one week in december

22 Dec, 2025

i.
recently, i’ve started sleeping with the lights off again. life has been so hectic, and reporting to the office everyday has been exhausting; i keep passing out in bed reading something or other, and they end up staying on. (i try not to read in the dark — i feel much more mortal than i did as a teen, and i’m constantly reminded that my eyes are essential to my profession.) but i noticed i wasn’t feeling as restful lately, so i’ve been reading downstairs instead. now, i don’t even turn the lights on when i grab my pjs to wash up. i stumble into my bed frame by feeling around blindly. this has worked out pretty well, so i’ve been sleeping a lot more soundly this week.

ii.
i’m flying out to tokyo tomorrow! to be very honest, it’s been causing me a lot of stress. family trips are, well, everyone knows what they can be like. i wouldn’t say i’m afraid of flying necessarily— but that it does feel like taking a risk. i am generally fine with those if i think the results could be worthwhile, but i’ve never liked the cold, and we haven’t got much planned. dad always throws a tantrum if i’m not a perfect navigator-slash-chaperone; my way of dealing with him lately has boiled down to avoidance. it sucks not to feel eager, though, so i’ve been thinking about what i do want to do when we get there. hopefully packing won’t be as big an ordeal as i’m anticipating.

iii.
packing was harder than i thought. i would say i finished on our way to the airport. midway through the flight, our attendants hosted a little trivia game for free pouches with their company logo tacked on them. we’re not the type to participate in that sort of stuff, but i find it nice how everyone murmured the answers whether they raised their hands or not. a little reminder that when questions are asked, people are compelled to answer. also, i realized i might really like kids. getting older has made their loudness cute again. i’m delighted for the ones that laugh and squeal, because they’re clearly having fun; i’m sympathetic towards the ones that cry, knowing how much i hated having my ears pop when i was younger.

iv.
had lunch at a really cozy ramen place in ginza today. we saw it in passing and decided why not? the inside looked like a painting out of my dreams. dimly-lit with a bar and two wooden tables and regulars bumping shoulders with the older staff. i ordered shio ramen and they sent out a monster of a bowl (as delicious as it was sizeable) for 900 yen. when we stepped out into the cold, a line had formed halfway around the block. small miracles. we headed out for odaiba with full bellies where, for the first time in my life, i lost my IC card. (almost definitely while i was taking photos of the gigantic gundam jetting steam outside of diver city LOL) i won’t lie, i was catastrophizing until it was time to watch the fireworks over tokyo’s rainbow bridge. on the way back to our hotel, my mom told me to quit brooding over it — her grandma used to tell her: lost money is gained luck.

v.
today some of my favorite passengers on the metro included: a baby poking at their dad’s face while he made silly faces, a couple who couldn’t stop making each other laugh, and an older lady in a yellow coat who looked like one of my gradeschool teachers. i never get tired of shibuya, despite having been more than a handful of times. i managed to go to a pop-up shop i found out was happening only by chance on its last day open. as foretold, i felt ultra lucky. while we were in the area, i insisted we go to pray at the meiji shrine proper. the grounds are unbelievably well-kept, the air is violently fresh, and nothing will ever beat the sight of a torii gate when you want to feel small and need to be humbled. every time i see one, even in a picture, i think about how you’re supposed to walk along the sides— god takes the middle.

vi.
today is souvenir day! we are spending the afternoon at tokyo skytree, which means getting to go to the pokémon center. i will, in all honesty, never tire of visiting. nothing makes me happier than seeing proof that every pokémon is somebody’s favorite. (while i was there i confirmed that i’m partial to eevee and greninja. i also maintain that if any fictional world could subsume our own, i would choose pokémon everytime.) once we were done i got dad to agree to eat at a small local restaurant next to our hotel for dinner and their ramen was, unsurprisingly, delicious. how could it not be? it was the type of place where the boilers are always running, and everything is run by a single guy behind the counter wearing a towel for a headband looking like he’s set out to challenge the god of pork bone broth themself.

vii.
am flying back to manila today. for all i didn’t want to go on this trip, the thought of returning to work at my desk tomorrow instead of getting another twenty thousand steps in hurts. i am, however, very grateful for the fact that 1) i will have my ritual serving of takoyaki before leaving narita 2) our local airport now has e-gates for immigration, as i would like to collapse into my bed as soon as humanly possible and 3) life permit, i will see friends this weekend!