#55 A rainy day in Fukuoka, Japan

Transcript

All right, the classic leaving the apartment ASMR. I doubt that anyone else likes this as much as I do, but it's just something I find so nice about it. If I did ASMR of leaving my last fucking Airbnb, it would have been the sound of me smashing my head on the fucking door frame and going, fuck! But there's one big thing that I like about it.

The difference with today, this is my last, last full day in Fukuoka, tomorrow's a travel day. But as we head downstairs, maybe you can already hear, it's a subtle sound, but that sound of a car driving by. It's the sound of driving through rain.

Let's go step outside. It's very light. But yeah, I've got a little collapsible umbrella in case I get caught unexpectedly in the rain, but since I knew this one was coming, the Airbnb has umbrellas. There we go. Great big fucking umbrellas, this thing is huge. So let's umbrella it up.

Here we go, a little pitter-patter. I can't hear it extremely well, but yeah, it's only a little bit rainy. It's not that bad, but I think this is my first officially rainy day in Japan.

Yes, all that the weather said it was going to get rainy for my travel to Tokyo tomorrow. And it looks like it got here a little early. Today and tomorrow, it's supposed to be rainy, so we'll see, although if it's like this, this ain't so bad, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of finding my Airbnb. This next one is by the Skytree near a Saksai. I think it's technically not a Saksai. I think it's the next neighborhood over. But I guess I'll learn its names soon enough.

Yeah, if it's a little rain like this, this ain't so bad. This is almost kind of nice. And yeah, just swinging by where the street fare was, but it's a Monday now. Street fare is all over, but just in time. They got there just in time. That was perfect weather.

It's still pretty warm out. I think that weather said it was like 15 degrees. It feels a little colder than that, but that's pretty accurate.

So yeah, there's definitely part of me that just wants to go on a final wild adventure way too far away on my final day. But these things always take way longer than I think they're going to take. Like yesterday is a perfect example. I wrapped up on the mountain by five o'clock. And it's like cool. Adventure done. No problem. But I'll just walk the 12 kilometers home. Like it always takes an extra two or three hours to actually get back at the end of the day.

And I figure the day before I'm leaving, it's probably better not to push it, not to get too crazy. Try to get back at a semi-reasonable time. Make sure I get everything sorted out, packed away, ready to go. Make sure I know how to actually get to and get into my next Airbnb. But yeah, even a quote-unquote smaller adventure in Fuqua, it's going to take longer than I think it's going to take. I'll probably it's going to be dark by the time I get back probably. But I think the old Desaifu government office remains is the plan. Hike up the hill in the back. I was going to take the really cool steep route that has ropes and that you need gloves and climb up. But I don't know now that it's raining. I mean, I guess we'll see. Sometimes it's surprising how much water trees can just absorb.

Or you know, just they act like a little ceiling. Maybe it won't be so bad once I get in there, but I only got two hands. So I won't be able to hold the ropes and hold the umbrella. So I might just take the stairs up. And then it's very overcast, of course, because it's raining. It's just a gray blue light blue grayish sky. I want to see what that's going to look like. The big view where you can just see across all the Fuqua. I think it might actually look kind of cool in this weather.

And then rather than walk straight across, that's what I did last time. Walked all the way across the mountain. I'm going to see if I can just dip dive out because up there there was that it was very developed. There was a park and all this stuff. I'm going to see if I can just exit off just a different part of the mountain without going deeper in. Just so I can find a new way to come off the mountain instead of just heading straight back down the same way I went up. That'll be my experiment for today. And then I should be able to walk back to the Airbnb from there.

And I guess if the weather gets insane, I can bail out. 5:00 But so far, this rain is just straight down, coming straight down. And this umbrella is huge. It's way bigger than my collapsible umbrella. So this isn't bad. This seems kind of cool. But I believe my first stop will be. I thought I wasn't going to make it back to best convenience system. My favorite convenience store that's across the street from the Desaifu government office remains. But it looks like one more time, man. One more time. I'm going to eat some stuff.

