I MADE IT TO JAPAN! | Japan Trip 2025

I MADE IT TO JAPAN! | Japan Trip 2025

Hey guys. Um, this is a little bit of a different type of vlog. Kind of nervous cuz uh I got a little surprise. I’m here at the airport and it’s currently 2:00. I think it’s like 15 minutes. So 2:00 and surprise going to Japan. First time flying by myself. This is why I’m super nervous but excited and um I’m take you guys with me. [Music] Close to the go. I’m running. I’m coming home. There’s no way back cuz I’m so far gone. Nobody knows where I should go. Where I should go? Where I should? I’m so far from home. Be my side. When I’m lost here, I’m too far to be with you. I’m so home. All right. I made it to Japan and I met up with We made it after after what? Two delays. Two delays. It was like an hour and a half. After a whole hour train ride, I finally made it. And this is this is our hotel room. It is currently 10:17. I’m tired. We are in Osaka to start off our 10day Japan journey. We are staying at the caption by Haya in Namba Osaka. Really, really, really lovely hotel. Only about a 5-minute walk from the Namba station. So, it’s very convenient. Um, let’s give you all a room tour. Let’s get started. Here we go. Welcome to our standard twiniz room. Uh, small for American standards but big for Japanese standards. I think average size around 20 square meters. So, we have the bathroom. The bedet. The day. This is the only reason why I came to Japan. Yes. Uh, mirror and sink. And then we have a walk-in shower. Uh, no fulls size Japanese bath, but we’ll have that later on in the other hotels. Dude, you barely fit in the shower. I just realized. Good enough. Good enough. We have a full size full size mirror for your daily OOTVs. And then come on in. We have our twin bed. We have a little coffee and tea station with a mini bar. Oh, the freeze. You can store all my Family Mart goodies in there. We’re going to go to Family Mart after this. David is hungry. Uh TV, twin size bed. We have a open style closet with a katana as dude this is sick as the rack clothing which is so sick. Love the details. Um and then come on over. It’s not big at all but it is very comfy for two nights. And we have a little desk. I have my Mac setup here. And then we have a bar. A bar. Literally called a bar. Oh shoot. Wait. Quite literally. A bar. A bar. I I don’t know if you can see it, but it’s a quite literally called a bar. The view’s nothing much. We’re on the fourth floor. So, yeah. Uh not much planned for the first day since it’s already 10:19, 10:20. If David’s feeling up to it, we’ll do go we’ll go out for a little bit and then come back. But tomorrow we have a full day trip to Wakayyama. So, yes, sir. And also, I think he’s jetlagged. So, I think we’re going to get some rest. Yeah, the my flight got delayed twice. Yeah. But he made it. Made it here on time, actually. And thankfully customs didn’t take forever. Oh yeah, customs was like 5 minutes and then immigration was 5 minutes, too. That’s all good things. All right, let’s go out and uh yeah, get some drink. Yeah, I’m going to film the rest tomorrow. So, we’ll see you guys we’ll start officially our official video tomorrow. All right, for you guys. It’ll be like a few seconds. So, we’ll see you in a bit. Peace. Tada. We survived. We survived the night and now we’re in the morning. Today we’re going to walk, right? I forgot something wacky. But this is the view of our hotel room in the daylight. I’m not even kidding. It’s quite literally called a bar. We’re going to go there before we leave. It is supposed to be super hot today and it’s very cloudy and we’re very confused on if it’s going to rain or not. Kevin’s in the bathroom. He’s in there taking a massive dump right now. Uh we kind of overslept. We were supposed to leave an hour ago, but I needed it cuz I was super tired. Yeah, we’ll see you guys out there. It’s time to explore Japan for the very first time. [Music] We made it to Wakiyama, right? Um I think we’re going to see a castle right now, which is great. Honestly, the vibes here are super nice. It’s not as crowded as I thought it’d be, and there’s so much space over here. I think that’s that’s the culture shock that culture shock that there’s like not a there’s so much space compared to like back home. Like dude, I can like walk over here and like when we were walking around here last night, it was like 11:00 and it