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Japan Trip Series, Part 7  Nara is just a single train ride from Dotonbori in Osaka and offers a lot in a compact area: Relatively tame deer (you’ll notice many stores use sliding doors instead of automatic ones, likely because of them), a large and walkable park, a rewarding hike with views from Mount Wakakusa, and the architectural and cultural weight of Tōdai-ji.
Nara park spans about 660 hectares and is known for its free-roaming deer and concentration of historic sites.
How does a deer sound? Watch the videos above to find out. I spent some time there, took in the atmosphere, then continued on to Mount Wakakusa.
At the top, there were wide views over Nara, open sky, and deer moving across the hillside. It was windier up there, with autumn colours starting to come through. Definitely worth it. Practical Note: Use the washroom lower down in Nara Park before starting the hike. Many public toilets in Japanese parks do not have soap, and paper towels or hand dryers are uncommon. Bring hand sanitizer, and a small hand towel if that is your preference. Back down the mountain, my route led me through the Nandaimon Gate, the main southern entrance to Tōdai-ji. Inside are the large wooden Niō guardian statues, each over 8 metres tall and carved in the 13th century. They are imposing and full of motion, even at rest.
From there, I continued into Tōdai-ji.The Daibutsuden (Great Buddha Hall) is one of the largest wooden buildings in the world and houses the Great Buddha (Daibutsu), a massive bronze Vairocana Buddha. The current structure dates to the Edo period, after earlier fires destroyed previous versions. Inside, it is the scale that stands out first, then the detail. Massive space, heavy timber, and aged surfaces, with historic statues that reward a closer look. Nara works especially well as a day trip from Osaka. A spacious park, approachable wildlife, a short but rewarding hike with wide views, an imposing gate, and a monumental temple. That is a lot of awesome in a small area. Enjoy the park. Then keep going.All photos and videos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.
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Japan Trip Series, Part 6 Osaka’s Dotonbori District is peak city energy. Neon lights, canal walks, constant movement, and an absurd amount of food and shopping packed into a compact area. This is part 6 of my Japan Trip Series and in this post I’ll be focusing on Dotonbori specifically. It’s a place that’s most alive after dark, efficient in the morning, and incredibly well connected for day trips.  Where I Stayed: Dotonbori Hotel (the one with the giant heads)I stayed at the Dotonbori Hotel, recognizable immediately by the giant sculpted heads out front. The location is excellent. It’s close to the canal, surrounded by shopping, and near easy transit connections. I was only there for two nights, with a day trip to Nara sandwiched in the middle, so I unfortunately did not get to take advantage of everything the hotel offers. Rooms are small but very efficient, with everything you need.
The hotel offers an impressive range of complimentary amenities. There are massage chairs in the lobby, free soft drinks and alcohol, complimentary cup noodles, and drawers of amenities and toiletries (e.g. lotion, combs, shavers, toothbrush kits, shower caps). Cultural experiences and small events are occasionally hosted in the lobby as well. I unfortunately didn’t have time to try the massage chairs or attend any of the cultural activities, but they add to the sense that the hotel is trying to provide more than just a place to sleep. I plan to make better use of these offerings the next time I stay here.  Dotonbori at Night: Neon, Crowds, and the Greatest HitsEven if you’re not aiming to do anything specific, Dotonbori becomes a destination by default. You end up walking it multiple times because it’s the connective tissue between so many places. Nighttime highlights include: The Glico Running Man. This area is packed in the evening. The neon lights and iconic 3D signs that deliver that futuristic big city feel people travel to Japan to experience. The canal and bridges, which create natural pause points where the city becomes a moving diorama. Be aware that evenings are busy. Not “avoid at all costs” busy, more like “move with the flow and don’t expect empty photos” busy. Shopping: Surprisingly Great for Figures and Nerd Finds
Food: Endless Choices, Great Prices, and Satisfying
Why Dotonbori Works as a BaseDotonbori isn’t just a fun neighbourhood. It’s strategic and practical.