So that's... that is the plan. I said my final goodbye to the Mount Aboriyama view yesterday. Today I'll say my goodbye to the Desaifu view. The only one I didn't get to go say goodbye to is the cool view from Nanzawin. But I mean, that one is very far away. And even getting to the view itself is tough. I think one time is fine with that. I don't think I needed to go back to that one.

So that's my travel plan for today. That's my travel plan for today.

All right. I had a change of plans. So I was at the station just waiting for the train to show up. Nice quiet afternoon. No one around. And I thought I could go to the woods where there's nobody, but... But there's never anybody in the woods. And then I thought, you know, when I went to Desaifu proper by Desaifu station, the Desaifu Tenmangu, which the name I only remember, because I've seen it on a sign. I went here on a beautiful weekend when tour buses were everywhere. So I thought this nice rainy day with the rain coming straight down, it's like aesthetically pleasing.

You know, rain's a pain in the butt when it persists, but I haven't had any rain. So I thought maybe I should come to Desaifu on a Monday afternoon when it's rainy. Nobody will be here. Umbrella open. As you can probably hear, I was wrong. It's still kind of busy. There's still some tour buses and stuff. I mean, it's barely raining. But still, I mean, this will be all right. Take a little stroll through here on a less busy day. So I just exited the station and headed to the shopping street. It's kind of cool. Desaifu has its own train that only goes two stops. And it was very pretty. It's got like special graphics on the side. The four seasons of Desaifu, so I got the fall train. Although to be honest, I get the feeling that in Fukuoka, the four seasons are probably not wildly different. But the train looked nice. And it's the first train I've heard where the announcement was in Japanese and then in English. And then a third language. I had to guess probably Chinese for tourism. But yeah, that's how you know this is a fucking tourist spot. I've never heard that before.

But yeah, I'm going to take a little stroll through here. You have anything. I've been telling about the dumbest shit that it's hardly raining. Wish it was raining a little harder. Maybe there'd be less people here. Yeah, I'll take a little stroll through here. And then if I do still want to go up and see the view, there was a street that went right up by there. Like I went up through the difficult method through the fucking woods, up the rope, up the side of the mountain. But then there's like a road right there before you get to the beautiful view of the castle ruins.

So from here, I can see if there's a different way up. Worst case scenario, I could just walk up that road. I mean, I'd prefer not to. It's not a busy road, but it's still a little weird to walk up a mountain road as a pedestrian. Probably ill advised, but worst case scenario, I could do that.

Yeah, this plan didn't work at all. I thought it would be... I thought I'd get here and there'd be nobody here. At least it's popular as fuck. It's still like, I mean, it's not like the last time I was here. That was like insane. Like it was a flood of people where you get into the flood. And it's like you can't stop anymore. You can't turn around, you can't stop moving. You just go where they go. It's not like that. This is just a normal level of tourist crowds. 10:00 But I was hoping I'd get here and it would just be like a dead silent Monday afternoon rain. Walk through the shrine all by myself. Even this... The Starbucks is here with the... It's like a fancy one of a kind Starbucks. I was like, yeah, you know, I was talking shit about the Starbucks, but maybe if there's no one here, and it's rainy, you know, I could stop at the Starbucks. It's not, there's no fucking way. There's so many people here. Damn it.

But yeah, this is still... It is way better than the other day though. This is at least a... A normal visitor experience. So I mean, I got to see it when it was just slammed. And I got to see it at night when it was completely empty, but invisible. So this is a happy middle. Let's turn off this recorder because there's a baby crying. That's annoying. Sorry, baby. I don't mean to talk shit on you, baby. You probably haven't a hard day. I bet your teeth hurt, but I'm still going to turn off this recorder.