was still pretty hot. So, excuse the air. It’s a mess right now. So far, I’m loving it. And that little piece of home came home with us, too. Uh, the 7-Eleven just across the street. All right, before we go to the castle, I’m getting a pure authentic Japanese ramen experience. It looks really good. You know, it’s local when I’m the only Filipino here. Like, look, there’s no English at all. I’m like, the whole menu is like Japanese. my bare minimum of Chinese. Yeah. But we’ll see how the food is. It looks pretty good based off the reviews. So, all right, Kevin got his food. Would you like to explain? Cold noodles. Um, it’s they call it like Chinese coal noodles, but it’s like a very Japanese dish. It’s uh usually only for summer, and I’ve never tried it. I’ve only seen it in like one of the shows I used to watch, I think. And I got my the basic ramen. I think this is brisket. Beef pork. Pork. It’s pork. And the ramen. Then we got some kimchi on the side as well. We also got some smells so good, guys. Oh my. I’m going to leave a review right after we eat. So, all right. Just finished eating at that ramen place. It was called Ramen Bak something. I forgot the name already. That was awesome. That That’s what I wanted on this trip. like some pure authentic local Japanese ramen shop and I got it. That was 10 out of 10. Loves everything out of the water at this point. And it was super cheap. Very, very cheap. Very affordable. Now we’re going to see the castle cuz full on stomachs. We have a hike ahead of us. We’re just getting started. Trip’s just getting started. We’re inside of the castle grounds. This place is amazing. Just by looking like it’s super calm. There’s like no one here. This is amazing. Very beautiful, I’d say. Like, look at this. Tell me you can’t get enough of this. Better yet, the castle is just right up there. The Wakyama Castle, right up there at the top of the hill. I will say it’s very hot. At first it was tolerable, but now it’s like it I’m sweating right now. May I may be at fall cuz I am wearing black and jeans. But it it was tolerable this morning. Now it’s still kind of tolerable. Not that I’m not used to it or anything. I mean, back in back in SoCal, it’s like what, 70, 80° right now. We we’re getting a heat wave before I left. And now the heat followed me over here. So, we’re going to go up to the castle now. Just enjoy the view. Man, this place is amazing. I already found a dirt path. all the way up to the castle. We got to walk all the way up on top of the hill. Shouldn’t be too bad. The heat is is kicking in. It’s It’s kicking in. But we’re hanging in there. I’m sweating like a like a pig right now, dude. It’s hot. I have like three cameras. I have this one, the one I’m filming on. I brought my DSLR. And I had do have like a disposable lens on it, so it kind of looks like a disposable camera. I’ll put some pictures up right here. And then I was going to bring my other camera, but it didn’t fit. And I only have like a small fanny pack right now with me. So I’m sweating. This is a hike. This is a the walkway that leads straight to the castle. It’s not too far of a walk. It’s legit right up top of the hill. The one thing I am more concerned about is the the incline to to the the castle. It looks pretty steep, but now looking at it, it’s not it’s not too bad. Like not too bad so far. It’s just all this and luckily it’s flat right over here. I’m not shoot for this, guys. I’m not made for this. The outdoors. No, I lied. The outdoors can’t handle me. But I can’t handle this. This is too much. Not in the heat. It’s humid. I’m already sweating. I’m sticky right now. Look. And it’s only like day one. This is our first full day here. But I’m enjoying it so far. Mother of God. Oh no. Oh, mother of God. And right when I said that, a whole bunch of stairs just going up, I did see people with walking sticks coming down. We just have to get over this this incline. The decline will be easy. Incline’s hardest part. