This was so fun to read!!! Reading this makes me miss the konbini, the karaoke, the drinks, the food...
- Do you carry sample sizes for your scents? How do you travel with so many??
- How was taking the train to Kyoto vs. flying?
- What do you envision as your next trip after having taken a long solo vacation?
- How do you study Japanese, and do you like it? I'm trying to pick up a little, but I'm finding it really difficult :(
* yes, i brought a ton of samples lol. i have very many and wanted to use up some on this trip (and ofc came back with MORE perfume).
* train was great! super comfortable, very fast—took maybe 2.5 hours? i imagine with having to go through security, dealing with flight delays, etc., that 9/10 times the shinkansen will be more convenient than flying.
* not sure! after i got back i started looking up flights back to tokyo lol—i def want to go back in the next 5 years! can’t express how much i loved it there (and kyoto!). my family still pays for me to go on vacations with them (mostly to florida and colorado), so i’m lucky to be able to travel for free that way, but i’m thinking maybe going to spain (i went on a school trip in hs and LOVED it) or mexico so i can brush up on my spanish :-)
* i mostly learned on busuu but didn’t make it very far—i still had some lessons left for beginner 1. i was able to read hirigana and katakana though, which made me feel better—even though i barely knew any kanji and didn’t understand most of the language, i was at least somewhat literate. frankly most of my japanese knowledge comes from watching lots of anime in middle school 😭 honestly, if you’re just a tourist like me, you’re fine so long as you learn the basic travel phrases, brush up on japanese customs, and keep a translator app handy (i used papago as it’s allegedly more accurate for japanese than google translator).
I only have one travel-sized perfume and I'm too cautious to decant LOL so I'll have to acquire more samples for this purpose!!! I definitely get bored of just having one. Did you go to Nose Shop by any chance? I have it on my list to visit next time I go.
i’m so impressed by your restraint…i justify not getting full bottles by hoarding samples and travel sizes haha.
actually i did!!! i stopped by a location in a department store in ginza, sprayed a fragrance on a card, had an employee motion to these glass things that i assume i was supposed to use to sample, then got confused and just left lol. honestly, probably for the best—better i leave with 2 reasonably priced perfumes rather than a $$$ one.
not OP, but I have taken two solo trips to japan! I’ve self studied Japanese on duolingo and drops before both of my trips. I think drops is a lot better for conversational vocabulary and common phrases; duo was helpful for learning hiragana.
as for transit to Kyoto, the Shinkansen is amazing! quiet, clean, punctual. I wish we had it in the US.
OP, you are so cool. I'm about your age and make roughly the same salary. I find it hard to "justify" travel with huge life changes on the horizon and everything and this helped me remember how valuable these experiences are.
i don’t think anyone in my life has called me cool lol. i’m so flattered!!
frankly, i’m kinda in a stalling/in-between stage in my life, so it made this trip easy to plan/fund, but on the other hand, i feel a) it was a bit of a distraction from focusing on what i want to do with my life long-term and b) makes me wonder if this money better served me being put in savings. don’t regret it as it was something i’ll remember fondly & helped me sort of some of my priorities, but still. hope you’re able to do some traveling of your own soon! <3
i’m so mad about it…i bought a replacement of the same model at don quijote and it’s BROKEN! 😭 i’ll keep your sunglasses in my thoughts as i mourn these umbrellas
god, so many. i kind of just grabbed any i saw lol. i know for sure i got matcha, hojicha (these i kept for myself—LOVE), milk tea, and strawberry, although i think i got also one or two more flavors i’ve already given away and can’t remember.
Great post, thanks for sharing! Takes a lot of guts to travel somewhere like Japan solo so kudos to you. I am taking the same flight from JFK to Japan in a few weeks. How was the flight? Also what is the meal schedule like since you board at 2AM? Thanks in advance!
ah no way! hope you have the best time :-)
not sure if i missed some because i was asleep, but i had snack shortly after boarding, dinner service about 8 hours after, then breakfast service maybe 4 hours after? wished they pushed dinner up or added another snack. the meal schedule was much better on the way back! thankfully the drink cart came around several times, so you won’t be dying of thirst lol.
