(All writing and art by Fitzcarl AJ Reid)

In 1998 I got the opportunity to travel to South Korea to teach English. Whenever I had to make a “visa run” I went to Japan. That’s what most “expat” teachers did. I went on many adventures in Kobe, Osaka, Himeji, Nara, and all over Kansai and other parts of the country. On one of my trips I tried to document my time in the form of a manga-style notebook guide in the fashion of Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. When you don’t have a camera, but you want to remember your time in an amazing city, you draw. That’s what I did on this particular trip in December of 2003. The information is twelve years out of date. Some of the freebies I wrote about may no longer exist. But I hope my little manga is an invite to you to explore amazing Tokyo for yourself one day.

 

On this sojourn, I traveled with my berimbau and pandeiro— two of the musical instruments of an Angolero, a practitioner of Capoeira Angola, an Afro-Brazilian dance-like martial art (I had studied with Mestre Joao Grande in New York City).

When I arrived at the Narita Airport a wonderful young lady asked me if I had a place to stay. She invited me to come and stay at her communal home where she lived with other expats. I stayed the night and then set out on my walk about.

 

 

I made the most of my budget over the three month stint in many creative ways.

 

More… next time.