Member-only story
I Took a One-Way Flight to Tokyo and Changed My Life Forever
I had no return ticket. No job lined up. No mapped-out itinerary.
Just a bicycle, a few thousand dollars, and a stubborn belief that I could figure it out.
Most people plan for years before taking a leap like this.
Not me.
I just jumped.
When my plane landed at Narita Airport, I felt like a time traveler stepping into a futuristic, cyberpunk world — the neon chaos, the quiet alleyways, the sensory overload of Tokyo, a city that never stops moving.
I pedaled through streets I couldn’t read, past vending machines that sold everything from hot coffee to used underwear. I didn’t speak the language. I didn’t know the customs.
I had no idea where I’d sleep that night.
But that was the point.
I had escaped.
Not just from Canada. Not just from my old job. From predictability. From the slow crawl of a life I didn’t want. From the fear that if I stayed put, I’d wake up one day and realize I had never actually lived.
For weeks, I cycled with no real destination. Through cities and countryside. To Mt. Fuji and past temples older than the country I…
