Speaker: 0:06

why japan why now the first landing moment so you get there and the first thing we did of course use the restroom but then it was like let's get some yen i still have some japanese ticket received in here i don't know this is written in japanese what was the first cultural difference that i've noticed first interaction with the deer you have to watch yourself because if they smell food in your pocket and you're not giving it to them they might bump you with their nose and try to get it my best quiet or reflective experience was probably at our hotel when i decided to meditate for a few minutes hi i'm alexandra lloyd a french canadian who's called birmingham alabama home since 2017. welcome to from where to here the podcast that celebrates the rich diversity of languages cultures and the stories that connect us all each month i'll sit down with inspiring guests from different backgrounds to explore their cultures languages and tackle some fun in our truth there or debunk segment whether you're a language enthusiast a culture lover or just curious about the world you're in the right place let's dive into your next favorite cultural adventure why japan why now well i will take you along with me not for a guide of some sort but really to welcome you into the reflections that i've had following the trip that we did sam and i my husband to japan in november of 2025 and so this is more than just a trip for us it was a time to visit family it was a time to travel with family it was a also an opportunity to bring more culture into our travel to really be disoriented we were very curious about that country and we thought this is the time this is the time to do it and the way i'm gonna be talking to you about it is i'm gonna highlight some of the best the worst but also the first the last and even the weirdest so all the moments that stuck are you ready let's dive in so first things first the plane first time going to japan also on japan airlines and the trip in itself was fine it was really long it's about 12 hours we took it from birmingham alabama so bhm to tokyo there's two airlines and two destinations in tokyo but same airline and depending on where you want to go the first time the first time you get there or the time of the day that you arrive you might decide one or the other there's a small price difference potentially and depending on what you want to do but you're most likely going to be jet lag when you first arrive i think it would be nice to land in tokyo which for us we already traveled right as we landed and went straight to a city down south that's called hamamatsu and this is where sam's cousin live with her husband and their two boys but more on that later the first landing moment so you get there and the first thing we did of course used the restroom but then it was like let's get some yen because we wanted to use the public transportation it's just good to have money on you and we didn't do that ahead of time we thought let's just do it once we get there then we shipped our luggage because we knew where we were staying so we had to tell them yeah that was the first time we had to translate or use google translate by the way the most used app you're going to have the whole trip because it really allows you to not only do the voice uh translation the the visual text translation but also the picture translation which is live picture of if you are at a grocery or you are at a restaurant and you want to scan the menu you can use your camera within google translate scan it over the menu or the ingredients label of a product and it would translate live and the language that you want to translate it to so we use that a lot a lot and after that i have already prepared some telling him i really wanted to go to uniqlo and get a trench coat unfortunately we we we couldn't find it it was like out of stock already end of the season so we went straight to hamamatsu best travel moment in transit was probably just my crunchy husband i think that's where you say almond husband like an almond person in french we say granola which is translate for granola but it means that you're healthy and so sam always think of bringing healthy snacks from home so he brought boiled eggs we had nuts we had cheese that he cut up we had not pickles but other things like that so it was convenient right before getting on the plane now worst part of the flight we get on the plane we have our seat number and we realized at the moment where we stop and see okay this is our seats that we were not seated together let me tell you it made me very uneasy in the moment and the stewardess the the agent she she she heard us right there's people helping out and the workers the employees and so she's like oh i'm sorry you you know that you're not sitting next to each other and that's probably maybe that's what made me kind of more like accommodating to the situation but i did not like it so i actually had a metal seat also we made sure he had an aisle seat and i would have a metal seat but i can at least relax on his shoulder so that was not starting very well so that was not starting very well but we're like okay we're just gonna go with it and we sat down get settled of course i had my big backpack full of things to occupy me during the flight so i don't know what it was because on the return flight it was the same situation but we checked before boarding and we asked to be seated next to each other and they were able to change us so that was nice but like for what eight hours that plane uh this was going from chicago so we had to go to chicago first and then uh landed in tokyo that was probably my least favorite moment but we ended up also playing games together so how you