In other words, Dotonbori is a stellar base. It’s a great place to sleep, a great place to explore, a great place to shop, a great place to eat, and a great place to start from when heading out for a day trip or moving on to your next major destination.  If you are planning to visit Dotonbori, here is a practical checklist
Next up in part 7: A day trip to Nara, home to ancient temples, the Great Buddha, and the famously assertive deer of Nara Park. All photos and videos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.
I recently finished reading ‘Program or Be Programmed: Eleven Commands for the AI Future’ by Douglas Rushkoff. Its central claim is simple. The technologies we use are not neutral tools. They carry assumptions about time, identity, truth, relationships, and value. When we accept defaults without awareness, we end up living according to those assumptions. Most modern systems are optimized for efficiency, scale, engagement, and prediction. Those priorities are not inherently wrong, but they are not synonymous with human flourishing. If left unexamined, they quietly reshape our habits, our expectations, and even our sense of what it means to be present with one another. Rushkoff’s eleven commands function less as rules and more as calibration points. They help us recognize the built-in biases of digital systems and reclaim agency in how we use them. I recommend reading the book, but I also wanted to share the eleven commands here. For each one, I’ve included the bias it addresses, the liability it creates, the opportunity it enables, and a tiny practice you can use to practically incorporate the command into your daily life.  Image generated with ChatGPT. 1) Time — Do Not Be Always OnTech Bias: Platforms are engineered for continuous engagement. “Now” is the only time that matters. Notifications are gravity wells for attention. Liability: You live in reactive mode and confuse urgency with importance. Sleep, focus, and deep work erode. Opportunity: Treat your attention like a telescope. A telescope is powerful because it’s aimed. Constant scanning doesn’t reveal faint galaxies. Stillness does. Tiny Practice:
2) Place — Live In PersonTech Bias: Remote, scalable interaction is rewarded. Embodied local life is treated like inefficiency. Liability: You get lots of contact and less connection. Context collapses. Everything becomes a comment thread. Opportunity: In-person life is high-bandwidth. Libraries understand this instinctively. A room full of humans is a different internet. An internet that is slower, warmer, and more accountable. Tiny Practice:
3) Choice — You May Always Choose None of the AboveTech Bias: Interfaces push binary choices: Like/dislike, accept/decline, upvote/downvote, subscribe/leave, buy now/miss out. Liability: You get shepherded into options that serve the platform’s goals, not yours. Opportunity: “None of the above” is a superpower. It’s how you reclaim agency. Tiny Practice: Before clicking anything important, ask:
4) Complexity — You Are Never Completely RightTech Bias: Algorithms reward certainty and confidence. Nuance performs poorly. Outrage and anger performs extremely well. Liability: You get pulled toward overconfidence. You start arguing to win, not to learn. Opportunity: Complexity is not a weakness. Reality is layered, contingent, and rarely just black and white. Tiny Practice: Add one sentence to your hot takes:
5) Scale — One Size Does Not Fit AllTech Bias: Digital systems love scale: Uniform rules, one interface, one policy, one feed, one “community standard”. Liability: Local needs get steamrolled. People become “users”. Edge cases become invisible. Opportunity: Build small, adaptable systems where feedback can actually change the shape of the tool. Libraries are anti-scale by design. Even in a large system, each branch community adapts its own way of doing things. Tiny practice:
6) Identity — Be YourselfTech Bias: Platforms encourage performative identity: Branding, engagement metrics, persona maintenance. You become a product with a posting schedule. Liability: You drift from authenticity into optimization. You start “being” for the algorithm. Opportunity: Identity is not a static profile; it’s a living process. AI makes this tricky because it can mirror you back a cleaner, more marketable version of yourself. Don’t confuse that with your actual self. Tiny Practice:
7) Social — Do Not Sell Your FriendsTech Bias: Social networks are monetized. Relationships become data. Sharing becomes extraction. Even the language shifts as friends become “connections”. Liability: Social life becomes transactional, trackable, and subtly performative. Opportunity: Rebuild a commons mentality. Relationships are not inventory. Communities should not be strip-mined for engagement. Tiny Practice:
8) Fact — Tell The TruthTech Bias: Virality outruns verification. AI can generate plausible nonsense at industrial scale. Incentives reward the compelling, not the correct. Liability: Epistemic collapse: You stop trying to know what’s real, or you pick a tribe (a “truth team”). Opportunity: Truth-telling becomes a cultural skill again: Cite sources, verify claims, contextualize, revise, and employ nuance. Tiny Practice: Before sharing, pause and verify one key claim.
