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Japan In A Box

A year ago today, I was one week into my first solo trip to Japan.

By this time, I was in Nara Park, feeding the deer and visiting the stunning Todai-ji.

I'd planned to blog about my adventures while travelling, but my laptop encountered a weird critical problem the night before I left. Rather than fight with it and carry around dead weight, I left it behind. I'd journal every day and turn that into some fun blog posts upon my return.

I did post some, but it kinda fizzled out as I got busier back at home and it just didn't feel as relevant anymore - despite the fact that I think about this trip constantly.

Instead of the giant (boring) retrospective post that I'd set out to do, I thought it would be nice to revisit what I took home as memorabilia.

A shoebox with a sticker of Frieren stuck in a treasure chest with teeth.

Naturally, I bought plenty of omiyage for my family and friends, and even a few modest trinkets for myself (mostly anime figures for my desk), but right now I'm just poring over things like maps, train tickets, pamphlets, etc. Stuff I kept just for me.

An open shoebox full of Japan paraphernalia

Some of my favourite items:

A card holder featuring NERV ONLY and NERV log from Evangelion

Probably the coolest thing I brought back were the embarrassing amount of photos I took (some of which are on my Pixelfed), but these little things bring me some joy.

懐かしい ね。

Memorabilia from Japan spread out on the floor

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