Natsukashii moments and last thoughts on the bucket list trip

We’ve been back now for 3-1/2 weeks, so it’s a good time to wrap up and reflect. Our bucket list trip was everything I dreamed it would be, and it served as an excellent distraction from our empty nest!

Natsukashii moments:
Natsukashii (懐かしい): a warm, happy feeling of nostalgia

Reconnecting with old friends (Kazue/Kay, my childhood friend Tim, Mike’s family friends, our Japanese teacher Ikuko and Peacock, Mike’s Kinki University colleagues, Sandy and Roger in Hawaii)

The most Japanese night we had, wined and dined by Mike’s Kinki colleagues at a traditional Japanese restaurant in Osaka, like so many dinners in Japan in the ’80s!

Mike: Hearing the train announcements
Mike: Return to Noosa and Brisbane, including the place his dad worked
Taking the Star Ferry in Hong Kong and remembering other visits there
Visiting the places we used to live and work (Mike’s old Fuse apartment, Kinki University, Wakayama, Shinsaibashi)
Snogging again on Dohtombori Bridge (amid the hordes!!)
Going back to favorite temples in Nara and Kyoto (Todaiji, Kinkakuji, Sanjusangendo, Kiyomizudera, Hiei-san)

Revisiting my favorite temple, Kiyomizudera in Kyoto

Finally being able to cook my own okonomiyaki!
Enjoying the quieter moments in Japan (Mt. Hiei, Issuien Garden in Nara), remembering what it felt like to be in Japan before it was “discovered”
Eating traditional Japanese food, made fresh and expertly
Discovering the Mexican restaurant I used to frequent often in Osaka (El Pancho) was still open, and eating lunch there!

One of the best days: Mt. Hiei, above Kyoto

Other high points:

Seeing Mt. Fuji TWICE! (once the night we arrived, from the hotel bar, and again on the Shinkansen)
Seeing family in Australia and staying with them: Mike’s brother Ed, his wife Shemara, and their wonderful kids Alex and Jessie
The incredible weekend in Noosa, where we spent time with family, ate incredibly well, took long beautiful beach walks, and saw lots of whales

Taking a ferry and seeing the Sydney Opera House and gorgeous Sydney Harbor
Celebrating Shemara’s birthday with her in person for the first time ever
Eating occasional great vegan food, few and far between: Ed’s gourmet vegan cooking, Veg Out Kyoto, Enryakuji Kaikan (Mt. Hiei), Indonesian, Mexican
Koalas!!! (and other Australian animals) at the beautiful Taronga Zoo
Family Zooms with the kids and my parents, stretching over four time zones!
Incredible Japanese breakfast buffets! Oishii! (yum!!)
The best of Japan’s technology (Team Lab Borderless in Tokyo, toilets, automated checkouts, paying for transit with my phone)
Sky-high views (Tokyo Sky Tree, Mt. Takao, Shemara’s birthday dinner overlooking Sydney Harbor, Umeda Sky Building, Mt. Hiei, Kiyomizudera, etc.)

Staying in Kyoto for three nights (I always felt I never got enough time there) and visiting new places there, like Fushimi Inari Shrine, Gekkaikan Sake Brewery, and Tofukuji Temple

List of all blog posts I wrote:

Entertainment for one month:

Movies watched on airplanes:

The New Boy (Australia): Cate Blanchett as a nun who runs a monastery for aboriginal children
The Wedding Banquet (USA): Lily Gladstone and Bowen Chang in story of two gay couples in Seattle who cook up a plan to fool one of their moms
Deep Cover (UK): action comedy film with Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, and Bryce Dallas Howard about improv actors who go undercover
Black Box Diaries (Japan): about a woman who birthed the Japanese “Me Too” movement
3 Idiots (India): comedy drama buddy film about engineering students
All Shall Be Well (Hong Kong): about a woman whose female partner dies and she’s shut out of her family
Be My Guest, Be My Baby (Japan): love story between young Japanese man and a Filipino woman working as a hostess)
Best in Show (USA): a rewatch of a favorite Christopher Guest movie)
Tokyo Story (Japan): did not get to finish; must go back!)
North Country (USA): Charlize Theron as one of the first women to work in an iron mine in Minnesota and experiences horrible sexual harassment

Books read on my iPad:

A Town Like Alice (Australia), by Nevil Shute (interesting, but unfortunately quite racist because of the times)
The Secret River (Australia), by Kate Grenville (best one: about a British convict who gets sent to Australia and tries to make a life there with his family)
Braiding Sweetgrass (USA), by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Tangled Spirits (Japan), by Kate Shanahan
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library (Japan), by Michiko Aoyama

Best travel companion EVER:

When we left Japan in 1989, we traveled through Southeast Asia for nearly 3 months (Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and India). I often tell people the best test for a relationship is to travel together, 24/7. We have always been perfectly compatible travel partners.

I planned the trip, with some input from Mike. He is so flexible, fun, and easy-going. We only had one moment of friction, when I didn’t move quickly enough to check out of a hotel on the dot of 11 am. (He probably was not thrilled with me when I moved us out of the conversation with the “I don’t want to see Buddhas” woman in Kyoto!)

We usually want to do the same things in any place or situation and often have the same thoughts before we even discuss what to do. (For example, both of us had the thought, while flying into Hong Kong, that we would like to return someday, before being granted our unexpected wish!) We also agree on the only places we wouldn’t return to (the little boat ride we took in Fushimi, Kyoto, and Tokyo Disney)!

I truly won the love lottery when I met Mike in Wakayama 38 years ago. Returning to Japan with him–plus visiting his family in Australia–was everything I had dreamed of. I could never dream up a better travel partner!

Let’s do the numbers:

Days traveled: 30
Hours spent on airplanes: 55 and on shinkansens: 5
Hotels or rentals booked: 12
Mountains climbed: 3
People we saw who we hadn’t seen in more than 35 years: 17
Boats: 5
Castles: 2
Trains and buses: Countless
Buddhas, temples, and shrines: Countless
Steps walked: 405,276
Days walked over 13K steps: 15
Days walked over 20K steps: 6
Cities, towns, or locales visited: 15 (Kawasaki, Tokyo, Mt. Takao, Sydney, Brisbane, Noosa, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Mt. Hiei, Lake Biwa, Wakayama, Kada, Sakai, Maihama (Tokyo Disney)