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I’m cooked. I’m so tired. So many stairs. On the bright side, we made it. Oh, shoot. We made it to the to the castle. Oh my gosh, that was a journey, guys. There it is right behind me. I want to try going inside today. The castle. Check it out. I got some good pics, though, which is good. Uh, I’m out of breath. Just sit here for a second. Enjoy the breeze. We’re going to go in there just a little bit. So Sick. So, this is a the capsule when it was first built. A giant diarama of it when it was still in use as well. and go over here. That’s what it is today. Oh, it’s windy over here. After touring the exhibits, going up in the observation room. This was awesome. I’m talking very quiet right now cuz it’s super quiet in here. I wasn’t able to record the exhibits. unfortunately because they didn’t want to have it recorded like no photography or anything. But the views up here fire very nice views. I was like a samurai lord for like a good 10 20 minutes just living life. And if you played Assassin’s Creed Shadows, this castle’s in it. This guy played it. Oh, he played it and he said it was awesome. We’re going to see where else we go tonight. I’m trying to hit up the Pokemon Center. So, I’m trying to hit up every Pokemon center there is in Japan as much as we can. Obviously, we can’t get through everything because we have an itinerary, but today’s like more of a more of like a chill day, especially after what we went through today to get up on this all the way to the top of the castle. So, at least the the decline won’t be as bad. So, it is pretty windy out, so we’re enjoying the breeze right now. Can’t hear it, but it’s outside. So, it’s still not hitting that I’m actually in Japan, which is crazy. Can you please explain what you put me on? We’re on the really, really, really famous Wakayyama Electric Railway. Um, they have different trains and we got lucky and caught the Ichigo Dencha, which is a strawberry train. Uh, they also have a plum one. So, strawberry and plum, I guess, it’s also what Wakayama is known for, two fruits. And then they also have like a museum train, which I don’t know if it’s running or not today, but it’s only it’s not a long train ride. I think it’s only like 13 km, but at the end there’s a there’s like a station with the station master being a cat or like the descendant of like the original’s cat station master, which is really cool. And it’s also a really really cool way to explore Japan’s countryside. And it’s cute. The seats are strawberries. On this train, you’re able to get a stamp, which is what Kevin’s about to do right now. You just put the paper in that that little placeholder right there. Tada. Don’t look like that. I got to push one. Yeah, we both got one right here. Super aesthetic. This is Instagram right here. Right there. And we just got off the strawberry train. Everyone’s over here. Yeah, this guy wanted to get on. Apparently, there’s a lot of other type of trains. So, going through we we saw a Chuggington train. We saw a gold train. Those are pretty cool. Now, this one apparently comes only every other hour. Looks cool. I mean, it’s pretty cool concept. There’s only two cars station. It’s just this one and then one farther over there. We’re here at the last stop. Pretty cool ride. [Music] This is master. This is the station master. This is Tama. His name is Tama. We have Tama the second now or the third, I think. Yes, it’s a quite literally a cat. Let’s go see the station master. And you can you can sign it. And apparently you can see him. He’s here today. There’s the super station master. And there’s the other super station master. He’s currently sleeping right now. We have the coins here. I’m actually going to get one. So, I’m going to get this one with the with the key on it. Is that right at the bottom over here? [Music] So, I got the little keychain that comes with it as well. There’s four different ones. So, I got the Got Tama one. The key. I think Kevin got the Tama one. Trying to figure out how to like put it inside the keychain cuz it was a budget key. This is the front of the station though. Bunch of cats everywhere. The Grand Station master or the super station master. Oh, he did it just like that. That’s supposed to look like. All right. All right, while we wait for the next train, Kevin, what did we get? I got a coffee float with ice cream. Looks really good. And it’s a tom of the cat with almond ears. They They made the ice cream as a cat. Oo, that’s strong. That’s good. I think if you mix in the coffee, it’ll be even better. I got the green tea float cuz they didn’t have any more of the green tea avocado that I wanted. They sold out of it. So, we’re gonna try it right now. All right. [Music] That is That is That’s pretty good. That’s really