Japan + Travel Update

So last month I was in Japan!

I got to visit my sister-in-law and I got to meet my niece for the first time. I was surprised and delighted when she immediately ran up to me to hug me. After that she took a liking to me and decided that I was meant to carry her from train and bus stops. She even let me feed her when we stopped for lunch at a traditional buffet. It was the cutest thing ever! I think she liked me because we’re both part of the #curlyhairgang 😂

Until the buffet trip in Osaka, we mostly just cooked our own food. We stayed on the marine base in Iwakuni so we just walked to the commissary and got our food to cook at the hotel. The hotel was immaculate and to use the electricity you put your room card in a holder on the door, that way when you left, the lights turned off.

The most exciting part about that trip was navigating the train system. My Japanese is rudimentary at best, but thankfully the clerks and conductors knew what we needed because they knew more English than I knew Japanese (shame on me for not studying harder). Somewhere along the line I mistakenly butchered the name of a town and we ended up getting overcharged. The train station clerk went out of his way to make sure that we got refunded and that we made it to our destination.

We got to take the bullet train, which was much faster than I expected! The coolest part about this train is that they offer snacks and drinks that you can purchase during your ride. My favourite part about the train was the heated toilet seats🙌🏾 Once you use a heated seat, your life is forever changed and I definitely want one on my house whenever I get my own place.

On one of the train transfers we had about 15 minutes before the next arrival, so we stopped to get some food. There was a restaurant on the train platform, which blew my mind! We walked inside to look around, but the chef told us that we order the food outside on a sort of kiosk. She even came out to help us order, which was the sweetest thring ever. We placed our orders for steamed rice and waited inside for our snack.

Japan was so beautiful and I’m honestly thinking about living there for a few years!