can watch movies together we would do that but also um the fact that we were not seeing each other's screen uh we would just like join each other's each other's games basically um so that made it a little better and you know we will talk i would turn around and we will talk to each other at times and so on um another thing to note is that they serve food one or two hours after boarding so something to be aware of and if you want you can log into your screen and see the schedule for the meals now if you're asleep they might not you know you might miss it um like later on like the second meal because we had two meals served but yeah at least that gives you kind of an idea if you you're fine with someone it's good because typically one of the two is awake and can at least grab the food and uh order you can get some free beer wine like alcoholic beverages are also served as part of just the normal flight they had japanese beer that i got because i was sitting in between two japanese men and they got that beer and i was like oh let me just get that it must be good and oh the other thing i did not like that was like the worst of the flight was the second meal it was hot dogs or it was maybe the first hot dogs what hot dogs no like oh with mushy bread or was it bread at least it was the big sausage it did not look good and i didn't eat it so yeah that was so so thankfully i had the the crunchy snacks my crunch or the snacks my crunchy husband had uh packed for us so i was good there our worst jet lag moment there was a couple obviously day two and three at around 4 5 pm and again at 7 8 pm it was really hard we were really tired especially me i could just close my eyes and fall asleep yeah and to give you an idea we landed

around 2 00:00:00:00,000 -- 00:00: 9:09

00,000 around 2 pm japan time and the second day that's when i started being tired and that was around 4 or 5 pm and then later in the evening i was just i would sit on the couch or whatever and i could not follow up with the conversation i would just my eyes were like oh i need to go sleep after coming back home i would say about two weeks later from our return we were going to bed at 8 9 pm and we would get up very early earlier than usual without an alarm we would wake up at about 6 00 am and some sometimes would wake up at 4 just randomly now i want to share something with you that is the cutest airplane moment i'm adding one there the cutest okay because it's not the weirdest it's just the cutest the cutest moment is when the stewardess now i'm using the word stewardess because sam has been using it but there's a more common word for it i just now cannot think of it but the stewardess gave me a cute envelope with a message and i'm gonna read it with you and this is after i gave them the watercolor the christmassy watercolor like art that i was doing on the plane they turned around and handed me that little mini envelope so here okay let's find out what the note said see i still have that's funny i still have some japanese ticket receipt in here so i don't know this is written in japanese if anyone knows what it says oh maybe i can use my phone and google translate it so it has some character oh it's my name oh it says ms for mrs and then says thank you with a little sticker of a stewardess because i can't think of the other name that is so cute like this brings me back to high school in my time when we would hand write notes to each other and then like we would pass it around or ask other kids to pass it around to the person we wanted to talk mrs alexandra thank you very much for flying with gel today j a l it's the acronym for the japan japan airlines how was your first gel flight did you enjoy the flight we hope it's a memorable flight for you and thank you for the beautiful picture i thought the picture you drew was wonderful during the flight thank you so much smiley face have a nice day in japan november 14 20 25 j l 55 cute it was just sweet and the reason why i'm also bringing this up is when we were at the chicago airport there was a lady who was traveling to japan also for the first time they basically won the trip like so cool such a cool thing that they do within the company where they send their best employees abroad to japan to the headquarter in japan and she bought on amazon those little ducks and she had like a bag full of mini like glass or plastic plastic uh ducks and she gave me one um but the reason because we were just chatting she's like oh here's there's one for you but the reason i'm sharing that is the reason why she bought those is to give out to people that she encountered during her trip because in japan there's a culture of gift giving and she wanted to um show up for the japanese people in that way and i thought that was the cutest thing this is something i would do if i ever go back to japan would be to buy little gifts for you know the people that give me their service that helps out in one way or another just as a way to show my appreciation to them what was the first cultural difference that i've noticed well that we've noticed i should say we were not even in japan yet can you believe this it was at the gate in chicago we were crunching on our nuts and suddenly the crew arrives each with their carry-on they had their little hats their little outfit and at some point they all lined up and looked at us like in front of us like in front of us and bowed and so they were standing and did a full bow like down to the waist and it literally like we're kind of oh what's going on like it was just super shocking at first um but really nice and we just kind of bowed back and returned with our head because we were seated and after that i think everyone clap and applaud and