A kid from Pontianak,
standing in Japan

Hong Kong, then Japan

Quick 15-hour transit in Hong Kong first, and I made it intentional. An old friend lives there and I hadn't seen them in ages, so why not. Hong Kong and I go way back anyway. I know the snacks, I know what to eat and where, I know that familiar feeling of the city that's busy in a very specific way. We caught up, walked around, ate well. A few good hours with a city I already love, though it's changed quite a bit since my last visit. Upgraded, for sure.

Catching up with an old friend. Hong Kong always delivers.

By night I was back at the airport, sitting with my bag, staring at the departures board, absolutely unable to sleep. So I just walked around, ate McDonald's, went back to the waiting room, repeated that loop a few times. Morning flight to Japan. The wait felt longer than it actually was.

When the plane finally touched down I started narrating to myself like a crazy person. Tez, you are actually in Japan right now. Walking through the airport reading kanji signs I couldn't understand at all, and somehow that made it feel even more real. So this is Japan huh. There's this feeling that hits you that I genuinely cannot explain, it's happy but it's more than happy, like something you've been carrying for a long time finally lands. I can't explain it. I just know it felt like that.

WAHHHH

First stop: Asakusa. Came out of the station and the cold hit first. Then the colors. Then the sounds, and this is the part I wasn't ready for. Traffic lights here have their own little melody. Train stations have their jingles. Street noise sounds different. Everything just sounds distinctly Japanese in a way that I genuinely cannot put into words, you just have to hear it yourself. I stopped on the pavement, took a long breath, looked around at everything happening at once, and went "WAHHHH" out loud like a complete idiot in public.

First capsule hotel outside Indonesia. Spotless. Everything exactly where it should be.

Capsule hotel in Asakusa that night. First time staying in one outside Indonesia, and everyone online says Japanese capsule hotels are something else in terms of cleanliness. They are not exaggerating even slightly. Spotless. Everything worked perfectly. Everything was exactly where it should be, nothing out of place, nothing that felt worn or tired. I lay in my little capsule genuinely impressed, which is not something I say about hotels often.

Then ramen. First ramen in Japan. I love ramen back in Indonesia, but the broth here is on a different level entirely. Indonesian ramen I'd give maybe a 7. Here? Above 9, and I'm not lying. I didn't know ramen plus fried rice was a standard combo option here, completely normal to order both in one sitting. I, a person who has never once eaten a small portion in his life, looked at the menu and thought: this is it. fat, your turn.

Tokyo days

Day two was just walking with no real plan, which turned out to be the right call. Asakusa in the morning, Akihabara in the afternoon, just absorbing everything around me and letting the city do its thing. One thing kept bothering me in the best possible way: the light here looks different. The sky, the color of the sunlight, the way it lands on buildings and bounces off the streets. It doesn't look like Indonesia and it doesn't look like anywhere else I've been. I genuinely cannot explain it and I've thought about it more than I probably should have. I just kept stopping and staring upward at random intervals like a very confused pigeon.

Also: every single photo I took looked good. Not because I suddenly became a great photographer overnight. Japan is just built different and that's the only explanation I have.

Didn't plan this. Just ran into him in Akihabara.

Somewhere in Akihabara I randomly ran into a friend I wasn't expecting to see at all, a former Indonesian national team player who's still active at a pro club. I immediately, without thinking, suggested we find a pitch somewhere nearby and kick a ball around. He was with his wife. He politely declined. Completely understandable. Next time bro.

That night I went to Shibuya crossing for the first time and I think everyone should experience it at least once in their life. It's loud, it's packed, it's moving in every direction at once and everyone around you is walking and filming simultaneously, including me obviously. You look at photos of it and think you understand the scale, and then you're actually standing in the middle of it with people coming at you from six directions and you realize the photos don't fully capture it. I loved every chaotic second. And yes, I did walk back to the station entrance just to get a proper full-frame shot of the crossing. Worth it, obviously.

Left: mid-crossing chaos. Right: the full-frame shot I walked back for.

Fuji-san

Day three I didn't oversleep exactly. It's more that the cold air made the bed feel like it had a stronger magnetic pull than usual and I just couldn't argue with that. By the time I finally got up I had to scramble to catch a train from Shinjuku, and oh boy did I regret every extra minute I spent lying there. I was sweating by the time I got to the platform. In winter. But I made it.

Clear sky, full view. Fuji-san just sitting there like it owns the place. Because it does.

The sky was clear when I got there. Fully clear, no clouds anywhere near the top, just Fuji-san sitting there looking exactly like every single photo you've ever seen of it, except you are actually standing in front of it and that changes everything. Walked around the area, ate at Lawson which felt like a small personal pilgrimage, and crossed the famous railway tracks that half the internet has a photo in front of.

Intentionally got lost on the way back. Ended up here. Theory confirmed.

On the way back I intentionally got lost, just picked random streets with no destination in mind, wanted to see where they went. Kept finding beautiful spots every single time without fail. My conclusion by this point, the one I've been building since I landed: there is genuinely no ugly corner in this country. Every random street, every quiet alley, every unremarkable block looks like someone carefully art directed it. Japan is just like that and I don't think it's an accident.

December 3rd

Papa's birthday.

He passed away in 2023. Every year on this day I just want to be somewhere quiet, sit down, and think about him for a while without any noise around me.

Blue Bottle Coffee, Toyosu Park. Sat here longer than planned. Didn't mind at all.

I went to Blue Bottle Coffee at Toyosu Park. Found a seat outside, opened my laptop, let my coffee go a little cold, and watched the water for a long time. The park is calm in a way that feels intentional, like it was designed specifically for people who need to just sit somewhere and be still for a bit. I stayed much longer than I planned and I didn't mind at all.

