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日本

Chrysanthemums

By Kurt Brown

August 2^nd, 2016

A return to the familiar, an exploration of the new.

Tokyo - 東京

The trains still run on time, the food is still great, credit cards aren’t just a novelty anymore, and my friends evidently haven’t aged at all…#stateofjapan2016

What shouldn’t you miss? Honestly, Tokyo is such a vast and varied city, naming a restaurant or museum to visit seems utterly pointless. You could look that up on Fromers or Trip Advisor. My honest advice is not to spend all your time in Shinjuku, Shibuyu, etc. You should definitely visit those wards, but don’t make your entire trip about those 2 parts of the city. Tokyo is massive and has so many neighborhoods worth exploring, hop on a train and get lost!

Honestly, no trip to Japan…No trip to Tokyo is complete without an epic night of revelry. The kind of night that you only remember in bits and pieces, the kind of night where you miss the last train, the kind of morning where you emerge from the bar to bright sunshine, and (sober) people being productive. The highlights of my trip are almost always the people, in this case it’s a friend I hadn’t seen in many years.

Okinawa - 沖縄

Well, actually one of the many islands that make up Okinawa prefecture, Ishigaki-jima to be exact. Perhaps the place that reminds me the most of home, Japan’s tropical paradise. The water, the weather, the beaches…save for the fact that everyone spoke Japanese and preferred Orion to Red Stripe, this could be anywhere in the Caribbean.

Things to do

Do you want to bike to the beach? of course you do!

Don’t miss Taketomi-jima, it’s a small island off the coast of Ishigaki with amazing beaches, all easily accessible by bicycle. Assuming you start off in Ishigaki as I did, take a ferry to Taketomi, once at the port there will be vans lined up to take you to a bike rental spot not far away. The entire island can be experienced in an hour by bike, but it’s not that kind of biking. I would suggest grabbing your swim trunks/suit and taking a leisurely self guided tour of all the amazing beaches.

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…willing the decisive moment into existence

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I must apologize for not owning a camera that I can take diving. You will have to take my word for it, and perhaps the internet’s, there is some amazing diving to be had in Ishigaki.

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Fukuoka - 福岡

I could definitely see myself living here

Jamaica!

I found Allen, the owner of Xaymaca Bay and possibly the only other Jamaican in Fukuoka! (that’s just a guess, there can’t be that many of us in Fukuoka, can there?) Don’t miss Xaymaca Bay & Sky 44 in Itoshima. Some of the best jerk chicken I’ve had outside of Jamaica, along with an awesome location right by the beach, and you can take the train there! what more could you ask for on a hot summer day?

No trip to Fukuoka is complete without a stop at a Ramen restaurant.

Great food, a reasonably sized city, affordable rent…if I ever get priced out of SF, Fukuoka here I come!

Fujisan - 富士山

I’ve been to Japan 4 times now, and it’s taken these 4 trips across the span of 12 years for me to see this mountain…I must say, it was worth the wait.