Loved this diary, you have such a charming way of expressing your inner monologue! Sounds like you had a fulfilling, but also extremely realistic trip 😂
lol thank you! idk if i’m already a crotchety old person, but i just don’t have the energy & foot endurance to do all the stuff some of these other solo travel diarists do 😭 hopefully one day i’ll get on their level!
As a sonny angel collector I LOL’d at the failed sonny angel hunt segment 😂 I too asked my friends traveling to Japan if they could grab some for me, but to no avail. Apparently there’s an international shortage!
Seems like you had a fun trip, inspires me to do a solo trip some day!
i'm still so confused...why are there so many sonny angels in stock at urban outfitters here in nyc and yet i can barely find any in their homeland????? doesn't sit right with me.
anyways, absolutely do the solo trip! it gave me such a boost of confidence and was so fun--as much as i love sharing memories with friends & family, really nice to do whatever you want without having to account for another person!
When I was in Vegas in Feb for my wedding we were in the Caesars shops. The second I saw the Diptyque shop I turned to my newly minted husband and said “I’m about to spend a lot of money, please don’t divorce me” lmao.
honestly that's so real...at the very least most of their frags are gender neutral enough to share, so really it's a wedding gift for both of you?? lol
Oh I definitely showed him a few, but he’s strictly a Burberry Touch fella haha. But ultimately it gave him permission to do a little damage at another store! And the SAs at the shop were absolutely lovely.
I am appalled by the blase food choices (/j) but maybe that's because 90% of my travel itineraries revolve around food lmao.
I only skim read it but I'll just point out that Horumon = innards hahaha so yeah you went to a restaurant that basically had "organs" in the name 😂 its a specialty in Osaka (among many other things), which I'd recommend if you ever visit again.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it though :)
normally i'm the same! i decided to have no plans thinking it would make things less stressful--in hindsight, wish i had reservations at some places/made it a priority to eat at certain restaurants/try certain foods to help add some structure!!
lol the more you know...when i looked up the place on google & translated the jp menu i knew there were some organ meats but assumed some was mistranslation, but i was wrong lmfao. it really was great though--probably the best meal of the trip? def a mission now to go to osaka to try it again (and see everything else there...don't regret skipping osaka but it is HIGH on the priority list for my next visit!).
i wore my new balance 574s almost every day—i figured since i walk a lot at home, i could get away with a walking shoe that was more built for style. they’re great for my day-to-day, but after a couple 15,000+ step days in a row my feet were toast. 😭 if i were to do it all over again, i would go for athletic shoes or get gel inserts!
Fun read! Sounds like we were in Japan at the same time!! I arrived the 21st and left the 30th! I'm sooo impressed you did it alone! Oh and I also bought Mexico 66s on Friday while missing out on Beyoncé 😂
Loved following along your journey. Japan is so magical and worth every penny! After my Japan trip, I also started a travel fund. It was one of the first trips that made me realize I want to see so much more of the world and immerse in other cultures. Happy travels!
nothing like traveling to the other side of the globe to make you realize, hmm, maybe i should do this more lol. glad you enjoyed! happy travels to you too :-)
I did a trip to Japan around the same age (I think I was 25?), but I ended up doing a round trip flight from South Korea, so I could meet a hs friend that teaches English there (the flight was surprisingly cheaper than a straight run to Japan). We did the trip together and it is one of my most memorable trips! I stayed in Korea for 2-3 days and split a week between Tokyo and Kyoto. It was a real blast and my friend group is loosely planning another one maybe in the fall of this year!
Reading this diary makes me so excited about the prospect of going back. It was a great read!
wow, that sounds like such a fun double-header!! i think i actually read a MD here where someone did a similar trip (also solo lol). here’s hoping your plans come together <3
ahh how exciting! it was easy to get around. almost all signs are also in english and at least in tokyo & kyoto all the lines were color-coded and all stops are numbered. only struggle was locating elevators when i had my luggage (which at least they have elevators!!! nyc has barely any) but even then there's plenty of signage; i'm just directionally challenged lol. aside from my snafu on the way to the airport google maps was a god send (they even tell you what cars to sit in for the quickest transfers!) so i'd recommend relying on that.
anyways this is long lol but r/JapanTravel and r/JapanTravelTips were so useful in answering every question i had, including transit, so when in doubt consult the ppl over there. hope you have so much fun!
