My family came to see me and we took a vacation! The day they flew in, I had the day off, so I spent it at Tokyo DisneySea. I was able to do all but one ride I was hoping to do, took tons of photos, and bought a lot of souvenirs. I remember Disney being magical as a kid, but it is still just as magical as an adult! At the end of the day, I reunited with my family at the hotel, and it was wonderful to see them, even with their jet lag.
On the second day of vacation, we went to a temple and got fortunes. Mine was very good! Annalyse’s was not so great, so she tied it in a knot on the fence to make sure it wouldn’t come true. My family went to an otter cafe and then to the most beautiful local cafe run by the sweetest man. We ended the day with beautiful city views of Tokyo from the top of Sunshine City Mall and took a stop at the largest gacha store in the world.
On the third day, we started at Hamarikyu Gardens. There, we had an informal tea ceremony with matcha and bean paste desserts. For lunch, we went to the Tsukiji fish market, where I got yakisoba. Afterwards, my dad and I went to Teamlab Planets, while my mom and sister went to Teamlab Borderless. We met back up at the 3D cat billboard and then saw Godzilla Head after we had a delicious gyoza dinner. We ended the day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Building to see their light show.
The fourth day started at Takeshita Street, which was very fun. We got rainbow cheese corndogs and grilled cheese sandwiches. My corn dog was so delicious! Afterwards, we went to Cafe Reissue for 3D latte art. I got Totoro, my sister got our dog Snowball, my dad got Captain America’s shield, and my mom got Hello Kitty. We then went to Shibuya crossing and saw the Hachi dog statue, and walked through Shibuya crossing. We even got to watch it from the Starbucks located at the crossings. Then we hopped on the Shinkansen to go to our next city… Kyoto!
We started the fifth day in a bamboo forest! We stopped for ice cream, did local shopping, and then went on a hike up to a monkey park. The hike was longer than expected, but as we got close to the top, we started seeing so many monkeys. Tourists could feed the monkeys, and my sister chose to feed them apples. That was a good choice, too because the other option of peanuts was not well received by the monkeys. They threw down every peanut handed to them; it was hilarious! We ended the day making custom music boxes.
On the sixth day, we went to Fushimi Inari Shrine. That’s the one with all the Tori gates. We thought we wanted to hike to the top, but by the time we got to the start of the official hike, we did not have time to do the whole thing. The local area around the shrine was adorable, and we had fun exploring. We went to an excellent burger place and I had a really good conversation with the staff in Japanese! Everyone (including me) was impressed. Then, we went to Nijo Castle and a fabulous tonkatsu restaurant for dinner. We ended the day with some thrifting. I got a cute purple skirt!
My dad had a surprise for me and my sister on the seventh day. He got a shirt that had Annalyse’s, our dog Snowball’s, and my face all over it. He saved it for the day he was going to meet my host family. We took the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Toyohashi and met my host family for lunch. We got udon! They loved my dad’s shirt and told him about basketball. After lunch, we went to Don Quijote for fun shopping! Then we ended the day with my host family by getting crepes!
On the eighth day, we went to the nursery school I volunteer at! My family got to meet the staff and the children. They were all very excited to meet my family! My parents were amazed by the independence of the children and how much they accomplished. Afterwards, I showed them my favorite park and got us lunch. Then, we took the bullet train to Osaka!
We started our time in Osaka at Universal Studios Japan. My mom had gotten many fast passes for our family, but we did not need most of them because it rained the entire day we were there. Initially the rain had us bummed out, but after a while we realized it was a blessing. My dad and sister got to ride every single roller coaster(some more than once). Annalyse and I had a blast at Nintendo World since we got the Power Bands. It elevated the experience! USJ was a 10/10!
On day ten, we slept in. We were exhausted from our long day at USJ. After slowly waking up and getting ready, we transferred to a hotel closer to Dotonbori. After checking in, we explored Dotonbori and then got conveyor belt sushi for dinner. Coincidentally, we went to dinner at the perfect time because shortly after we sat down, the restaurant became swamped with tourists waiting for a table. The sushi was a very fun experience, and considering most of it was $1, it was very tasty. Then we did the Osaka Don Quijote Ferris wheel. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. It may sound dramatic, but I was very scared. It is not your typical Ferris wheel. My family ended the night with some karaoke. After my dad said he wasn’t going to sing, he sang six songs.
The eleventh day had the family splitting up. My dad and sister went to Round 1 while my mom and I went to a cooking class. It was run by locals and was very cute and informative. We learned how to make two types of ramen and two types of gyoza from scratch! Afterwards, we reconvened at the large Lion’s Head shrine and walked to the cinnamoroll cafe. Then we went to Shinsekai for arcades and fun architecture. Afterwards, we got dinner at a local restaurant that got great reviews. The place was run by an older couple. The woman was our hostess, and her husband was the chef. They had all kinds of currency taped to the wall from tourists, and the couple was ecstatic that I was able to talk to them in Japanese! The woman even gave us all free sake! The food was delicious, and we wished we could’ve stayed and gotten to know them better, but we had to head to Teamlab Gardens. On our way out, the couple gave us snacks for the road (also on the house), and we made it to our last stop of vacation. TeamLab Gardens was short and sweet, and the interactive art was very fun!
The next day my family had a slow morning as we made our way to the shinkansen station. That’s where we parted ways and I returned to Toyohashi while they went back to America. It was really great to see my family and experience many cultural activities outside of my little town of Toyohashi!