Enter Japan –
Japan was our first stop which introduced language and cultural differences. We knew it was going to be more challenging than our previous destinations, but there were 2 things we didn’t count on. The first was the humidity. We aren’t use to any humidity and it hit us as soon as we exited the plane. The second was the hospitality. Tokyo is fairly easy to get around not knowing Japanese, but there were times which we needed help and the people were great. But, even more unexpected was the hospitality provided by friends.
Tokyo –
First stop, Electric City! Where’s the best place to go when you need a camera accessory? Yodobashi Camera! It’s an 8 story megastore dedicated to electronics from beard trimmers and luxury selfie sticks to cleaning robots. After getting the wifi camera adapter we needed and learning we could have purchased all of our electronics for half what we paid in the states, we headed for a ramen lunch. Here was our first encounter with Japanese hospitality. Inside the restaurant was a large vending-like machine used to order food. After a minute of staring and trying to figure how to use it ourselves, a cook came out from around the counter and helped us through the process. The end result was an amazing miso soup ramen.
One of Chris’s co-workers moved to Japan a year ago and we met up with him. Terrell and his girlfriend, Ayako, treated us to yakiniku. Grilled meat. It was an unexpected surprise and a taste of the Japanese hospitality to come. Terrell and Chris share the same passion for cars. Terrell drove us around the elevated highways of Toyko in his pristine Nissan Silvia to the legendary Daikoku Parking Area. This use to be the staging area for Toyko street racing, but is now more of a nightly car show. Even on a Monday night; it didn’t let us down. The lot was filled with Itasha cars (fancy decorated cars), rare sports cars and exotics including Porche and Lamborgini. A heavily modified MR2 caught Chris’s eye as he has one back home.
The next day was Chris’s 37th birthday. The night started at the New York Bar on the 41st floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo (think Lost in Translation with Bill Murray). After drinks we headed to T0kyo Station for dinner with a close family friend, Shinya Kubota and his wife Sato. What we haven’t eaten yet while in Japan was sushi. Shinya treated us to the best sushi we ever had. Plate after plate of nigiri, we ate until absolutely stuffed. Our hosts were so gracious!
The elusive Mt. Fuji –
Our next adventure was leaving the city for the countryside to see Shinya’s son and his family, Junya Kubota. Isabelle hasn’t seen Junya in over 10 years so it was a great time reconnecting and hanging out! Junya lives near Mt. Fuji surrounded by tea farms. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. They treated us to amazing food and showed us great sites like caves, beaches, and temples around the “mountain”. We tried to return the favor by cooking them an American dinner with apple crisp for dessert.
Junaya attempted to convince us that a Mt. Fuji exists, but we didn’t believe him. Every day the clouds hid the mountain, but Junaya did his best to describe where the mountain would be.
Family dinner –
While booking our flight out of Tokyo we forgot about the 24h clock. What we thought was a 2pm flight really was a 2AM flight to Seoul. It worked out fine in the end because we were able to have one last big family dinner together with the all the Kubotas! It was another sincere example of their hospitality as they insisted on driving us to the airport (2.5 hours one way) and treating us to a tempura dinner.
We cannot say thank you enough to the Kubota family and Terrell and Ayako. Arigatou! Next time, we hope to see everyone in Seattle so we can reciprocate their hospitality!
Itinerit blog 