Japan!

March 17-26, 2024

James and I were lucky enough to visit Japan last month. It was my first time in Japan—first time in Asia, actually—and James’s second. We went to Tokyo and spent most of our time there, taking a day trip to Enoshima and spending a day and a half/one night in Kyoto. It was the trip of a lifetime and I feel so lucky to have experienced it. Tokyo is such an amazing city and Japan such a beautiful country. But what stood out the most to me were the people. Everyone I encountered or met while I was there was so kind.

My friend Joe has lived in Tokyo for a few years and has been asking every few months or so since he moved there when we’re going to visit him. We originally wanted to include some traveling abroad into our nomadic year but it proved to require too much planning and too many unknowns. So after months of pushing it off, we finally booked our tickets to pay Joe a visit. Is two months after moving across the country too soon to plan an international trip? Perhaps. But it’s arguably easier than planning a trip while you’re living out of a car. We left on St. Patrick’s Day (after ending our dry January/February/March early and celebrating the day before) and stayed until March 26.

I can’t stress enough how amazing it is to have such a great friend who knows the city and language well. Joe was our tour guide and he created an absolutely flawless travel itinerary, translated everything to English for us, helped us figure out the public transportation, and was overall the absolute best Tokyo tour guide we could have possibly asked for. We basically just had to book the tickets. I don’t know how we could have done this trip without him. I’m amazed at how easily he switches from English to Japanese and just thinking about how much planning he did to craft an itinerary that fit our interests and dietary needs makes me emotional. He’s the type of friend that you should do everything in your power to keep around. Especially if they live on the other side of the world.

We hadn’t seen Joe since 2022 while we were on the road and visiting Nashville. He came back from Japan for a visit and we adjusted our road trip so we could make it there to see him. His family hosted us in their beautiful home and welcomed us like we were part of their own family. More on that in a future blog post, someday. Even though a trip to Japan is not cheap, it was worth every penny to see him. Anyway, enough of the sappiness, we don’t want his ego to get too big now. ;) 

Our trip started out a bit rocky—we arrived late on Monday the 18th after a 5-hour delay and an 11-hour flight with no in-flight entertainment. 🙃 Delta bribed us with lots of food and 3,000 bonus miles each. Joe had to cancel our dinner reservations as we sat in our economy seats and got minimal sleep. But we pushed through and arrived to a warm welcome from Joe, who took us out for sushi right away.

My first impressions of Tokyo were that it was extremely clean, had amazing public transportation, had taller, boxier cars than we were used to, and it felt safe. I felt comfortable walking alone at night as a woman, something I haven’t been able to say confidently in any other city I’ve ever been to, especially in the US. It almost felt utopian. Every piece of architecture and interior design is engineered so creatively and efficiently. Japan of course has flaws, just like any other country, but on the surface it seemed like a perfect place. At the very least, it’s a wonderful place to visit. 

On Tuesday, Joe had to work, so James and I were on our own in Tokyo, “the world’s most wonderful city,” according to Joe’s Google Doc itinerary. He masterfully planned the most touristy parts for while he was at work, a pro tip that I’m going to have to use when people visit Seattle. We took a sardine-packed train to the Tsukiji Fish Market, which was like Pike Place on steroids, and tried lots of street food. We had tamagoyaki (a Japanese rolled omelette) with eel, daifuku (mochi with strawberries), fish cakes, chai, and James tried a croquette with spicy roe. I like to lead with food when I travel, so this was a great first stop. It got more and more crowded as the morning went on and it was a bit of a challenge to find foods for a restrictive diet. I’m pescatarian so fish is okay, but a lot of things also have meat in them, and we would stand in a line and not know that until we got closer to the front and then have to leave the line to find something else. Overall, amazing experience though! My favorite was probably the fish cake. And if I were to do it over again, I’d do a little more research on the street foods ahead of time so I knew what had meat and what did not.