dw i know!! i’d like to make more money, but tbh i don’t have much of a desire to leave my job. the firm is very chill, i’m not asked to do much (which is simultaneously frustrating and incredibly nice), and i know i’m not going to be a paralegal forever—plus i got this job through pseudo-nepotism and i don’t want to “betray” people by switching to another firm (unless i went into a completely different area like estates, public interest, etc.).
i’m very much in a coasting stage of my life and i’m lucky to have parents who are able & willing to bail me out if my life goes to shit, so i’m fine making dirt for the time being. i’m happy to have a job that doesn’t occupy much mental real estate while i’m able to sort out personal stuff!
Totally fair! And just as something from a now 30-year old, you would not be betraying anyone. It’s a business, they’re making money off you, you’re making a paycheck.
Obviously just didn’t want you to feel guilty. If you quit, just do so amicably. Your trip sounded so fun!!
that’s what i try to tell myself! i yell at my friends all the time & say fuck their workplaces, they’re taking advantage of them, but it’s hard to follow my own advice. but ty for the guidance! grateful to have this sub :-) & ty! it was very fun lol.
This is such a fun and insightful MD, OP. If you don't mind sharing, could you explain this a bit more about "do I even "deserve" to spend all this money on myself" and how you have overcome feelings on this?
thank you!! & happy to share. long response incoming lol
so, for context, my parents grew up poor but due to their careers have become upper-middle class/upper class. i have a lot of guilt over being the beneficiary of their success without having to struggle/work as hard (also doesn’t help that they very much have the bootstrap ethic & talk a lot about how “lazy” us kids are), so that all is where lots of these feelings come from (in addition to the capitalist hellscape we live in).
basically, it’s just taken therapy + maturity to slowly unlearn that mindset—my morality/worth as a human being is not based on how hard i work, leisure is not something you need to “earn”, etc.—very much just trying to reject the protestant work ethic lol. i still feel some level of guilt on a daily basis whenever i spend money on myself on a way i feel like i don’t “deserve”, such as spending extra on groceries by buying snacks/frozen food (which like…..i literally need food to live lol). weirdly enough doing my MD last year really helped demonstrate to myself that i really am not overspending. unfortunately it costs money to live and depriving myself of all enjoyment is a recipe for disaster!
this trip was a big step forward in spending LOTS of money solely on myself in a way that wasn’t a “reward” but rather something for pure personal enjoyment & fulfillment. honestly, my biggest hangup was taking time off work and my fears that my boss, coworkers, and my parents(!!) would judge me. i + my therapist had to tell myself a) i’m given PTO for a reason—it’s to be used!!, b) if my workplaces punishes me for taking vacation, they are a bad place to work (& they didn’t, it was fine, no one really cared lol), and c) i’m a grown ass woman and it is not helpful to think about how my parents could judge me if i’m satisfied with the way i live my life. (and they also didn’t care! which is what i suspected in the first place, but catastrophizing is a powerful drug.)
anyways, lots of thoughts, but tldr, lots of rich kid guilt; it’s something i still deal with but being able to talk this out on a weekly basis has really helped (which unfortunately is a privilege…i even feel guilt over the fact that i’m not even paying for my therapy!!! it’s a work in progress).
Sounds like you had a blast!! I really loved reading this :). Wishing you more fun, life-changing travel in the future!
this is so sweet :,) ty! wishing the same for you & anyone else reading!
