Congrats on good first trip, glad you were able to make it out if even for a short time to try out the new stuff. I know it drives me crazy to have new stuff just sitting waiting. I'm lucky enough to have a pond at my place, so they normally make a short trip there as soon as I get them.
Unsolicited advice. Leave a net in the boat, even if it's just a cheap one. The pain of breaking a rod tip is real. I admit I don't use a net all that often but it's always on the boat. Most of the time I'm catching smaller fish, and just grab the line to lift them in the boat. I do think most JDM rods are able to handle more than it looks like they should, I watched some video's of AJI fishing from piers in Japan and the people are slinging them up from the water, I don't know how big those fish are though.
I as almost sick when I heard the tip snap on my slow taper special. Ironically I broke the tip taking it out of the protective case I was using. I had a double case that you could leave the rod rigged up in, the jig snagged on something while I was taking it out, it happened so quick I'm not even sure what happened exactly I just heard a snap and felt like I got punched in the stomach.
I now carry all my JDM rods inside a hard tube in the cloth package they come in. The Abu Garcia Carabus rods came in a hard tube, the diameter of a fly rod tube, for the last 2 rods I bought the 5'11 Banshee and the 5'8 Lunakia I bought the White river fly rod tubes WR-48C, it's for a 9' 3piece fly rod but the rods fit just fine. The other tubes I use are the Plano rod tubes they have a larger diameter and you can fit 2 rods in them with no problem. I just wait till I'm on the water to set the rods up for fishing.
Welcome to the Rabbit hole