I've been looking for things to do before finally getting out of Tokyo, the walls are really starting to close in on me here, even after having met some great people and finally going to a party that Tatsuya, the one Japanese friend I've made thus far, threw at this amazing place right on the river. That was a necessary experience for me, really. Even so I cant stay in this megalopolis forever, there's so much to see! Tokyo is cool and all, but if you think its all you need to see in Japan I need to know what you've been smoking?

I've been in Tokyo two weeks now, and believe me that's not what I had in mind when first coming to Japan. Actually its the exact opposite. Even without a plan of any kind my heart always longs for the country, the small towns and tight knit communities they foster. I may be old fashioned, but the big cities just don't feel very welcoming to me. Some people love them, thriving off the palpable levels of frenetic energy oozing out of every square inch of concrete and steel, longing to go from one novel excitement to the next. Tokyo is surely that, only times 38 million, and I can feel my inevitable departure from this megalopolis coming, and soon

"Okay D, so you've died and been reborn to a life that is shiny and new. That's great, but what now? What will you do with all that freedom and time in the sunshine? Any plans to open up shop, get further educated and tie the knot? How about that 401k, isn't life better in old age with a check coming every day? Even with a new lease on life, you'll still have to strive, still have to fight, isn't that right?"

Life seems to haunt us with lessons we are not prepared to meet with grace or the passion often required to rise to the occasion. How so? How can passion and haunting lessons be mixed together in the same sentence? It should be no surprise to any of you that lessons are there for our own benefit, otherwise we'd call them something else, like tragedies. But what could be more tragic than a life without lessons? A life devoid of growth? Such things do exist, and never so much as now, for at the same time we are capable of living lives devoid of choice, following a prescription that one facet of society or culture has set, we are also creating machines with unchangeable programming that act in our world, changing it as programmed. Yet we are not so perfectly static as them, not yet. Our programs can change the moment we recognize them as merely that and chose a different way. 

Who was saint Patrick? Nobody seems to care. All I see is green, and all I hear is cheers! Needless to say this isn't about some dead guy canonized by the church, nor is it about drinking, though that will take a roll in this episode. You see March 17th is not only a day to lose yourself in drink and swirls of green attire, it's also my mothers birthday, and today I was feeling a little glum, as both her and I are alone in a foreign country, feeling the weight of our lonely paths in this world.

After having gotten a good dose of culture and Ramen I looked up things that might interest me, such as anime and video games as I mentioned in chapter 1, and all signs pointed to the Mecca for such things, a place known as electric city or Akihabara. Taking the train there was simple and fast, being only two stops from my Capsule. Boy was this an experience, even before getting to the station I noticed that many of the passengers were foreigners and Japanese people alike dressed like anime characters, a sight which became inescapable the moment the train arrived. Akihabara is known as the Mecca for all things "Geek" in Japanese culture and for good reason. Think Times Square cranked up to 11 and filled with the most out of this world characters. The feeling you get there is one of pure fantasy, but its edged with a harsh electric assault one cannot ignore or escape. I took advantage of the opportunity though, having found a place I wanted to go before arriving. A place known as Super Potato.

Now that we’ve laid the ground work for my relationship to travel in the past and my feelings as they’ve changed in this massive city, lets get down the business of exploring the people and the culture of japan as I’m experiencing them. My first order of business after overcoming my extreme lack of sleep and loneliness was to explore Tokyo, a total impossibility I assure you, as neither my time in Japan nor my wallet would allow for a complete trekking of 845 square miles of super city above ground, 300 kilometers of railways underground, along with 18 kilometers of shopping malls built into that 300 so... yeah, you have to pick and choose your battles.

I have to admit it took me a good while to get the hang of traveling alone. It sounds strange to me even to say it, since traveling is what changed my life so completely as a young boy traveling the world with my family, and then flying alone to Europe in 2000 with nothing but a backpack and my skateboard. Though I was surrounded by relatives then, my German was less than functional. I was simply good at nodding my head and sharing the same reactions as those talking to me in order to get by. How easy it is for people to assume their reaching you, when they are not, and vice versa. Yet those experiences allowed my mind to expand well beyond those of my peers, as my dirty little secret allowed me to be everywhere, with everyone, and yet in a world of my own, a permanent growth cycle set outside of those around me. I had never been one to follow others in the classical sense, but I joined them in what they were doing, so long as it did not conflict with my values.

Ever see that movie Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson? Probably not. I only saw it once and felt so alienated by its theme and pace that I hardly remember it all. But if you've ever dropped from a high place into darkness, not knowing whether you'd live or die, but knowing either way you'd be all alone with no one and nothing to bring you back but yourself, then you get the movie.

In true form to my mission statement for this trip the first plan I made was not for me, Unplan hostel was too far and to expensive for my liking. There's no way I'm spending $50 a night for a bunk bed. I may not be slumming it as I did when I traveled the world an age ago, but I'm not high balling it either. My sister tried sending me to the Cerulean hotel, "where all the models go." That would have been cherry if I had invested in Bit coin on the ground floor back in 2011, as I had been ready to do but didn't, such is life. Since I'm not rich the super models and their $900 a night suits on the 48th floor above the Tokyo skyline will have wait, perhaps indefinitely, and that's fine. Its not my scene anymore anyways.