9) Openness — Share, Don’t StealTech Bias: Copy is effortless. Ownership is muddy. AI training and scraping amplify this by treating creation as raw material. Liability: Creators get hollowed out. People stop making original work because it feels pointless. Opportunity: Practice ethical sharing: Credit sources, ask permission when needed, and build reciprocity. Tiny Practice:
10) Purpose — Program Or Be ProgrammedTech Bias: Tools shape behaviour. If you use default settings, you accept default goals. Many systems are optimized for revenue, engagement, surveillance, and lock-in. Liability: You become a passenger in your own life—nudged, directed, puppeted. Opportunity: Purpose is writing the requirements document for your tech. What is this tool for? What is it not for? Tiny Practice: For any new app or workflow, complete the following sentences:
11) AI — Value The HumanTech Bias: AI reduces the world into what can be measured, predicted, categorized, and optimized. It’s a powerful pattern engine. Liability: You outsource judgment. Machine confidence replaces human wisdom. People get treated like inputs and outputs. Opportunity: Use AI as a tool, not an authority. Tiny Practice:
Stay CalibratedEvery tool has a bias: Toward speed, scale, extraction, certainty. Mindfulness means noticing that bias. Curiosity means questioning and asking whether it aligns with your values. Agency means adjusting accordingly. Remain attentive to the technologies you use and the biases they carry. With curiosity and mindfulness, you can ensure your tools serve your purposes rather than quietly programming your life. Technology should serve you. Not the reverse.  Image generated with ChatGPT.
OpenAlex is a free, open catalog of the world’s scholarly research system. It provides structured metadata about research works (articles, books, datasets, preprints, etc.) and the entities connected to them (authors, institutions, sources/journals, topics, funders, publishers). All OpenAlex data is released under CC0 (Creative Commons Zero), meaning the data has been released into the public domain for unrestricted use by anyone, for any purpose, without needing permission or attribution. What You Can Do With ItUse OpenAlex to:
How To Use OpenAlex1) Search Go to OpenAlex and search for a topic, author, institution, or journal/source. Click a result to view the associated works and available filters. 2) Filter To Open Access Only OpenAlex includes Open Access metadata for works and supports filtering by:
3) Omit Retracted Works OpenAlex enables users to remove retracted items: Use ‘Add filter’, find “retracted”, and set it to “is not”. 4) Export What You Found Above a Works results set, use ‘Export’ to download results. Website exports are limited to a maximum of 100,000 works. Why This Resource Belongs In Your ToolkitOpenAlex is a CC0-licensed, searchable map of research outputs and their relationships, built to support discovery and analysis without requiring a paywalled index. If you’re doing research support, collection intelligence, bibliometrics, or simply trying to understand how scholarship connects across authors, institutions, and topics—OpenAlex is worth knowing. Sources
 Image generated with ChatGPT.
Japan Trip Series, Part 5 
First: What these monkeys are. The park identifies them as Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata), an endemic species in Japan. They’re also described as “snow monkeys”, and the signs note they live in the northernmost monkey habitat in the world.
Then there’s the park’s relationship with the troop. Since the park was established at Iwatayama, staff have been feeding wild monkeys so they stay in the area and can be observed. The signs also note that, generally, there are about 30–50 monkeys in a group in the wild, and in this park you can find around 120 monkeys.
Those numbers quietly recalibrate how you see them. They’re not tiny. They’re not pets. They’re compact, muscular, fast, and fully built for their environment.
Diet-wise, the park describes them as omnivores, but specifically notes they don’t catch other mammals to eat. They like fruit and leaves, and eat insects in summer. It is also noted other wild animals share their habitat, including deer, birds, and boars.
