One year in Japan – All good things come to an end. (April/May 2023 – Finale)

With plenty of delays and 12 reports later, we've arrived at the final report of my one year Japan adventures. I've returned from Japan exactly a year ago and I can't believe how fast the time went by. Feels like just yesterday when I stood at the airport, flying out to Japan, excited to spend a year there. I wonder if I ever get over it!

I will probably make one more post after this, a sort of retrospective where I go over my favourite places, foods, activities, regrets and what I would have done differently, but for the main travelling part – this is the last one! It'll cover my final few travels up to north Japan, including cities like Kakunodate, Morioka, Kitakami, Hakodate and my fourth (!) visit to Sapporo. Fair warning: I will probably be very sappy and sentimental in this report since there were a few goodbyes to be had in May 2023. Without further ado, let's finish this.

Prior reports can be found here:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12

Tokyo

My mother and I checked out of the hotel we stayed at in Ueno, leaving our suitcases there because there were still a few hours left before my mom's flight. Since it was my mother's last day in Japan, I asked her if she wanted to eat anything special as her final meal and… she picked McDonald's. Don't judge me – I asked her several times but she said she had tried a lot of food and was good with just having McDonald's. So we went over there, ate some burgers before a final round in Ueno park and then we picked up her luggage and went onto the Skyliner to Narita. My mother got herself a Starbucks coffee and we talked a bit about her trip and if she was satisfied and she loved every second of it despite having been sick for a few days in the first week – which she never mentioned to me up until this point, tch. Either way, it was time to say goodbye to my mom and I took the train back into Tokyo. Now, this was when it finally hit me that this was "it". I only had 1 1/2 months left and there was no travel companion to look forward to anymore. There were still a few friends I've made on Discord coming to Japan on their own, separate travels and I would meet up with them for karaoke but aside that – my final countdown began. It felt really, really weird.

I spent the rest of the day in Akihabara, window shopping, then having a meal at my favourite Chinese restaurant before I had to take a somewhat longer trip from Tokyo to Hino, which was 1 1/2 hours out of central Tokyo and where my Airbnb was located. I only stayed there for 2 days and one of those I spent on taking care of laundry and just relaxing a bit after travelling about with my mother for 2 weeks. The area was quite nice, although a power outage in the entire city block took out my ability to take a shower for almost the entire day so some of my plans were foiled. On the second day, I met up with one of the aforementioned Discord friends. The weather was quite bad with heavy rain so we only window shopped around Ueno and then met up with another set of friends for a big karaoke session! This would also be my last karaoke session in Japan for the time being (still one of my favourite activities to do in Japan, especially if your with a group of dorks).

Morioka

I initially planned to travel from Tokyo to Morioka, checking out a few places nearby and then go further north in one go for the sakura but it was way too early to actually go to Hokkaido for them. Since Tokyo's hotel and airbnb prices were also getting more and more expensive in this period, I had to make some Frankenstein-esque itinerary. Which is why I'd go to Morioka, visit the spots I wanted to visit and then went back to Tokyo for a week before then venturing to Hokkaido… the last weeks were kind of messy in terms of planning, to be honest.

Either way, I hopped on the shinkansen and took a trip to Morioka, without any real plans aside wanting to take sidetrips to Kakunodate and Kitakami from there. As far as Morioka itself goes, there are some pretty sakura spots throughout the city, even if a lot of petals were starting to fall already. But it made for some pretty paths at least. I missed out on checking out the Hachimangu shrine, which I somewhat regret. Morioka is famous for their three different types of noodle dishes; wanko soba, reimen and jajamen. I've only tried out jajamen because I love the "original" Chinese dish a whole lot and found a small place with a very nice owner who told me how to eat the dish and what to do after finishing the noodles. Typically, you crack a raw egg into your plate and pour hot water in, mixing the remaining miso and raw egg in for an egg soup. It's incredibly delicious and I would've loved to go for another round but the place was closed throughout the remainder of my stay :(.

