We figured out how to do local PVP. I fought as King against Canyon's Josie in Tekken 7. I lost 2-8 against him unfortunately. I lost 800 yen (100 yen coin for each play/rematch) total. Then we went back to hotel and knocked out.

Day 6: (December 25th, Monday)

I woke up early at 7:30 am. Since, Canyon usually wakes up at 7:30 am, I went on another walk. Before leaving Japan, I wanted to go see the rivers and the ocean. I walked for an hour towards the nearest river. On the way, I walked through a lot of beautiful parks and most of the pathway was one long walkway surrounded by small shrubs and benches on the side. There was also a mini garden area where schoolchildren planted their flower seeds. I love the detail they put into the walkway. Instead of being a long bland grey concrete walkway, they put different types of stones with different colors and shapes and cemented them together. I also took pictures of the electric towers. Something about their scale and vibrant red and white color just makes me stare at them. Eventually I reached the river and it was a peaceful sight. Unfortunately, I couldn't walk to the edge as it was locked away. However, there was a track alongside the river so you could walk, run, or bike while looking at the beautiful river and city view. In almost every picture I took in the parks, there is an aura of peace and tranquility due to the vast amount of nature they put everywhere. I also walked on the bridges that have low incline but really long slopes. As a kid, my dad used to make me run up and down in an effort to make me lose weight. However, I would just end up eating a lot of food so my weight never really changed. All I did was cardio and no weight lifting so I never gained any muscle.

After coming back, we got some oyakodon and chicken katsu to go. The oyakodon is a large fried egg with chicken piece served with rice and soy sauce. Chicken katsu is just a chicken cutlet deep fried served with rice and seasoning. I started with the Oyakodon. We got it to go. When I opened my oyakodon bowl, I didn't see any rice which I thought was weird. I assumed that they just ate it by itself. After I finished it, I lifted it to throw it away. It revealed the bottom bowl part which had the rice. That made me sad as I ate double rice with one chicken katsu serving. It was still delicious but I felt bad for the chefs. They were so nice to help us translate despite not knowing that well English.

We went to the Kirby Cafe near Tokyo station. On the way, we noticed people going to school and work. Japanese people don't get a holiday for Christmas in Japan. However, the mall was still packed as there were long lines that curved 4 times for some popular fashion stores or gift shops like chocolate boxes. Canyon bought his souvenirs at the Kirby Cafe while I was amazed by the long line of girls just waiting to play one arcade machine. The machine was an idol game that gave out rare collectible cards or stickers which explains the long line.

After that, we headed towards the Imperial Palace. On the way, we relaxed in the massive park which was just a large flat grassy area with some trees spread out. The imperial palace was surrounded by a large lake/river and it was accessible through bridges. The architecture of the buildings and the large wooden doors reinforced by iron was impressive.

We then headed to the University of Tokyo. On the way, we saw a Burger King poster. It advertised a Burger with 4 patties. It made me think, I can't believe the Japanese beat us at being more American. Canyon said, "Be the American, the Japanese think you are." In the University, we went to the Economics building and the lectures were very similar. However, nobody sat in the front 3 rows. Almost everyone sat in the middle or back. Some were studying, others were browsing the web, and a few were asleep. Most of the buildings were generic. Nothing really stood me out. However, I loved the fact that they have a large pond/lake with koi fish and birds in the middle of the university. Walking around took me 15-20 minutes. I also loved the falling trees. They are usually bending down to the point almost some of their leaves or branches touch the water or the floor. Within the lake, there was also a small island in the middle where some ducks reside. We then headed to Ueno park which had a giant lake for boat riding. There were shrines for people to pray and we also got to see a sakura tree with blooming flowers. We then headed to the museum of science. They had a large T-Rex skeleton. They also had large wax models of most animal species we know of like bears, penguin, lion, giraffe in one large collection. At the top, they had a garden area where you could look at the different plants, enjoy some drinks, and relax while looking at the view of the city. It was peaceful just staring out and watching trains go by on the large track. We then went to Uniqlo and bought Champ his Chainsawman T-shirt.

We headed back to Chuo-Ginza near Tokyo station. All the Christmas illuminations were on. There were Christmas lights on lampposts and on trees. They even put them on bushes. We started our journey down the Christmas infinity road. It felt similar to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles but much longer and way full of people. I bought hot chocolate and they filled it half a cup for $8. Down the road, there were a lot of trees, and each one was wrapped in Christmas lights so much that you could only see the lights and not so much of the actual tree itself. We walked down the Christmas infinity road for a good hour before reaching the end. Everything was lit up and everything looked really beautiful and expensive. We took a photo of the iconic Tokyo station red building. As we headed back, I noticed the efficiency of Tokyo. No space goes unclaimed. Even the areas under highways and bridges are filled with restaurants, shops, and homes. Before ending the night, we bought some ramen and gyoza. That was the biggest ramen bowl I have ever eaten in my life. It was as wide as I was and it was big too. It only cost $11 total which is insane. That would have cost me $22 or more in the US. Both of our stomachs were hurting as we told each other, "God gives his strongest warriors the hardest battles".

