Leading up to this trip, I knew that we’d be nearing the beginning of the Sakura cherry blossoms season in Japan. I’d check the peak blossom forecast every once in a while and it would look like they would be in full bloom at the end of our trip, then not, then yes maybe again. It’s just really hard to nail down a date that’s weather dependent when you’re booking things 6 months out.
We saw a few here and there in Kyushu which I thought would bloom first considering the warmer weather compared to Tokyo but didn’t find any up close. The plan was to push out our attempt to find them in Tokyo as much as possible.
We stayed up until 2am packing our bags so we could wake up at 7 to go to Ueno Park which we heard had cherry blossom trees. We felt fortunate to see one tree in bloom near the entrance so we did our photoshoot there.
It was almost time to head back to the hotel to check out and make our way to the airport for our flight. I wanted to go to a fast food chain called Sukiya to have one more traditional Japanese breakfast but on the way we encountered the main entrace to Ueno Park which had 3 large trees in full bloom surrounded by tourists. There were literally tour busses parked in front letting people out to take photos of the trees. While the tree we had was small, I’m grateful that it was much quieter so we could get uninterrupted photo time.
I managed to get my Japanese breakfast of grilled mackerel (my favorite), rice with a raw egg, pickled veggies, miso soup, and natto which is a fermented soy bean (very acquired taste).
Joanna is incredible at packing and managed to fit all the clothes from both of our suitcases into mine so hers would have room for the stuff we bought in Japan. Look at the situation we had before us in our hotel room. It looked like our suitcases exploded. Thankfully Joanna thought ahead to bring 2 large durable Lululemon tote bags instead of using store issued paper bags to use as carry on for the ceramic dishes.
Got to the Delta lounge at Haneda airport with plenty of time to relax before our long flight. So far I would say this is the nicest lounges we’ve been to in the world so far. They have ramen cooked to order and some really great unique drinks. You don’t know travel luxury until you’ve taken a shower at the airport. Nice to just be clean and comfy on the plane.
We’re home now and happy to say that this trip was an absolute success. We did a really nice mix of major city sightseeing and road less traveled activities. I polled my travel agency’s only customer who said that my pacing in Tokyo needs tweaking but she loved the time out in the country side.
I was asked to show off some of the stuff that we got. These are the ceramic bowls that we got while at Kappabashi St. What attracted Joanna to them is that they’re perfectly imperfect, not exactly symmetrical, and has interesting wavy lines in the design. The one with the ducks is my favorite.
Here are most of the items that Joanna got in the many gachapon shops that we stopped at (that I know of). She got really obsessed with getting coasters and was really excited that she got all 6 unique Tamagotchi coasters without getting duplicates. She also had a hard time finding these green guys called Smiskis. Didn’t see them available in any stores until we got to the shops at the airport. They’re cute in a weird ugly way.
It would have been so much fun to include some of our friends that were planning on coming on this trip, but we’re already planning the next Japan trip during Thanksgiving for 2026. So there will be next time or next 4 more times to Japan. My parents want to do a family trip to Panama in September this year and I’m eyeing a trip to SE Asia next spring. Thank you for following along, please let me know if there’s more that I can do to improve this reading experience. I absolutely love having this creative outlet and having the opportunity to share my travels with you.
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