Note: All photos and videos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.
Japan Trip Series, Part 4 Part 3 ended with rain, bamboo, and the Katsura River… and the promise of monkeys next. Now it’s monkey time!  The Arashiyama Monkey Park (Iwatayama) is a great attraction and a solid short workout. The summit rest area (i.e. where you’ll see most of the monkeys) is about a 15-minute hike from the entrance, with over 100 metres of elevation gain. Don’t let the climb scare you off. This place is worth it, especially if you come from somewhere where monkeys are not a normal part of daily life (‘Hello’ from Manitoba, Canada). The troop (yes, that’s the official term for a group of monkeys) at the summit is the kind of wildlife encounter that lands right in the sweet spot between awe and adrenaline. Some monkeys were cute. Some were chill. Some were a bit hardcore, but mostly with each other. I didn’t see any aggression toward humans, and the staff shut down monkey-on-monkey conflict pretty fast. Watching them move through their own social gravity—unbothered, watchful, occasionally intense—was endlessly compelling.
The view is the other reward. From up high, Kyoto opens up in layers: City grid, river corridor, distant slopes, and that soft atmospheric haze that makes everything feel slightly cinematic. It’s the kind of vantage point that makes you pause (not because you have to, but because your brain demands a minute to render it all). Also: Modern phone cameras are freaking amazing. Between keeping my distance and the monkeys’ constant motion, the extra zoom on my iPhone 17 Pro really came in handy. It let me stay back and still capture expressions, posture, and those tiny moments that feel like they’ll evaporate if you don’t catch them.
With those rules in mind, the experience becomes what it should be: Observation. You’re visiting them, not the other way around. Stay tuned for part 5 on Wednesday, February 18th. More monkeys!  Note: All photos and videos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.
Japan Trip Series, Part 3  On Day 3 of my trip, I visited Kyoto. It rained off and on as I walked from the Saga-Arashiyama Station to the Arashiyama Monkey Park and then on to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. And while some people might be disappointed to get rain on their only day in Kyoto on their first trip to Japan, I was grateful for it.
Sure, I got a little wet. But the drizzle was a trade I was happy to make. I’d been expecting Arashiyama to be super crowded, and while it was still busy, it never reached that shoulder-to-shoulder intensity I’d been bracing for based on photos and videos online. The rain softened everything: The light, the pace, the mood. It made the crowds feel more like a stream with occasional logjams than a crush. It also gave me a very practical reason to buy an umbrella from a Japanese konbini (convenience store). I don’t remember exactly what it cost, but it was cheap. So if you find yourself in Japan without an umbrella, don’t stress. Pop into a konbini and you’ll be covered, literally.  The Arashiyama Bamboo ForestThe Arashiyama Bamboo Forest was a great walk. The bamboo rises in tight ranks on either side of the path, tall and straight, like a living hallway. Even with people passing in both directions, there were plenty of moments where it felt calm. All it took was pausing for a minute, letting a cluster of photo-takers go by, and listening to the soft hush of wind moving through the leaves. And yes: There were lots of people taking photos. It’s that kind of place. (I was one of them.)  Autumn Colours On The WayOutside the bamboo grove, the scenery kept getting better. Kyoto in autumn has a way of stacking colours. Greens still holding on, then bursts of yellow, orange, and deep red rolling up the hillsides. The rain made everything look more saturated, like the landscape had been lightly polished (another benefit of the rain I was thankful for). Along the walks, little details popped too. Stone figures tucked against wet greenery, mossy edges, and quiet corners that felt like they’d been there forever, patiently waiting for you to notice.  The Katsura RiverOne of my favourite parts of the day was simply being near the Katsura River. Wide water, misty hills in the background, and that steady, calming movement you can watch for far too long without getting bored. The river and the surrounding mountains made the whole area feel bigger than the individual sights. Arashiyama is less “one attraction” and more a whole mood. Next up: The Arashiyama Monkey Park and sky-high views of Kyoto. Note: All photos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.