good. This is actually my first time having Japanese matcha. Oh, like straight from Japan. That This is good. It’s good. Although the ice cream is melting really fast because it’s super hot. Cheers. Cheers. Slowly help me. I’m melting. I don’t want the chug. This is the Chuckington train I was talking about earlier. What is this? We manifested this. This was my fault. My bad. Cuz it passed by and I I was like I wanted to get on it. We’ll have to take the next cuz there’s no food or drink. Never mind. We’re not going on this one. So that’s a victory. Unless we chug it within by the time the train leaves. We’re not going to have time. I’m going to get constipated. Actually, no, we do have time cuz they still have to clean the train. So we are going into the Chugington train. He brought me into a child children’s nursery. There’s just trains everywhere. everywhere. [Music] Ladies and gentlemen, we made it back to Osaka after about an hour and a half. I took a fat nap in the train. But we’re here for one thing and one thing only. Food. Okay, two things. No, I lied. Three things. We’re here for three things. food was one of them. We’re going to go to the second one right now and then we have one more after that. Luckily, they’re both in the same area and there is a lot of people here. I didn’t realize it. The whole trip was based around this idea and this idea alone. This is all I wanted besides the other thing that we’re going to go to. But this is the first one, the main one. Before we go to our first stop, my first roll of the truck. How about this one? [Music] Here we go. You got it. You got the one. Yes, I did. This is sick. Very nice. All right, for us to go to our destination, we need to go to the 13th floor. So, we might never make it up to the 13th floor. After that floor, I don’t know. I don’t know. That was only the fifth floor. We got to go up to the 13th. We’re barely going up on six right now. All right, we’re making it to we’re making it to the 13th floor after uh after 34 minutes after a long journey. This is the moment. This is the reason why I came to Japan. The only reason why I came to Japan that No, I’m just kidding. That Phoenix, right, guys? This is what I came here for. The only reason why I came to Japan for Pokemon. Pokemon. Just right across from the Pokemon store is the Nintendo store. Very fitted. I’m going to check out the Pokemon store first. [Music] Guys, this is a dream come true. Look at all the all the sleeves for your Pokemon. Where’s your wristband? I got Tepe. Tepic was my starter in that generation. I need something Gengar. Yeah, I need I need Gengar. And they have so much Gengar. Oh, what is this? Oh, look at that giant Kon. Holy Got Espeon stuffies. Venom. Oh my. This is insane. I’m It’s like I’m in heaven right now, dude. I have TCGs right here where you can play Pokemon the card game. My question is, where are the packs? Pokemon. And they have Pokemon. They have Pokemon Goshap so much. Where are the packs? I’m not seeing any packs. Okay, I found the packs. But you got to ask in front of the counter when you buy stuff. So, I’m going to We’ll do that later. But for now, we’re just going to look around the Pokemon Center. I just spent like 50 bucks in the Pokemon store. No, it was like 5,000. So, it’s only like 35. 35. Yeah. Yeah. 35. My bad. My bad. I don’t know how to math yet. But we’ll do a merch haul in a little bit when we get back to the hotel room. But for now, we’re going to go to the Nintendo store, which is literally right across the right across. Oh, we’re going to Universal Studio right now. I’m so down. [Music] This place is huge. All right, let’s see what we get. [Music] Oh, what? This one? I will literally take anything, but I specifically want the gray one. I got the red one. Oh, I got the A and B button. How do I open it? Oh, excuse. Wait, it’s like tape up. They taped it up. Oh, yeah. They t Oh my gosh. Come on. Come on. I think that’s good enough, is it? Right. No, it’s not. It’s stuck. [Music] There we go. We got the A and B button. Look at that. And it’s the red one. We got out the Nintendo store. I got my little fidget toy now. I got shapon. They didn’t have any Switch 2, which I’m kind of upset cuz I kind of wanted to buy one. They didn’t have a lot of Pokemon packs at the Pokemon Center. Only had like uh I think the Japanese versions of like Twilight Masquerade, uh Shroud of