It’s the end of 2024, and suddenly, it’s as if the pandemic is just a faint memory — a bad dream, somewhere in a distant past, where governments decided whether you could go outside, do your job, or see your family and friends. When I moved to Japan in early March 2022 (after waiting for fourteen months), I had to jump through all kinds of administrative hoops in May that year to invite Riemer. In the fall of 2022, tourism became possible again, but that didn’t mean everyone was immediately eager to visit. It wasn’t until the spring of 2023 that Charlotte and Maan came back — something I only believed once they were actually here.

But by now, everything seems back to normal. The number of tourists in Tokyo is larger than ever (which is actually pretty advantageous for someone who sells a book about her move to Japan, haha), and so, besides Charlotte, my father, stepmother, brother, sister-in-law, and niece also came to Japan. And Riemer. And Maan again, this time for an Artist-In-Residence.

So, on a rainy October day, I took the train to Narita Airport to wait for my family. I hadn’t told them I’d be there, but I thought it would be a fun surprise. And sure enough, as soon as they came through the sliding doors, we were all in tears.

I immediately took on the role of tour guide, saw that the next Narita Express to Tokyo was leaving in about ten minutes, reserved six seats through my app, and then realized that half of my family didn’t have Suica cards yet. (That’s basically Japan’s version of an Oyster card.) My reserved e-tickets were only for the surcharge, not for the base fare, which you had to pay with a Suica card or another ticket!

Thankfully, I now speak some Japanese, so I explained the problem to the staff member at the gates. With four minutes to spare, this hero wrote me a slip that we could use to pay for the ride at Tokyo Station. On the train, my brother set up the Suica app for everyone, and at Tokyo Station, I explained the situation again in my best Japanese. Everything was resolved pretty quickly. I felt a bit silly for throwing my family into chaos right off the bat, but they were still grateful for the help — without me, they probably would’ve spent half an hour waiting in line for tickets.

In Tokyo, we took two taxis to the hotel where they were staying. My brother and his wife had been to Japan before, so they were fine, but my dad and Monique were newbies, so I offered to ride with them. A few minutes later, we arrived at their hotel, The Blossom in Hibiya, a place best described as Fancy As Fuck. (My brother and his wife are pretty fancy — not something they got from my side of the family, but they’re generous enough to let us tag along, so I’m not complaining!)

While my family freshened up, I enjoyed the view. After that, I took them to a restaurant. Not that I knew the place or anything — we were just hungry, and I suggested diving into an underground shopping mall. There, we found a themed restaurant with vintage robots and a random selection of food. Welcome to Japan.

The next day, I joined the family for a visit to TeamLab Borderless. “How many times have you been here?” Monique asked me. “Never, it seemed like a bit of a nightmare,” I replied, perhaps a little too honestly. While the TeamLab installations are hugely popular with tourists, the rooms filled with light effects, scents, and sounds always seemed to me like a recipe for sensory overload in 3-2-1…

And, well, it kind of was. But I had decided I would step outside if it became too much, and although I almost did when we reached the color-in-your-fish-and-we’ll-project-it-on-the-wall room, it turned out not to be necessary. The advantage of traveling with a toddler is that their sensory tolerance is about the same as mine.

The next day was very special to me: my family came to see my house! But first, we headed into nature — something everyone needed after two hectic days. I took them to Mt. Takao. We took the cable car halfway up and then hiked the rest of the way to the summit.

The next day, I met up with the family in the evening at Odaiba. We went out for dinner, and it was also the first time François joined us. Naturally, we were all a bit nervous about it, but thankfully, François could laugh at my dad’s typical greeting: “Oh, you’re really short!” (He’s not that short, 1.71m, but my dad is two meters tall…)

Of course, I forgot to take pictures — at least of us. I did manage to snap two atmospheric shots of Odaiba. After dinner, my family headed back to their hotel, but François and I kept going; since we were in the area, we took the train to Disneyland to watch the Disney fireworks for free from the station.

The next morning, I was waiting for the Shinkansen at Shin-Yokohama. Initially, I wasn’t planning to go to Kyoto, but when I talked about it with my brother a few weeks earlier, I thought: Why not? My brother sent me the train number, I checked the reservation app online, and discovered the seat next to them was still available. I quickly booked it, and that’s how I boarded the train at Shin-Yokohama, where they had gotten on earlier in Tokyo.

My family had booked a fancy hotel near Gion, but I opted for something more affordable by the station, with a view of the Shinkansen.

The next day was the inevitable sensory overload day. I sent my family a message saying I’d prefer to take a day to rest, especially considering the next day’s plans. I spent the morning in my hotel room but eventually felt like going out. Not toward the busy streets of Gion, though — instead, to my favorite thrift store: Hard-Off.

I checked the map and found one near a Starbucks, where I stopped first for lunch. There was also a large lake nearby: Lake Biwa. When I got off the train, the area felt oddly familiar — I’d been here before in 2020! To the Hard-Off, at least; I had no idea about the Starbucks or the lake. The next day brought me a fun surprise: although this spot was just a ten-minute train ride from Kyoto, it turned out to be in a different prefecture. That means I’ve now earned the Shiga medal in my Starbucks app!

I mentioned it earlier, but I mainly took that rest day because I knew we’d be going to Nara the next day. The famous park, where the deer are so tame you can feed them special deer crackers, is quite the tourist attraction. But it’s really amazing, so I didn’t mind going again. (I actually went there with Riemer in 2016, and I wrote this blog about it back then.)

I made a reel of our day in Nara, which you can watch here on Instagram. (Don’t forget to give it some likes, thank you!)

My family stayed in Nara to grab something to eat, but I decided to catch the train a bit earlier. I traveled from Nara to Kansai Airport in Osaka, where I had a 6:45 AM flight the next morning to… Narita. Riemer was landing there that same morning, and flying there was faster, easier, and cheaper than taking the Shinkansen back and then spending another hour on the Narita Express.

Stay tuned for part two of this story, where I go to Disneyland with Riemer and the family, Riemer and François meet for the first time, and Riemer and I go on a road trip to the home of Hard-Off: Niigata.