Now, Kitakami was of particular interest for me because from pictures I've seen online, the sakura "tunnel" there looked incredible. Unfortunately by the time I got there, a lot of sakura had already fallen off in that area. There were still some other sakura trees around the area and a few food stalls. I was a bit disappointed to not have caught the main attraction but it was still worth for like a half day. Had some gyudon at a very small place run by an older lady before heading back.

The next day, I'd go for a bit of a longer trip to Kakunodate. Another town famous for its sakura and the old samurai and merchant districts. The weather was once again rather shabby, but the town was still really beautiful! One thing I really started to appreciate was when there would be random sakura trees in between others up in the mountains/hills, which was the case here. The trees around the river were the highlight, though, even in this weather. It must look even better when the sun is out and you're here at peak bloom! But it's also definitely a well known spot and I was surprised that it was this busy last year already, even though borders weren't open for that long yet. Something that always goes down well in somewhat cold, rainy weather is a hot bowl of soba or udon. This was a thick duck broth and tastes absolutely fantastic, one of my favourite soba meals in Japan (here's the Google maps location). Something else to note: the shinkansen ride from Morioka to Kakunodate has incredible scenery. It's sort of like a sightseeing spot in itself to be honest. There was a point where I could see sakura trees for what felt like a solid minute of riding on the train there.

But that was all for this part of northern Japan. I only spent like 3 days up here but would say it's worth checking it out if you are planning a trip up north and want to see something on your way to Hokkaido, for example. With that being over, I headed back to Tokyo for a few days – remember, it was all a bit weirdly planned out here…

Tokyo, again

Back in Tokyo, I once again found myself in Kunitachi, where my extremely nice Airbnb host picked me up from the station to take me to the place itself – and I couldn't have thanked her enough because it was still pouring rain that week. I spent the next few days just wandering around the neighbourhood, doing "regular life" stuff like laundry and recharging my travel battery. But I also took advantage of the weather when it stopped raining for a day or two and headed to Showa Kinen Park!

Showa Kinen Park is a huge park in west Tokyo, with a large variety of flowers and plants all over the park grounds. I spent four hours here and I am not sure I even saw everything properly. It's very popular in Spring for its tulips, which are plenty colourful. There's also smaller gardens within the park, some of which exhibit bonsai trees. Very much recommend checking this place out. If you don't want to walk, you can also rent bikes at the entrance area IIRC and there's also other small "buses" going around the park so that you don't have to track back if needed.

After a few days, I once again packed my stuff for the actual final journey up north. First stop – Hakodate.

Hakodate

This was my third time in Hakodate, having been there in Summer, Winter and now Spring. The train journey takes around 4 hours and I arrived at around 4pm, took a taxi (with a very chatty driver!) to my accommodation Share Hotels Hakoba (very much recommended) and then immediately went out for some good old Hakodate shio ramen at Fukufukutei. I absolutely love the shio ramen they serve in Hakodate, it just feels so light yet flavourful and the chashu at this place was amazing. I ordered a half-sized fried rice to go with my ramen and was very satisfied with my meal.

Nothing better to follow that up by walking up the slopes of Hakodate. The Motomachi area is always great and the small park in the area had a bunch of sakura trees. And just looking over the harbor of Hakodate never gets boring. Don't get baited by the "famous" slope everybody takes pictures at, the entire hillside of Hakodate is amazing and there are a lot of small shrines – explore them all if you can, it's a great side-quest.

The second day was the "big" one because I had been looking forward to seeing Fort Goryokaku in Spring. Now, if you plan on visiting this place in sakura season, the fact that Hakodate is not a typical tourist destination won't save you from having to line up and wait to get tickets up the tower. I've not seen this many people anywhere in Hakodate but it makes sense because this is a very famous spot for sakura. However, the wait is most definitely worth it. I'll let the pictures do the talking here.

