“You know what I’ve been missing?” I thought the other day. “Just running around Tokyo with Charlotte, taking photos, reels, or whatever other content I can use for my socials.”

Yeah, that still sounds kind of pathetic to some millennial ears, but as a writer and autism spokesperson, I regularly need to submit a photo of myself somewhere. I manage the publication of my English translations myself, so I also have to promote those, and social media is the best place for that. Long story short: I need content.

– “But I could just do that, right?” I thought back to myself. “I could just buy Charlotte a ticket and fly her over!”

Now, I don’t have a money tree, so I can’t just keep flying all my friends and acquaintances over whenever I feel like it. But here’s how I looked at it: A photoshoot for headshots can easily cost 450 euros. I know, because that’s what I usually charge myself. This time, though, I’d be the one in front of the camera, and Charlotte would be holding the makeup brush and camera, after I’d set up all the settings. Anyway, one shoot is worth about 450 euros. Three shoots? That’s 1,350… And wouldn’t you know, that’s roughly the price of a plane ticket! So, for the cost of three shoots, I could fly Charlotte over. Free vacation for her, and a bunch of fresh content for me.

_{Before anyone thinks I’m totally exploiting Charlotte: She’s a close friend, first and foremost. You can’t do paid work for a Japanese client – meaning me – without a visa (but of course, I can still invite a friend/business associate), and besides the photoshoots, we traveled around, ate snacks, and had a great time. She stayed with me, and we made content for her too. She thought it was a pretty sweet deal, and honestly, I just missed her.}

She came for a week. Thursday morning, I picked her up from Narita Airport, and to keep things simple, I booked a hotel for us in Narita City for that first day. I’d heard about the Naritasan temple complex from several friends, so we decided to check it out. There’s a separate travel blog coming on that later, but wow, I can already tell you it’s definitely worth a visit. That Thursday, we immediately set out to scout locations, and the next day, we went all out with kimonos and everything. It was 36 degrees, and at one point, sweat was literally dripping off my face, but luckily, those Japanese fans are super stylish too.

Friday afternoon, we took the train from Narita to my place. It was over a 2-hour ride, but I used the time to put together my first reel. Oh no, actually my second one—I’d already posted the first one from my hotel room the day before. Charlotte had brought the Italian version of my book, which had been sent by the Italians to my publisher in the Netherlands. I hadn’t seen the book in person before, so that was awesome! Of course, I tried to read a bit of it, but I don’t know…

Saturday afternoon, we visited Sagamiko: an idyllic lake with pedal boats and a large dam, just a 20-minute train ride from my place. I had been there three times before, but Charlotte had never been. For the occasion, I bought a somewhat over-the-top dress: a poofy princess gown that I scored on Vinted for €80, to be delivered to Riemer. Riemer then handed the dress over to Charlotte, who brought it in her suitcase. François (who was with us to help out that day) asked the pedal boat guy if it was okay to take pictures, and since Sagamiko is usually pretty deserted, it wasn’t a problem at all. I plopped down into a pedal boat, ready to shoot.

Even though they had originally forecast cold temperatures and rain for the whole week, it was once again 36 degrees. The dress was sticking to me from all sides, so by the time we arrived at family restaurant Gusto for a plate of pasta after sunset, Charlotte helped me out of the dress in the bathroom. The dress was quite the spectacle, but I was happy to go back to my old self again.

We had decided to take it easy on Sunday. Charlotte wanted to go to the thrift store, and I’m never going to say no to that. We walked to the Off-House near my place, where Charlotte stocked up on a pile of new clothes, a gorgeous kimono (okay, that’s also clothing), and some cute kawaii goodies. Sadly, the plush ice cream from Baskin Robbins had to stay behind—it wouldn’t fit in the suitcase anymore.