To end our last night, we took a photo with our favorite vending machine that supplied us with 100 yen water.

Day 7: (December 26th, Tuesday) (Massage)

I woke up at 5:30 am and I headed straight to the ocean. It was still dark out and only a few people were heading to work. Even on this path, there was a beautiful walkway with a river alongside and some bushes. I got Pokemon vibes, especially when you first get the bicycle in Pokemon Emerald and you go cycling on the big bridge with other cyclists. After walking on the main road and crossing the bridge, I made it to Kansai Seaside Park. I saw a large red Ferris wheel that shined beautifully with the sunlight. The large parks had beautiful plants, rocks, and flowers in almost every walkway. They also had a pond with ducks and falling trees. Even within the beautiful park, they had a Japanese garden with their ponds, rocks, and trees. There was also a Buddhist statue to which I gave a coin and my prayers. As I reached near the ocean, I saw a distant Mount Fuji with my own eyes. It was pretty with the top half full of snow. The ocean, the boat, and the city far away were a beautiful sight. I also took one of my favorite photos which was a red vending machine with the ocean and Mount Fuji in the background. I also loved how heavenly everything looks when the sun is just rising and sunlight falls upon them.

We checked out, and put our luggage in coin lockers in Nihombashi train station. We then headed to Kabukicho. On the way to our last stop, there was a girl sitting opposite us. She had glasses and had a bucket hat on. She was trying to read a book on her lap but she fell asleep with her head leaning down front. I found that cute and relatable. Japanese trains are comfy as they have heated comfy seats. We spent almost half an hour finding the Kabukicho Red Gate because it's not listed on Google Maps. After walking around back and forth, we finally found it and completed our pilgrimage as Yakuza fans and as weeaboos. In Kabukicho, there were a lot of advertisements for hosts. Posters were saying top 10000 yen player. A lot of women spent a lot of money on hosts for their companionship. Some women who go broke, end up as prostitutes to spend more money for host clubs. One thing I noticed about hosts is that they were very feminine and fashionable. They weren't super manly.

Throughout this entire trip, we have been walking at least 10 miles almost every day. We barely sit down as we are either walking or standing. Back home, we don’t walk this much as we sit down to study and do work on our computers. Our calves and thighs were sore almost every day. On our last day, it was the worst. Canyon suggested doing a rental girlfriend. However, from the same agency, it was cheaper to get an hour massage and a handjob from them rather than rent them as a girlfriend with only hugging and kissing. We both went into the agency and chose our girls. I chose the girl with glasses and Canyon chose the one with short hair. We were both escorted separately. My girl with glasses arrived. She wasn’t that good with English so she often used google translate and hand signs. I showered and she gave me a massage with oil mostly on my back. Half an hour in, she flipped me around and started giving me a hand job. It was like 10 minutes of handjob and I wasn’t feeling any pleasure. I told her to stop and asked if I could kiss her as she gave me the handjob. She said for 5000 yen extra ($50) to which I agreed. She laid side by side to me naked. We kissed as she gave me a handjob. As I felt more and more good I pulled her in closer. Eventually, I ejaculated. After that, I showered again. Unfortunately, I didn’t have 5000 yen on me so we went to the nearest 7-eleven and I withdrew 5000 yen and gave it to her. Somehow, in the same 7-eleven, Canyon was also there looking to buy a drink because he was thirsty. We met again by fate.

We were hungry so we wanted to get food before leaving Japan. We found a ramen place. It was on the outskirts which was a cool hidden alley. It had nice walkways and plants just like the parks. The ramen place was in a packed area full of other shops. It reminded me of the Champion district in Yakuza where all the shops are super close to each other. In between, they also have small gaps which you can go through. Unfortunately, it had a long line so we settled for Burger King instead. However, Burger King also had a long line so we bought a lot of food at 7-Eleven before our flight. We got our luggage, and we headed to the airport. We returned our wifi and finished our food before heading to our flight. The security was very relaxed as I didn't have to take off my shoes or some things. Japan didn't have their 9/11 so that makes sense. The airport was very clean and peaceful.

10/10 trip.