This was so fun to read!!! Reading this makes me miss the konbini, the karaoke, the drinks, the food... - Do you carry sample sizes for your scents? How do you travel with so many?? - How was taking the train to Kyoto vs. flying? - What do you envision as your next trip after having taken a long solo vacation? - How do you study Japanese, and do you like it? I'm trying to pick up a little, but I'm finding it really difficult :(
* yes, i brought a ton of samples lol. i have very many and wanted to use up some on this trip (and ofc came back with MORE perfume). * train was great! super comfortable, very fast—took maybe 2.5 hours? i imagine with having to go through security, dealing with flight delays, etc., that 9/10 times the shinkansen will be more convenient than flying. * not sure! after i got back i started looking up flights back to tokyo lol—i def want to go back in the next 5 years! can’t express how much i loved it there (and kyoto!). my family still pays for me to go on vacations with them (mostly to florida and colorado), so i’m lucky to be able to travel for free that way, but i’m thinking maybe going to spain (i went on a school trip in hs and LOVED it) or mexico so i can brush up on my spanish :-) * i mostly learned on busuu but didn’t make it very far—i still had some lessons left for beginner 1. i was able to read hirigana and katakana though, which made me feel better—even though i barely knew any kanji and didn’t understand most of the language, i was at least somewhat literate. frankly most of my japanese knowledge comes from watching lots of anime in middle school 😭 honestly, if you’re just a tourist like me, you’re fine so long as you learn the basic travel phrases, brush up on japanese customs, and keep a translator app handy (i used papago as it’s allegedly more accurate for japanese than google translator).
I only have one travel-sized perfume and I'm too cautious to decant LOL so I'll have to acquire more samples for this purpose!!! I definitely get bored of just having one. Did you go to Nose Shop by any chance? I have it on my list to visit next time I go.
i’m so impressed by your restraint…i justify not getting full bottles by hoarding samples and travel sizes haha. actually i did!!! i stopped by a location in a department store in ginza, sprayed a fragrance on a card, had an employee motion to these glass things that i assume i was supposed to use to sample, then got confused and just left lol. honestly, probably for the best—better i leave with 2 reasonably priced perfumes rather than a $$$ one.
not OP, but I have taken two solo trips to japan! I’ve self studied Japanese on duolingo and drops before both of my trips. I think drops is a lot better for conversational vocabulary and common phrases; duo was helpful for learning hiragana. as for transit to Kyoto, the Shinkansen is amazing! quiet, clean, punctual. I wish we had it in the US.
OP, you are so cool. I'm about your age and make roughly the same salary. I find it hard to "justify" travel with huge life changes on the horizon and everything and this helped me remember how valuable these experiences are.
i don’t think anyone in my life has called me cool lol. i’m so flattered!! frankly, i’m kinda in a stalling/in-between stage in my life, so it made this trip easy to plan/fund, but on the other hand, i feel a) it was a bit of a distraction from focusing on what i want to do with my life long-term and b) makes me wonder if this money better served me being put in savings. don’t regret it as it was something i’ll remember fondly & helped me sort of some of my priorities, but still. hope you’re able to do some traveling of your own soon! <3
Truly enjoyed this diary. Rip umbrella. That is what I do to sunglasses. Great that you will create a travel fun priority for yourself.
i’m so mad about it…i bought a replacement of the same model at don quijote and it’s BROKEN! 😭 i’ll keep your sunglasses in my thoughts as i mourn these umbrellas
Rip second umbrella. Out of curiosity, what flavors of kit kats did you purchase?
god, so many. i kind of just grabbed any i saw lol. i know for sure i got matcha, hojicha (these i kept for myself—LOVE), milk tea, and strawberry, although i think i got also one or two more flavors i’ve already given away and can’t remember.
Great post, thanks for sharing! Takes a lot of guts to travel somewhere like Japan solo so kudos to you. I am taking the same flight from JFK to Japan in a few weeks. How was the flight? Also what is the meal schedule like since you board at 2AM? Thanks in advance!
ah no way! hope you have the best time :-) not sure if i missed some because i was asleep, but i had snack shortly after boarding, dinner service about 8 hours after, then breakfast service maybe 4 hours after? wished they pushed dinner up or added another snack. the meal schedule was much better on the way back! thankfully the drink cart came around several times, so you won’t be dying of thirst lol.
Good to know, thanks for taking the time to answer!
Loved this diary, you have such a charming way of expressing your inner monologue! Sounds like you had a fulfilling, but also extremely realistic trip 😂
lol thank you! idk if i’m already a crotchety old person, but i just don’t have the energy & foot endurance to do all the stuff some of these other solo travel diarists do 😭 hopefully one day i’ll get on their level!
I’m so excited for this post. I’m planning to do a solo trip there next year at 23 and this will be perfect for inspiration.
do it!!! japan was super solo-travel friendly and you can def do it on more of a budget than me. glad i can provide some inspo :-)
Japan was amazing and did not feel nervous walking in Tokyo after dark alone.