uh then they started getting on the plane and then we uh lined up to go oh and even like they did three four lines to get on the plane i didn't get i didn't understand the order what was going on because it was half japanese half english and they just i think the purpose was to make us ready to get on a plane so there's no one that's late and we're not losing kind of any time like we're on time i think that's what it was okay okay something else that was kind of a first cultural contrast but once we were in japan is the first morning we were in japan that was in hamamatsu at the family house and at 4 a.m wide awake sam and i decided to go to a a conbini store a conbini store is one of those um convenience store so we walked in the neighborhood and we head there it's open 24 hours and there was a smoothie machine and we also discovered all kind of snacks like they have those small dried fish and i did a a smoothie in the machine which is kind of like a self-serve smoothie machine so cool like so like i wish we had those it just seems very more technology forward with the smoothie machine and other things just the packaging so they sell those little triangle rice with fish in it there's three steps to it little arrows and it's like one and then you open the first corner and then two you're you open the second corner and like unfold slowly through that method of plastic folding and it opens up to your rice sushi rice and fish to eat and it's like wow why do they think of being so intentional in their design when it comes to product that every people consume and it's just it baffled me and it's like wow we need more of that in america i think so i'm gonna go through each city in order that we visited the first one was hamamatsu so i'm gonna share some highlights some moments that stuck about hamamatsu the second one is kyoto and we stayed there for three days hamamatsu was i think three or four and then we went to nara just for enough just for half a day so just a morning and then in the afternoon we went to osaka for just a little bit we were there like a day and a half in osaka and we ended our trip in tokyo the big city of tokyo i'm gonna share a few things about each city about the first the last the best the worst and the weirdest so let's keep going hamamatsu first time seeing family in a long time so of course that was for sam's family his cousin moved over 20 years ago it wasn't like overly emotional it's not like they talk to each other all the time but it was very nice to see them reunited and i've met them before they came to america like years ago his cousin picked us up they all speak both english and japanese so there was no language barrier at all one thing that's interesting for some not as much for us because that's how we live even in america is no shoe in the house so before entering the house you need to make sure to remove your shoes you don't walk inside with your shoes that you wear outside and that is pretty much like this not only in people's homes but even in public places like museums um we've i mean not everywhere okay if you go to tokyo such a big city it's not like that but if you go to let's say a local museum it's very possible they have slippers available and you leave your shoes there and then that's just the way it is and i personally i'm a big fan of that going back to talking about his cousin i did a video with her and her experience of coming to japan as an american so definitely you want to check that out the first meal we had coming back from the airport it was in in local and homemade was fried chicken that hero her has been made it was delicious we don't eat fried chicken but this was really really good with some plain white rice and for some reason that rice was just delicious very sticky and i think with a little salad too and after that we took our showers and straight to bed we were tired now first time experiencing japan through the family life if you will um funny enough in the morning people have miso soup which i think it's such a good idea like i could totally get used to drinking broth in the morning like something warm especially in colder days so we had rice miso soup and then on our end we ended up buying eggs so oftentimes in the morning we would cook eggs the kids were not used to eat protein in the morning and so they were excited to try eggs and they felt a little more american so that was cute we got to try something called furikake and it's a japanese dry seasoning mix and you add that you sprinkle that on your rice it comes like in those small packets and the kids love it there's some kids version you can have like an egg flavor or a chicken flavor or a chicken flavor vegetable flavor the kids love it another first food like kind of outside that we got to try that was really good and i loved going it was a local bakery there that bakery just had all kinds of pastries and special breads and yeah it was fun last family time we had before heading to kyoto was to visit the hamamatsu castle it was pretty cool because at the top of the castle there was a view of the city and there's a building that looks like a harmonica that instrument because hamamatsu is known to be the music city some best moments in hamamatsu i think one of them was when we were in the kitchen all cooking together like i mentioned the eggs the miso soup and just learning about different types of food and different ingredients like they use a lot of the root vegetables such as the lotus flower that they put in the miso soup so that's pretty neat i love that weirdest weirdest assumption we went to the beach one day and on our way out we were driving we saw the the police was there right next in the parking like in the parking area