After the fish market, we explored the Toyosu neighborhood, walked around some parks and stores, and had some ramen. I think Japanese people invented pampering your dog. We saw so many good boys and girls, usually dressed up in a cute outfit and often in a stroller. It was so cute! We went to an interactive art exhibit called TeamLab Planets. I’ve been to my fair share of experiential art exhibits, but this one was different because it really incorporated all five senses. We took off our shoes and walked through water and felt different textures throughout the entire experience. It was really cool! You could get lost in there for hours. 

We stopped at the Rainbow Bridge Observatory deck for a beautiful view on our way to dinner with Joe at Toranomon Yokocho. Yokocho means side street (see, Joe, I remembered what you taught me!), which is basically an open street marketplace tucked into an alley off the main drag. So this was an indoor version of a yokocho, which is pretty comparable to a food hall. We sampled lots of great foods and had probably the biggest oysters I’ve ever seen. Then we had a fancy drink at the Toranomon Hills Tower Rooftop Bar. Joe said that it was the bar from the movie Lost in Translation, which I’ve never seen. But we had incredible views, expensive drinks, and pretended to be classy while we took pictures in front of the windows. A great way to spend our first full day in Tokyo!

Wednesday was a public holiday for the spring equinox, so Joe had the day off work, then he took off on Thursday and Friday to hang out with us. James and I procrastinated really hard on booking our lodging so we had to switch hotels to a much smaller, not as nice place. But it did the job. Since we couldn’t check in until later in the day, we dropped off our luggage at Joe’s apartment before going out and exploring. We went to a cute coffee shop and had egg sandwiches and coffee for breakfast—something that I had a lot of while there, along with onigiri from convenience stores like 7-11. Then we made our way to Akihabara to play games at arcades and visit a retro video game store called Super Potato. I won a chip clip on a claw game, which I got way too excited about, but it’s honestly my pride and joy. It’s currently keeping a bag of tortilla chips closed so it was worth the ¥300 I spent on the game ($1.98). We played some Mario Kart, a drumming game, and did a goofy face filter photo booth. It was a blast! I felt like a kid and there were some serious gamers there, which was fun to watch.

We went to Ameyokocho—a side street like I was talking about earlier—and walked around and had some street food. We tried takoyaki, which is battered and fried octopus. Then a storm rolled in and Joe tricked us into going to karaoke. When we arrived, it looked like we were in a bank, so I didn’t realize it was karaoke until I spotted some microphones hanging on the wall. I love karaoke so I was excited to go, it was just really funny that Joe just led us into a building and we had no idea where we were until it was already too late to back out. Karaoke in a private room with your friends and corny stock music videos is arguably more fun than karaoke in front of a bar full of people because it’s less embarrassing when your voice cracks, you don’t have to pick a song that’s a crowd pleaser and you can sing as many times as you want. I always thought the private room defeated the purpose of karaoke but I was wrong. I might have to find a bar in Seattle that has private karaoke now!

After singing our hearts out, we went to the parks where we would be able to see sakura if the trees were actually blooming. But alas, we were about a week and a half too early to see very many cherry blossoms. We still had fun walking through the parks, seeing temples, eating more street food (obviously) and seeing Joe’s secret place for a good view of the city. We visited Sensō-ji, Tokyo’s oldest temple, built in 941 AD and reconstructed in its current location in 1635. It was absolutely beautiful and also very crowded. James and I each got an Omikuji fortune, which were both bad fortunes. The tradition is to tie the bad fortune to a pole without ripping it so that it doesn’t come true. If you get a good fortune, you’d keep it. I’m not saying I’m superstitious but I am a little stitious (jk I’m extremely superstitious) so even though there were high speed winds knocking over vendor booths, I made sure to tie it up to the pole.  

