Farewell and a Warm Welcome

The day had finally come. I woke up on a friend's couch around 5:45 AM after celebrating the holidays with my closest buddies in Houston. One by one, I lightly shook my little brother and friends awake who were planning on saying goodbye or accompanying me to the airport. We departed for my sister's house at 6:00 AM and arrived about 15 minutes later. I took a quick shower and made some brief arrangements to my suitcase situation while my family and friends hung out in the kitchen enjoying some breakfast and company. With how nervous I was, I only managed a couple bites of oatmeal before returning to my game of luggage Tetris. My buddy arrived in his mom's SUV at 6:45 AM to shuttle us over to the airport. We departed at 7:00 AM and made it to the airport around 7:45 AM, about 2 hours before the direct flight from Houston to Tokyo.

With how long the lines looked inside the airport, my entourage and I cut to the chase and ran an assembly line of goodbyes. I walked up to the terminal entrance, turned around, and gave one last wave goodbye. From that point on, I was on my own.

Although the airport was quite busy, lines still moved along smoothly enough that I arrived at my gate with minutes to spare before boarding. My appetite suddenly returned so I bought an overpriced mediocre breakfast next to my gate and sat there processing the food and the fact that this day was actually happening.

While getting cozy on my three seat throne I sat there thinking back to all the decisions and people that helped me reach this moment and could not be more thankful for how everything panned out. The two months that led up to this day were packed with exciting reunions, joyous celebrations, wise words of advice, heartfelt goodbyes, and so much more! Those two months really deserve a separate post so I'll save those stories for another day.

The plane took off and I expected to sleep through most of the flight like I did last time but I woke up a couple hours later. What to do with all this time... start writing the content for this blog? No... play my little brother's all time favorite game, Hollow Knight, on my steam deck that I still have not finished? Nope... Get lost in thought with some good music? Maybe later... I settled on simply watching a movie and started looking through the menu. Skimming through the options, my eye caught the Harry Potter series that I started rewatching with my sister on a recent road trip. We only made it through the first half of the movie before falling asleep, so it only felt right to finish the first movie... and the second... and the third. I was maybe 5 years old when the movies started to release in theaters so most of the series was a hazy recollection of scenes. Rewatching your childhood movies as an adult is a hit or miss, but in this case it helped me truck through another six hours of the journey.

I managed to sleep through the remainder of the flight and finally arrived at Narita airport just east of Tokyo around 2:30 PM on New Year's Eve! After getting through customs I went straight to the TA-Q-BIN counter and dropped off my suitcases with the kind staff. TA-Q-BIN is a service ran by Yamato Transport, a delivery service company, that I could not recommend enough for folks planning on traveling throughout Japan with large suitcases. Yamato Transport can ship your luggage around Japan on the same day or next day for a fair fee. I used their services pretty frequently during my last trip while hopping cities, you can even specify when you want the luggage to arrive. In this case, I had them hold my suitcases for 5 days before delivering them to my new home for no extra costs! I could not recommend using this service enough considering how busy public transportation can get in the denser parts of Tokyo. I understand that some people may not want to spend that money, but it is also tough watching folks struggle with their luggage around those populated areas. Maybe I'll compile a list of guides and info that I found useful for traveling later... Anyways, with my luggage taken care of, I went ahead and picked up a one week SIM card to get me through my travels until I registered my phone with a carrier. All that was left was to grab some pocket money out of the ATM and hangout at the airport for the next eight hours.

Yep, eight hours. I booked the original flight months in advance and originally did not have any plans for New Year's besides wandering Tokyo until I could pick up the keys to my new place a couple days later. I shared the details of my arrival during the final online tutoring session with my teacher, Yuki, about a month before my arrival in Japan, to which she generously offered without hesitating the opportunity to celebrate New Years with her family in Osaka. I enthusiastically responded with, "Yes! Of course I'll take you up on that offer!" That night we immediately searched flights together online and quickly booked one from Tokyo to Osaka. The booked flight was set to take off on the evening of my arrival in Japan around 8:00 PM, well in advance of my arrival time in case there were any delays on the leg from America to Tokyo. To my surprise, it was actually the domestic flight that was delayed by three hours. Hanging out in the airport was a breeze though with my steam deck on hand and peace of mind knowing that everything was going to work out just fine.

I happily slept through the 2024 countdown, soaring over Japan on my way to visit Yuki's family. I arrived at Kansai airport around 1:00 AM and reunited with Yuki and her father, Shinichi, who came to pick me up in their car. It had been just about a year and a half since the last time I visited their family in Osaka. The plan was to head back to Yuki's grandmother Yoshiko's place about twenty minutes away from the airport where we would stay for the night. We stopped by a Sukiya (A popular restaurant chain in Japan that specializes in serving Gyudon, beef rice bowls) and grabbed a late takeout dinner before reaching the house around 1:30 AM.

