Hoot, Hoot, Motherfu**er!

I had come to Tokyo on the advice of my friend, Hana, who mentioned that I should journey there because it would be cherry blossom season. Originally, I had planned to give Australia a second chance (I wasn't a huge fan of Sydney on Around The World Tour 1, but that's a story for another time) and begin this whole adventure in Melbourne before making my way to Southeast Asia. While I didn't necessarily care about the cherry blossoms, Japan seemed like at great idea (thanks, Hanni!) and so I re-arranged my entire itinerary to begin there. What I did not know when I booked my flight is that the cherry blossoms blossom at different times all over Japan and that I would be arriving for the weekend of Tokyo's blossoming season. So with that in mind, Yavar and I decided to check out Shinjuku National Garden and the ridiculous -- RIDICULOUS -- number of cherry blossom trees they have. I thought we would be there for an hour, but five hours and 17 walked kilometers later, I will still trying to capture The Perfect Shot. 

i literally have another hundred shots just like this one.

not pictured: throngs of people. THRONGS.

Now, a question I have never thought to ask myself is, "how many pictures of cherry blossoms is too much?". This is, in fact, a trick question because the answer is actually <any number> +1. There is always time for hanami even if the storage space on your phone disagrees and your friend is giving you a look that says, "dude, you are not going to get The Perfect Shot and be be propelled into Instagram stardom". Ultimately, I settled on inviting the embarrassed smiles of locals as I attempted to channel my kawaii. It could've been exasperated ire, too. Just another god-damn foreigner mocking the culture. But with Japanese people, you'd never know (there's that 7 faces and 3 hearts again). 

will senpai notice me?

Next on the list was Robot Restaurant, which came recommended by a bunch of people and was highly-ranked on TripAdvisor -- a combo I am a big fan of. Getting a reservation turned out to be kind of a pain in the ass because we could only get one for Saturday afternoon and we had already made other plans. We could do both, but it was going to be a tight squeeze. As luck would have it, though, we passed by the venue and managed to get a walk-in because of a no-show. Robot Restaurant is really a misnomer. I mean, yeah, there is food, but it's a complete after-thought. Robot Cabaret would probably be much more accurate, but I suppose loses the allure of alliteration (see what I did there?). While there, we decided to partake in a local beverage called Strong Zero, which is...well the only thing I really know is that it's a 9% alcoholic drink that tastes like juice. It's bad news, I can understand why it's unavailable in North America. Yavar and I had two each and, having skipped dinner, were gunned by the end of the show. The show itself is difficult to describe – imagine huge, elaborate, remote-controlled robots serving as platforms for hot Asian girls that are butchering English words and dancing around in anime-like costumes. It was the most Japanese thing ever. I doubt there’s anything else like it in the world and highly recommend going if you ever get the chance.

Afterwards, we linked up with some random Aussie dudes outside and headed to a bar where we downed some 1-litre beers and practiced saying, “anata wa kawaidesu”, on girls. It was all good fun until one of the Aussie dudes accidentally called one a dog. My favourite moment from that part of the night was an earlier interaction with our new Aussie mates. We were exchanging the usual bullshit: where are you from, why are you here, what do you do, blah blah blah. Well at, “how old are you”, things got awkward when Yavar and I noted that we were both in our early thirties. It was subtle, so subtle, but there was definitely a look that came across the faces of these two 21-year-old kids. Was it surprise I saw? Judgement? Maybe I was projecting my own insecurities about being 31 and having no clue what the fuck it is I’m doing, but then I reflect on what my internal reaction was to being 20 and partying with 30somethings and am pretty sure I knew exactly what they were thinking. Hmm, maybe I should shave 5 years off until June haha.

look at those adorable faces.

Before we left for Kyoto, I wanted to hit up an owl café in Harajuku. I had mixed feelings about it because… is it animal cruelty? These aren’t budgies, they’re top-of-food-chain predators. It seemed a bit wrong and the first location I looked at on TripAdvisor had awful reviews. Still, I kept searching and found one that had very positive feedback and so we headed over. I don’t really have that much to say about it. The owls were way bigger than I expected, I didn’t think I’d be able to hold one, and they seemed well cared for by the staff. It was cool and I’m glad I did it, but it was novel.

this is Bob. i'm not kidding, that's his name.

Still SO many Tokyo moments I could talk about, but I'm way behind and I think I could chat about Japan forever. Even though I would never want to live here, I feel this might be my new favourite place in the world. I will need to come back.