February 2024
Japan was amazing and now I’m kicking myself that I turned down that job 14.5 years ago! I mean, yes, it would’ve been hard to have a baby there with no support system and without speaking the language, but just about every public restroom has nursing rooms and baby seats! Surely that all balances things out, LOL.
No, but for real, we loved Japan and would all move there in a second (language barrier notwithstanding). When we landed at Haneda airport and I saw “Tokyo,” I actually cried. I didn’t quite realize how much I had been looking forward to finally arriving and seeing the country after all these years. It did not disappoint. And I didn’t even have high expectations. By that I mean I hadn’t planned my dream trip. Like so much of our travel, it was somewhat spur of the moment and we thought we were just going to see Tokyo for maybe 6 days. And we were there in the off season; there were no autumn colors and it’s just before cherry blossom season, so all the trees were bare and the gardens were in hibernation.
But we were blown away with how clean and orderly and safe it felt everywhere. In some ways, it was a lot like Singapore, only 40+ degrees cooler, LOL. The city was easy to navigate both on foot and by metro. And though it was chilly with a bit of inclement weather, there were no shortage of places to explore. In fact, it feels like we barely scratched the surface.
The high for sure was spending time with Shelby’s friend, Aimee, and her parents; they had just moved back to greater Tokyo from the Bay Area and were kind enough to spend 1.5 days with us. Other highs included the heated toilet seats (and amazing toilets in general—how are these not a thing throughout the world?!), walking in the unexpected snow, taking in the view from both the Sky Tree and Tokyo Tower, doing a cooking class at someone’s home, discovering that it was strawberry season (they were so yummy), spending time at the cafe around the corner (that the girls could go to on their own), and successfully navigating the city on the metro.
The low was getting lost in the Kyoto train station and not getting to go to Nara Deer Park. Other challenging moments included trying to order from menus that had no English (and where Google translate provided insufficient help) and navigating one of the metro lines in Kyoto that wasn’t super clear.
I picked a hotel in Tokyo based on what was available on Booking.com that met our needs and price range. I didn’t know anything about the different neighborhoods and simply hoped for the best. Well, we lucked out. We stayed at the Keisei Richmond Hotel Tokyo Mozennakacho, in the Mozennakacho neighborhood on the eastern side of the city. The neighborhood itself was quiet and quaint. The streets off the main road were tiny and so clean. It wasn’t a tourist area; real people lived there. It was around the corner from a nice grocery store and, importantly, a metro stop. There were tons of restaurants and convenience stores, as well as a local fruit market. The buildings were all high density, but none were much taller than our hotel (at 10 stories) and somehow the area didn’t feel crowded; it felt calm and zen.
Our hotel rooms were small, as expected, but whoever designed the space did an excellent job. The space was well maximized and small details made it nicely functional. For example, on the wall near the door there were five retractable hooks you could pull out to hang coats, etc. If you didn’t need them, you might even miss that they were there. There was an open closet/cubby, maybe two feet wide (so not big) with about 8 hangers that allowed me to hang dry some laundry, out of the way. The area behind the beds had a small shelf for phones, etc. and there were multiple spots near our pillows for regular electronics and USB plugs. There was a also a small fridge and a requisite electric kettle.
Two floors of the hotel had coin-operated washing machine-dryer combo units, so we were able to do laundry. And each morning there was a lovely buffet breakfast; the majority of the offerings were Japanese, so it required us to be a bit adventurous, though there was toast, mini-pastries, scrambled eggs, and sausage. By the end of our stay I had come to really enjoy having chicken consume and udon noodles as part of my breakfast. I also really loved the days when they served fresh persimmon. Once breakfast ended and was cleaned up, the space doubled as a common area.
One night I was down there while waiting for a load of laundry to cycle through. I made some tea and was trying to write. I wasn’t there long when two men, maybe in their 30s, who were sitting at a nearby table asked me: “Where are you from?” I told them the US and they said, “But where did you get that bag?”
I had brought my Mercadona grocery bag with me because I had come from the laundry room and it had doubled as a laundry bag. “Spain,” I said. “Why?” Turns out they were from Portugal and recognized it because they have Mercadona, too. We proceeded to have a lovely conversation about our travels and observations of the world. You just never know who you’ll meet or what might be the catalyst for conversation; it could be a reusable grocery bag!
I have much more to share about our time in Japan. Stay tuned!