Japan with the Normans, April, 2025

We met up with the Norman-Banerjee clan Japan this year for spring break. David and Sally had been wanting to return, basically since their last visit their 6 years ago. The Norman fam was keen to go, and our breaks lined up, so all the pieces fell into place!

I was really impressed by Japan. It was clean, efficient, filled with free and clean public restrooms (all with wonderfully fancy toilets, nonetheless), and the people were really friendly. Speaking of people, there were so many. Between the masses of humans and the fact that truly everything was so different than what I am used to, the trip was definitely sensory overload.

We arrived on Sunday into a rainy day. We started with some food at the All Day Cafe just near our apartment. Not only was the food excellent, but the staff made David’s day by asking how long we had lived here (because his Japanese was so good!). Sally and I had to use google translate on my phone to figure out how to flush the toilet, which was a funny way to kick off the trip. Finally, when we left the entire staff (well, there were only 3 of them, but still) stood at the doorway and waved and yelled goodbye until we were out of sight down the street. It was quite a welcome!

Next we stopped to pick up some groceries, marveling over the myriad choices so different from what we’d see at home, and using google translate to figure out what everything was. As we were paying, we met up with the Normans…it’d been almost a year since seeing Sue and Chad, and 15 months since seeing Eva and Will so they had really grown up! We walked back to the apartment (with a lovely view of the Tokyo Skytree down the street) and settled in, having fun exploring all the rooms, including the traditional dining room w/ tatami mats and a low chabudai table.

The day wrapped up with dinner at a conveyer belt sushi place nearby. The kids were seated at a distant table, so we had a good chance to catch up. Between ordering on an iPad and grabbing things off the conveyer, it was quite an experience! Also ridiculously cheap given that we seemed to take in endless amounts of plates.

Monday morning we headed out to explore Tokyo. I’d read about avoiding rush hour, so we waited to navigate the trains until after rush hour. We started at the Meiji Jingu shrine, where we had a peaceful stroll in the woods, with leaves and cherry blossoms falling all around, and meandering through the display of sake and whisky barrel offerings. It was hard to believe were in the middle of the largest city in the world. At this shrine, and it turns out pretty much all of them, you could put in a small amount of yen to get your fortune (shake a box, a stick comes out with a number, then choose that number from the little wooden drawers on the wall, and read your fortune), which was fun.

For lunch we headed towards the Shibuya district and randomly had pizza, again ordered by iPad. Here we met up with a local friend of Chad’s (from his China teaching days), Jeff, who was delighted to show us around. We explored the Harajuku district and Takeshita street (made extra famous by Gwen Stefani), where there were endless shops with cute little knickknacks, women and girls everywhere in the babydoll outfits, and stores filled with coin-operated vending machines selling every cutesy little toy you can imagine. We even saw our first (and second) cat cafés (sadly (?) the capybara café was all booked up!).

We made our way to the Shibuya Scramble crossing (as featured in many films, including Lost in Translation), the busiest intersection in the world, with an estimated 3000 people crossing at each change of the lights (and 2.4 million per day!). Jeff pointed out the Hachiko Dog statue (loyal dog waited for his deceased owner at the train station every day for 9 years), which was flogged by tourists and tours. The funny thing about shopping with Sally and Eva was that everything was tiny so the adult size clothes fit our 11/12-year-olds!

After that chaos, we went to the Teamlabs Borderless immersive art exhibit. It reminded me strongly of the Immersive art exhibit Sally and Tamara and I enjoyed last summer in London…and still very cool! 

Following that, we travelled through the beautiful embassy district to briefly re-coop at Jeff’s apartment, where Chad and Will were intrigued by his very old katana. He lived adjacent to Tokyo Skyview tower, where I had booked tickets to watch the sunset. The timing worked out perfectly and we could even see Mt. Fuji!

Finally, we had a fancy teppanyaki dinner, where poor Will fell asleep but the adults (and even Sally) thoroughly loved it. Unlike in the U.S., there were no onion volcanoes or shrimp in hats, but just serious cooking. 

Tuesday started with a lovely stroll to the Tokyo Skytree. It was a very windy day so the were koinobori (fish windsocks) and cherry blossoms put on quite a show. The line was long but very efficient and the elevator was terrifyingly fast. The top treated us to great views again of this massive city, and even glass floor to nauseate yourself!

Afterward, we had delicious Indian food for lunch (and of course soft serve for those who like it), and did some shopping in the Skytree mall. Fun stores included the salt store (fun sampling, but didn’t need to buy - who knew there was specific salt for each type of food??), a knife store (it called David’s name), Sanrio shops (Sally was in heaven), customized chopsticks of every possible type, a perfume shop (maybe Eva’s favorite?), and a shop full of life-like fake food (so weird). 

Then Sue, Chad, the girls, and I took a train to the Tokyo National Museum because I thought we should see at least one museum of cultural significance while in Tokyo (and the Yayoi Kusama gallery Sally really wanted to go to because she learned about the artist in school was closed!), which was relatively boring. The internet had said the must-see site was the National Treasure room, which literally was a massive room containing only one tiny book in a display case.

Then Sue and I sent girls back with Chad, and we walked around the Asakusa district and Senso-ji temple, which was gorgeous and particularly charming since it was the first temple I’d seen, and first exposure to the many women in kimonos. It took me a little while to realize that the majority of them were rented!

We decided we’d like a cocktail so we stopped at the Not Suspicious bar, which was a truly quirky hole in the wall, definitely catering to tourists. It is an interesting cultural difference that in pretty much every town in Europe, it’s almost too easy to find a cute spot to have a drink—the streets are literally lined with them—but here we actually had to search for a bar on google maps.