Hmm, you know what? Not to put it too bluntly. But fuck this plan. This divergent plan didn't work. I'm bailing out immediately. This is okay. It's all right, but I mean, yeah, I've been here before. It's not so different today. I thought strolling through it all by my lonesome. That would be nice. That's not what happened. And it's basically stopped raining. I think it has stopped raining. The sun's peaking out. I mean, it could come back. But my umbrella ain't even open right now. And one of the great tragedies of changing my plan is I didn't get to go to best convenience system, which is just a convenience store. But they have in-store bakery stuff. And I don't know for sure if their own ageery is made on premises also, but it might be. It's fucking delicious. So yeah, I realized I could just bail out, take the train back, but I do have to transfer two stops. Transfer one stop. Now that I figured out how to figure out distances on Google Maps, I'm like, you know, from here to there, it's only two and a half kilometers. That is not at all a significant walk. If I be line straight for it, no problem. And then I can just do the original plan. Just from there, go up through the park, go up the mountain, do the whole deal. And if it stays unrainy, I might even be able to do the climb I wanted to do. Sam just walking back down, entering the shopping street again. I can't even know it's a little better than before, just because I'm not here right at the time that a bunch of buses arrive, but still pretty busy. Yeah, this ain't what I was looking for today. This is not how I want to spend my last day in Fukuoka. With people, I'll be goddamned. I'll have plenty of time to be around people when I'm in Tokyo by the sky tree. Fuck, it's slippery. Shit, too. With the fucking rain, we're good to get my feet on some dirt. I guess I'm looking at my shoes. They're pretty treadless. I never noticed, because there just hasn't been rain. Yeah, this is one thing that's nice about, you know, it's nice to explore an experiment and just try new places and see what happens. But there's definitely an upside two to knowing how it all works, you know? Having been somewhere before, where I could just be like, oh yeah, I know how to get to this place, so I easily know how to get through the trains and I can just pop over here, see how it goes. It's not tickling my fucking penis, so I'm like, that's fine. I'll just hop over somewhere else. There's definitely something to be said for not having to just wander around randomly and hoping that everything will work out. It's kind of cool to just have a lay of the land, add it to your little travel and pallet of like, what do I want to do today? And you've got extra options, because you've been there before and you know how it works, it's nice.

Alright, the rain has returned a bit harder than before, and this could turn out to be a serious problem. If it continues to be rainy, I cannot believe how slippery my shoes are. I guess to be fair, I did buy these from a thrift store before I left Canada, and I've been walking like a maniac ever since for months and months, so it's not surprising, I guess, that whatever treads these things had, they still have, like, I don't know, they don't look that bad to me. They still have great, big, deep treads in them, but just the smaller surface level treads are worn down. But yeah, holy Christ, it's fine on concrete, but I was slipping all over the place on the bathroom tiles at Desifu, and then when I left, I kept slipping. I thought it was just going to be a bathroom problem, but it's like stone streets there, like flat stones, 15:00 and so slippery, it's like, fuck, is the whole world going to be slippery? But then on the way here is mostly okay, but a couple slips, I'm like, I just, if it stays rainy in Tokyo, this is not going to do. I might actually have to buy some new shoes, but I made it here, it's a little after two o'clock. You know, if I do make it up to the mountain, I mean, I think I'm going to make it, but it really is overcast as hell now, the sun came out for a second, so I mean, I don't know, I don't think it'll be the best view in the world, and I'll pretty much have to go up there and then immediately bail out and just come straight back down, but I think I'll probably still do it. I mean, what else am I going to do with my day? I still got a couple hours. However, I'm not going to fucking push it. I'm just going to take this in a relaxing manner. Man, I'm glad I went back to the best convenience system one last time. I got so much stuff. I think this is a curry bun, I'm not really sure. I got one of these last time too, it's like a triple sandwich. It's a tuna sandwich, salad, and egg, and cats who I think it's called, like the pork cutlet, and it's three bucks. Amazing. Pizza bread, roll, some kind of little dessert-y, daily. But I got the hand-rolled old school, like the folded over. Oh, and a giri. And I got one that I know there's a plum kind, and I think there's two that looked like they could be pretty good. And I tried to get the one that is different from what I got last time, so it may not be plum. But if it is plum, that's fine. I've come to like plum. And then I've got one that is hand labeled. So I have no idea. It doesn't have any graphic at all, no coloring. So that's the super mystery one. And yeah, I had one the other day of these that was only 80 yen, because I believe it was just trying to get rid of the older ones before they made new ones. But these ones are back up to the full price, have 130 yen, so they'll be even fresher and more delicious. But that other one was also fine. Beyond all the in-store homemadey stuff, I also had to get, and this is going to be ridiculous, but I've never seen it before. It's a tully, and I do like the tully's brand stuff. You don't see it around that much, but it's pretty decent. I like that coffee chain, too, in general. This is a black and soda gassata, and then it's got a picture of Italy on the back. Calabria is apparently where the gassata is from. So I guess this is an Italy thing, but I'm assuming black and soda probably is coffee and coke, right? Which is not good. I don't like it. They had a thing called Coke Black in like 2008 that was coke and coffee in New York, around the same time as for loco and caffeinated gum. It was a weird time. And then recently, I remember seeing a similar product. I don't think it was called Coke Black anymore, but it was a similar thing. And it's never good. I don't actually like this shit.