Happy New Year! I hope 2026 is already shaping up to be a great year full of curiosity, adventure, and some amazing books. Looking back on 2025, I’m happy with how wide-ranging my reading ended up being. Science fiction, science writing, graphic novels, literary fiction, and nonfiction all made appearances, often touching on similar questions about humanity, technology, history, and our place in the universe. Narrowing things down is never easy, but these were some of my favourite reads of the year. An Angel Called Peterbilt |
| In June 2025, ‘An Angel Called Peterbilt’ was exactly the kind of book I was in the mood for: Fast, imaginative, and deeply enjoyable. Set around 1005 CE, ‘An Angel Called Peterbilt’ combines adventure, history, and wonderfully strange circumstances into a compact, propulsive read. It paired unexpectedly well with other historical nonfiction ('Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America' by Dan Flores) I was reading at the time, grounding its speculative elements in a richly textured past. I tore through it in just a few days. It was fun, and satisfying, and never overstayed its welcome. |  |
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
— Dennis E. Taylor
| This is my kind of science fiction. Humorous, thoughtful, and bursting with big ideas, ‘We Are Legion (We Are Bob)’ explores mind uploading, identity, cloning, post-humanism, terraforming, first contact, and space exploration with a smooth easy confidence that never bogs itself down. It’s fast-paced and playful, but beneath the jokes is a surprisingly deep meditation on what it means to be human when “one person” becomes many. Wildly entertaining and hard to put down. |  |
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
— Sean Carroll
| A genuinely expansive book in every sense. Carroll moves effortlessly from physics to philosophy, from cosmology to ethics, weaving together a coherent worldview grounded in naturalism without stripping life of meaning. This is a book for readers who want to understand not just how the universe works, but how we should think within it. By the end, I felt both grounded and expanded, with a clearer sense of our place in the cosmos and how to think about it. |  |
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
— Neil deGrasse Tyson & Donald Goldsmith
| A clear, accessible, and awe-inducing journey from the Big Bang to the search for life beyond Earth. I especially enjoyed the sections on galaxy formation, stars, and planets, which balance scientific depth with vivid storytelling. Whether read or listened to (as I did via audiobook), ‘Origins’ succeeds at what the best science writing does: It teaches, inspires awe, and fosters curiosity. |  |
Juice
— Tim Winton
| Set in a brutally altered future Australia, ‘Juice’ unfolds like an oral history of collapse, survival, and moral compromise. Communities hide underground, summers are lethal, winters unforgiving, and justice is meted out by shadowy forces hunting the architects of ecological ruin. The prose is spare and hypnotic, the world-building vivid without being overexplained. It’s a sad, tense, and strangely beautiful book. One that lingers, heavy with grief and stubborn hope. |  |
Unlocking the Matrix: Generative AI for Beginners
— Alex Quant
| I listened to ‘Unlocking the Matrix: Generative AI for Beginners’ as an audiobook during a series of bike rides, and it proved to be a surprisingly solid primer. It offers a broad, accessible overview of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and machine learning—how they work and what they make possible. While clearly aimed at beginners, it’s impressively comprehensive and left me with a stronger desire to keep learning and experimenting. A good entry point for anyone curious about the AI landscape. |  |
Animal Pound
— Tom King, illustrated by Peter Gross
| A powerful and unsettling allegory that feels uncomfortably relevant. Through Madame Fifi’s journey—from optimism to disillusionment to quiet defiance—we witness the rise and corrosion of a revolutionary dream. The story’s real weight comes after liberation, when unity fractures and manipulation takes hold. One particularly Trumpian figure rises through spectacle and division, bending the system to his own ends. ‘Animal Pound’ is a haunting reminder of how fragile democratic ideals can be, and how easily they’re undermined from within. |  |
Strange Pictures
— Uketsu
| A short but deeply unsettling read. Each chapter presents an eerie image paired with minimalist storytelling, functioning as both a standalone vignette and part of a larger, slowly emerging mystery. The structure is deceptively simple and incredibly effective. It’s quietly disturbing in a way that creeps up on you. The final chapter ties everything together while still leaving your mind spiralling. |  |
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport
— Samit Basu
| A dazzling blend of sci-fi adventure, myth, and philosophical inquiry. Set in the decaying city of Shantiport, the novel follows a revolutionary, her bot brother, and an alien story-bot whose evolving consciousness adds humour and depth. Basu’s world is chaotic, inventive, and richly layered, exploring artificial intelligence, autonomy, power, and resistance. While it nods to familiar tales like ‘Aladdin’, it quickly subverts expectations and carves out something entirely its own. Thought-provoking, funny, and exhilarating. |  |
These were some of my favourite reads of 2025. These books entertained, challenged, unsettled, and/or expanded how I think about the world (and worlds beyond it). If you’d like to connect or see what else I read this past year, feel free to send me a friend request on Goodreads.
