Trip Reports  By Decrim/Alien Zappyhands

Trip Reports 

By Decrim/Alien Zappyhands

On August 1, my partner died after battling cancer that was diagnosed a month before my mom died in March 2024. We had a small impromptu wake at the house with his son and his Gen Z friends that showed up. Life had changed, and my duty as caregiver was abruptly over with a brand new sense of freedom/uncertainty. A video popped up in my feed about the Telluride Mushroom Festival, and on the spot I decided that I would have to make a journey over the Misty Mountains to the Land of Decriminalized Colorado.

TelluRide of Passage, A Mushroom Festival in Decriminalized Colorado

The journey began with a Pacific Northwest Bitcoiners meetup in Cle Elum, a small town nestled along I-90 in the Eastern Cascades where the conifer forest turns more sparse into the Central Washington valley. I found the meetup on Orange Pill app organized by Bitcoiners out of Spokane, and had coordinated to meet with Elder Warriors, a couple championing for eldercare. Walking into the Elk & Mule Brewery, I found two tables with orange balloons, hugs and introductions ensued, and lo and behold there sits Vijay at the table! It’s always such a trip meeting Bitcoiners IRL. I bought a signed copy of The Bullish Case for Bitcoin on chain, won Bitcoin trivia and received a PNWBTC t-shirt that I promised to represent on my journey. I left Cle Elum and drove alongside the Columbia River for several hours in the night-time desert air and marveled at the hydropower being generated on the dam.
The next morning found me waking up in a hotel in Kennewick, where I began to drive through the golden fields of rolling hills along the Snake River.

I stopped to take a photo of an old barn and listened to the dry hissing of the wheat kernels in the warm wind. Once I arrived at Palouse Falls, I instantly felt the power and understood why it had been gathering grounds for generations, and practiced a short set of qi gong to receive this energy.

I set out by early afternoon, driving by lakes with leisure takers soaking in a late summer sun, crossed over to Lewiston from Clarkston, and wound my way down the spine of Idaho. Resting overnight outside of Boise, the next morning I stopped at Twin Falls to take in another beautiful power spot. Driving southeast in an ancient lakebed, the terrains holding secrets of perhaps older shores, the rain clouds coming down desert mountains in God’s Country.
The sprawl of Salt Lake City evening traffic hit me, so I stopped to get some Thai curry and found a Bitcoin ATM at a head shop but it was only a one-way machine and didn’t allow me to withdraw local fiat paper cash. Heading south for a few more hours, ominous thunderclouds started rolling down the darkening hills. I pulled into a one gas station motel and got a room for the night to rest.

A rainbow greeted me at the Colorado border after driving through desert canyons, taking snapshots of a gazillion rock formations with tourists in Arches National Park, tagging a Psilocybin Citadel sticker in the Moab phone booth, and finally turning up into the San Juan mountains. I drove the last few hours through narrow, dark, mountain single lane roads and finally reached the hostel I had booked at my last stop.
As I was having breakfast in the common room the next morning, a beautiful young woman came up to me looking for a ride into town. We quickly became festival buddies, exchanging life stories on our daily 15 minute drive. She was a fourth year medical student jaded by the system and starting to network with facilitators and therapists to pursue a psychedelic psychiatric practice. She directed me to CarHenge, the free public parking lot already full of mushroom hunters with baskets going out on forays. We walked several blocks of this picturesque ski resort town and began to explore the 44th Annual Telluride Mushroom Festival.