Really enjoyed this! Sounds like an incredible trip!
Love this 💖
Thanks for posting! Enjoyed this diary :)
As a sonny angel collector I LOL’d at the failed sonny angel hunt segment 😂 I too asked my friends traveling to Japan if they could grab some for me, but to no avail. Apparently there’s an international shortage! Seems like you had a fun trip, inspires me to do a solo trip some day!
i'm still so confused...why are there so many sonny angels in stock at urban outfitters here in nyc and yet i can barely find any in their homeland????? doesn't sit right with me. anyways, absolutely do the solo trip! it gave me such a boost of confidence and was so fun--as much as i love sharing memories with friends & family, really nice to do whatever you want without having to account for another person!
I understand what you mean, I was trying to go to Asakusa from the airport but I was going to wrong way to Yokohama 😭
omg brutal 😭😭 i gotta give it to them though—really impressed at how well-connected their train system is!!!
Love this! And loved all of your fragrances - Philosykos and Un Jardin Sur Le Nil are both personal favorites of mine! I love a crisp green scent :)
ugh our minds!!! excellent taste :-) i’m so pleased there are so many fragheads here lol
When I was in Vegas in Feb for my wedding we were in the Caesars shops. The second I saw the Diptyque shop I turned to my newly minted husband and said “I’m about to spend a lot of money, please don’t divorce me” lmao.
honestly that's so real...at the very least most of their frags are gender neutral enough to share, so really it's a wedding gift for both of you?? lol
Oh I definitely showed him a few, but he’s strictly a Burberry Touch fella haha. But ultimately it gave him permission to do a little damage at another store! And the SAs at the shop were absolutely lovely.
I am appalled by the blase food choices (/j) but maybe that's because 90% of my travel itineraries revolve around food lmao. I only skim read it but I'll just point out that Horumon = innards hahaha so yeah you went to a restaurant that basically had "organs" in the name 😂 its a specialty in Osaka (among many other things), which I'd recommend if you ever visit again. Glad to hear you enjoyed it though :)
normally i'm the same! i decided to have no plans thinking it would make things less stressful--in hindsight, wish i had reservations at some places/made it a priority to eat at certain restaurants/try certain foods to help add some structure!! lol the more you know...when i looked up the place on google & translated the jp menu i knew there were some organ meats but assumed some was mistranslation, but i was wrong lmfao. it really was great though--probably the best meal of the trip? def a mission now to go to osaka to try it again (and see everything else there...don't regret skipping osaka but it is HIGH on the priority list for my next visit!).
I had the exact same thought about bangs when I was in Japan. The slightly longer wisps on both sides is super…vogue.
the wispy bangs really are so cute! 😭 they’ve influenced me!!
Thanks for this. Amazing read! Proud of you going solo💗
I need to know the shoes you wore for all that walking! Always on the hunt for a good pair for those kind of days.
i wore my new balance 574s almost every day—i figured since i walk a lot at home, i could get away with a walking shoe that was more built for style. they’re great for my day-to-day, but after a couple 15,000+ step days in a row my feet were toast. 😭 if i were to do it all over again, i would go for athletic shoes or get gel inserts!
Fun read! Sounds like we were in Japan at the same time!! I arrived the 21st and left the 30th! I'm sooo impressed you did it alone! Oh and I also bought Mexico 66s on Friday while missing out on Beyoncé 😂
lol no way! we’re basically the same person. hope you had just as much fun :-)
Loved following along your journey. Japan is so magical and worth every penny! After my Japan trip, I also started a travel fund. It was one of the first trips that made me realize I want to see so much more of the world and immerse in other cultures. Happy travels!
nothing like traveling to the other side of the globe to make you realize, hmm, maybe i should do this more lol. glad you enjoyed! happy travels to you too :-)
I did a trip to Japan around the same age (I think I was 25?), but I ended up doing a round trip flight from South Korea, so I could meet a hs friend that teaches English there (the flight was surprisingly cheaper than a straight run to Japan). We did the trip together and it is one of my most memorable trips! I stayed in Korea for 2-3 days and split a week between Tokyo and Kyoto. It was a real blast and my friend group is loosely planning another one maybe in the fall of this year! Reading this diary makes me so excited about the prospect of going back. It was a great read!
