Monke

The bottoms of my feet are, that is. Let me do some quick mafs for y’all. I’ve been in Japan for 7 full days so far. In that time I’ve averaged 14km walking a day. In case you were wondering and of course I know you were WHO recommends half of that for healthy lifestyle. And some more of those fancy stats average office rat like yours truly breaks 3km a day if lucky. And now don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, just putting things in to perspective for myself mostly. The itinerary I drew for myself was adventurous, devastating emotionally and physically and I’m grateful for it. To an extent. With the last stress free day I went to see our favourite goodest boy Hachiko and surroundings of Shibuya. I’m sitting at random pub that I’ve stumbled upon that has a rooftop and a drafted beer (it was the beer that got me here) and life is nice. M

Enjoyment score: 5/5

Introverted score: Pet the damn dog /5

Funny thing isn’t it. We do it all the time, unconsciously judging the person nearby when they are loud, obnoxious, different to what we perceive as normal. Sitting on a rock hurling through space and we think we all know what’s right and what’s wrong. Whose imaginary friend is better. I grew up playing in the remnants of the machine gun nests left by the resistance fighting in ww2. I found ammunition sometimes even remains of ordnance. Realities of war had never been too far from home as even my cousins chose to pursue this ridiculous notion of I don’t even know. The park and museum in Hiroshima breathe with atmosphere that’s hard to digest. No funny endings here, sit with it like I do. M

Introverted score: if you can go and see/5

For air as my legs try to make a union against the torture I’m inflicting on them walking up the Fushimi Inari. Then I just sit there slack jawed as the beauty of the forest overtakes my whole being. Legs still scream. I don’t care. What I do wonder about is why we travel such vast distances to experience other cultures and yet I live in a historic city and the first time I did the proper tour was when my parents came in to visit 8 years after I moved. Side note, small wonder cities are starting to protest tourism across the globe. Why do you wake up early, walk up 12 thousand stairs just to have your idiotic selfie stick pointing everywhere and stop every three seconds for a selfie opportunity is beyond me. Shove it up your ass. M

Enjoyment score: 5/5

Introverted score: look for hidden cats among the foxes they might have a quest for you/5

That would be one way to describe how quickly things get moving here. Be it Shinkansen or people around the main station hubs. You barely have a time to register what’s going on and then you find yourself starting your day praying that Fuji is in a good mood and later in the same day you are resting on the riverbank ripped straight from anime. Almost missed a gentleman playing flute due to my almost permanently embedded headphones. The question is was this art imitating life or was it the other way around? We may never know. M

Enjoyment score: 5/5

Introverted score: sometimes you don’t need headphones/5

If you were born with this feature, like yours truly. Your body might want to stay and even fight you by making you white as a sheet and sick as a dog when you even think about taking the cable car to Owakudani. Tell it go fuck itself. Even though the seats will have to live with permanent imprint of my nails as I was hanging above active volcano with steaming vents of sulphur it’s worth it if you’re exceedingly lucky and Fuji-san decides to show itself. M

Enjoyment score: 5/5

Introvert score: storm disabling the cable cars won’t stop me / 5

No, not Yagami. Although I do feel like I’ve entered anime proper. Humanity peaked when we figured out train travel. I know planes are faster but Dubai terminal at 2 am can’t beat the peace of train tracks slowly lulling you to sleep while the train itself is so quiet that you can whisper. M

Enjoyment score 5/5

Introvert score 5/5

Nah just kidding. Getting lost is kind of a staple for me now. I’m a guy that grew up in town that had its nearest train station next town over and it had one track. So obviously I know my shit. Shinjuku is kinda big you guys.

At least I stumbled my ass first towards the famous curved billboard, yay me. M

Enjoyment score: 4,5/5

Introvert score: staff speaks English thank fuck/5

Had a nice walk in the evening. Night in Akihabara was nice at least. M

Enjoyment score: 4/5

Introverted score: 5/5 (the small alleys are amazing)

Enjoyment: beer on tap/5

Introverted score: 5/5

Enjoyment: 5/5

Introvert score: fuuuuck/5

Got lost went to Akihabara instead. Found a random warhammer cafe/store. Delightful place. M

Enjoyment 5/5

Introverted enjoyment 5/5

I’m off to Shinjuku to get some food and get completely overwhelmed by outside stimulus. M