While waiting to get my festival bracelet, I broke into my uncomfortable zone and started making small talk with those around me. I asked some Denver homies about the psychedelic scene and met some people out of the Sonoran Desert that were DNA sequencing and cross-referencing new species of desert mushrooms. I attended events that I normally wouldn’t experience including an alchemical sound bath with reishi tinctures ending the day with an African drum ‘n dance.
The Telluride Mushroom Festival is full of old hippies and new, world renowned mycologists gather annually to share knowledge and commune. The 44th annual reunion was kicked off by Art Goodtimes in an opening ceremony, and vendors displayed their products and merch in outdoor tents while speakers and forums are presented in a packed Sheridan Opera House. Kathleen Harrison, ethnobotanist, presented her work with the Mazatecs followed by a showing of film produced by her daughter with Terence, Klea McKenna. I was lucky to speak with Chilean Giuliana Furci, founder of the Fungi Foundation, and there was a showing of a NatGeo documentary with Merlin Sheldrake. A panel from Do Good Ranch shared their experience working with psychedelic therapy for first responders, veterans, and athletes with TBI in decriminalized Colorado group settings. I also participated in a mycogourd circle with a Native elder that helped us form heart connections. Many more fantastic talks, workshops, and socials were organized that ended with a Fungi Parade.
I dropped off my festival buddy with another volunteer as they were both heading southeast, and I headed back up majestic Colorado river valleys. The West is full of terrains that look alien and majestic and while listening to pioneer podcasts, I wound myself home to the Pacific Northwest. A good road trip is a quintessential American experience and I hope plebs can create their own TellURide of Passage to share.

Bitcoin Tokyo and Lightning Marche, An Excellent Trip to Japan

As soon as I returned back to the Pacific Northwest, I started to execute my plan for Japan. Bitcoin Tokyo was coming up and I had asked my college roomie if she wanted to tag along for research purposes. I wanted to test out my Bitcoin maxi skills to the max, so I took a leap of faith and sent some Satoshis to alternativeairlines.com and booked two tickets to Haneda airport. I booked all of our stays with hotels.com gift cards purchased on the Fold app to earn Sats back. Our first stay in Shibuya was at the Tobu Hotel, a block away from the Parco building where Bitcoin Tokyo was taking place. The rest of our bookings were standard hotels and all check-ins went smoothly without a hitch.
After arriving in a still hot and humid Haneda airport and getting through immigration and customs, we found an ATM at International arrivals and withdrew ¥50,000 ($386.19) fiat paper cash as backup. We each picked up a pocket wifi ordered online to stay connected to this ever digital world, then stopped by my beloved 7-Eleven for some onigiri rice triangles 🍙, snacks and drinks. I paid using my chipped Fold debit card which notified me immediately on the app of my 28 sats back and the transaction converted to dollars at $3.88. Along with Lawson and Family Mart, “conbini” or convenience stores would become our staple for on the go meals over the next ten days of our trip.
We next found the Keikyu Tourist Info Center within Terminal 3 and purchased two PASMO cards and loaded ¥2,000 for starters. PASMO cards can be used on trains, buses, vending machines, and convenience stores and reloaded at train stations and machines inside conbinis. We asked for directions in half broken Japanese for the platform that would take us towards Shibuya, and rode the Keikyu Airport Line with a transfer at Shinagawa station to the green Yamanote line that loops around Tokyo.

Finding ourselves out of the Shibuya train station towing our luggage, we crossed the Shibuya scramble and loaded up Google Maps and checked in to Tobu Hotel with one more stop by Family Mart.
The next morning while getting ready for the conference, a treasure map around Bitcoin Tokyo popped up on my feed of hidden Satoshis around Shibuya. I downloaded the Takara game, went outside to the city waking up, and walked towards the nearest X marked by a McDonald’s. I followed the virtual map and picked up 10,000 sats sponsored by Wallet of Satoshi, went to another spot nearby a bus stop and grabbed 10,000 more sats which amounted to about $6. I would later use these Sats at the Lightning Marché to purchase handmade goods.

Picking up our complimentary Bitcoin water and fan after registration, the elevators greeted us with catch phrases such as “Number go up” and “There is no second best” and carried us to the Dragon Gate Hall entrance on the top floor. Bitcoin Tokyo 2024 was already in session with an English and Japanese track going on simultaneously all day Saturday. I chose to challenge myself to get familiar with Bitcoin in Japanese and listened to professionals, policy makers, and professors speak to the history and current developments of Bitcoin in Japan.  As I headed to the English track, I ran into my homegirl on X from Hawaii and fangirled over Adam Back and Samson Mow. In the evening, The Creation of Bitcoin of Tokyo was announced by Teruko Negiri, one of the wonderful organizers and the Japanese translator of the Bitcoin Standard.

