My First Solo Trip - Japan 1998 | The Scribbling Geek

Retro pictures, #mondaymemories of my first overseas solo trip in 1998. Destination, Japan. Overall experience, extremely educational and enlightening!

While digging for the Hardy Boys books I mentioned in my previous post, I came across these. The film photos from my first overseas solo trip in 1998.

Faded, terribly amateurish, but nonetheless memorable, these were shot over ten days in February and March 1998, during a trip I could best describe as eye-opening and humbling.

Back then, the Internet was hardly as informative or as pervasive as it is today, with most of my travel information instead coming from dog-eared library books. To give you an idea of the kind of difficulty I wrangled with throughout this solo trip to Japan, none of the photocopied maps I brought with me remotely depicted the area they represent. Perhaps for reasons of printing space, these maps only always indicated the main roads but never the many alleys in between. On day 1, yours pathetically lugged my luggage around for near an hour before I located my ryokan. That evening, I got utterly lost in Shinjuku. It took me half an hour before I found Studio Alta.

PS: The following retro photos are nowhere near the quality of what I’ve been posting on this blog. Not only were they shot with a cheap camera, I had no clue at all about photography back then. I didn’t even know what aperture size or shutter speed was.

Ueno Daibutsu (1998) — A shrine somewhere in Ueno Park. If I remember correctly, I found this while wandering around the park, waiting for check-in time at the ryokan. (Update 2019: I finally learned this is the remnant of the Ueno Daibutsu. Thanks, Google Maps!)

Ueno Park Torii Gates in 1998. — Torii gates at Ueno Park. This being my very first Japan solo trip, I was endlessly fascinated by these classic Japanese entryways.

Travelling alone in Japan 1998 - Keisei Ueno Station. — Near Keisei Ueno Station. (You can see the sign marking the entrance). I must have been hunting for lunch or something, or energy drinks, to stay awake when I shot this.

Japan Solo Trip 1998. — This looks and feels like somewhere in the Asakusa area. But going by the date, I believe this is still Ueno Park.

Nighttime Shinjuku in 1998. — Alright, this is an interesting one. This is somewhere in Shinjuku after dark. Nothing particularly special about this random shot too, except, 20 years later, I would be obsessing over the same scenery in the virtual paradise that is Sega’s Yakuza series. Bicycles also happen to be my favourite pick-up weapon in the games.

My First Solo Trip To Japan in 1998 - Hakone Ropeway — A pretty awful picture taken while riding the Hakone Ropeway. That I chose to go at late winter, just before Sakura season, highlights how travel-stupid I was back then.

Interlude, if you would permit me.

And in advance, I apologise if I come across as unnecessarily maudlin.

Within 48 hours of this first ever solo trip to Japan, something big dawned on me. As in, literally. I painfully realised that living in a tiny country like Singapore hemmed in my mentality in more ways than one. Beginning with how I expected every location to be compact or within walking distance.

I was positively terrified when I stepped out of the Narita Express at Tokyo Station. Not even the largest mall in Singapore back then was the size of this transportation behemoth, not to mention the number of people shuffling, dashing, and sprinting within it.

And then you have the neighbourhoods, and the subway stations, the latter often with underpasses longer than any I’ve ever been in. It was … eye-opening, to say the least. Didn’t help too that in all previous trips I was conveniently ferried about by a coach, never having to walk by myself, with luggage, for more than a few yards.

In a nutshell, this Japan solo trip permanently changed my perception about myself and Singapore. Not entirely in a positive way too, if I might add. Why so? Well, I think I should leave that for another post.

Tokyo Disneyland Dance Fever (1998) — Tokyo Disneyland 1998! With Mickey & Minnie’s Disco Fever as special programme. I still have the special edition lunchbox I bought.

Travelling alone in Japan in 1998 - Tokyo Disneyland. — More Tokyo Disneyland. As you can see, it was always crowded.

Tsukiji Fish Market 1998. — Tsukiji Fish Market. This is one of my better shots from the trip. It is also particularly memorable for I have never since returned to the famed fish market. (And I’d probably never be able to, given it is scheduled for redevelopment)

Background for this 1998 Japan Solo Trip

A little bit about what led to this solo trip. Please try not to roll your eyes after reading too.

In November 1997, I strolled into a gaming shop at Singapore’s City Plaza and ended up buying an art book. This being a collection of the illustrations Kaneko Kazuma did for Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (Sega Saturn).

Hard for me to explain what happened next, it was rather heady, but by the New Year, I was determined to visit Japan. In fact, I was so determined to go, I went right in the middle of my tertiary school semester; during my one week break, to be specific.

Looking back, it was admittedly kind of overboard, I actually skipped several days of school. But, oh well, I did acquire some important life skills from this adventure. Things I would never learn in school too. Again, maybe I’d someday write about these skills.