Once I had my fill of taking pictures from inside the tower, I went down and checked the park itself out and I honestly think in terms of just sheer volume of sakura, this place blew out any other I've visited out the water. I took SO many pictures here, I can't really post all of them but here's a selection. Do not miss out on this if you ever plan on visiting Hokkaido in Spring. I probably spent around 1 1/2 hours in total at Goryokaku before heading back and to Hakodate Park, which also sports a lot of sakura! And since it's practically right next to Hakodateyama, you can take pictures with it in the background from here too. This cat gang was lazing about there too and garnered some attention from the locals as well. It's also a fairly quiet part of Hakodate, there weren't many people here at all which made for a very relaxing stroll. Keep in mind though that even in late April, Hakodate gets somewhat chilly in the evening so bring at least a thin jacket if you play on exploring about in the evening.

Coincidentally, a friend I've not met in years was in Hakodate at the same time and we spontaneously met up for a quick ramen dinner which was once again incredible. I honestly can not recommend shio ramen in Hakodate enough. I've been to three different places and all three have been absolutely amazing. Shio ramen is still my favourite type and I'll never get tired of it. With that meal done, my short stay in Hakodate was over and I was 100% satisfied with going there one final time. Up next was my final stay in Sapporo…

Sapporo

Ah, Sapporo. One of the first major cities I've visited during my one year in Japan and it would also be the last one (not counting Tokyo because I "lived" there, most of the time) I'd visit on the trip. I stayed there for about 1 1/2 weeks with no real, clear goal in mind. I just wanted to check out what sakura Sapporo has to offer, meet up with my American friend again and be nostalgic.

Just like with Hakodate, Sapporo was unexpectedly cold around this time. If you've stayed in places that have constant 20-25°C going for like two months already, 10°C feel cold as hell and I had to layer up over there. I met up with my friend on my first full day and we did some anime merch shopping and had some burgers at J.S Burgers (burger was alright). My friend usually had work going on weekdays, so the next day, I did my own clothes shopping for a bit, making use of the ever downward trending yen and buying myself a few essentials at Uniqlo.

My plan then was to go to the place where I had made a ton of memories and acquaintances in August 2022 – the anime bar. Now, if you've not read my August report, I'll give you a TLDR: this was pretty much the first place I mustered up the courage to go to and socialise with Japanese people, even with my pretty terrible Japanese at the time and I ended up going there every single evening, meeting towns of different folks and it was an incredibly great time. I was looking forward to go there again on my final trip to Sapporo but when I walked closer and closer to the location, I realised something was off and as I arrived, I saw that the bar had practically shutdown. All the decorations in- and outside were gone, the sign was taken off. This might sound a bit dramatic but I was very sad at that moment. I probably stood there for a few minutes in disbelief. Just 6 months earlier in September, I had been there and now this place full of memories was gone. It sucked! But life goes on and I'll at least have cherished memories of this place forever.

Of course, I had to go to my favourite ramen place in all of Japan and got a big portion of their shio toripan tsukemen and it hit the spot just like it always did. If I could only eat one restaurant's ramen for the rest of my life, it'd probably be this. Maruyama-koen around the end of April had more sakura and also plum blossoms! As per usual, plenty of food stalls selling typical festival food around.

My Airbnb was located east of Toyohira river and relatively close to Nakajima-koen, making it so that I pretty much always had a nice walk back to my accommodation and Nakajima-koen is pretty every season I've been there. Also a bit nostalgic because it was one of the first places I visited on my first trip to Sapporo. The park itself had a few sakura trees along the "main" path and also just dotted about randomly within the premises. If you're into cosplay, you may run into a bunch of cosplayers here, it is a fairly popular spot for it.

