Last time I went back to Japan in the spring time was about 5 years ago when my son was really small. We were really excited to go back in spring again hoping to catch sakura (cherry blossom) blooming while we visit.
After cold winters in Japan, the Japanese look forward to every sign of spring. We have a special fascination toward sakura as they only bloom for several days in a year and we’re lucky if they even last one week. Spring weather is very unpredictable so strong wind or rain could shorten the time of flower viewing. It would be very meaningful for us to see sakura blooming as it’s usually hit or miss when visiting Japan in the spring. This year it was a particularly cold winter in Japan that sakura didn’t start blooming yet even if April had arrived. When we first arrived in Tokyo area, sakura has just started to bloom.
After 10+ hours of flight from San Francisco to Narita (Tokyo), I was home. I lived in Japan until I was 20, so I still consider Japan as my home. The next morning after we arrived, we decided to go to our nearest subway station, which is about 10-minute walk from my home.
As you see from our clothes, it was still cold, much colder than San Francisco. By the way, I usually don’t show my kids pictures on my blog, but I really don’t have many pictures that do not include my kids… so my husband and I have decided to share some pictures of my family. That’s my son who will be 6 next month and my daughter just turned 4 this month.
Here, we have a subway station behind us, and there are a department store and shopping mall on the left. Usually all the office buildings and restaurants are very nearby stations as well. Sometimes the department stores are built directly on top of the stations.
In our neighborhood, we have all kinds of restaurants including my husband’s favorite Yakitori restaurant that we always go to. Not to mention, there is ToysRUs where my kids go crazy for Japanese toys, Starbucks to try out special drinks only available in Japan, Mister Donuts (my husband’s favorite junk food store), Baskin Robins…
Until kids were born, I’ve never realized how convenient my neighborhood was for the family life. I used to go to downtown Yokohama or Tokyo for shopping or meeting with friends. But after having kids, life is pretty comfortable around here. There is no need for us to get on a train and get squashed by the crowd. Not to mention, super crowded city (Yokohama has 3.6 million people) could be quite scary for kids who didn’t grow up in this crowded country. My kids are not used to navigating in the crowd and it probably doesn’t enter their mind that there are millions of people around them and they could be easily lost in the crowds.
Japanese neighborhoods are typically built around the stations, not around the highways like the US. A lot of signs you see for houses on sell or any advertisement always refers to the walking time to the nearest station. Around stations, they are usually surrounded by shopping areas and then residential areas. Below is Japan Railway (JR) map around Tokyo/Yokohama area. Yes, this is just around Tokyo area…
(click here to see details)
Back to my neighborhood, one morning after we check out cool Japanese toys in ToysRUs, we stopped by a Tonkatsu restaurant inside the shopping mall that my husband always needs to go every time we visit. I can make pretty decent Tonkatsu, but 1,200 yen for a Tokatsu set lunch is a pretty good deal. You can also have as much as the cabbage salad with ponzu dressing, rice, and clam miso soup refill as you want.
Between eating and sleeping, we usually take the kids to the park so that they will recover from jet lag quickly. In California, we always drive everywhere. It’s actually really nice to walk around the neighborhood and take in the fresh air.
My home is only about 40-50 minutes away from Tokyo (Shibuya Station) yet we have lots of greens around the neighborhood. There are lots of nicely paved walkways everywhere that kids can safely walk without worrying about cars. It was a great exercise everyday to walk, walk, walk…
Here, instead of going to take lots of pictures of foods and sceneries of Tokyo & Yokohama for my readers, I was in the suburb finding tad poles with my kids. LOL!
If you wonder about the pictures on my travel posts, most of the photos you see during my trip are taken by my husband. I’m usually with the kids, so he takes pictures. I have to mention up front because my husband and I really need to work on our ability to take indoor pictures, especially when it’s dark. Here’s our dinner at Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) restaurant one night.
Obviously the photographer was way too busy eating and I see only first few pictures of 3 kinds of meat, and then it jumps to a dessert (yuzu sorbet) picture… I think you started to worry about my Japan trip pictures! This yakiniku restaurant is another one that we always go to every time we go back home to Japan. The meat just needs to be grilled for about 10-15 seconds on each side and then they just melts in your mouth. Even when we buy the best rib eye from Snake River Farm in the US, there is just no comparison to high end Japanese beef.
Like I mentioned earlier, if your home is in a big city, public transportation is very convenient. One of the great things about life in Japan is that even after a big meal you have to walk, without a choice. It’s very expensive to own a car in Japan. The parking can be one issue as you might need to pay for it. When going out, hourly parking varies between $6-$10 an hour and gas is about $8-9 dollars a gallon. A lot of times it just makes sense to walk and utilize public transportation due to the cost.
The benefit of taking public transportation is not only just eco-friendly and healthy, but also you get to enjoy small pleasures such as seeing sakura at night under the moon.
