The Return: Japan 2024

The yasukuni-dori, same view for the last 20 years

Until today, the last time this blog featured a post about Japan was in 2019, about a trip I took in 2017. Hard to believe that much time has passed since I’ve been to Japan. I was planning to go in 2020, but the pandemic delayed me. When the country finally opened back up to tourists in 2022, work obligations prevented me from going. I kept putting it off—until one day, in December 2023, I said enough and planned a six-day solo trip to Tokyo.

I picked a random week in April, when the flights were decent and I could get a full weekend in Tokyo. I booked my hotel that same night and paid in yen. Once both reservations were made - so suddenly, without asking anyone for permission or approval or advice...the trip became final.

These next few posts will be about my solo return to Japan, after seven years and a decade after living there. So much has changed, which is remarkable for a city that seldom changes and still has all the landmarks I remember from when I was in high school, twenty years ago.

---

From my diary, April 16th, 2024, on the JAL flight:

I meant to write something else in this entry. Something about returns.

I haven’t been back to Japan since 2017. I haven’t been there alone in a decade. Something feels right about this trip and its timing. Something feels right about me going alone. I’ve gotten used to traveling alone—since I’ve done so often for work these days. But this time feels different. It should feel different. This is not a trip someone forced me to go on. I am not here for work. I am here for me. I chose this.

Four months ago, on December 12th, just days before I started to fast, I was sitting on the couch with my partner. I was sick and tired of complaining about how much I miss Japan and how we’ll go there soon, soon, soon, this year, next year. It was all talk. I was tired of waiting. Tired of waiting for my friends to get back to me. Tired of waiting for work to lighten up. Tired of trying to plan around my daughter's school or partner's work.

I looked a few months out, found a week when she’d be in school and I wouldn’t have work travel nearby, and I booked it. The airfare and the hotel, because those had to be done right away. And now I am eight hours away from landing in Tokyo. I can’t believe it. Soon I will see my friend and be eating my beloved kaisendon. Ten years since I left.

I return to the same places because that is how I measure what a different person I am. What a different person the place is. We meet each other again as changed entities.

My first cocktail, within 3 hours of landing