I met up with my American friend another few times, having some relatively cheap and alright meal at Yakiniku like, shopping and spending some time around Odori park. Another throwback because on my first trip, I took a picture of the TV tower from roughly the same spot. We also checked out Round One, which is a big arcade center with lots of crane games and arcades. I'm kind of 50/50 on crane games at this point, especially in these huge buildings because it's just so incredibly loud and I get sensory overload sometimes. We also went for soup curry dinner at this place. Soup curry is also one of my absolute favourite dishes and one of the main reasons I think Hokkaido has the best cuisine in Japan. Keep in mind that this restaurant has gotten pretty popular since the last time I went there but if you manage to go there, do order the fried chicken on rice which is limited to a certain amount of servings per day!

This wouldn't be the last time I met with my friend, however, since she was going to go to Tokyo in May and we'd meet there for the last time!

Again, I omit the parts of my stay in Sapporo where I just bummed around and didn't do anything special. Had a few more soup curries, had some interesting roast beef near my Airbnb, bought more clothes, more merch and saw the last sakura of the year slowly falling on my last walk through Nakajima-koen. 3 months after seeing the first sakura in Kawazu, my own personal little sakura hunt had ended and on top of that, sakura season ending lined up almost perfectly with my 1 year in Japan ending… And even though I did get 3 months of seeing sakura here and there, I think staying in one place and see the sakura start blooming and then also falling within 1-2 weeks definitely made me realise why it is such a popular season. It's both beautiful and kind of sad, that fleeting feeling!

Random side-note: met up with some people from Hello Talk again and I didn't know that Torikizoku didn't exist in Hokkaido at all at the time! The very first one opened while I stayed there this time and both of the people I met up with were curious to check it out. If you ever wanted to see what a newly built Torikizoku store looks like, here's a peek.

Took some final pictures at Susukino and Toyohira river on my last day in the city before it was time to say goodbye to Sapporo as I took a flight back to Tokyo this time, not making the same mistake of booking a huge train ride back like I did in September 2022! Had to get myself some Hokkaido ice cream at the airport and then said farewell to Sapporo.

The Tokyo Finale

With less than 3 weeks left in Japan, I kind of fought the dreadful feeling of returning home every day while also trying to make the most of my time. And to be honest, making the most of my time for me meant to just enjoy the mundane. I'll get into this in the aforementioned retrospective post but I should have definitely appreciated the "boring", normal days more than I did at the time.

Once again, I had stayed east of Sumidagawa, taking regular walks along the river every day. Also discovered really unique ramen near Akihabara one day, which I'd recommend you to check out. The chashu here is incredible and the broth has a lot of spices in them. I kind of started to put less effort into finding hidden gem restaurants as I felt like I've done that the entire year and visited Sushiro more frequently in my final weeks in Tokyo – simply because it's cheap while still being better than most sushi I can get in my home country.

As mentioned earlier, my American friend was flying out to Tokyo for a few days because one of her friends from the US was coming over to Japan for the first time. But we had another 2 days before the latter arrived and because my friend didn't have many opportunities to go to Tokyo, she always made use of her time by getting her fill of all things anime merch (I'll expose her here by saying she was hunting down a whole lot of BL) and we spent hours in Ikebukuro looking through every store under the sun. Also, Kanda matsuri took place during this time, one of the biggest festivals in Tokyo with thousands of people marching through different neighbourhoods around Kanda, Nihonbashi, Otemachi and Akihabara. I didn't actually know what to expect but the streets around Akihabara were packed. But it's really cool to see the festivities, music and dances.

My final Airbnb was up in Uguisudani, a very quiet part of Tokyo north of Ueno. If you're into trains, I imagine this station would be cool because there are like 5 or 6 different tracks around and you can see them all from the bridge. Also comes with nice sunsets. My Airbnb host's wife brought freshly made sandwiches every morning and let me tell you, those konbini sandwiches got nothing on these. They felt like whole meals! There was also a pretty good tsukemen place nearby which I visited twice.