On the day we left for Kobe to attend my best friend’s wedding, sakura trees near my neighborhood started to bloom more all the sudden.
From Yokohama to Kobe, we took Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train). Both of my kids had been on it many times before, but they still love this fast train. Living in the US, we rarely take trains to go places. Sometimes for fun we would take the train a few stations to get ice cream or snacks in a different town, but the experience is just not the same.
My favorite part of train ride is of course eating lunch box inside the train. Japanese stations have many bento stores providing travelers lots of choices to Japanese style bentos. Some of the train stations carry bentos that have local ingredients. Our picks included: temari sushi bento, Maisen’s tonkatsu sandwich, and classic Japanese bento with salmon and shrimp tempura. All the bento are served at room temperature.
When you are traveling on Shinkansen around Shizuoka area, you may be able to enjoy viewing Mt. Fuji from the window if the weather is permits. Depending on the season and weather, it is sometimes hard to find the mountain. Here, we were unlucky – the clouds covered most of the top.
Next week I’ll be sharing my short trip to Kobe and Osaka. Thank you so much for reading!
Continue reading Vol. 2 of Japan Trip 2012.
Nami,
How I miss Japan!! It’s a country that I love and want to go back again and again! I love the food, the people and everything!!!
Nami, after reading your post, i could’nt wait to visit Japan and one day i also like to go on purpose to see sakura only!! and I like the sakura photos at night, look awesome! and nice meeting you and your two kids, girl is pretty and boy is smart, you are lucky mom, Nami..hehehe..
Hey Nami! Looks like you and your family had lots of fun 🙂
I would love to visit Japan one day but I would probably hire a taxi to explore around because the sub way system is too mind boggling.. hehe
Great post!
How gorgeous!! I have never been to Japan before (airport does NOT count) and so want to go! The food looks amazing…simply amazing! How fun to go with your family.
looks like you had a wonderful time! can’t wait to hear more about your trip.
Nami, I loved this post a lot!! I love learning about countries I have not visited. My brother lived in Japan for 2-3 years when he was in the air force back in the late 80’s. I have a lot of porcelain figurines from there and I always said I will go there someday. Someday I will actually see this beautiful country you have so lovingly photographed for us. Amazing photos and I love your cute kids. Our kids are very similar in age… mine are about 1 year older than both of them. 🙂
The pictures of the blossoms under the moon light is so beautiful! and your kids are just so adorable! >w<
Thank you for this, i love Japan and I can’t wait to go back there (my husband goes often, I wish I could go to!!!) maybe for Hanami, or any season would do really!!!
Ciao
Alessandra
Awesome post! I love Japan. We often make our family trip to Japan, usu. Tokyo/Osaka…that’s because the major theme parks are there..hahaha..esp. Tokyo Disneyland and it’s my son’s fave theme park! I know the subway system is mind boggling to me and so complicated! i always get confused looking at it..the good thing is we somehow still managed to travel around on our own with the subway..lol..and to Disneyland too. 🙂 PS: I had to do a maths sum before being able to post this? Testing my maths skill or what? LOL!
Nicely taken photos and a very informative write up. Lovely photos of you and the kids…they are gorgeous! Looks like they had a good time exploring new places. I’d love to go one day…so many interesting things to see there. I’ll probably go crazy at Toysrus too, more than the kids! And what a treat to be able to enjoy the nice bentos, on the train! I think if I went to Japan, I would be very lost since I don’t know the language….LOL! I forsee that I’d probably end up eating cup noodles or fast food everyday 🙂
Japan is so close to the Philippines but I’ve never been there. Well if connecting flights to Manila is considered then I’ve been there many times already haha!
I love the pictures that you just shared. They are so adorable and the scenes are so pristine so serene.. I’m falling in love with Japan already haha.
Thanks for taking me to Japan Nami. I hope to one day finally get out of Narita or Nagoya for that metter and explore Japan.
I love the Sakura in moonlight photo….Its gorgeous
The train lines and system seems complicated… I am lost by just looking at it 😉
So happy to read your Japan post n that you and family had a wonderful time there 🙂
One day…. just hope one day I am able to experience Sakura 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing. You really make me crave for the food I had when I visited Japan many years ago. 🙂 Your kids are adorable.
You live in a nice neighborhood. I especially love all the greens and walkway available near by. BY the way, that sakura at night under the moon is gorgeous! I’ve never seen the blooming of sakura before, not in real person. Hm…maybe I should plan my vacation to Japan next Spring. 🙂 I look forward to reading the next part of your trip.
Namiko – I really enjoyed this post about your trip! 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
Adorable pictures. The Japanese cherry blossoms are really famous and beautiful. I remember seeing those in a famous Indian film that was shot in Japan as a child. Thanks for sharing all this with us, Nami.