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Overseas vacationers in Japan is an excessively widespread sight nowadays and I’ve been lucky to satisfy up with a good few buddies, members of the family and different such contacts in latest occasions. 20 years in the past although it was very totally different and guests actually have been fairly uncommon. I had only a few guests in these early years however my two sisters thought they’d higher reap the benefits of me being in Japan as they’d perhaps by no means get one other probability as soon as I left after doing a yr or two of instructing English!!
Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa
Beforehand they have been a little bit apprehensive about whether or not I’d truly plan something and thought we’d simply be losing time sitting round in my tiny condominium in Matsudo (Chiba Prefecture)! If solely! What truly resulted was a reasonably brutal schedule the place we have been out all day day-after-day travelling round Tokyo and fairly far past!
Not solely that nevertheless it was Euro 2004 and so all of us bought up within the early hours to observe England in a few video games. My small condominium was positioned 20 minutes on foot from the closest station that means that it was solely actually handy for sleeping and having a bathe within the tiny unit-bathroom. My eldest sister Ruth introduced a yoga roll mat along with her (I nonetheless have it!) to sleep on the ground while I used to be on the couch subsequent to her. My older sister Lorna introduced her pretty new boyfriend Stuart (now husband) along with her they usually got my luxurious loft-style bed room which was accessed by a ladder.
I had needed to go to a few of the sights we went to however held again to expertise them collectively for the primary time after they arrived. They have been flying in from England and Australia respectively on Sunday thirteenth June and I went to Narita Airport to satisfy them however I made a deadly mistake. I can’t bear in mind precisely however perhaps I disembarked at Narita station as an alternative of Narita Airport after which needed to wait an hour for the subsequent practice which meant I used to be late for assembly them. Not the perfect begin with a busy day hanging over us. It was then straight again to my condominium to mainly throw their luggage in and head off for his or her first style of Japanese tradition…
Day 1: There weren’t too many requests for issues to do however one among them was to see some sumo wrestling. Fortunately there was a sumo elimination event on at Ryogoku Kokugikan Nationwide Sumo Area. I had been to gather some tickets from the venue earlier that week and we arrived mid-afternoon to see the ultimate few hours of motion which was enough sufficient to fulfill everybody’s urge for food. I do plan to go once more sooner or later however for now that is nonetheless the one stay sumo motion I’ve seen!
We met up afterwards with my then-girlfriend and went for dinner at a Japanese type restaurant in Akihabara adopted by karaoke. Each of my sisters are vegetarians so I do not know what they ate right here or certainly for a lot of the journey as Japan may be very a lot a meat and fish consuming nation!
Day 2: A day of Tokyo’s most well-known sights awaited us starting at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa adopted by a Sumida river cruise right down to Hama Rikyu Gardens. Imperial Palace was subsequent earlier than we had some chill-out time in Hibiya Park the place I feel all of us fell asleep! That should’ve been some sight for any passers by to see 4 overseas folks getting some a lot wanted shut-eye! Harajuku and Shibuya have been our closing locations for rounding off the day.
Day 3: On paper this appeared like the best of days because it consisted of simply Tokyo Disneyland which was pretty conveniently positioned immediately on the Musashino line from my condominium. I don’t assume I used to be ever anticipating to do to Disneyland earlier than their arrival however I feel it was advised as none of us had ever been to such a spot and needed to expertise it. The principle factor my eldest sister remembers is me practising my Japanese with some younger guffawing ladies within the queue for a trip. Cringe! These have been totally different occasions although!
Day 4: The conveyor-belt tourism path at Hakone was the subsequent huge day-trip which concerned utilizing a number of types of transport (practice, bus, ship, ropeway and many others) to circumnavigate the realm in a clockwise style. Mount Fuji was one thing all of us needed to see as I used to be nonetheless but to put me eyes on it correctly. Sadly, it was a cloudy day although and we might solely see a quite faint define of it.
We could not have seen the enduring mountain from Lake Ashi however we have been capable of see another nice views, and bought to expertise consuming some black eggs!
Day 5: Yet one more day journey with this one to Kamakura. My reminiscence is pretty sketchy however I feel we took a mountaineering path between Jochij-ji Temple (stopping for candy mochi balls alongside the way in which!) and the Nice Buddha at Kotoku-in.
The bookmark-style ticket for the Nice Buddha did turn out to be one thing of legend for us as we continued to check one another on the historical past info (peak, weight, date constructed, incidents and many others) on the again for the remainder of the journey, and even past! I’m unsure how this all began however perhaps it was as a result of Stuart was all the time studying this info!
I’m unsure why we stopped by to go searching Yokohama on the way in which again however we did. Positive, it’s an ideal metropolis nevertheless it’s not precisely important when on such restricted time. The sight of many merchandising machines in a row was a cool one.
Karate Child crane-kick poses within the harbour is a fairly unusual alternative. I can solely guess that these Nineteen Eighties motion pictures have been our most important supply of Japanese tradition again then!
Day 6: I feel my eldest sister left within the morning to fly again residence to Australia while Lorna, Stuart and I went to Odaiba earlier than returning to Asakusa once more.
Fuji TV Constructing in Odaiba
It was again to work for me the next day while Lorna and Stuart took the bullet practice to Kyoto for just a few days which included staying in a monastery of some sort. They returned six days later for yet another night time at mine. Because it turned out, my sisters visiting me wasn’t fairly the once-in-a-lifetime opportuity they thought it might be! My older sister hasn’t been again since however my eldest sister has returned along with her household twice since then in 2015 and 2023. When the subsequent time might be I actually don’t know!
Click on right here to learn ‘My Eldest Sister’s Household Got here To Japan & Spent Christmas At Our Place’
Click on right here to learn ‘My Mother and father Got here To Go to Us In Japan For The first Time In 7 Years!’
Click on right here to learn ‘TF Flashback: Christmas In Australia (2001)’
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