On one of these days, I had to do the painful journey over to city hall to effectively deregister myself as a resident. Since I had come over to Japan with the sponsoring of a company, I met a couple people who had just arrived in Tokyo for their own working holiday and had to do the opposite of me that day. Felt kind of envious because I knew they were about to have a fantastic year! Also a bit sad because I would have loved if they had been there when I first came over to have some friends to spend time with but at least I got to meet one of them late 2023 anyway!

At last, after spending a few days with my friend and her friend, taking them to a few food places, battling hordes of people at the Pokemon Center in Ikeburuo and have them experience Torikizoku and Sushiro as well, it was time to bid farewell to my friend, for a long time too probably. She was the first proper friend I had made in Japan and we spent a lot of time together whenever I was in Sapporo or she visited Tokyo, so this was extra sad. She would later leave Japan in September 2023, returning to the US after she spent 2 years as a JET. It really all felt like the end of an era at the time, especially because we don't know when we'll next meet. It was a fairly emotional goodbye as we both did our best to hold back tears (she probably thinks I didn't notice :P) but I am sure we'll see each other at some point and fortunately these days, staying in contact online is easy so we check on each other regularly.

I don't have a lot of interesting things to say for my final week in Japan. It kind of all became blurry towards the end. Most of the time I was just buying merch and taking walks around areas I had previously stayed at while also eating all the food that I could because soon enough all the variety I got to enjoy while living in Tokyo would be no more.

On one of the last few days, I messaged the Airbnb host of my June 2022 accommodation and asked him if he was up to meet for a CoCo ichi meal in Machida (both of us just freaking love curry and we had met there before) and he agreed! The last time I was there was in July 2022 and I have the fondest memories of my stay in Machida still. It was the place where the feeling of "Damn, I live in Japan right now" kicked in back when I arrived. We had a nice chat over our lunch, I gave him a little gift and then also said our goodbyes. I still keep in touch with him and hope to be able to stay at his place some time again – but it has been very popular lately haha.

The last day is still pretty vivid in my mind. I got jajamen at my favourite Chinese restaurant in Ueno, then had another long walk to Asakusa, taking the route back along Sumidagawa one last time, through Asakusabashi and then decided to end my journey at one of the places I first visited when I arrived almost a year earlier: Kanda Myojin. I sat down here for about an hour, just looking at the night sky. I got kind of overwhelmed by emotions and may have shed a tear or two as well, hoping that time would stand still and I could just continue staying there but unfortunately, time doesn't stop for anyone and eventually I had to get back up and walk back to my hotel, took a final relaxing bath and then went to sleep…

But! My flight back home wasn't until 4:45pm and it was from Haneda so I checked out of my hotel, left my suitcase there to pick it up later and went on a final stroll through Akihabara, taking this picture just to have a direct comparison to the one I had taken in June 2022. The difference was night and day. Just like with Kanda Myojin being the first and last place I visited, my final meal had to be the same as my first – another plate of curry at CoCo Ichi. If you've read my reports, you'll realise I went to CoCo ichi a whole lot and I am not ashamed to admit that this chain restaurant will always have a special place in my heart! But then, it was time to get my luggage and get on the train and eventually the monorail to Haneda airport. Here's my final 7-11 "haul" as I waited for the plane to get ready and boarding to begin.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Japan for real. Even a year later I get emotional looking at these silly pictures taken from inside the plane. After travelling all across Japan, meeting dozens of fantastic people, showing friends around, eating tons of curry, the best year of my life had come to an end.

Aaaand that is it. I apologise for the lack of pictures towards the end of the report when it all became a wall of text without much to show off in picture form. Still, I hope you enjoyed this final report even if it was a bit messy. If there's anyone who actually read all of my reports – thank you very much! As I said, there's going to be a retrospective post after this too but as far as the travelling part goes, this was it. It can't be overstated enough and I will bring this up in that thread too but quitting my job to take a year off in Japan was by far the best decision I've ever made in my life and even though I have already been back to Japan for a two week holiday in November 2023, this particular year in Japan I will never, ever forget.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best answering them. Thanks again for reading!