Japan 2016 (part 1) — Wanderlusting for Good

I've never been quite caught off guard by such a huge culture shock as I was in Tokyo.

I didn't take a lot of photos or videos because to tell you the truth, Tokyo was surprisingly uninspiring for me. OH – it did inspire me to dish out a lot of cash. I pretty much came straggling home broke af. Even getting around on the metro I had to #makeitrain. I still remember on my first day a guy at the hostel said "my goal today is to NOT spend money" & I thought it was a joke.

This ice cream did not start melting until after a good 2 minutes or so

3 things I love that kinda sucked in Tokyo therefore I may never be able to live there:

1. fresh fruit, one of my joys in life, were so GD pricey. I don't know what was in those peaches that made them cost 20 USD. 2. coffee, another one of my greatest loves. trying to find good coffee in this tea society is like searching for a needle in a truckload of hay (I typed f*ckload but it autocorrected. bravo) 3. ice cream. yeah it's not fair to compare it to Italy's gelato. never mind.

At first impression, I loved how everything was so clean, organized, all the little rules for everything to be run efficiently (even instructions how to shower), and most Japanese people kept to themselves and is extremely accommodating (an introvert’s dream!).

It wasn’t long until I got too comfortable, and with this came an odd feeling: I started to get stressed out, craving for something to happen. Despite all the “weirdness” Tokyo offers its tourists, I didn’t find anything too surprising.

Japan was somehow "too perfect", and I got bored. I travel to find adventure, to push my limits, not for comfort.

It made me want to break all my perfectionist tendencies… which is a HUGE thing.

All my life I’ve had symptoms of perfectionism. The standards I measure myself up to were impossible to reach. Even though nowadays I tell myself that there’s no such thing as perfection, I never really understood why anyone would strive for anything else. Maybe it has something to do with my fear of vulnerability? Fear of failure? I dunno. Probably both.

So even though it turned out that Japan's vibes were not my cup of tea, my time there forced me to reconsider this perfectionist mindset I believed was set in stone. I have some work to do to change this.

Along with having amazing sushi with the bartender at 3am, this Robot Restaurant show was also a highlight of the trip. Tip: google "robot show discount" to get 15% off.

We stayed in line all night to see the tuna auction live at 5:30 am. Tip: not worth the hype.

I stayed a total of 2 weeks in Tokyo before I went crazy, spending more and more money from lack of alternative things to do. Instead of staying another week in the city, I booked a ticket to Taiwan. DETOUR!! :)