Yeah, well, what is it called? I got one in, oh yeah, it was like Coke. It was a vanilla Coke and coffee together. Because I remember I got one from a gas station in my hometown back in Canada. And the guy, like it's such a repulsive product that the guy commented. He's like, whoa, good luck with that. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I know it's bad, but I'm just in a weird mood to drink something bad. I just want something that's going to like just shock my system a little. And he's like, well, you picked the right thing. So I mainly just had to try this because I've never seen it before. And who knows? I'm sure I'll see it again at some point. But it's weird. Sometimes there's these products that even though it's like Tully's, it's a big brand name thing. Sometimes you just can't find this shit. Let's see. What does Google translate have to say? New stimulus black. Gassada means carbonic acid, inspired by soda. A long-loved southern calabria. Added carbonic to Tully's proprietary blended coffee. Okay, so this might not be coffee and when they say soda, not Coke. I think this might be just coffee and like celtzer. Well, anyway, let's try it. It's going to fucking suck, but let's see how it sucks.

It's definitely carbonated. Definitely looks black, smells black. I don't actually like black coffee. This is going to be a disaster.

Oh, that's kind of nice actually. I don't usually like black coffee, but this kind of cuts the really intense acidity.

God damn Tully's, if you done it again, how are you this good? Amazing. You guys are the best. Yeah, I mean it is black coffee. 20:00 It's got that taste in the back of your tongue. That is like that weird aftertaste of black coffee, but it's much reduced.

I mean, I guess it's just like what I was saying the other day, how even just the sweetness of coffee from Japan. I realize like, I don't want to actually do it because it's a pain to do the alchemy out on the road to try to mix things together. But if you just mix water, if you put in a quarter or a third water, suddenly it's actually a very nice coffee. This is probably a similar thing. It's just maybe it's just because it's watered down that it just makes the black coffee more palatable to me. And the carbonation is very light because that's another thing. I also don't enjoy carbonation. It just gets caught in my esophagus. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

Wow, I cannot believe it. I like this. This is good. What the fuck? Gassada. Thank you fucking Calabria, wherever the fuck that is. Go. Calabria, Italy. It's the fucking toe of the boot, apparently.

I can't believe it. That's amazing. Wow, that's actually really nice. I like that a lot. Only fuck I like that. Is this all I got to do to drink black coffee is just water it down. And just yeah, the light carbonation is nice too. But all right, let's try the mystery on a Geary, the one with the handwritten symbol on the front, which of course Google translate. It can never, I mean, it's fair enough that it can't translate handwritten stuff, but give it a shot. It's not a open hell, although there is a label on the back. Oh, there's some interesting stuff on the ingredients label on the back.

Rice mustard greens fermented seasoning seaweed. And maybe it is just basically seaweed and some sauce. Soy sauce, salt, chili. I mean, it sounds good, but this is interesting too. It has an address on this. Kenziongi temple, Desifu city. I mean, Desifu cities where we are. Maybe this place really is a one-off. You know, like it has certain labels and certain logos and stuff in there. And this was the theory I had the other days, like maybe they're just ready, the ready and prepared to be a chain someday. But if the label here specifically mentions Desifu city, this actually might be the only one. And it's fucking awesome. I can't recommend it enough. I love this place. But alright, let's try this fucking thing.