Then came my most highly anticipated event, kaiten sushi aka sushi on a conveyor belt. I thought that it would constantly be rotating with different types of sushi that you could just grab if it looked good, but you actually just order what you want on a tablet and then they send it to you on the conveyor belt. Still cool and I was giddy with excitement every time one of our plates stopped in front of us. This girl is easily amused, okay? We had stacks and stacks of plates by the end of the dinner and then we called it a night.

James and I made the mistake of not trying to find our new hotel in the daylight. By the time we grabbed our luggage and made our way to the new hotel it was pretty cold (but if you’re from Wisconsin, don’t ask the temperature. I am weak now!) and said high speed winds were not slowing down. So instead of walking, which was our original plan, we took a taxi to the new hotel. I was using Apple Maps to track where we were going, but it pinned the address location a few blocks away from where we were dropped off. So we rolled our suitcases down the street in the wind to where my phone said the hotel was located. Only to find it not there. I promptly had a panic attack and began crying in the middle of the street in the dark while James tried to calm me down and pulled up the address on Google Maps instead. Guess where it was? Right where we were dropped off. We wandered around the street for several minutes trying to figure out exactly where it was until finally we found it. Moral of the story? Plan ahead. Our room was small—two twin beds with a small sliding door that led to a shower and another small sliding door that lead to a toilet. It was nothing compared to the hotel room we were in the night before but I was just happy that we found it and were warm again.

On Thursday, unfortunately, James woke up early in the morning feeling sick. I went to a Lawson’s convenience store with my translator app and looked for something resembling Pepto Bismol. Unfortunately, he was pretty much down for the count for the day. Joe and I went back to Lawson’s to get him some Pocari Sweat electrolyte water, some actual medicine that would work, plain bread and light snacks. Sadly, he spent all of Thursday at the hotel, which was basically just a box. I felt awful that he had to miss out on an entire day of vacation. He hardly had an appetite and was feverish. :( He told us to go on without him for the day. 

Joe and I decided to switch up our itinerary and do the things that were more geared toward me than James—window shopping around Ginza and finding and trying all of the viral foodie trends in the area. Then we went to Azabudai Hills—a cool building designed by Heatherwick Studio, the same architects that designed Little Island in New York—were we had lunch and saw a great view of the city, Mount Fuji, and Tokyo Tower. We were so tired so we skipped our plan to go to the art museum and just relaxes until dinner at an Italian restaurant, which was a nice change of pace! I worried about James pretty much the whole day and kept checking in on him whenever I had Wifi. There wasn’t a whole lot else he could do but sleep it off and let it get out of his system.

By Friday, he was feeling good enough to get out again, so we did our day trip to Enoshima, which is a small island in the Kanagawa prefecture, about an hour and a half away by train with a few transfers. It was absolutely beautiful there. We had great views of Mount Fuji and a walk up the hill of the island. Eventually, we decided to buy escalator tickets because James still wasn’t feeling 100% and we didn’t want to press our luck. We had some mochi and blue denim ice cream—not blue moon but a mix of blueberry and ramune flavor, a Japanese soda. It was gooood! At the top of the hill we were rewarded with gardens, temples, beautiful views, and a street performance. We had lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful view overlooking the water and Mount Fuji. It honestly felt like we were on the set of a movie. The whole experience kind of reminded me of my trip to Cinque Terre, Italy, which remains one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. So needless to say, it was a great day and probably my favorite part of the trip.

When we got back to Tokyo after the trip to Enoshima, we grabbed a quick bite at a New York bagel shop. I was fascinated by all of the interest in New York and LA in Japan—Yankees and Dodgers logos everywhere. The Dodgers fandom makes sense with Yamamoto and Ohtani on that team but I think the Yankees logo is just for aesthetic purposes. Joe said that they call dressing in American fashion “Americore.” After the bagel shop, we went to a small 8-seat cocktail bar called Gen Yamamoto, where our own private bartender crafted us (and five strangers) some fancy drinks. Someone we met in Seattle at an IU basketball game watch party recommended it and I’m glad we took his advice. It was a really unique experience! Afterwards, we kept up the New York theme and got some New York style pizza.