Arriving a little early for check-in at our next hotel, The Knot, a five minute walk from Yokohama train station, we checked our luggage at the front desk and set out to explore the nearby shops and department stores. With the exchange rate especially in favor of a strong dollar, we would test our shopping urges by browsing each floor starting with the Aeon supermarket. The quality of food available for so much cheaper made it very apparent how ridiculous inflation had deteriorated food Stateside. We both had separate dinner plans with friends, so I headed to an Okinawan restaurant for a second night with the base homies. The next day we checked out Minato Mirai and discovered the Nissan museum, bought sweets at the Anpanman bakery, and then had dinner at my favorite cutlet restaurant in the underground food district inside Yokohama Station.
We moved next to Yokosuka, my hometown where I was raised as a child on an American Navy base. On our walk from the train station, we noticed a bar with a tagline blockchain & beer but we went back later, and the owners were no longer accepting Bitcoin. Our hotel was a block away from the 7-Eleven I worked as a teenager, and we had a nice penthouse business suite that overlooked the city and a view of Tokyo Bay and Monkey Island on the other side.
We dropped off our luggage to walk around the Honch in front of the base, full of bars and embroidered souvenirs for sailors, and went to the first western style mall that opened when I was a senior in high school in 1991.

The next day, we were escorted on base by one of my friends and took a brief tour of the citadel that was my world growing up. We left the base to go have some sushi and on Friday met up with my family for lunch before heading to our final destination.
Our last stop was a hot springs resort in Hakone, nestled in the foothills of Mt. Fuji. Being part of the Tokaido, an important land route connecting Edo to Kyoto, there are inns still operating older than the United States. As we arrived in Odawara, I looked up the various transportation options available on Google and downloaded the Go Taxi app that works like Uber. We waited about 10 minutes for the cab to arrive and were transported up a slightly congested two lane mountain road.

I had booked two nights at the historic Fujiya Hotel at Miyanoshita for the unique architecture, not knowing it was a 5-star experience because the price per night was equivalent to a Best Western in Idaho. We were welcomed with a full bellhop service and greeted by a friendly front desk manager, checked in smoothly, and whisked up to an elegant twin room in the newest Forest Wing added in the 1960s.

Making our homage to the local deities in a small Shinto shrine protecting the region, we walked downhill a few blocks to stock up at Lawsons and hit up the onsen baths on the top floor that overlooks the beautiful mountain valley. The next day we took a packed bus up to MotoHakone on the south shores of Lake Ashinoko and visited the famous torii gate ⛩️ at Hakone Shrine and purchased gifts and amulets.
Sunday arrived, and we checked out of Fujiya Hotel and took another taxi back to the train station, listening to the cab driver talk about politics and the problem of overtourism while driving by Odawara Castle. We were due to meet my cousin at Fujisawa station so that I could treat her 10 yr old son to 31 flavors at Baskin Robbins just like my mom used to get ice cream for us on base. We had one more night booked at a hotel at Haneda train station so we could take our time browsing through the gift shops and stuffing our luggage full. Dropping off the pocket wifi at a postbox, we checked into our flights and flew back over the Pacific. It was indeed a most excellent trip back to my motherland and insightful research into an ever changing technologically connected digital world.

Upon returning to an empty home in the Pacific Northwest, I realized that I did not want to live alone in the house I had inherited from my mother. I decided to go to a community Halloween function and met an amazing artist who is now my housemate helping to grow the Psitadel. Reflecting back on how much I feared changes, stepping out and traveling has given me new insights and perspectives that I wouldn’t have gained being stuck in my head. Life keeps flowing and I hope to be able to submit many more trip reports to the Stackchain.

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Note from Stackchain Magazine: No Bitcoin (or inferior monies) were exchanged for this article. This article was written by Decrim, who champions a Bitcoin-fueled economy intertwined with psychedelic mushrooms, aiming to empower growers, educators, healers, creators, and communities through innovative financial tools. You can find Decrim on X @DecrimNat and on Nostr decrimnat@nostrplebs.com. If you’d like to send Decrim some 丰 for the article you can do so via LNURL warmpuma3@primal.net