Day Eleven: Tokyo

For a nomadic type traveler, the time when you start to feel like youre getting too comfortable in a place and you no longer feel like youre progressing might be a definite sign that its time to be moving on.

Ive come to know my way around Tokyo very well, and when I started taking trains and walking around realizing there were places I was very accustomed to seeing and people I had already met, I knew it was time for me to move on to something else. So I spent one last day in Tokyo and made some more decisions regarding how I was going to conduct myself during the next thirty or so days of my trip.

I got up today, train from Sagamihara to Machida, Machida to shin-yokohama, shin-yokohama to shinagawa, and from shinagawa, I circled Tokyo, seeing all of the major hotspots before I decided to head on out.

I found a store that sold some particularly amazing things.

They had our own beloved President Barack Obama. reminding us that yes, we can, and giving us change we can believe in.


they had these spooky looking coin banks that might have been cute to give as a gift at some gothic, dark ages birthday party


and of course fun halloween costumes for the special woman in your life, or man. all for a modest price


On my way back I met my friend ben in the chapel of the Sagamihara housing area. He was teaching a yoga class at the time. Ben works as a yoga instructor, and until last night, I didn’t know how legit he was, but let me tell ya, he knows his stuff. He had me and two other folks killing ourselves for about 45 minutes into the session before doing a relaxation and meditation time, all of which was very very cool

As this is a trip made up of a lot of first times and new experiences, I can say now something that I have never said before.

I, Brandon scott riggs, have done yoga.

Yes yes, its true. And I liked it too.

So this means that tomorrow I begin the part of my trip that is somewhat void of the simple comforts of having somewhere legit to stay. From now on it will be a different type of trip.

Some things to consider:

First – I’ve ditched the guitar. I was using it as a crutch to passively find conversations with others I was interested in rather than being active and talking to folks all by my lonesome.

Second – I would like for the remainder of my trip to be made up of meeting new people, learning from others including people from countries other than America and japan, and finding opportunities to perform small acts of service for others.

Third – I intend to do all of these things while seeing all of the sights I planned to see around the country. In the next weeks, I still need to see Osaka, Hiroshima, Sapporo, Fukuoka, and Shikoku, as well as all the places in between. I need to sleep in capsule hotels and swim in the ocean.

So stay tuned as the story continues to unfold, it may be more difficult now for me to do frequent updates with no certain place to use the internet, but I will do the best I can.

Thanks for sticking with me.

More havoc to come.