How would you spend 20 summer days in Japan? Here’s a log of highlights from my latest trip, day by day. Follow along this Blaugust as I recount my adventurous July!

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It’s time for some local travel!

When I say local, of course I still mean Tokyo. On day 4, we explored two vastly different types of “city” in the greater metropolis area: humble Ochanomizu and bustling, wealthy Ginza.

We start Ochanomizu with some cafe drinking and bookstore browsing. In the first photo on the far left, you’ll see the 7-volume omnibus series for Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis Evangelion. This was all the proof I needed to know that I had found my calling in Tokyo. The right photo depicts a wall of anime art books with the entire bottom being dedicated to Ghibli and the “classic” manga, I believe.

Quiet and unassuming as it seems, Ochanomizu (particularly the cafe overlooking the Shin-Ochanomizu Station area) actually ended up being my pick for where I’d like to have spent my last day in Japan, and you’ll see us return here a couple times after the first. It felt like home away from home, plus it has the beautiful Kanda Shrine.

Ginza is a different beast, though. On one street, it’s old money luxury with towering designer stores and modern architectural marvels. It’s the perfect city for a gram photo, but I like my urban areas a little more like the second photo here—tad on the grungy side yet somehow even more welcoming and genuine. Luckily, Ginza has both, and the two coincide like Canada’s decadent Old and marvelous New areas of Montreal.

What brought us out in the first place, you might be asking? None other than a K-pop concert. That’s right, even in Japan I’ll find a way to cling myself to my biases—and in this rare case, my ULT, Kim Seokjin of BTS! I had the time of my life catching the theatrical live screening of #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Japan in huge Toho Cinemas Hibiya. It was so, SO bizarre to think that just a couple shinkansen hours down the way, JIN was performing to a sold-out audience in Osaka Dome. (Huh, Tokyo and Osaka, such different worlds . . . what in the Tale of Two Cities is up with this day?? Anyway, take it from me: It was “the best of kinds” kind of day.)

Together with J-ARMYS (who are so cute btw), we lit up the stars with live music and laughter. I was not expecting a Japanese audience to show up to a theater with lightsticks in hand, but they did! So enthusiastic!

We’ll come back to Ochanomizu tomorrow. But for now, it’s goodnight from me (and HELLO sweet dreams of tour-mode JIN)! Thanks for reading.

– Takuto