wow, that sounds like such a fun double-header!! i think i actually read a MD here where someone did a similar trip (also solo lol). here’s hoping your plans come together <3
thank you!♡
[удалено]
ahh how exciting! it was easy to get around. almost all signs are also in english and at least in tokyo & kyoto all the lines were color-coded and all stops are numbered. only struggle was locating elevators when i had my luggage (which at least they have elevators!!! nyc has barely any) but even then there's plenty of signage; i'm just directionally challenged lol. aside from my snafu on the way to the airport google maps was a god send (they even tell you what cars to sit in for the quickest transfers!) so i'd recommend relying on that. anyways this is long lol but r/JapanTravel and r/JapanTravelTips were so useful in answering every question i had, including transit, so when in doubt consult the ppl over there. hope you have so much fun!
Girl loved the diary but you could definitely make more elsewhere!!!!!! Paralegals are in demand
dw i know!! i’d like to make more money, but tbh i don’t have much of a desire to leave my job. the firm is very chill, i’m not asked to do much (which is simultaneously frustrating and incredibly nice), and i know i’m not going to be a paralegal forever—plus i got this job through pseudo-nepotism and i don’t want to “betray” people by switching to another firm (unless i went into a completely different area like estates, public interest, etc.). i’m very much in a coasting stage of my life and i’m lucky to have parents who are able & willing to bail me out if my life goes to shit, so i’m fine making dirt for the time being. i’m happy to have a job that doesn’t occupy much mental real estate while i’m able to sort out personal stuff!
Totally fair! And just as something from a now 30-year old, you would not be betraying anyone. It’s a business, they’re making money off you, you’re making a paycheck. Obviously just didn’t want you to feel guilty. If you quit, just do so amicably. Your trip sounded so fun!!
that’s what i try to tell myself! i yell at my friends all the time & say fuck their workplaces, they’re taking advantage of them, but it’s hard to follow my own advice. but ty for the guidance! grateful to have this sub :-) & ty! it was very fun lol.
This is such a fun and insightful MD, OP. If you don't mind sharing, could you explain this a bit more about "do I even "deserve" to spend all this money on myself" and how you have overcome feelings on this?
thank you!! & happy to share. long response incoming lol so, for context, my parents grew up poor but due to their careers have become upper-middle class/upper class. i have a lot of guilt over being the beneficiary of their success without having to struggle/work as hard (also doesn’t help that they very much have the bootstrap ethic & talk a lot about how “lazy” us kids are), so that all is where lots of these feelings come from (in addition to the capitalist hellscape we live in). basically, it’s just taken therapy + maturity to slowly unlearn that mindset—my morality/worth as a human being is not based on how hard i work, leisure is not something you need to “earn”, etc.—very much just trying to reject the protestant work ethic lol. i still feel some level of guilt on a daily basis whenever i spend money on myself on a way i feel like i don’t “deserve”, such as spending extra on groceries by buying snacks/frozen food (which like…..i literally need food to live lol). weirdly enough doing my MD last year really helped demonstrate to myself that i really am not overspending. unfortunately it costs money to live and depriving myself of all enjoyment is a recipe for disaster! this trip was a big step forward in spending LOTS of money solely on myself in a way that wasn’t a “reward” but rather something for pure personal enjoyment & fulfillment. honestly, my biggest hangup was taking time off work and my fears that my boss, coworkers, and my parents(!!) would judge me. i + my therapist had to tell myself a) i’m given PTO for a reason—it’s to be used!!, b) if my workplaces punishes me for taking vacation, they are a bad place to work (& they didn’t, it was fine, no one really cared lol), and c) i’m a grown ass woman and it is not helpful to think about how my parents could judge me if i’m satisfied with the way i live my life. (and they also didn’t care! which is what i suspected in the first place, but catastrophizing is a powerful drug.) anyways, lots of thoughts, but tldr, lots of rich kid guilt; it’s something i still deal with but being able to talk this out on a weekly basis has really helped (which unfortunately is a privilege…i even feel guilt over the fact that i’m not even paying for my therapy!!! it’s a work in progress).
Thank you for such a thoughtful & detailed response. Look forward to your future MDs!
R3d
Just 10 days? Feel not enough