Shinichi opened the parking lot gate across the street from the path that led to the house and proceeded to park the car with half an inch to spare while passing through the gate. Shinichi has some serious parking skills. We walked along the short dirt path that led to this beautiful traditional Japanese home. A small garden of flowers, a ginkgo tree, tatami and wooden flooring, a Japanese style toilet, sliding doors, and a family shrine. I was nothing but thankful to Yuki's family for going out of their way to pick me up, letting me enter their cozy home, and hanging out so late at night! Even Yuki's mom, Nao, woke up to chat a little. We sat around the living room table catching up while the kids slept soundly in the room over. When it was time to finally call it, Shinichi showed me to the bathroom and outdoor guest room where I would be sleeping for the night. I took a much needed shower, steeped in the bathtub for a bit, got ready for bed, and slid underneath the warm heated blanket.

I laid there processing my first night of the long journey ahead. My thoughts were spiraling around questions like who will I meet? What opportunities await me here? What should I prioritize? What do I absolutely need to accomplish while I'm here? I had already given some thought to these questions prior to making the move, but I was more focused on the move itself until now. Eventually I focused on the fact that it was probably best to get some good sleep and knocked out.

I woke up to the sound of the kids talking and laughing outside. After getting ready I stepped out of the guest house and saw them shooting a toy BB gun at some cans under the outdoor patio. Yuki and I sat next to each other on the sliding door sill adjacent to the outdoor area. She gave me some highlights on what the kids had been up to recently and showed me a couple of videos from their previous dance performances. Overhearing this, her niece, Arina, jumped up and down asking if she and Yuki's son, Ryo, could give a mini performance. Yuki put on their song request, "Show" by Ado, and the kids cheerfully danced along to the choreography while singing here and there some of the parts. Their carefree dancing is probably one of my favorite parts of visiting. Last visit, Ryo gave around 10 performances to the opening of his favorite TV series, Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. He always gave his all to each performance, and sometimes Yuki would sing and move her hands along to the choreography with him. So wholesome.

Following these wonderful performances, I took out these small peg boards I brought from one of my mom's favorite American old-country store, Cracker Barrel, for the kids to play with. I thought about a handful of gifts, games, and other goodies to bring to Japan for the family, but I was extremely limited on space with everything I ended up packing. The game is pretty simple, you start with a peg board filled with pegs except for one empty slot. The player then takes one peg and hops it over another peg into an empty slot, removing the peg that was hopped over. This peg hopping process repeats until you are out of moves, with the goal of having only one peg remaining. Arina took a particular liking to the game and proceeded to challenge each one of the adults around the house to try beating the game, it was funny seeing her ask the adults if they wanted help, then proceeding to forget the pattern she previously cracked.

A little while later we were called inside and gathered around the table to eat Osechi Ryori, Japanese New Year's food. Yoshiko and Shinichi kindly offered me some smooth sake which complimented this delicious meal. Each piece of food in the colorful box set has its own meaning to bring forth good fortune to different aspects of life. I had fun asking everyone what the meaning of each piece was prior to giving it a try. My favorite pieces from the meal were the kazunoko (Herring Roe), kuromame (Black beans topped with edible gold leafs), and tatsukuri (Dried, sweetened baby sardines). These foods are said to bring forth fertility, health, and bounty respectively. Since Yuki's family is based in Osaka, we were also served the Kansai region's version of ozoni, a New Year's mochi soup. This soup had a unique grainy earthy taste due to the the combination of different root vegetables, white miso, and mochi.

While working through this beautiful box set, I picked up one of the processed ginkgo nuts and before I could give it a try, Yoshiko quickly rose from her chair to welcome me out to the garden to pick the same nuts right off their tree. I reached for the first one I saw and Yoshiko insisted, "No, no, go for the bigger ones!" We popped them into our mouths and my face twisted a little at the bitter taste. Yoshiko had the biggest grin on her face and slowly walked back to her spot at the head of the table. I was thankful that she was willing to go out of her way to share that experience with me. The nut from the box was waiting for me back at the table, its sweet taste was completely different from the raw version. Later, I found out interestingly enough that these nuts can cause acute poisoning when ingested in larger quantities. Neat!

Once we were done eating, we took some group pictures (The first photo in this post), bid Yoshiko farewell, and left for Yuki's family apartment complex where we would be staying for the next couple of days. At the complex, we grouped up with Yuki's sister Natsuki, Natsuki's partner Keita, along with their children Arina, Yuina, and Kanna.

