I started doing something big for my birthday when I turned 29 in Peru. I had my craziest birthday ever when I turned 30 in New Zealand. Last October 2017, I turned 31 and I celebrated it in Japan, the 17th country I visited.

I applied for my Japan tourist visa more than 2 months before my travel date. It only took 3 business days for it to be approved.

After a long journey from Wellington, I finally landed in Japan. Been wanting to visit this country since I was in high school.

First thing I had to do was to get the PasMo card for the train. It’s cool you can actually personalize it.

It was pouring when I arrived in Tokyo so I didn’t really get to do anything on that day.

Except of course to have my first ramen in Japan. 🙂

I flew to Osaka the next morning though as I planned on exploring Tokyo at the end of my trip. I wanted to take the bullet train it was just too expensive so thanks to Jetstar instead. 🙂

I love Osaka, I met friendly locals. The food, the drinks, the nightlife, the fun. I had an amazing time here.

Here in Osaka, I had my photoshoot done at Japanese Cosplay Studio run by lovely Japanese and American couple.

Of course I had to visit the famous Osaka Castle before leaving.

From Osaka, I did a day trip to Kyoto to see 3 famous places:

Kinkaku-ji

Fushimi Inari-taisha

Arashiyama

I flew back to Tokyo and did a day trip to see the beautiful famous Mt. Fuji. Biked around for almost 17k to get these amazing views.

I had my pre-birthday dinner at the Sky Restaurant 634 at the Tokyo Sky Tree. Here, I was treated like a princess. The service was excellent and the food was delicious. For the first time, I tasted Sake here. 🙂

I stayed inside the Disney Resort. The 2 nights / 3 days vacation package allowed me to access Tokyo Disneyland easily. The guests here have some perks like being able to enter the park 15 minutes before opening to everyone. 🙂

The room can’t be anymore comfortable with all the cute mickey mouse toiletries and designs. On the morning of my birthday, I got a voicemail from Mickey Mouse greeting me Happy Birthday LOL! I thought that was cute.

I thought I’d do something different on my 31st birthday. A not so crazy one compare to my 30th. So here at Tokyo Disneyland, I just became a kid again. 🙂

I had fun but it was extremely tiring with all the walking I had to do! Nonetheless, it was great! 🙂

On my last night before heading back to New Zealand, I visited Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho also known as “Piss Alley”. Despite the language barrier, there is no way you can’t make friends in this cramp quarters.

And on my last day just before I head to the airport, I had to go to Shibuya to cross one of the busiest intersections in the world. 😉

And here’s a few of the different kinds of Japanese food I had. 🙂 Since this post is long overdue, I can’t remember all the names of these food. Sorry!

I wish I had more time to spend in Japan but I’m just glad I had the time I had for my 31st birthday. 🙂

Japan is such an organized, safe country. I love Japan and I’d definitely come back when I get the chance.

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