You Can Believe the Hype

The view from our apartment in Niseko

I’m here to confirm what everyone says about Japan….that it’s safe, clean, quiet, and efficient. I suspect I’ll still feel that way when we leave, and like everyone else I will dream of when I can return. 

We are not used to this type of travel environment.  If it’s not sketchy, dirty, loud, and chaotic then what am I doing here?

My very good friend, Victoria, moved here last year with her daughter to be the principal of a K-8 international school in Niseko.  Victoria and I went to Valladolid, Mexico together in 2022, my first post Covid international trip, and she is the only person outside of my family that I’ve ever traveled with.  We were very compatible on that trip so it wasn’t out of the question to get together in Japan. Even though I wasn’t sure how I would swing it because Japan is over my travel budget and style,  I promised I would visit.   

I didn’t go anywhere last year. Summer of 2023 took me to the land of bottomless grief and sorrow as I witnessed my mom ending a near decade long battle with dementia.   My mom was enamored with Japanese esthetic for as long as I can remember, she loved bonsai, ikebana, geisha, and Zen gardens.  To say she would have fulfilled a dream by coming to Japan is an understatement, especially if she were to be here with me and Maya.  This trip is a chapter in my grief, I have brought my mom along for this healing grandmother, mother, daughter journey.