The act of just saying yes and figuring it out later…
If you want to just read about the trip and not the backstory go next page.
“This is my first ever post on the website, so please take it with a grain of salt. I’m not the best writer, and I’m still figuring this out.” – Dokai 3/15/2026
My buddy JJ told me in September of 2023 that he was going to Japan at the start of the new year. I thought it was a cool idea and even joked about what we could do there. He offered for me to come, but at the time I didn’t even have enough money for food let alone a trip to Japan.
Side note: it might be a good idea to mention that I didn’t actually know him that well before this trip. A mutual friend pulled us into the same gaming Discord, and we went to the gym together a few times.
Fast forward to the end of October. JJ and I were at the gym hitting cables and I said, “F*ck it, let’s go.” He was completely confused because I didn’t say Japan, trip, or give any indication of what I was talking about. I just said, “Let’s go.” Then I told him: let’s go to Japan. I’ll get a credit card, and if I don’t find a job before we go, I’ll just pay it off when I eventually get one.
Honestly… not great advice to anyone reading this.
But that’s exactly what I did.
I pleaded with three banks. The first told me they couldn’t help me. The second, while walking me to her desk, told me no one would help me and that I should probably just get a job. Very defeated, I made a phone call and scheduled an appointment with one last bank.
Now to be fair, I don’t blame them. A bum with no job or income, wearing sweats and a hoodie, walks in asking for a credit card with a high enough limit to fund a trip, no APR (interest) for a year, and no foreign transaction fees. You could say I was asking for too much.
Until that third bank.
Insert some “never give up” quote here.
I legitimately couldn’t believe it. She asked me how much I wanted, gave me a card with no interest for a year, no foreign transaction fees… and even a bonus offer of free money if I spent enough in the first three months. Obviously that part was easy with a plane ticket and hotel reservations not even booked yet.
Next step: a job.
I wasn’t able to get a job over the summer (we’ll just blame the high schoolers), but now it was almost Christmas time and seasonal jobs were popping up everywhere. I applied to anything—and I mean anything. I didn’t even know what half the job titles or descriptions meant.
Then I finally got one.
It was working at a Christmas-in-the-park type event. I honestly don’t even remember what the job was supposed to be. I think retail?
Yeah… I said supposed to be. Foreshadowing.
About a week into the job we had a mock opening before the official launch. Basically a test run with only friends and family to make sure everything worked. Well, the internet went down. That meant we couldn’t process waivers or get the ticketing system to work. I worked a little magic with some iPads to create manual waivers and also found some ticketing codes that fixed admissions. Basically, I saved the day.
The next time I came to work, I had a different title. I was now customer service and tech support. A few days went by and I realized I liked this side of the job way more.
I’ll spare the details because I’m still not exactly sure what happened, but my boss’s boss basically crashed out and left. My boss moved up a rank—and then he said I was the only person who knew how to do his job… so I moved up a rank too.
This was great not just for my work situation, but also for my bank account. And remember, I was trying to fund Japan.
You bet I made the Japan money, and more.
I used all my free time to hijack my friend’s original plan of “walking around Tokyo and visiting some nearby areas” and turned it into let’s plan the BEST FKN TRIP EVER.
This is where my mom’s genetics kicked in. She’s an organizational mastermind.
Instead of just staying in Tokyo, I suggested we hit as many cities as possible and do day trips all over Japan. Then I asked the important question: what’s on your bucket list?
He mentioned things like drifting cars and snowboarding. Drifting was out because of the season, but snowboarding was perfect.
I might have gone a little overboard with the planning… but it was really worth it.
So I guess this is where I’ll start the story of the original Japan trip with JJ.