Day One - Japan

After around 20 hours of travel, I land around 2:30pm in Tokyo, home of 14 million people. My energy entirely fueled by eagerness to avoid jetlag by pushing my sleep until the evening.

I'm not sure if it's how long I dreamed of going to Japan, how desperately I need to go exploring, or if there's just something in the air but I walk the crowded streets overwhelmed with happiness just smiling like it was my first day in society.

People are friendly and curious about me, but right now I'm just curious about my dinner.

I eventually see a shop with a menu that might as well be covered in hierogylps but I'm thankful for the photos of the different types of ramen.

To be honest, I could of been blind and found this place just by following the sound of slurping noodles. I order my noodles on a machine, hand the ticket over the wood counter where the chef points me to sit down.

My noodles come up quick and I slurp away, a great first meal. If I took a guess, I'd say it was duck ramen.

I continue my walk around the area before seeing a small whiskey bar. I haven't had a drink in a couple months but I eagerly awaited my reintroduction to whiskey, specifically Japanese whiskey.

The whiskey bar itself is quite nice. but the bartender informs me that If I like whiskey I'll enjoy my time in Japan as not only is the whiskey terrific but it's significantly cheaper here, even for the same American bottles back at home. To illustrate his point, he grabs a couple high end bottles of bourbon that I would be familiar with. The first he pulled is Blantons which typically runs $15 - $20 a pour, here he says runs 1300 yin or $9USD.

He then pours me a couple of his favorite Japanese whiskeys while discussing my travels.

Once he learned I was solo traveling, he relished in how neat that was before sharing how easy it is to make friends in the area.

He told me about a night club where I could go and easily make new friends but interjected with a “not tonight” I asked why not tonight, were they closed?

He continued without hesitation, “No, you just do not look well. Get some sleep tonight, and you’ll make friends tomorrow”

He wasn’t wrong and it was about that time for me to walk back to my hostel and retire for the evening.

As tired as I am, I can't wait to get tomorrow going.

Goodnight.