It was cold and quiet and exactly what I needed that day.

On the way back from Toyosu. Saw them. Bought them. No regrets.

On the way back I passed through Shibuya and impulsively bought football boots.

Look. It's what he would have wanted. Probably.

Kanazawa and Osaka

From Tokyo I took the Shinkansen on the Hokuriku Arch Pass, a regional pass covering the Tokyo to Kansai route via the Hokuriku area. Great value, very scenic, highly recommend if you're doing a similar route.

Kanazawa was not what I expected, and the specific thing I did not expect was the cold. I stepped off the train, walked through the station doors, felt the outside air, and my body immediately filed an official complaint with zero warning.

Kanazawa. Beautiful. Also absolutely freezing. My body said no.

I made it to one spot (I genuinely cannot remember the name and I'm not going to pretend I do), walked around for a bit, took some photos, tried to enjoy it. I even saw someone in a full packed jacket visibly freezing outside. Me? Hoodie, sweater, no heattech. I don't want to talk about it. Back to the station, waited for the next train, accepted the situation. I genuinely could not enjoy the walk with that weather.

Osaka was next and I'll be honest with you: it didn't fully click for me the way I expected it to. The city is fine, the food is genuinely great, the people are great. I just didn't feel that thing I felt stepping out of Asakusa station for the first time. That pull. That immediate sense of yes, I want to know everything about this place. Osaka didn't give me that, and I couldn't explain why then and I still can't now. I wasn't planning a long stay anyway so it worked out fine.

Osaka Castle. Enormous. Built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. That still counts for something.

I went to Osaka Castle, which is enormous in a way that catches you off guard even when you've seen photos. Went inside, read through all the history panels properly, stood in a place that Toyotomi Hideyoshi actually built with actual purpose behind it. That part hit differently when you know the history, when you know what this castle meant and what happened around it. The interior has been heavily renovated and the original atmosphere is honestly mostly gone, which is a bit of a shame. But Toyotomi Hideyoshi built this thing and I stood inside it. That still counts.

Two nights in Osaka, and that's enough. See you again someday, Osaka. Hopefully.

Himeji, on the way

Before Kyoto I stopped at Himeji and I'm really glad I did because this place deserves its own mention. You walk straight out of the station and the castle is right there, sitting at the end of the main road like it's been waiting for everyone. No map needed, no navigation required. Just walk forward and it gets bigger the closer you get.

Himeji Castle. The walk from the station is part of the experience.

Two things happened here that I need to permanently document for the record. First: I ate dorayaki for the first time in my entire life. Doraemon's favourite food, the thing I had been vaguely aware of since I was six years old watching cartoons, and I finally ate one standing outside a castle in Japan. It tastes like a sweet pancake sandwich, comes in a bunch of flavours, and I liked it a lot. Worth the 20-something years of waiting. Second thing: matcha ice cream in winter.

Matcha ice cream in the cold. I now understand everything.

I always thought it was a bit strange that Japanese people eat ice cream when it's already cold outside. Standing there in Himeji with a matcha cone in my hand I completely and fully understood. Cold matcha ice cream when it's already cold outside goes impossibly hard and I will not be taking questions.

The castle grounds are huge and very walkable, open space everywhere you look, unhurried energy all around. I ended up staying close to two hours just wandering and taking photos without once checking the time. That's also where my profile picture is from, by the way. That's usually the sign of a place doing something right.

Kyoto

I had read about the Onin War before this trip, the 10-year conflict that tore Kyoto apart in the 15th century and reshaped the whole power structure of Japan. I didn't seriously think I would ever actually stand in the city where it happened. But there I was.

Kyoto has a reputation, and if you've spent any time reading about it you know what kind of reputation I mean. A lot of people say it has a certain atmosphere at night, something that sits just slightly different from a normal city after dark. I won't say they're completely wrong about that because they're not. But I was curious and I wasn't willing to let a vibe stop me from exploring, so that first night I put my headphones in, picked a playlist, and walked around Ninenzaka around 9 or 10pm when it was quiet and mostly dark and the tourists had thinned out considerably.

Ninenzaka, around 9-10pm. Headphones in, playlist on. That's how you explore.

The headphones helped more than I expected, honestly. It turns into a completely different experience when you have your own soundtrack. Found the iconic tower at the end of the street, was ready to get some good photos, and the lights were already off. Of course they were. Next time.

The next day more than made up for it. Sagano Scenic Railway in the morning, Nijo Castle in the afternoon, and both of them delivered.

Sagano Scenic Railway. Old carriages, slow pace, colorful scenery the whole way. Worth every minute.

The Sagano train is popular for obvious reasons once you're on it: old wooden carriages, the train moving slowly enough that you can actually look at things, colorful scenery filling both windows the entire way. Packed with tourists and worth every minute of it regardless.

Then Nijo Castle, which has my favourite fun fact of any building I have ever personally visited. The floors throughout the castle were specifically engineered to squeak when walked on, designed to detect ninjas and assassins attempting to move through the building unnoticed at night. Whoever came up with that was not playing around.

Nijo Castle at golden hour. I didn't do anything special. The place just did it.

The castle grounds are also enormous and by the time I got there the light was turning golden, that specific late afternoon light that makes everything look like a painting. Every photo came out looking like it was professionally lit. I didn't do anything special, the place just did it. And the sunset at Nijo, I don't think anyone can argue with that. So calm. The kind of light that feels like it's being absorbed into you rather than just hitting your eyes. Standing in a 400 year old castle, knowing the full weight of the history under my feet, watching the sky turn.

The rest of it

Some things don't fit neatly into a section. They just happened, and they were good.

Random moments, all of them good.