Yeah, and all this stuff was about $13. This seems to be my average. When I pick out there, it's always between $12 and $13. And it is, like, it's a mountain of stuff. This is too much stuff. I probably shouldn't about the sandwich. There's one thing too many, but I fuck it, whatever. It's my last time.

Yeah, so the hand-labeled one is seaweed with some mustard sauce. That's pretty subtle. Not bad. And then the one that I was like, I'm pretty sure this one's the plum. So what's this other one? This other one is like a spicy red fish paste kind of. I don't know, it's alright.

I do really like the plum one. I was considering getting a plum one, but I guess it's so much stuff already. I'm glad I didn't just get more stuff for no fucking news. This is already insane. And yeah, again, the gassada too. It's so cool to buy something that you're buying as a stunt. It's a lark that you absolutely know you're gonna hate, and then you like it. That's fucking. That's a rare event. That's pretty cool. Alright, I'm gonna sit here and eat all this stuff. And then yeah, I got at least 90 minutes, two hours-ish. Well, more like 90 minutes once I eat all this. To get up the hill, and it's not far, but it's always further than I think it is.

And it's rainy and my treads really suck. So, you know, we'll see. I'm gonna reserve the potential choice to just not bother today. To not go all the way up there. But we'll see. I might still make it. Whatever. You follow what I do today is eat all this stuff from the best convenience system. That's fucking good enough for me.

Well, well, well, this is just a day of recalibrating plans, but to be fair, it is the first properly rainy day. But yeah, I don't think it's a combination of. It is past 2 p.m. I do have time to make it to the top of the mountain, but then, yeah, then I just got to immediately bail out. At least yesterday from that view, I got to hang out for an hour and soak it in. And yet it's raining. It's still raining. It's gonna be raining the whole way up. I don't know how slippery the steps are. I assume they would be not too bad. 25:00 But I don't know. I don't quite remember. I mean, there are steps all the way up. But if they're stone, they will be slippery. I don't know. I don't know. It's probably not great in the rain. That's probably safe to assume. And an adventure is supposed to feel like an adventure. Not like a pain in the ass. Yeah, it just seems like getting all damp and wet and walking through the rain and just to immediately have to figure out how to get out of there. Fighting against the darkness, fighting against the rain. No, thank you. No, thank you. Instead, this place where I'm sitting, I guess I didn't really describe. So it is at the Dizafu government office ruins. That's where I sat the other day, too, when I went to the best convenience system and just ate where it's just like a bench under like a great, big awning. Like I'm nice and dry. No chance of the rain touching me in here.

And besides one guy who was walking his dog earlier, who don't see now, it's yeah, nobody here. Nice and empty. And I just ate all that stuff. It's too much. The sandwich was the one thing too many. I should not have got the sandwich. Yeah, just sitting here, this feels nice. Nice and cozy. Under this thing, it's really not cold out. If anything, it's a little humid. It's a little, it's a little undecember like. That's for sure. But yeah, last day in Fukuoka, I definitely don't want to just go stress myself out, push in myself, against the weather, against the darkness, then getting back. You know, again, every time I do one of these things, it spirals out of control. I'll somehow knock it back till like seven or eight tonight. And then I'll have to sort out all my stuff, make sure I get all my things packed properly, make sure I get all my plans ready for going to Tokyo tomorrow. The horrible feeling of like, ah, I'm just a little too frazzled. Nope, nope. No PD, nope, nope. That is not what I want. I want to take today so easy. I'm just going to hang out here, let this here food settle a little bit, walk back to the train and go to the shit home. And there we go. And there's my final day of Fukuoka adventure. Not bad, I'd say it turned out just fine.