That night we went back for conveyer belt sushi one more time, then the adults went to very mysterious (yet smoky) whiskey bar with no menu and a relatively nonverbal barman. 

On Wednesday I started with a little walk around Tokyo solo, stumbling upon a backyard fish nurseryand sweet little temple called Kofuku-ji tucked under the massive freeway. Then we all took the high speed train to Kyoto. It was a really clear day and we had n the way we had incredible views of Mount Fuji. The train conductors and attendants bow each time they come in and out of the cars, and again we ordered snacks via the phone!

After checking into our house (a more traditional yet modern, small home, with a stunning slate tub that all the kids enjoyed!), we walked through Nishinokyoikenouchicho Market and then enjoyed a traditional tea ceremony. The hostess was lovely and showed us the process, and explained the history a little. Then we each made our own matcha tea, making sure to slurp at the end. 

Afterwards, I found another beautiful little temple (they’re seemingly everywhere in Kyoto!) called Imashinzaikenishicho, which had a cool tree branch that resembled a dragon. That night we had dinner at a nearby noodle place, where Sally had “make your own fried rice” at the table.

On Thursday we took the bus to Konkani-ji (the Golden Pavilion), where we loved seeing the stunning golden phoenix-topped temple, huge carp, and beautiful butterflies, while eating chewy bean sweets and matcha soft serve w/ real golden flakes.

Afterwards we checked out a print shop then had a delightful traditional lunch seated on the floor. In the afternoon, Sue, Sally and I navigated the bus to Nijo-ji castle, walked the grounds (stunning cherry blossoms and great view of the city from the castle walls), and toured inside the castle. Highlights indoors were the nightingale hallway (intentionally beautifully squeaky floors to alert the residents to the presence of intruders) and the beautiful wall images, including very strange tigers meant to strike fear in the hearts of the shogun’s guests (however the artist had only ever seen a tiger’s skin, so made up the rest and they were funky looking, and one had a leopard cub!).

While we toured the castle, the others went to Samurai training, which they enjoyed immensely!

Afterwards, we walked through the Higashiyama (older) district, which was very charming and what I had sort of expected Kyoto to be like. So many people (men and women) were dressed in kimonos (theirs or rental), posing with cherry blossoms and shrines.

The last bit up the hill to meet up with the others at Kiyomizu-dera Temple was almost comically crowded. There we explored the temple, rang the gong, the kids lifted items to show their strength, we took in the gorgeous views, and David, Sally, and I drank the sacred water together. David and Sally had been here with his mom last time, so it was special to revisit it together.

That night, we left the kids home with pizza and went out for noodles, then could not find an open bar (or at least an open bar that would take us foreigners in - a couple said “we are closed” or “we are full” even though that was clearly untrue!).

On Friday the families split up for the day. David, Sally, and I first went to to Sanjusangen-do (1000 buddhas). This was another spot David, his mother, and Sally had visited last time, and it really touched David. It was a beautiful spot and an impressive site to see 1000 [each very slightly different] buddhas lined up, protecting one big central buddha (no photos allowed). We had a relaxing stroll around the peaceful Japanese garden (of course) grounds afterwards.

We popped to a nearby “Italian” restaurant for lunch, which was great (open-air to the street, fast service) but also funny because it reminded me that we we serve as Japanese food in the US is probably also often strange amalgamation of Americanized “Italian” food. 

Next we headed to the very popular Fushimi-Inari-taisha shrine complex with the 1,000 Senbon Torii gates (with a quick detour as we got on the wrong train and headeFushimi-Inari-taisha shrine complexd towards Osaka!). These were gorgeous but really too crowded. It is possible to climb the mountain through all the gates, which would be fun if we had been prepared for it. We treated ourselves to delicious icy strawberry treats afterwards (it was quite a warm day) and then David headed back to rest and Sally and I met up with Normans at the expansive Nichiki market.

I’ve never seen so many shops, all in a covered set of streets, and packed wall to wall with people. There was seafood of every imaginable (and unimaginable!) type, matcha-flavored everything, bean paste-filled everything, etc. Chad and I tried some cherry blossom sake (strangely did taste a bit like cherry blossoms) and in the end I got Sally a mango boba from Wendy’s! 

That night we had takeout for dinner (enjoying our traditional dining area) and then the adults went to a shmancy bar in a 5-star hotel nearby to finish up the trip with fabulous drinks (and gorgeous huge globoid ice cubes!). 

Saturday we reversed our trip to Tokyo, said our goodbyes, and undertook the 31+ hour trip home, full of gratitude for the ability to do these trips with such amazing friends. The views of the rice paddies were particularly stunning on the train/flight home, though we never saw them in person during the trip.

 Other funny things I want to remember about Japan - I was thrilled to catch the cherry blossoms (moreso in Kyoto than Tokyo), which I had thought would be finished. 

I love that you get hot towels before every meal but do miss having soap and towels in the bathrooms or napkins literally anywhere. Kyoto and Tokyo were like night and day, with one main similarity - PEOPLE. Otherwise, they were so different - Kyoto looks like it is stuck in 1983 while Tokyo looks like you’ve landed in 2050. We calculated that Ireland has 4% the population of Japan, and 25% the landmass. With most of Japan living in Tokyo, it’s no wonder it felt so crowded! If I were to go back, I’d love to check out the smaller towns (e.g., Nara, Nikkō, Kamakura, Osaka) or the outdoors activities.