After 18 years, I was finally able to go back to Japan for a family trip. Back in 2006 and 2007, I was sent to Tokyo for a business trip to my company’s headquarters. Japan left a personal impact and since then it became one of my goals to return someday.
My wife, whom I didn’t know at that time, was also sent to Tokyo for a business trip around 2007. And same as me, she also wanted to go back as a tourist in the future. But after that time, life happened, we got married, had a kid, the pandemic came and travel became impossible for 2 years, and so on. I also didn’t want to travel with a small child: not just because it makes travel more challenging, but that I also wanted the child to be old enough to appreciate the new environment. But last year, conditions were just right to finally pull the trigger.
December was the window of opportunity for us as school has its annual Christmas and New Year breaks. This will also allow us to experience the start of winter in Japan, something we have not experienced yet from our business trips. But this also came with some complications:
- We need to pack (and buy!) winter clothing as we are not used to the cold (and has no cold gear whatsoever)
- December is peak tourist season, and everything is more expensive
There are plenty of reasons why we should not push through, but ultimately I decided that this is something important and is worth any expense we will incur. Last month I published an article called Racing To The End, and it is about time I took my own advice. In Choose Life, I argued that life is simply our experiences outside of work, and this trip abroad is clearly a part of the experience of “life”. And I learned that experiences, as much as we want to deny it, has a lifespan of its own.
We cannot do everything or experience what we want just whenever and however we want it. Additional factors affect how we experience things, such as your age, health, and financial wellbeing. And this isn’t limited to ourselves; our loved ones and people we want to enjoy the experience with has their own limitations as well. Thus, it is not right that we wait until everything seems right. There is no such time. The best time to experience life is when you are able to do it.
Tokyo
And so our family trip pushed through and we stayed in Tokyo for almost two weeks.
When we arrived at our hotel for the first time, we had to eat dinner. It was a Sunday and there were a lot of restaurants that were closed in the area, but eventually we found one. It wasn’t your typical restaurant, no English-speaking staff, and it also didn’t look cheap. But, the goal is to experience the place, so we chose to enjoy the unfamiliar dishes in the menu.
We went through the usual tourist spots in Tokyo, and some not so usual, like the Tokyo Christmas Market. We got lost trying to find the place, but thanks to Google Maps and Translate, were able to locate it.
Due to the large number of people in December, we had to sometimes pay for the privilege of the experience (e.g. Disneyland Premium Access) and for eating at certain places (looking at you Pokémon Café!).
The Pokémon Center and Café also has a special meaning for me. I was still young when I first played Pokémon Yellow on the Gameboy, and got enthralled with the franchise since then. I even got my daughter to join me in my Pokémon journey. Back then, it never crossed my mind that I will someday stand in ground zero of one of my favorite games of all time.
Some experiences were not even in our initial itinerary. When an opportunity came to experience the Tokyo Bay Cruise, I didn’t hesitate to grab it. It was our first time to board a cruise ship and sail, even if just for a few hours.
The cruise also included a full-course meal, which was also a first for the family (my daughter said she likes “simpler meals” instead). Even though it was costly, it’s not common to get a cruise from where we lived, so it was a worthy experience that will be a benchmark from other cruises that we may avail in the future.
Yuki
Coming from a tropical country, snow is obviously non-existent. So when planning our Japan trip, experiencing snow is one of the things we look forward to. However, as it was the peak season, transportation towards areas with snow becomes more challenging.
Initially we tried booking online for Shinkansen tickets, but their system always rejected our purchase, saying everything has been fully booked. We almost gave up on the idea until a few days before we are scheduled to leave Japan. It turns out that JR stations have a ticket machine for the Shinkansen, and using that machine, we found that there are still reserved seats available (but only for the more expensive Green Car).
The Shinkansen isn’t cheap, but sometimes experiences are priceless and worth the money. So we decided to proceed with the bullet train trip to Gala Yuzawa, a ski resort north of Tokyo that is directly connected to the JR Shinkansen (as they also own the resort). This trip ticked two boxes: our first bullet train ride and also the first snowy area we will experience.
The bullet train’s approach to Yuzawa station is one of the highlights of the trip from my perspective. You are underground or inside a mountain for a long while, and then when it comes out into the open towards the station, you are greeted by a scene I only saw in movies and magazines: snow-covered trees and houses covered with snow.
It was a fitting finale for our Japan trip.
Welcome home
When we came back and resumed our lives, a friend said that we will still be “hung over” from Japan. Many people feel the same after spending time in Japan. They even have a term for this, place-based emotional encoding. This means that certain places leave a mark on you, and you yearn for the same emotions and feelings that you have while you are at that place.
I’m not saying that Japan is perfect. It has its flaws just like any other country. Both me and my wife agree that while it is awesome to live in Japan as a tourist, we prefer not to be there for work. The massive influx of tourists over the past years also resulted in trash in the street, which I barely noticed back in 2007.
But even with its flaws, Japan is an amazing country to visit. One early morning while I was walking outside to do laundry, I felt the cold wind and took in the silence of the streets. For some reason, it felt like home. Very peculiar as my home country is vastly different from Japan, but there is something in there that makes you yearn for more and go back.
We will definitely go back.