# Hello Tokyo

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2025-02-01

tokyo, travel, snowboarding, 14th-annual, subway, metro, transit, mobility, public-transit, japan, arweave, photography

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We arrived in Tokyo late last night. Our departure was delayed by a few hours, but we ended up sleeping most of the flight, and so we landed relatively refreshed and ready to tackle all of the late-night snacks at the closest 7-11.

The onboarding process for taking the train into the city was as easy as it could have been. I was able to add and then load their Suica card directly from Apple Wallet. ([Thanks for the tips](https://brandondonnelly.com/14th-annual), everyone.)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/7f94e71291502ee08ffe5a3bdedc7f80.png)

Here's us, taking up too much room on the train with our two ski/snowboard bags.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/39d09b79ce2ad2dd215bc031dcf1915a.jpg)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3b2d0a3107cfd78c084caefa605bbaa1.jpg)

However, I will say that Shinjuku station -- which is the [busiest train station in the world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku_Station), by far -- is just as confusing as I remember it. Between the vastness of the station and overall network, and the language barrier, it can be a real challenge to figure out where to go to make your connection.

But ultimately, we made it to our hotel, and to 7-11. In case you're wondering, and to give you an idea of scale, my legs absolutely hang off the end of these beds.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e38aad72469a5e92e18dc9e7f8e960f4.jpg)

I have no idea what the circular thing was in this bowl, but it was good, hot water was readily available in the store for these purposes, and I was able to supercharge the entire thing with some charcoal-grilled chicken from a separate package.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/109295babc9c3e251f22cf5da2085400.jpg)

The first time I visited Japan, I had a cell phone with one of the first ever color screens. I thought this was a huge deal. And, I had a standalone digital camera that was about the size of a small wallet. I also thought this was a huge deal. Sadly, I'm not sure where most of these photos are today (though I still have the phone).

So it's exciting to me that I'm now writing posts and sharing photos with all of you on a decentralized and open ledger that is intended to act as [permanent information storage](https://arweave.org). In theory at least, these posts and these photos will be around forever, even if Paragraph as a company goes away.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f59492f0eb80e679ab4071b53f9e3e02.jpg)

Which means I'll be able to look back on the above photo and remind myself that I took it from the window above my hotel bed when I woke up at 530AM, I couldn't sleep, and I decided to just get up and write today's post. Tokyo is such an awesome city. It's great to be back after all these years.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/hello-tokyo)*