The Life of Shannon Arielle

Hi, everyone! I hope you are enjoying my Tokyo posts so far! I’ve had a lot of fun going through all of the sightseeing pictures I took on my trip and picking the best ones for my posts.

Day 2 was our only full day in Tokyo. Breakfast was served between 7 and 9. The food was laid out buffet style, similarly to how it is in hotels in the US. What was different was the food served. Instead of the typical American breakfast food (waffles, cereal, bacon, orange juice, etc), we had many vegetable dishes to choose from, chicken, and soup. There were also different kinds of bread that you could toast if you wanted to. The bread I ate had pink swirls in it. Turns out it was strawberry flavored, and delicious. I also ate a bunch of vegetables and a cup of miso soup (my absolute favorite!).

After breakfast, we headed back to the subway and towards Asakusa. When you get to Asakusa, you pass through Kaminarimon Gate, which is guarded by two protective deities, Fujin and Raijin. Keep in mind that you want to get here early if you want to get pictures with as few tourists as possible in front of the gate. We got there around 7:45 in the morning and there were already many tourists present.

Past the gate is the Asakusa Nakamise Shopping Street (ANSS). Since we were there so early, many of the shops were still closed or were just starting to set up for the day. All of the shops should be open by the time you are done sightseeing at the Senso-ji Temple. ANSS has plenty of small souvenirs for those who don’t have a lot of room in their suitcases. I bought a keychain of the Kaminarimon Gate. There are also plenty of shops with bags and other larger souvenirs. If you are ready for a snack by the time you are making your way back towards ANSS, I suggest trying a few different flavors of hot bean buns. I’ll insert a few pictures of the shop we stopped by. Vanida and I ate the flavors “Standard” and “Monja”. Both were delicious!

Once you get past ANSS there are a few other sights to see, including the second gate and the water statue. I’m not sure of its technical name. At the water statue, you can fill up a cup with water and make a wish while pouring the water onto your hands. I was also told the water brings you good luck.

Senso-ji Temple sits beyond the water statue. The temple was absolutely beautiful. The paintings on the ceiling were my favorite part. I tried to capture all of them as best I could. You are not supposed to take pictures of the innermost part of the temple, but of course, I didn’t see the sign until after I had taken 10 pictures. Oops.

There is a smaller temple past the Senso-ji Temple. If you walk behind the main temple towards the bathroom, you should have no problem finding it or any of the other sights.

After Asakusa, we went to the infamous Skytree. I was really excited for this because I love birdseye pictures of cities. Seeing a city captured from this angle always amazes me, because it shows you just how small us humans are in this big world. To get to Skytree fast, you can buy a ticket for what I believe is just called the “Skytree Line”. The ticket costs less than $1 and takes you right up to the Skytree building itself. The signs to the ticket counter are very easy to follow if you can read Japanese or English (or just follow the arrows). Vanida and I opted to only buy a ticket for the lower deck, called Tembo.

You take a quick elevator ride up to Tembo Deck. Be warned that if you go during the day, the deck will be very bright. I wore my sunglasses most of the time we were there. Tembo Deck is completely indoors. We got there around 10:15AM and it was already crowded. Be prepared to be patient and to wait your turn to get pictures with the views. Tembo deck does have photography areas set up where a worker will take your picture for free.

After you explore Tembo Deck, do not take the elevator. Follow the stairs down and explore each level before you take the elevator down the rest of the way. My favorite area of Skytree was down a couple of levels. Like in many famous sightseeing buildings in major US cities, Skytree has a small area of glass flooring where you can see down to the streets of Tokyo. I tried to take good pictures, but they don’t do the experience any justice. This area can get crowded, so wait patiently for it to clear up and you can take your time getting the best pictures possible.

We ate Korean food for lunch and did some more exploring of the city, a few stops down in Tsukiji. We had heard from one of Vanida’s friend that there was a large fish market we should check out. Naturally, I didn’t get any pictures at the market, but I did get some pictures around the area.

After exploring, we ate more food and headed back to our hotel. We were tired and jetlagged, so we had to call it an early night, even though we didn’t want to.

I hope you enjoyed this post! I will see you guys next week with Day 3 in Tokyo!

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

Check out my other Japan posts here, here, and here as they are posted.

Enough about Thailand though. I have a ton of things from the past month to talk about, including my trip to Japan. I had such a fun time exploring Tokyo for two days with one of my friends. I hope the next time I get to go back I can stay longer.

While in Japan, I noticed many differences between it and the USA.

1. Bikes are ridden everywhere.

When my friend Vanida and I got off the subway and entered the city of Tokyo, I was almost ran over by a bike. That was one of many encounters I had with these deadly contraptions. I’m over exaggerating here, but I was amazed by how many people rode bikes around the city. Right in the middle of the busy sidewalks of the city. If you’ve ever been to New York City, you know how crowded Times Square gets from tourism. Imagine riding a bike through Times Square and you’ve pretty much got Tokyo summed up.

I did like the fact that people were choosing to ride their bikes around the city. It promotes a healthy lifestyle, which I believe we all could benefit from. One of the good things about Tokyo is that most of the larger more heavily trafficked streets have bike lanes available for riders to use. That doesn’t always mean they are used (hence how I almost got ran over), but it is good that they are there.