Man, I've been finding it really hard. It is apropos of nothing, just came to mind. Really hard to find cough drops. I'm amazed I found halls cough drops at all when I first got to Japan. Because yeah, lately, all I've been finding is in that sort of area, I got a zylitol and it just turned out to be gum. Just out of curiosity, I tried the Chlorates one, the Chlorates black label. Because it's the black label halls that I like the best. And it's also just like a, ah, it's less severe, but it is like a weird cough drop gum as well. It's just like a strange thing. They do have like little, ah, but they've got like the vitamin C drops that are really sort of powerful and kind of sweet. But I also found these little like green tea and honey, lozenges that are kind of nice. They're sort of okay.

But yeah, especially I just realized if I'm going to travel tomorrow, I mean, I still have some. That's a short flight tomorrow too. I've got a couple of halls left and I've still got some fisherman sprints from Canada. But yeah, I love having just powerful cough drops when I travel. Just to eliminate all need to ever cough around anybody while I'm in an airplane airport situation. And if I want to dehydrate myself, so I don't have to pee during a flight. Man, cough drops are so good for that too. They just force your mouth to water. And you'll eventually develop a headache from dehydration, but you know, you had to trade off these things. But yeah, I really don't like to travel without cough drops. It's so much, it just goes so much smoother on several levels. Oh, and it makes your ears pop too for the pressure. But yeah, like every store I checked at that store, all the different Lawson's and Family Mart's and 7-Elevens. And yeah, they have very weak cough drops around these parts. So it's weird. I suppose though, they do have dedicated drugstores. You know, like your shoppers, drugmart, Duane, Reed, Albert Hine type stores. I've never really checked those. Maybe I should. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. You know, maybe convenient stores. It's just not where you go for that type of thing. But it's surprising. Because yeah, like I started putting my radar up for like, I got to find some proper cough drops like 10 days ago. And it's just not happening. I was like, wow, this is kind of weird. Unexpectedly difficult. If I had never found any, I would just think like, yeah, maybe they just don't do that here. Maybe they just use these weird green tea drops and stuff and they just don't, they're not into great big, 30:00 super powerful cough drops. But then I did find some halls black somewhere. I think it was just a convenient Tokyo, I don't know. It'll be emblazoned on my mind next time. That's for sure.

Ben, I was also just thinking that as far as constantly racing the sun, I mean I still think this time of year was a really good choice. It's been very, very nice to be in Japan in the late fall. But it does get dark early. And if I was just the kind of person that could more easily wake up early in the morning, that would alleviate this a lot. Because even on the days when I wake up at like 8.30 in the morning, somehow it's always like 11 by the time I get out of the house. I don't know why. Just every little thing adds up. But I was thinking that about Desifu also, like even just that little bit I was there today, there was still a lot of tour buses, like a ton of them just just still coming in constantly. So I think the rain is just not enough to stop the tours. The tours are happening regardless. It doesn't matter if it's raining, grab an umbrella and just do the tour. So I think if you did want to see that place.

There's a bunch of people and in the daytime, I bet early morning is the trick. I bet if you could roll in there at like 8.30 in the morning, it'd probably be pretty beautiful. But I sure can't do that. That's for sure. So that's a nice little day, nice little rainy day in Fukuoka. Nice little simple episode. Now I'm just thinking like I actually got a, I got to get rid of all my stuff before tomorrow. I've got, I did buy also a cafe ole. The cafe ole. Enjoy our creamy cafe ole. Crafted with honest craftsmanship. That I was going to drink on the way up the mountain. But now I've just got all this coffee. But that's okay. It's early enough in the day. I can drink this. But then I still got a big coffee in the fridge at the Airbnb. Because I would just toss them in a cup in the morning and heat it up in the microwave. Number three on the microwave, the preset. And I still got, what have I got? I've got like a cup noodle and a hard boiled egg.

And a chicken breast. Well, surely all this food will digest through my rapid metabolism and by this evening I can eat all that stuff. Yeah, I guess I could just eat it in the morning too. Because I generally, you know, I try not to push it too much on traveling days. It's just better to not drink a bunch of coffee, not eat a bunch of heavy stuff. But this is just such an easy one. Like I just got to get on the subway and you can take the subway straight to the airport here in Fukuoka.