Fable, I’m trying to remember. And Temporal Forces. They didn’t have that much. So, we’re going to try the one in Tokyo or Kyoto. Whichever one is the next one, but I got my little gasha. So, that one’s over with. They got one one. They also have Gryffindor and like the charms and everything. Wait, how much this one? Look, the little the Jurassic World stone. It’s only 400 yen. I don’t have 400 yen. Only 400 yen. I’m doing it. I want Dolores. That’s the one I want. Where do I put it? You turn the knob. Dolores. Oh, what do these guys get? Wait a minute. I think we got a T-Rex. They always look up so good for some reason. Release the tape. [Music] This one. Oh, okay. Then we got the T-Rex. Yes. A little T-Rex. [Music] That one. That one this one like that. Ah, okay. I think we got the T-Rex. Yes. Little T-Rex. [Music] There’s more gotcha as we leave as we’re attempting to leave the mall. There’s a there’s San Rio ones right there. Curious George. I mean, I got some of my stuff. Somebody get a few gifts for some other people. What the dashon ramen? They got they got everything here in Japan. Low key. I want to move here. I can’t. I can’t. They look they have a Mario Kart gotcha. It’s only 100 [Music] Mario Kart. They have like little Kirby’s right here. This isn’t even Gosh. This is just a claw machine. My bad. That’s all me misinformation. All right. Now, this is our attempt to leave the mall after staying in the Pokemon Center for how long? And the Nintendo store. But I didn’t even get anything because they didn’t even buy the Switch 2. They only had they had the first Switch and I think the Switch OLED. That’s what it looked like. And they were only selling the accessories for the Switch Switch, too. They weren’t selling the actual console. I think we’re going to get some food, right? We’re getting food. Yes. First, we’re currently in line to eat a restaurant. What is this place? Kiokatu. [Music] I I saw it on the way here. I wanted to eat it. So, we’re eating it in the mall. I’m not too sure if I’m allowed to record in there. So, I’ll give you guys an update after. But, in the meantime, I’m going to do a little merch haul. So, by the time this is out already, um I already gave these gifts, but I got something for my brother. One of his favorite Pokemon is Ditto. So, I got him this one. And then I also got him. Where is it? I got him these two stickers. He’s going to see it by the time this video comes out. This is like alltime favorite Pokemon, Lucario on this one. And then I got him this Metapod. I don’t know why he loves Metapod. So, these are for him. And then I didn’t get that much for myself, but my favorite Pokemon is Gengar. So, I got him a little keychain. And then we also got a giant sticker of Gengar. I have I have bought a binder because I am trying to collect every single Gengar Pokemon card in existence. It’s going to be a tough challenge, but very expensive, too. So, as you can see, I’m very obsessed with Pokémon. And like I said, I don’t know if I’m allowed to record in the restaurant, so I’ll be right back with an update. So good. Oh my gosh. 10 out of 10. Yeah. Uh it’s a very popular a long wait, but we only waited what, like 5 minutes? Like 5 10 minutes. Yeah. Like dinner at like 7:30, so that was really really good. Like right after a must eat in Japan. Right after I filmed the merch haul. Oh my gosh, there’s a camera. Right after I filmed the merch haul, we immediately got seated and from then on there, we just started cooking. It’s kind of like um a Korean barbecue, per se, where but it’s not a grill. It’s like a little like stove pot. Uh I’ll put a picture of what we ate right here. And you cook the little cutlets on the stove pot. And because there’s kind of like thin sliced in a way, it cooks very fast. I’m pretty sure in How tender was the meat? It was so It’s tender. Very soft. Honestly, when I eat there again, 100%. Except maybe because I Oh, we’re in a rush. I accidentally ate a whole swab of wasabi cuz I had salad and I didn’t see the wasabi and I accidentally ate it. Now my stomach kind of hurts. Besides the point, 10 out of 10. Japan food has not missed yet. I only say yet cuz I know there’s a little bit of bad spots. I’m very excited for the rest of this trip on the food. I don’t know what else we’re going to do today. I think we’re going to go shopping right now. It’s been fun. We’re having a lot of