On Saturday, we met some of Joe’s friends for breakfast. They were so nice! Japanese hospitality is definitely something that can’t be overstated. Everyone that we met in Japan was just so invested in making sure we had a great experience. We had a great meal and conversation with them. Next, we went to Shibuya and Shinjuku, the more populated areas of Tokyo. It was shoulder to shoulder on the streets, absolutely insane how crowded it was!  We had lunch at Shibuya Scramble Square and ate tendon (Japanese for heaven bowl), which was tempura shrimp over rice. It was so good! We quickly went through the Nintendo store and Pokemon Center, which were cool but way too crowded for me, so it was just a quick stop. Then we went to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, which was the perfect respite after wading through swaths of people. There were a few sakura and other trees blooming and it was beautiful! 

After the garden, we got some coffee and then went to karaoke part 2 with Joe’s friend Shingo. We had so much fun! Shingo was one of the sweetest human beings I have ever met. We sang together for a couple of hours and then went out in Ni-chōme. Up until this trip, I had never drank with Joe before. It was really fun to see him let loose and we had such a great time! We had to have run into at least 10 people he knew… he’s so popular! One of his friends that we ran into, Nao, joined us for the rest of the night and the 5 of us had a great time dancing. I can’t recommend going out dancing at gay bars enough. The vibes were immaculate. Again, Shingo and Nao showed amazing hospitality and never let us pay for drinks despite our protests. They were so kind and we had so much fun together! I want to carry their kindness with me an spread it to people I meet. I’m also always impressed by people who can speak multiple languages. Makes me want to step up my Duolingo game… When we had to leave to catch the last train “home,” we got emotional. Sometimes you just meet people and know that they’re really good humans and that you’ll remember them forever. Even though we just met, I felt like I had known them my whole life. Saying goodbye was so hard! It also may have been the alcohol.

Next was Kyoto. I had the song Kyoto by Phoebe Bridgers stuck in my head for a solid 48 hours. On Sunday, James and I nursed our hangovers and then took a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.Joe stayed out way later than us 30-year-olds can handle and he stayed back while we took our overnight trip. We ended up double-booking in Tokyo and Kyoto so we could leave all of our stuff at the Tokyo hotel and only pack a small bag for our 2-day trip. I definitely think it was worth it. I would have hated walking around Kyoto with my giant luggage or leaving it unattended in the lobby. We got bento boxes for the train ride and then checked into our hotel as soon as we arrived (learning from past mistakes!!!). We tried to fit as much in as we could in the day and a half, so we immediately got some coffee so we could make the most of the rest of the day. Then we went to Fushimi Inari temple. It was a gloomy day but it was still beautiful! We took lots of pictures, ate some fried sweet potatoes and tried to avoid the crowds. Then we wandered around in Gion near our hotel, got some udon for dinner, and called it an early night. 

On Monday, we had a very decadent breakfast at a coffee shop/vintage store called Kamee (Turtle) Coffee. By decadent, I mean I got waffles and they had ice cream on top. Then we made our way to Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Temple. It was so beautiful. While Kyoto had lots of amazing temples and sightseeing, it was just insanely crowded everywhere we went, especially there. After the temple, we found a place that had vegetarian okonomiyaki (savory pancakes) that we cooked at our own table. This was probably one of the coolest dining experiences we had, apart from the kaiten sushi. We had a lot of fun! Then we made our way to the Bamboo Forest, which James had already been to, but was thankfully happy to go again so I could see it. It was so cool to see bamboo growing so tall! It almost didn’t feel real to me. Then we explored the temples and natural areas around the forest.

