In a previous post, I mentioned that I was planning a solo trip to Japan. At the time though, that’s all it was: a plan. There were still variables in play that I wasn’t ready to fully commit, especially when we’re talking about a significant amount of money.
For years, dreaming about going to Japan was just that: a dream. Every attempt to save for the trip eventually ran headfirst into real life taking its pound of flesh, whether it was having unexpected expenses or simply not having enough leftover to put a meaningful amount toward the trip.
It happens, right? It’s just life.
But “someday” has a funny way of sticking around.
Every few years, I’d look at Japan again. I’d check airfare, think about where I’d want to go and occasionally start putting together the rough outline of a trip. Then reality would intervene and Japan would return to the someday list.
This year was different.
Someday has a departure date now.
And suddenly, this wasn’t a hypothetical trip anymore.
I wasn’t looking at airfare just to see what it would cost. Though, I will say I may have researched airfare perhaps a little more obsessively than most people, but that’s apparently the way I plan.
I wasn’t bookmarking hotels I might stay at or putting together an itinerary for a trip that might happen at some undefined point in the future. There was now a Japan Airlines reservation with my name on it, a departure date on the calendar and a very real countdown until I boarded that plane. I would be lying if I said hitting that purchase button wasn’t equal parts exciting and terrifying. This isn’t a short getaway to San Francisco or traveling across the country for a convention.
This is my first international trip, I’m doing it solo, and I’ll be spending a month over 5000 miles away from home in a country where I don’t speak the language beyond the Japanese phrases I’ve picked up from thirty years of watching anime.
And no, yelling “Nani!?” when I’m confused probably doesn’t count as conversational Japanese.
Once the initial “holy shit, I actually bought the ticket” shock wore off though, something else happened: all of the ideas I’d accumulated over the years stopped being hypothetical.
Also, side note, because even mundane things like buying airfare apparently require lore, I booked it in San Diego while plane spotting a Japan Airlines plane.
How’s that for plot advancement?
Tokyo.
Numazu.
Shrines and temples.
Anime pilgrimages.
Cosplaying in Japan.
A ryokan.
Absolutely spoiling myself on cheap and delicious convenience store food.
Several day trips and random wandering.
And because the universe decided that I needed some insane luck and that this trip wasn’t already ridiculous enough, naturally I’m ending it in Nagoya while attending the first night of the Love Live 15th Anniversary Fest.
Suddenly I wasn’t asking myself what I wanted to do whenever I finally got to Japan.
I had to figure out what I was actually going to do while I was there, without actually scheduling the enjoyment out of the trip.
Of course, once I started planning, the trip did what all of my trips apparently do and developed side quests.
What started as a Tokyo-centered trip gradually began gaining unique experiences a pre-packaged tour would probably never touch. An authentic school experience in Kimitsu that will allow me to spend a day like a Japanese student and the main characters of most anime I watch.
Several pilgrimages to real life locations from some of my favorite anime.
The chance to cross yet another item off my bucket list in cosplaying in Japan during the Ikebukuro Halloween Festival.
Potentially watching a New Japan show at Korakuen Hall.
And of course, watching a Love Live concert in Japan with 40,000+ fellow fans with assured emotional damage.
Looking at that list, it’s still a little surreal that I’m talking about things I’m going to be doing in a matter of weeks instead of things I’d like to do “someday”.
Maybe that’s the part that still hasn’t completely sunk in yet. I’ve spent so many years thinking about Japan as this distant thing (metaphorically and literally) that I’d eventually get around to if the circumstances ever lined up.
Now? The airfare is paid for.
The hotels are booked and paid for.
The passport is sitting safely in my filing cabinet, ready to go.
There’s an itinerary that’s somehow both carefully researched, yet flexible enough to allow me to wander off in a different direction because something else piqued my interest.
This isn’t just a dream trip anymore, it’s just my next trip. Which in retrospect is still a weird sentence to type.
To say I’m both excited and nervous would perhaps be the understatement of the century. I’ve done thorough research (perhaps to an extreme degree) on where to go, pilgrimage locations and etiquette for just about everything I plan to do while I’m there.
I know that my careful research will help me enjoy my time there, even when something inevitably causes me to deviate from whatever I had planned. Tokyo as a whole is just too large to not randomly stumble across something that wasn’t originally on my list. I would be lying if I said there weren’t some nerves there as well, which, considering I’m doing this solo and so far from home is hardly surprising.
I’m also not so naive to think that this trip will go perfectly as if I’m some anime protagonist operating on the power of friendship. I will make mistakes, and there’s almost certainly going to be at least one moment where something doesn’t go according to plan. But that’s part of the experience of travel, right? Part of the fun of travel is being able to adapt on the fly and pivot to another activity if something goes wrong.
I could have easily let the nerves and the part of my brain that automatically creates the worst-case scenario win and just not take the trip; but then, as I have said before, if not now, when? The circumstances have lined up so perfectly for this particular trip that it would be a disservice to let that side of me override the rest of me that’s excited to visit a place I’ve admired for so long and to open myself up to so many exciting new experiences.
For years, whenever Japan came up, the answer was always some variation of the same thing:
“Someday.”
Someday when I could afford it.
Someday when the timing worked and life stopped getting in the way long enough for me to actually do it.
Well, the flight leaves October 18th.
Japan is no longer “someday.”
It’s next.