fun. This is another reason why I’m here. Gotcha pond. So many. Gotacha pod. Gotacha pon. Gotacha pon for OG. I think I’ll take any The anticipation is killing. Why did it take so long? I got the I got this one. I’ll take it. I’ll drink it. This one. Is that the one you wanted? No, I wanted the OG. Uh, this one’s nice. I like it. Don’t worry, it’s just two guys in a Gosha punch store. The Sanrio. The San Rio. There’s Disney on that side. We got Thomas the Tank. Thomas the Tank Engine is crazy work. Got a bunch of foods. Oh, this is like a Disney foods. Yo, we need a food. It’s so cool. Cheerious George. And the food as well. Just when I thought it was over, there’s a no whole other section of Oh my gosh. This thing spans for miles, dude. Where we at here? We got Billy Joel, yeah, it’s like all the musicians and everything. If there’s a weekend one, are you getting it? I’m getting it. Yep. They got Aerosmith. Pretty sure they don’t have the weekend. You say that 100%. You got to get the Milo. This is my childhood right here. How much is it? Three. Three. Oh, I honestly don’t care which one I get. I’ll take anything. We got We got this one. Number two. I’ll take it. This is my childhood right here. All right. I don’t know how we made it, but we’re at round one. Watch me achieve great in this chat. Please. Oh, that’s not enough. Oh, first try. No. Oh, I tried like three times. I lied. I tried like six different times. I didn’t get close. I just wanted the Baymax. If they have it at Tokyo Disney, I’m going to be pissed, bro. They spent all that money just to not get it. Unbelievable. Oh. Oh, you almost This is the one right here. Come on. Oh, all right. Cuz I kind of felt bad. I’m leaving this out. I’m going to try to get the Gengar here. I think I just totally take the whole box upstairs. All right, here we go. This one looks harder to get. You think that’s good or I think that’s good. I think that’s good. Please, please, please wait. It’s in. Oh, it’s in. Oh, if you could get it through that loop, it’s it’s it’s GG’s low key. I can probably I think I got this. I think I got this. Three tries in total. That’s three. So, that’s too far. Look from this side. Look. I think that’s good right there. I think that’s good. Yeah, that’s good. That’s the one. This is a money shot. Money shot. Oh, it’s not gonna go in the tag though. Okay, third time’s the charm. Last one. Last one. It’s not a good angle, but I don’t think that’s a fail. We’re going to try one more. We’re going to try one more. Third time’s a charm right here. [Music] Come on. Big money. Big money. Big money. [Applause] I give up. I give up. All right, we’re back at the scene of the crime. I’m going try it again. I think this is good. This is the money shot. Money shot. [Music] No, he’s just laying there. I have a position for this claw and try to hook on that tag. Let’s see. Let’s see. Oh, it missed. It missed. It missed. Does it move like something? Oh my. All right, let’s try. One more. Last one. Last one. Last one. One more. I almost got it right there. It’s legit right there. Should I go for the tag or should I just go for it? I’m just go for it. GG’s. This one has a chance. The ear is is like falling out. I think you got this. You got this. Right here. [Music] It’s It’s lined up. Oh, no. I know. Never mind. Oh, no. Never mind. No chance. No chance. So, we gave up on the claw machines and we decided to go to the batting cages to release our anger from facing defeat. Look at Kevin. Look at him go. [Music] All right, ladies and gentlemen, that was the first day um done unexpectedly stayed until like 1:00 in the morning. I I didn’t record it, but we were doing karaoke after cooling down from batting cages and gota pan lot of gacha pan. But we’ll see you guys tomorrow. I think it’s our checkout day for shaka. I forgot what city we were in. Should have checkout day tomorrow. And we also are going to Kyoto tomorrow. So, we’ll see you guys there hopefully in the next. Depends when this comes out. Who knows? Okay. Bye. [Music]

SURPISE!! I made it to Japan! This was probably the most spontaneous trip I’ve ever done and I’m glad it was Japan. This is my very first time traveling by myself and going to Japan. I landed in Osaka and spent a day there along with my friend Kevin who was also in the Epic Florida Trip series. Very excited to take you guys on this journey. Enjoy my Japan trip!