Here’s to a 2026 filled with curiosity, conversation, and great reading.
Japan Trip Series, Part 2
With my trip in November, I was curious to see if I’d encounter anything Christmas-y on my trip. Luckily, I got to see a couple Christmas sights, including lots of Christmas lights.
| In Fukuoka, after polishing off a deeply satisfying bowl of ramen, I wandered the city and happened upon a festival of Christmas lights and sights. Ramen - November 14, 2025 |  |
Fukuoka Christmas Lights & Sights - November 14, 2025
| Then there’s Colonel Sanders. Yes, that Colonel Sanders. In Japan, KFC and Christmas are a package deal. Thanks to a wildly successful marketing campaign dating back to the 1970s, fried chicken became the go-to Christmas meal. Seeing Colonel Sanders dressed for the season felt less like advertising and more like cultural lore in physical form. |  Colonel Sanders - November 14, 2025 |
| In a store bordering Shibuya Crossing, I encountered a unique Christmas sweater: Santa, wearing a space helmet, riding a cat. Festive. Absurd. Quirky. I just had to take a picture. Christmas Sweater - November 18, 2025 |  |
In Tokyo, while walking back to my hotel from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, I happened upon a Christmas tree and lights display. There was a little crowd, with plenty of people posing for photos. It was enjoyable to see Christmas so loved in Japan. The aesthetic if nothing else.
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Tokyo Christmas Tree & Lights - November 19, 2025
Christmas might be a little different in Japan, but it seemed pretty much the same to me, just with Colonel Sanders and less Christian imagery.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas 🎄
Fukuoka - November 14, 2025
Note: All photos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.
Japan Trip Series, Part 1
This post marks the beginning of a new series chronicling my November 7–21, 2025 trip to Japan. I’m still not sure how many entries this series will ultimately contain, as my trip was jam-packed with activities and sights, and there are a couple ways I could divide things. I’ll try to keep each post focused and digestible, and throughout this series I’ll intersperse posts on other topics that catch my attention. But for now, we begin where all long journeys begin: In the air.
Leaving Winnipeg
| My trip started, as many do, in the dark with a 6am Air Canada flight out of Winnipeg. I aimed to arrive at the airport a little more than three hours early. Partly to clear security before the crowds arrived and partly to give myself ample time to handle any unexpected issues. The chance to experience that liminal quiet that airports have before sunrise was a nice bonus. |  Winnipeg Richardson International Airport - November 7, 2025 |
Once boarded, I settled into a comfortable rhythm of reading on my Kobo Aura One. I’d just started ‘For We Are Many’ by Dennis E. Taylor (Bobiverse #2), a light, playful sci-fi exploration of identity, multiplicity, and what it means to have many versions of oneself scattered across the cosmos. A few hours later, during my Vancouver layover, that same eReader met its end. Screen failure that no amount of powercycling or resets could resolve.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. A Kobo Libra Colour was on sale at Chapters when I got back home to Canada, and the upgrades to USB-C and storage are much appreciated. It’s nice when most of your devices use the same cable.
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Leaving Vancouver - November 7, 2025
Ten Hours Over Water, Mountains, and Time
My 10.5-hour Vancouver–Narita flight had long stretches of nothing, punctuated by moments of spectacular views. Our route took us over part of Alaska, where frozen mountains and tundra stretched out in vast, sparsely populated silence. It’s a reminder of how much empty space we traverse to reach Japan, and how much of the world remains virtually untouched by humans.