And then it's just a short flight. And then I definitely got some subway travels at that point to get into Tokyo, find the new Airbnb. But you know, it's Tokyo. There's like just restrooms at every subway station. If there's any journey where I can afford to just be a gluttonous fool and not be well prepped for this adventure.

A little flight within Japan is probably the best bet. It's the easiest one. But yeah, there's definitely no need to stock up on stuff. Like yeah, I'm thinking of like, why have I got a chicken breast and a cup noodle and an egg in the fridge at the Airbnb? I could have just gone and bought all that stuff from anywhere at any time. There's no need to buy it ahead of time. Because you know, I just thought I'd eat it at some point and then you know, I just didn't. Because I always just go outside and get stuff from convenience stores. And this best convenience system place too. If I did live closer to here, they have like bentos that look really good. Like the fried chicken and rice and that type of bento are just all kinds of bentos. And they're like 450. I don't really get them that often. I haven't gotten one in a while from the big chain convenience stores because it's always like seven bucks. And it's like, wow, this is weirdly expensive. Everything else is an okay deal. Not sure why these are always so expensive. And it's an annoying piece of trash for me to have to dispose of the next day, the big tray. So I just don't bother with them. Yeah, this place even has those little hand-made little fucking bentos. It's the best man. I mean, probably I guess that's the thing. If I was a little more adventurous and willing to try to talk to people more. I mean, there's little shops and stalls and stuff like everywhere. The stuff that I'm so amazed by. Like, holy crap, it's like homemade stuff. Home made onigiri, homemade bakery, homemade bentos. This is the best. I mean, those places are all over. I just don't, because I don't understand the, what's the way to describe it? Like, there's not a distinct process that I can easily follow along even if I can't answer questions or make choices or communicate in any way.

Probably I could just go to these stalls and just point at stuff and end the money and it'd probably be no problem. If I just started doing that, I'm sure I would just get comfortable with it. Or, God forbid, I might actually learn some Japanese words. But I guess what's so cool about this place is it is a convenient. It is just like all the other convenience stores, except it has all the handmade stuff. So it's still just the same convenience store routine that I'm familiar with, except it has all this cool homemade stuff. So maybe it's my, it's like the link. It's the middle ground. It's the, I feel like there's a word for that. You know, it's my halfway point. I clearly enjoy having the handmade stuff. I just got to have big, brave balls and go be more willing to interface with smaller vendors in Japan. But as I was describing last episode about how horribly anxious I was about just having to deal with my bank and call them and just, you know, confirm purchase and just like it, I definitely do not handle anxiety well. I hate it so much. I hate the feeling and I will do many things to avoid the feeling. And it's just that small little thing. It doesn't have to be, it just has to be the smallest little push in the other direction. You know, it's like this certain thing is anxiety inducing and it's not that hard to avoid. I think I would just prefer to avoid it. Like I was talking in some earlier episodes about Coco Curry. That was my one store, my one chain restaurant that I went to before in 2019 and I knew how it worked. So I figured at some point here, I will probably eventually go to Coco Curry, but as the time keeps going by, it's like maybe I won't, maybe I won't though. I mean, it's good. It's pretty good. But is it good enough for me to go in and sit down and like I don't really like restaurant situations anyway at any time in any country and any language. So I have to go in and get the menu and make the order and then eat in a public forum and then pay. Like is it that good? Is it good enough to go through all that? I don't know. Maybe it's not. Maybe I would just rather have a slightly lower class experience and just not just not put myself through the anxiety.

Because yeah, it only has to be a little, even if it's just a little anxiety. If you don't have to do it, why do it? We only live once, man. You're an adult, you can do whatever you want. Because you know, there is kind of a, I don't know what's the, it's like how you shouldn't let yourself miss out on experiences in life just because you're anxious about it or you don't want to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. It's like, yeah, you know, I see the argument. I know what you mean.