Monday and Tuesday, we had a little trip planned: we were going to Mt. Fuji. Well, not actually climbing it or anything—we’ll leave that to others. No, we were headed to a hotel in Fujiyoshida with a view of the magnificent mountain. At least… that was the idea. When we arrived, it was completely cloudy, and Fujisan was nowhere to be seen. So, we grabbed a Starbucks at the FujiQ theme park instead.

FujiQ Highland was just one train stop away from our hotel, and I remembered you could enter for free if you get an access-only ticket. You have to pay separately for the rides, but we weren’t interested in those anyway. Charlotte wanted to take photos in the Naruto village, and I just wanted to drink iced tea and eat a scone. “I miss just sitting in a Starbucks with you,” Charlotte had said over the phone weeks earlier. Now here we were, in Japan, at the foot of Mt. Fuji, sitting in a Starbucks. Brainstorming and catching up.

We walked to the famous street where you can take stunning photos of Mt. Fuji—if you can actually see it, that is. This time, we saw nothing, but that didn’t stop a group of Chinese tourists (you know, the ones led by a guide holding a flag on a stick) from standing right in the middle of the street to take photos. Much to the frustration of the traffic officer stationed at the intersection to prevent exactly this. We decided to leave and come back at a quieter time. There was still no sign of Fuji, but… we had brought our own Fuji with us anyway.

That evening, we grabbed some snacks from the convenience store and relaxed at the hotel. The rooms had a smart TV, so after logging out the clueless tourist who had been using it before me, I signed into my own YouTube account. We watched a documentary about the filming locations of Harry Potter, followed by a vlog from Life in Japan. To stay on theme, we watched the episode where Ruth climbs Mt. Fuji with two friends. Meanwhile, we stuck to eating Pino ice cream in the hotel bed.

_{And yes, I did log out that same night.}

On Tuesday, our last day in Fujiyoshida and also Charlotte’s last day before heading home, we rented bikes. Our hotel offered them, and it seemed like the perfect way to get from Lake Kawaguchiko to the Off-House (thrift store) and Houtou Fudou restaurant. That restaurant had been on my wishlist for a while, mainly because of its unique design.

We had enjoyed great weather throughout the trip, but on this last day, it started to rain. We took shelter from the heaviest downpour under the awning of a 7/11, then rode on to the lake. It was beautiful, but not exactly ideal for filming a reel with the four heavy books in my backpack. So, we decided to head straight to Off-House. There, we came across a pair of Dutch clogs that Charlotte, like a modern-day Cinderella, fit into perfectly. I bought a few hand towels (the clogs were €15, so I happily left those behind), and then it was lunchtime.

We biked to Houtou Fudou. I’d been to another location of this chain before, but that one was in a normal building. This one, however, was like a white igloo, an artwork, a…

It turned out to be a cavernous echo chamber. Sensory overload in 3-2-1, but the food made up for it. Still, we didn’t stay for long. We biked back via FujiQ Highland, where we got a bit lost with our bikes. We came across a gate that said “no entry,” so I had already pulled out my phone to find an alternative route on Google Maps. But a security guard waved us through, so we rode under the Fujiyama roller coaster until we reached the back entrance of FujiQ. There, we grabbed another free entry ticket for a quick visit to Starbucks.

Afterward, we biked back to the hotel, returned our bikes, picked up our luggage, and decided to kill some time at the mall above the station. About fifteen minutes before our train was set to leave, I spotted a screen. “Live feed from our Mt. Fuji view rooftop!” it said. The clouds had cleared just enough, and the tip of Mt. Fuji peeked out above them! We raced to the rooftop, so Charlotte could finally catch a glimpse of the mountain.

The next morning, I took Charlotte to the station. From there, she caught the train to the airport and flew back to the Netherlands. The time flew by insanely fast. For the next two days, I was completely wiped out, and now I get a bit stressed every time I think about the mountain of content I still need to process. (Also for this blog, because I’m typing this first, and still need to sort through all the photos – but if you’re reading this, I’ve managed to get it done.) Well, I guess I have enough content for half a year now. What a brilliant concept. Let’s do this again in six months!