Japan with my Parents

As mentioned in my last blog, I will share some fun events unrelated to church. One of the main things that happened during this time was my parents joining me in Japan for about three weeks. After my short visit to Tokyo, my parents joined me on my return to Switzerland to visit Jesus‘ Call and see a bit of Japan. Stationed in Tokyo, I tried to find fun and exciting things to do for my nature-loving parents. I also prefer a quiet place over the bustling Tokyo, so I know some quiet spots. But of course, Tokyo can still be overwhelming and loud even if most of the day is spent in a quiet park.

On the day of arrival, all we did was find my parents‘ Airbnb and eat something. Then, my parents rested while I joined the Friday prayer night. The next day, we agreed to meet early to enjoy a fully packed plan to fight the Jetlag as best as possible. The quick overview of our time together in Japan is going from park to park to enjoy some final cherry blossoms and other blooming flowers. The variety of flowers in Japan is vast, and parks and public gardens are designed stunningly. When I first mentioned to my parents that we could visit some parks, they were thinking of 30 minutes, maybe one hour, but some of the gardens are so grand and beautifully made that we could easily spend 3-4 hours taking hundreds of pictures. Since we have gone to so many parks, I will not mention all of them, but I will share a small gallery of some pretty flowers.

Of course, we also visited some famous spots in Tokyo su, such as the big crossing in Shibuya, we visited some of the 3D billboards and the Metropolitan Government Building to get a view over Tokyo.

A 3D Bildschirm in Shinjuku
Scramble Square in Shibuya

However, we only stayed a short time in all those places, as the noise level and the number of people can be overwhelming. The chance of us losing one another was high (and it did happen a few times that I lost sight of one of my parents for a few seconds or minutes, and once we even got split up by a too-fast closing subway door).

To see more of Japan, we decided to take a tour to see one of the most famous landmarks in Japan: Mount Fuji. On this tour, we got picked up by a guide who drove us and three other tourists to various spots where the mountain can be seen. It was a bit cloudy in the morning, so I prayed that we could see Fuji and that the mountain wouldn’t be hidden the whole day.

On our first stop, a famous shopping street, we suddenly saw the very top of the mountain, peaking through the clouds. Eagerly, we took some pictures in case the mountain would hide behind the clouds again.

We then continued to Owakudani, a famous tourist attraction where we could see volcanic activity and enjoy a great view of Mount Fuji. This place is also famous for its black eggs boiled in the natural hot spring water. The color of the egg comes from the sulfureous water and iron on the eggshell, causing a chemical reaction that turns the eggshell black. Naturally, we bought ourselves an egg (which tasted like every egg I’ve ever had) and decided to get ourselves a black ice cream.

The tour’s last stop was Lake Ashi in Hakone, where we could see Mount Fuji behind the lake, a shrine, and a cool ship.

To show my parents even more of Japan, we went on a short Trip. First, we went to Kyoto, where we spent just one night yet got to see a lot. On the afternoon of our arrival, we visited the Golden Temple, the Imperial Palace and Garden, and the famous Inari shrine (the shrine with the many Torii). The next day, in the morning, we went to a Shrine with a botanical garden and back to the train station.

Our next stop was Fukuoka. Since it was night upon our arrival, we visited Ohori Park shortly after and then returned to our hotel. The next day, we visited Nokonoshima, an island nearby, where we spent the day enjoying nature and the flower parks. We visited Jesus‘ Call Fukuoka in the evening so my parents could see the church I went to in 2019. The following day, we flew back to Tokyo just in time to join the Bible Café, another activity I wanted to show my parents.

Two other highlights I shared with my parents were the handcrafting of souvenirs. For one, we went to Kawagoe, where we made our own chopsticks (like I did with my siblings last year). The other one was a Kintsugi experience. Kintsugi is the craft of repairing something broken with Gold to make it stronger and more beautiful than it was before.

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