We embarked for Hastumode, which is the tradition of visiting a shrine during the start of the new year to pray for g ood fortune. It felt bizarre to see it PACKED when two years ago we visited the same shrine for Arina celebrating Shinichi-Go-San and it was absolutely empty. The line itself spilled outside of the shrine area and wrapped around the surrounding streets. Our plan was to pray at the shrine the next day so we steadily made progress visiting the stalls alongside the line that led up to the shrine at a leisurely pace.

There were all sorts of stands you would expect to see at a festival but with unique food, games, and merchandise local to Japan. My favorite stand was probably the Jaga-bata stand which sold steamed salted potatoes with a small lump of butter. Simple, but perfect on a cold winter day.

We stopped by the bathrooms and had a little break there by the benches enjoying our Jaga-bata when suddenly I started feeling an odd and disorientated. My body was wobbling back and forth and after looking up and seeing other faces of concern I realized it was an earthquake. Earthquakes happen all the time in Japan, mostly minor ones that can't be felt, but this one had the locals commenting on it which made me feel uneasy. Those comments were mostly on the fact that it felt strong and carried on for a longer duration than normal. Eventually things settled down and everyone continued their business as normal. We later found out about the unfortunate details of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake while watching the news over dinner that night.

The next day we returned to the shrine and slowly worked our way through the long line. Maybe after an hour we finally made it to the front where we prayed at the shrine through offering a monetary tribute, bowing, clapping, praying, and then concluding with a bow.

After praying at the shrine we drew our fortunes, I think I received one of the best outcomes after reading the kanji 大吉, Dai-Kichi, which means great blessing. Yuki drew a curse, but what is fun about those curses is that you can knot the paper slip around these wooden fences to avoid the curse and entrust your fortune to the gods. Yuki's sister Natsuki also gifted me a lucky charm as a welcoming gift which was so thoughtful and appreciated. We then worked our way towards the exit, stopping by some new and repeat food stalls on the way out.

That night we relaxed at home and enjoyed each other's company over some delicious Shabu-shabu! We placed the vegetables into the boiling pot of dashi broth and swished thin cuts of beef inside the broth before dipping the meat into our sauce bowls containing Ponzu, a citrus based sauce, and Gome Dare, a creamy sesame sauce.

Following that 10/10 dinner, Shinichi and Yuki helped me find a night bus to Tokyo for the following evening. Originally, I planned on taking the Shinkansen, a bullet train, back to Tokyo since there are usually seats that do not require a reservation that are available for purchase on the day of. My teacher told me all these seats had changed to reserved seats only and were all sold out so we searched online for alternative ways to get back to Tokyo which is how we ended up looking for a night bus.

The next morning Yuki's family taught me some interesting Japanese phrases like 住めば都 (sumebamiyako, a place that you came to like after living there) and 烏の行水(karasunogyouzui, used to describe someone who showers fast like a crow) as well as some Kansai region dialect differences over breakfast. Shinichi remembered seeing a book filled with interesting expressions like these at a local mall so we decided to set out on a quest to find that book. This quest led us to Kinokuniya, a famous Japanese bookstore chain, where Shinichi ended up gifting me a book on Japanese onomatopoeias based on Yuki's strong suggestion that this book would serve me better in the near future.

With our book quest complete, we returned home and spent the remaining time together hanging out playing games, watching anime, and briefly meeting with Yuki's cousin's family that came to visit for the holidays as well. I particularly enjoyed the kids coming up with wacky strategies to get through the difficult levels of the new Mario game they were working through. It was also neat coming full circle and being the hero to the kids like my dad was for our family when we were struggling through levels on the Sega Genesis as kids.

Before I knew it, our time together in Osaka came to an end and I started preparing for the journey back to Tokyo via night bus. Shinichi treated us out to a nearby conveyer belt sushi restaurant and humbly denied my several attempts to pay. We then took the family car to downtown Osaka where the night bus was scheduled to take off. Yuki's family went out of their way and waited patiently with me until the bus arrived and waved me off on my way to Tokyo.

I truly have a great sense of gratitude and respect towards Yuki's family who were kind enough to open their hearts and home to me. I'm still thinking of the right way to pay that kindness back and forward.

For those wondering how the night bus went... it was rough but served its purpose. The 8 hour ride was a series of fading in and out of sleep due to the cold breeze sweeping through bus door left open at each rest stop followed by the smell of freshly smoked cigarettes. For future reference, I found out later from my teacher that she was actually previously mistaken and there were some seats available on the Shinkansen. Oh well, it was still a unique experience!

Finally, I had arrived back in Tokyo and was eager to start the next chapter... more to come on that in the next post!

Well, this post ended up being longer than I expected it to be, but thanks for sticking it out to the end! Feel free to sign up below to get a notification for when my next post goes live. If you have any recommendations, questions, tips, or stories to share, shoot me a message here! See you next time! またね！