"NANI?!?": My skin melts, a fairy godmother and I'm 99% sure the fountain of youth is in Japan.

In a nutshell:

Japan ain't playing no games for real. 
The whole plane ride I was just buzzing out to the fact I was actually going to Japan. 
As soon as we got off the plane, I felt like the damn Wicked Witch of the West. Like my skin was meltinggg bruh. I knew it was gonna be hot but I didn't think it would be "Damn are we in the islands" hot. We quickly got forced to take some tourist photos (Noob Travelling 101) and made our way to train station.

  Noob Travellers:

Japan is just as beautiful as I thought it would be. The architecture!! The nature!! Simple things like vending machines had me shook!! Issa double edged sword though because we ended up seeing this for a lil too long ifyagetwhatimean. 
Ya girl, being the genius she is, packed 21 kgs and underestimated just how hard it would be to drag around Japan until we got to the place we were staying. Imagine carrying a child around the islands and that would be what it's like carrying my suitcase around Shinjuku Station. Train stations here are no joke, blink twice and you gon get left behind for real. LIKE WERE WE IN THE LABYRINTH OR WERE WE CATCHING TRAINS I DUNNO. The only thing I wasn't catching was my breath man there were hella staircases and ya girl was struggling. However, there was a super kind elderly woman who helped me carry my bag up a flight of stairs. ​I literally looked up and saw her descending the stairs towards me, like she was the Japanese fairy godmother I never knew I needed. She was speaking to me in Japanese but her actions were speaking to my soul and saving my legs from flat out dying. Man, it really hit my fatu. 

Mariah knows wassup:

"NANI"?!?: The Movie 

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Several train stops and breathing problems later, we finally got to Shibuya, Tokyo. The street lights were so wavy that I could've walked the streets for a good hour and looked at them... and that's exactly what happened because we got lost AHAHAHAHAHA. On a scale of Frank Ocean's 'Lost' to the T.V show 'Lost' we were on the kid-who-can't-find-their-way-around-a-giant-candy-store level lost. Me, being the overgrown kid that I am, was still buzzed out that we were actually in Japan so I wasn't even pressed. By the time we get to our place, I'm just chilling. I'm in Japan, we're on the 4th floor of an apartment complex, the street lights are making up for the stars that aren't in the sky and I don't have to carry my luggage anymore. LIFE IS SWEEEET. While I'm pretending I'm shooting a music video, Mr Ali knocks on our door because the door is locked. 
Until an old man opens the door and says "NANI?!" 
Lets just freeze the scene here. At that exact moment, Mr Ali is behind the door the man just opened so the man is staring at US. And what are we doing? We're shook as hell and just stare back at him. It was at this moment I was 99% sure Mr Ali's knocking was gonna get him knocked out. Did yall see the vid of the elderly lady carrying my suitcase??? These people must drink from the fountain of youth because they DO NOT PLAY LMAO. The man let's us know that it isn't our place and after a lot of "bruh" moments while walking round Shibuya streets (again), it turns out our place is on the 5th floor on the building next over. Facccccepaaaaalm. I know. we had one job.

We get to the door (the right door this time) anddd the lock won't open. So now I'm full on just making memes of the situation. As Mr Ali is busy tryna square up with this lock, Jess is recording me reenacting the "hello is anybody out there" video. To lighten the mood of us tired Noob Travellers I'm saying "his lock skills? WHACK. his directions? WHACK." etc. When in doubt, break the memes out . Two meme reenactments later, we get into our temporary home sweet home and crash. 
​

I swear I have a point:

So, whats the point of this blog? The big lesson to be learnt? Travelling is all fun and games until you're bout to pass out on a staircase in a foreign country skeee AHAHAHALAUGHINGTHEPAINOFFAHAHAHAHA
​Seriously though?
I feel that this just reaffirmed my belief that you can learn from everything. What we forget to fully acknowledge is that you don't just magically teleport to the places you wanna go and you cant skip time to the fun parts. It just don't work like that. So often, we end up romanticising travelling and so many other things that we forget it's a journey. In this blissful ignorance we can become numb to the amazing things that happen on our journey. The pure humanity that woman showed by helping me could've been underappreciated if I was completely caught up in the fact I didn't fully acknowledge the hardships of travelling. Someone else's good could've been overshadowed by my ignorance. That, is an ugly part of humanity. However it's not something we can't actively work to dismantle in ourselves. If we have to go through hardships in order to help dismantle these things, it goes to show what a blessing hardship can be. Hardship is always an essential part of our growth and in turn an essential part of our humanity. So shot to Mr Ali for all the "bruh" moments, I'm grateful in a dumb roundabout way.

May we always be able to find the light in our hardships and appreciate the fairy godmothers in our lives
(go tell your mum/grandma/aunty/sister you love her),

Fili