2. People are more on the go and time oriented than Americans.

On our second day in Tokyo I thought I was going to get knocked over and stomped on. Getting to work on time is no joke in this city. Vanida and I were transferring between subway lines when all of a sudden we were thrown into the fast paced mob of people walking past us or towards us as they hurried to their trains. I consider myself to be a pretty fast walker when I need to be, and I needed to be in this city, but even what I thought was fast didn’t matter here. I’ve dealt with subways in cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. I know what the hustle and bustle is like going to work every morning. But wow, it was a culture shock to see what underground Tokyo is like on a weekday morning.

3. People drive on the left side of the road and walk on the left side of the sidewalk.

The biggest culture shock for me has been seeing cars drive on the left side of the road and having to walk on the left side of the sidewalk. In the USA, we drive on the right side of the road, and when walking, you stay to the right. It is something we are taught to do from a young age. It was quite an adjustment trying to remember that the cars were coming from the opposite direction. But I figured it out by our second night there and was able to successfully walk across the street without waiting for the locals to go first (and without getting run over).

There are many other differences between the USA and Japan that I could talk about, but these are all I am going to share today. If you are interested in seeing more posts on my trip to Tokyo, keep an eye out because they will be up later this week!

I hope you all have had a great month. See you on Wednesday!

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

I woke up at six am on Sunday. My fan was slowly blowing cold air on my face, my soft mattress hugged the curves of my body, and I wasn't wearing any pants. It was one of those moments where you recognize every sensation around you. This was the last time I would experience waking up exactly like this for a year. I wasn't scared. I wasn't sad. I felt calm. A feeling of serenity came over me as I rolled myself out of my bed one last time, making sure to trip over everything as I put on my pj pants. I opened my bedroom door and looked down the stairs to see if my mom was awake. This always determined how quiet I had to be in the morning. I showered, ate, finished last minute packing, and put everything in the car. And then we left the house that had been my home for the past twenty years. As I shut the garage door, it felt like the end of a chapter in my life. I had experienced so many of them in the past year alone that I almost didn't recognize it.

Everything at the airport went well until I hugged my dad goodbye. He told me that he loved me. This is a phrase he doesn't use that often. Hearing those words brought tears to my eyes, but I pulled myself together as quickly as it took the tears to come and raced off towards my dream. This was where I was meant to be in this moment. I had been working towards my dreams for years, and they were finally becoming a reality. I wasn't about to let anything stop me.

I must've showed my passport to every person I came in contact with at the airport that day. It was an interesting experience to say the least. When we finally found our seats on the plane, I was in awe of the number of seats per row, and of course, the tv. All I ever wanted was to track my international flights on one of these tvs. After seeing travel bloggers and vloggers post photos and videos featuring this moment and dreaming of doing it myself, I instantly turned on my tv and found a map. Seeing that I was still on the East Coast bummed me out, but following the path to Tokyo made me instantly smile.

I probably should've mentioned by now that I have been traveling with my friend, Vanida. She is from Thailand, but I met her at my brother's temple. We were supposed to sit in a row of four seats with two other people. Much to our delight, those two people never showed up, so we got the whole row to ourselves for the fourteen hour flight. Things have a way of working out for those who do their best every day, and treat everyone and everything around them with kindness and love.

I kept the tv in front of the aisle seat on the Time Zone Map the whole flight. I had always dreamed of the day I went to a different time zone, and I was going to make sure I was looking the second I reached it. I kept my eye on this map for the majority of the flight. I smiled when we were above Canada (I've been to Niagara Falls, but only on the US side, much to my dismay) and almost jumped out of my seat screaming when the clock on the screen was finally an hour behind EST.

We had two meals and a couple snacks while on the plane. The food was good for plane food. There isn't much else to say about it. I watched a few movies and episodes of TV shows. I got into Gotham during the flight, but stopped after three episodes so I wouldn't become hooked.

I stayed awake for the entire flight. I did try to sleep on multiple occasions, but I've been in the same time zone my entire life. I was used to be awake during this time. I was never bored while on the plane. Friends and family told me I would be, but I told them I am very good at keeping myself busy for long periods of time.

Well, it's time to wrap this post up. We are going to board our flight to Bangkok in ten minutes, so I have to make sure my water bottle is filled up. I also need to walk around for a bit before sitting for another six and a half hours.

I'll see you all next time with Day 1 in Tokyo, Japan.

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

It has just dawned on me that I am leaving the United States in twelve days. I've been so excited to get out and start exploring more of the world that it didn't hit me until now that I'm actually doing this. I'm actually doing what I set out to do. I see people post about how they would love to see the world, but they can't afford the costs involved with travelling. I'm lucky with how generous my parents have been so that I could save money to use towards travelling. I'm lucky to have found a great community of people that have helped me with my airfare for getting over to Thailand. The amount of love I have seen in the past year is unbelievable to me, and I can't imagine what I have done to deserve to be surrounded by such loving people. I guess it's true what they say. The way you think and act dictates how other people treat you. When you do your best every day, even if you don't feel well, you attract positivity and light into your life.

I'm not sure where this post is going. I just felt like writing, and my move to Thailand is always on my mind. I will be writing more posts in the next couple of weeks on my last few days in the United States. Once I am settled in Thailand, I hope to put at least two posts up per week documenting my life while I am there. There will also be other posts sporadically added on my blog that fit in with how I ran it before my move. I could never have a blog without writing about books, quotes, etc. My friends and family are excited to see what I will be up to while in Thailand, and I hope all of you follow me on this journey.

I think that's all I have to say for now. See you guys later this week.

Lots of love,

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.