Unfortunately, while we were there, it was my turn to experience the illness that James had on Thursday. I’ll spare you the details, but we found the nearest bathroom, and let’s just say it wasn’t a great way for me to learn what a Japanese squat toilet was. Every bathroom up until that point had pristinely clean toilets with heated seats, bidets, and white noise for privacy. I finally understood why all of those bathrooms had diagrams of how to sit on the toilet rather than squat. This time, I needed the diagram. It was mildly traumatizing. We found a cafe to rest at and use a better toilet. Then we wandered around near the Katsuragawa River and did some shopping and relaxing near the river. Then we made our way to Kyoto Station, found some dinner, and took our Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

Tuesday was our last day in Japan, and unfortunately I was sick. We reversed roles and James picked up some Pocari Sweat and plain snacks for me at Lawson’s. We stayed in the hotel room as long as possible and checked out at 11. Then we literally just hung out at a train station where I could be close to a bathroom, James could have access to food, and Joe could meet up with us before we left for the airport. Not an ideal last day in Japan. I felt awful the whole day and then got on a plane and continued to feel bad. I had no appetite and forced myself to eat plain white rice, bread and a banana. After such an amazing trip, it wasn’t the way I wanted to leave, but I can’t let that put a damper on the memories. 

The trip as a whole was so, SO much fun. I feel like I wrote so much and yet left so much out. I am so thankful to Joe for organizing literally everything for us. Everyone deserves to have a friend like him in their lives. I’ll never forget the hospitality I was shown in Japan, how safe I felt, all of the amazing food I ate, and just how beautiful it was there. Hopefully someday I can return, or maybe Joe can meet us in a different part of the world next time! 🤔 I feel beyond grateful to have the opportunity to travel like this. Every time I go somewhere new, I am reminded of just how small the world is, how much we all have in common, and how much we can learn from each other. I kept seeing people I knew in the faces of strangers. While we were shopping, I saw some older ladies searching for souvenirs and giggling together and they reminded me so much of my late grandmothers that I started to cry. Every time I saw a cute baby (and there were many of them), I thought of my nephew and wanted to hug him. Whenever I travel, I am reminded of what is important in life. I feel solidified in my decision to prioritize these experiences and live my life this way. I truly feel like I’m happiest when I’m exploring and when I’m with people I love.

I recently heard some wise advice from another creative person about how they have to remind themselves not to measure their successes by the way that conventional societal standards would have us measure them. It’s easy to play the comparison game. Some people my age have already been homeowners for years, are climbing the corporate ladder quickly, making lots of money, having kids, and are succeeding by society’s standards. Which is awesome, and I’m happy for them. But it’s important to reflect on how you measure your own success. For me, collecting experiences, forming connections, creating beauty and finding happiness every day is a greater measure of my success than the assets I own or a job title I have. It’s why I’m a freelancer and why I prioritize traveling. For me, stepping outside of my comfort zone and visiting a new country where I don’t know the language and don’t know how to get around, is a huge success. I feel like I have seen, learned, and accomplished so much.

At the same time, I don’t want to turn travel into checking place off of a list. I want it to be a learning experience that makes me a better person for having experienced it. I want to learn about the people who live in the places I visit and take time to appreciate and respect the culture. I still have more learning to do about Japan and its history. While I’m glad that I was able to fulfill this travel dream of mine, I want to remember to take time to reflect on it, apply what I learned, and continue to learn more, rather than just pushing ahead and moving on to the next place on my “bucket list.” I think it’s easy to go to a place and want to get the perfect picture to share on social media and spend your time trying to check off as many items on a list as you can so that you can say you did it. I’ve been guilty of this. The amount of times I had James retake a photo of me at Fushimi Inari is too embarrassing to repeat. Until I watched someone else fake happiness for a photo, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t always living in the moment and appreciating it. But getting the perfect picture for the ‘gram is not what it’s about. It’s about the people you meet and the experiences you have and how it shapes you. And sometimes you don’t need to share that with anyone but yourself. So here’s my reminder to myself to be present and just enjoy the ride.