But what if you reach a certain age in life, you know, what if you're halfway through your life and you realize, you know, these anxieties never really go away. Never really gets considerably easier. It's always just kind of uncomfortable. And maybe the reaches the point where it's like, yeah, let's just not, let's just not be uncomfortable. How about that? Is there something wrong with life being not uncomfortable? And I mean, what's the worst case scenario? Uh oh, I guess I just keep eating the normal convenience store food that is awesome and that I love. Yeah, you know, maybe that's not the worst thing in the world.

I don't know, I would say too though. I mean, obviously a lot of people would disagree with that, but if you've never traveled by yourself, I think I'm okay at it. It took a while. It took a lot of attempts of like, let's just go to little cities within Canada and let's try this out and let's build the muscle.

But man, traveling by yourself is so much different than traveling with someone. Having someone else with you, it just diffuses so much stress and so much anxiety and so much fear of shame, you know. If you're with somebody else and you're both idiots who don't know what's going on, it's a lot easier to chuckle your way through the situation and get through and do stuff that's uncomfortable.

When you're all by yourself, it's just you, man, you got to accept all that radiation and there's a lot to be said for just not putting yourself in the line of fire.

Oh man, there's a, it's just like the curry bread I had. It was like, like had breaded crumb sort of things on the outside. And there's one that I guess fell off while I was eating it and I looked down and it's moving and he's like, oh look at you, little ants, get some ants that came in or grab in the crumb.

Which again, it's so weird there's one tiny crumb from my bread and it's like three ants just to move that bad boy along to them. It's a nice big hunk of stuff.

Anyway, at this point while I'm just randomly rambling about just trying to justify to nobody that when you're traveling by yourself there's nothing wrong with avoiding stressful situations. Which I really think there's not, but I mean who am I talking to? Who am I trying to convince? It's just me. No one's trying to push me into anything. No one gives a fuck. It's just me.

The sun came out for a second. It was really pretty and then it went away again. But anyway, I should probably just head back because also I did a sort of reverse style where for the flight here I booked the latest flight. The latest flight that left it like three in the afternoon to give me time to get to Narita where I did the opposite this time. I got the earlier flight that leaves here at about one in the afternoon. It should be no problem again. It's a very quick trip to the airport in Fuquaoka. But I wanted to get the earlier one to get into Tokyo as early as possible. Yeah, yeah, that means I got to get up early tomorrow. So yeah, the sooner I get back to that apartment the better the chance that I actually go to bed early. Because yeah, lately I've just been slipping where I just am up until one or one thirty every night and then I still wake up a little earlier than I'd like to in the morning. I don't really, I just can't, I can't get up super early, but I can't sleep in either. I'm just stuck in this little limbo. I've never quite sleeping enough. But tomorrow being a travel day, even an easy travel day is still a travel day. It's a good time if there's ever a day to get some sleep. If I'm just hiking through the woods by myself and I yell at my phone and it's like even that it's bad because it's like, oh shit, little did I know Tom from Germany was right behind me. What are the chances? But most of the time you can just be a little bit cranky out in the woods in a spine.

Tomorrow it's not that traveling is at all hard. It's just go here, sit here, wait, walk over here, sit here, wait, rinse and repeat. But there are people around all day. You just gotta deal with people all day. You gotta be at your politeness best, which is not that hard to do. I'm Canadian trained, but it's so much easier when you sleep. Man, these airplanes. There's just never-ending airplanes that go by here. I've been just stopping to let the airplanes go by, but let's let this one go for the finale. I can't believe how loud they are. I guess it's the same philosophy as how you can always hear the ambulances and the sirens way down in the city, even when you're up in the mountain, because it's just open air. No different than a fucking airplane. It's just open air between me and the airplane, but it's just, God, they're so loud, and literally every five minutes. They just won't stop around here.

That's another huge benefit, I guess, to traveling by yourself is that it's so easy to have headphones in all day, because the headphones really go a long way to dulling some of the noisiness of not just Japan, but wherever you're at. And it really does help. That's a thing. I mean, I didn't realize at the time, but I definitely have some sensitivity to sound. It's a little higher than average, I believe.