Daily post

It wasn’t the easiest day, though. Nothing unusual really happened, but I felt surprisingly tired almost the entire time. I started late, sometime after noon, after taking my time with sleep and my usual routine. Even so, by around 8 pm I was already heading back to my accommodation because the cold started creeping in and it just didn’t feel comfortable to stay out any longer. What’s interesting is that during the day it actually felt quite hot—I was walking around in just shorts and a t-shirt, and at one point I saw a building display showing 27°C. Still, many locals were dressed in jackets and long pants, while most tourists, like me, were clearly in summer mode. It made me wonder if I misjudged the weather a bit, especially once the temperature dropped in the evening.

Today ended up being a shopping day, so everything felt pretty calm, but also more expensive than I expected. Honestly, I hadn’t planned to spend that much money, but it all happened spontaneously, and I really wanted to keep updating my wardrobe. I ended up buying some essential clothes from brands that left Russia after February 2022, and since I can’t find them back home anymore, it felt like the right decision to get them now. Still, this led to another problem — how I’m going to bring everything back on the plane. I don’t have any checked luggage, and my backpack is already full and overweight, so now I have to figure out where to fit all these new clothes and somehow get them home without issues.

My morning was as usual — I slept until 11 am again and basically skipped the first part of the day. But the weather in the morning was quite cloudy, so I don’t think I really missed anything important. When I finally started the second part of my day, the weather had changed completely — it became much sunnier and more pleasant for a walk. It felt like a positive sign to finally start my day and explore new places in this unfamiliar city. To be honest, the whole day felt very long in a good way. I started my walk at 1 PM and finished it only at 9:30 PM. Even though I didn’t have time for dinner during the walk, I just ate after I returned to my accommodation.

Today started a bit rough though. I woke up around 10 AM after more than nine hours of sleep, which honestly feels catastrophically bad for me. I think the time zone shift is still messing with my rhythm—it’s been hitting me harder than I expected and keeps throwing off my sleep schedule. Even after waking up, I didn’t have the energy to actually get out of bed, so I just stayed there scrolling through news on my phone. I knew time was slipping away, but I couldn’t really push myself to move. By the time I finally got up and went through my morning routine, it was already close to 11, and it felt like I had wasted the entire first part of the day at my accommodation.

My alarm went off at 4:20 AM and, surprisingly, I actually got up on time. I was in that deep, cozy kind of sleep where your bed feels impossibly warm and you really don’t want to leave it. But the moment I got up, the cold, crisp air coming through the window hit me right away. Not exactly pleasant, but definitely effective—it woke me up fast and got me moving as I packed my backpack. Luckily, everything went according to plan timing-wise. The only hiccup was in Japan’s metro system—I got a bit lost for about fifteen minutes, especially around the airport line. Nothing major though, and in the end I made it to Narita Airport without any real issues. My flight landed in Seoul at 1 PM.

The day started with a small but annoying reality check: I was basically out of cash. When I checked my wallet before heading out, all I had left was a single thousand-yen note and some loose coins, adding up to roughly three hundred yen. Not exactly ideal, especially considering I still needed money for the airport and whatever the day might bring. Technically, I had USD and EUR on me, but I really didn’t want to touch it. Still, I had no choice in the end and reluctantly broke a fifty-euro note just to keep things moving.

The entire day, it just kept pouring—everything was soaked, and walking around wasn’t exactly comfortable. My morning didn’t really start until 10 AM either. I woke up early at first, but the sound of raindrops relentlessly hitting something outside my window convinced me to stay in bed a bit longer. Eventually, I got up closer to lunchtime. Surprisingly, it didn’t bother me at all—by the time I headed out after 12 PM, I actually felt energized and in a great mood. Since these are my last days in Japan, I wanted to make the most of it and turn the day into something memorable.

Early in the morning at around 6:50 a.m., when I was about to leave my accommodation and start the trip, I noticed that the door lock wasn’t working. It honestly surprised me, although now that I think about it, the lock had never really worked properly before. The door was basically just hanging in the frame, and when I tried to open it, I ended up just pulling it open with my hands since the pin code mechanism didn’t react at all. I had noticed something strange earlier too, but because the cleaning staff were coming regularly, I assumed they were just leaving the door open. Of course, I tried to lock it before leaving, but nothing happened. To be fair, the owner had already warned me that even the main building door wasn’t working, but still, the whole situation felt pretty weird.

From the morning, the sun was out, warming everything in that really comfortable way—not too hot, not too cold. I felt totally fine in my jacket, but a lot of people were already walking around in t-shirts and even shorts. I mean, fair enough—it’s their call. I kicked things off with some shopping and a walk through Ginza. While wandering around, I ran into one of my favorite stores, Uniqlo, and couldn’t resist picking up a few things. I ended up buying four t-shirts in random colors, plus one special edition piece with a cool print and the words “Peace for All.”

After the previous day, I was completely drained, so I let myself sleep in until 10 a.m. to recover some of that lost energy. Once I woke up, I slipped straight into my routine and focused on a few tasks—especially my blog posts. I couldn’t ignore them; consistency matters too much to me. So, until around noon, I stayed in my small room, working while listening to raindrops tapping steadily against something near the window.

At the same time, I was starting to feel properly hangry. The last real meal I had was on the airplane, and on my way to the room I hadn’t managed to find anything worth eating. Honestly, the night before I didn’t even feel that hungry—but morning had completely different plans for me.

I left Istanbul at 2 AM on April 6 and landed in Tokyo at 8 PM. It turned out to be the longest flight of my life. Even though I had previously flown to Thailand for a similar amount of time, this one felt endless—like I had been on the plane for twenty hours. I’m not sure why, but time just wouldn’t move. To make things worse, I couldn’t even distract myself with movies or onboard entertainment because my screen barely worked. Eventually, it completely gave up and froze on a black screen. Luckily, the passenger next to me was watching a documentary about wild animals and some world news, so I ended up half-watching along with him. In that sense, I guess I was lucky—I still got some kind of in-flight entertainment.

My vacation honestly couldn’t have started better. I already managed to explore the city a bit and now I’m mentally ready for my next destination—Tokyo. I’ll write about Tokyo tomorrow though. For now, I just want to capture how fascinating and surprisingly smooth today turned out. When I booked my flight, Turkish Airlines included a free Istanbul tour program, so from 4 pm until 9:30 pm I joined this really well-organized excursion—with dinner included. And not just any dinner, but proper Turkish cuisine. What made it even more interesting was the company: I ended up at a table with a family from California, so I got to hear real, natural American English in conversation.