Alaskan Mountains & Tundra - November 7, 2025
I alternated between games, music, and movies on both my phone (Hoopla for ‘The Recall’) and the in-flight entertainment system. Wesley Snipes as a grizzled, alien-abduction-surviving mountain man was the best part of ‘The Recall’. I also rewatched ‘M3GAN 2.0’ and most of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. Both are highly rewatchable films, but ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ reigns supreme on that front.
The food was serviceable. Not bad. Not memorable. Just “plane food”, occupying the neutral zone between fuel and comfort.
Arriving in Japan - November 8, 2025
By the time we landed in Narita around 4pm on November 8th, it would have been roughly 1am back in Winnipeg. If anyone is planning a trip from Winnipeg to Japan, I genuinely recommend an early-morning departure. Stay awake, ride the momentum through your flights, and then collapse into bed early local time. My sleep cycle aligned surprisingly well, giving me a far smoother start the next day than I expected.
Narita International Airport - November 8, 2025
Oita to Tokyo: A Different Kind of Order
| Past the mid-way point of my trip, my Japan Airlines (JAL) flight from Oita to Haneda stood out for the boarding process and gorgeous views of Mount Fuji. |  Oita Airport - November 18, 2025 |
After passengers needing assistance and premium seats, JAL boards rear-to-front and window-to-aisle. It’s astonishing how much smoother this feels. Fewer passenger “traffic jams”, less struggling with overhead bins, and more continuous flow. Even without the famously orderly queues Japan is known for, this system simply makes sense. I wish we’d adopt something similar in Canada.
The highlight of this flight, though, was catching a clear view of Mount Fuji from the window, its iconic symmetry rising through the clouds. Mount Fuji is officially on my list for the next time I visit Japan. I don’t know when that will be, but I know I’ll return. Japan has that effect. It’s endlessly convenient, endlessly surprising, and endlessly full of places to explore.
Mount Fuji - November 18, 2025
Riding the Jet Stream Back
My return flight—from Narita to Vancouver—was noticeably shorter at around seven to eight hours. The polar jet stream does most of the work here, pushing west-to-east flights along at higher ground speeds while making east-to-west flights drag on. You can see this difference geographically. My outbound route arced over Alaskan mountain ranges, while my return was a near-straight line across open ocean until we reached Vancouver Island.
I passed the time with a double feature of ‘Dune’ Parts 1 and 2, music, and a few mobile games. The meals were similar to the earlier flights: All right, functional, and forgettable.
Homeward Bound
| My final flight from Vancouver to Winnipeg passed in a blur of partial sleep and friendly conversation with nearby passengers who were curious about my Japan adventures. Deboarding went smoothly and my checked luggage appeared on the carousel almost immediately. By the time I stepped into the Winnipeg air, I was grateful for the adventure and ready to collapse into my own bed. |  |
Two Small Notes About Japanese Airports
Two observations worth sharing:
- Smoking areas exist inside Japanese airports and many other locations such as hotels. This caught me by surprise considering how little we accommodate smoking in Canada.
- Prices at Japanese airports aren’t wildly inflated. Food and drink seemed maybe 10–20% higher than outside, comparable to what I observed at the Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka (a story for a later post). It made me wish Canadian venues would adopt similarly reasonable pricing.
Closing Reflection
Flights are the connective tissue of any long journey. They’re liminal, transitional, typically not the most comfortable, and occasionally marked by great views, conversations with fellow passengers, and moments of quiet reflection. They give you time to read, to think, to stare out at frozen mountains and oceans that remind you just how large the world is. They also teach you that travel can be as much about the spaces between destinations as the destinations themselves.
Next up: The trip on the ground. But for now, I’m still thinking about that first glimpse of Mount Fuji from the airplane window. It is amazing how something so monumental can appear so suddenly and silently. It’s a reminder to stay open to new opportunities and that wonders can often be found while you’re simply passing through.
Mount Fuji - November 18, 2025
Note: All photos in this post were taken by me with an iPhone 17 Pro.