there was a van and it's interesting because from our perception sam and i were like oh well i don't know like something happened there and we didn't like overthink that just they found something or i don't know really but the assumption that was made like with the thinking of someone living here locally is oh that must have been a suicide like someone killed themselves in their car and now the police is discovering it they're doing something about it so it's interesting and why do you think is that well another thing is in the metro station when the bus arrive or the well the metro i guess i call it the metro which is the the train right the underground train arrives some people will also like jump in there right before and that caused a disruption in the service but they will never say oh someone just jump in front of the train they're gonna say that the system the system is interrupted for momentarily for a couple of hours so there's definitely a lot of loneliness in this in that country now that's a big generalization i'm making here but this is something we all know exists in all parts of the world and i think it's just a good reminder that we need to be kind with each other and also yes it's a terrible thing to be at that stage but that's why i think showing up for others too and just checking on our people and welcoming others is so important but it's just very individualistic and one way i can illustrate that maybe a little better for you is there are some restaurants because they know people work intensively in japan work is is very the pride of the people family is is declining families i mean just having kids and um entertainment is really more focused on the work and there are even restaurants with those separators where you you can't even see the person next to you and it's close to each other but at the same time i think it indirectly display how they think through every single thing to help you just be in your zone and that's how like kind of people tend to prefer to stay in their zone because they're just so focused on no social interactions and just like performance at work and i think i've heard a story too of that that woman oh was it their minister who requested her staff to get up at 4 or 5 a.m to show up at the office because she decided that that was her schedule and she expected everyone around her to do the same this is wild and this is a very toxic culture what if you think about it so that wraps up uh i think uh this topic but that's something that we did have discussions around oh and one thing also that's very weird is and this is something i could not get used to the entire trip it's that on the road they drive on the left side not on the right side and they drive also the car it's the driver is on the right side not on the left so it's opposite to america not only on the road in the cars but also escalators people stand on the right and they go fast on the left which for us is the opposite so confused the whole time i don't think i can get used to that in only two weeks now kyoto that was our favorite favorite city it's an old city and now let's start with the first first impressions of kyoto very walkable full of history uh the kibblestone streets adorable there's also nature it's it's just it's relaxing um there's like ponds right next to the shops in the in the guion streets the streets of guion guion is like that little area where all the geishas are which by the way geishas and i'm gonna talk about that but they're geico's and mycos i know you listen to from where to here because you're not into surface level travel you want the story not just the sights but let's be honest breaking the language barrier can be intimidating that's why i created the five phrases that unlock any culture these are five simple phrases designed to pass small talk into real conversations from almost anywhere in the world don't just be a tourist be a connector you can grab it at from where to here pod dot com slash five phrases that's your shortcut to unlocking real conversations first shrine or temple moment that was the very popular fushimi inari taisha shrine it has the orange columns very popular and fun fact the scriptures like the japanese characters symbols that are on the columns so on one side you see them all and on the other side you just see them the columns painted orange there are sponsored businesses so they pay a fee to have their names on the column and then us tourists who don't read japanese we're like oh this looks so cool and it's basically giving free advertisement i thought that was interesting the first this feels ancient reaction that we've had is when we went to that tea ceremony was when we went to the tea ceremony which actually was right the first activity when we went to put us in the in the vibe the reason is it's very precise a very precise ritual i did not expect as much thought in the process of just drinking tea in america we do everything fast especially me i don't always take the time to enjoy and to just like slow down and i think japanese people are really good when it comes to the ancient rituals not so much the work that's fast paced yes that's what it felt in that moment so i think that's what it felt in that moment we honor the maker of the the mug that we're drinking of there's uh such traditions and it's really clashing with our way of living so that ritual of honoring the tea the maker and in just the moment is very special and unique best visual moment i have two so one was that on top of that street in guillen basically you're walking it's one of the very popular streets and you don't realize it but at some point you're walking up and it's not a big hill but you're walking up and people are turned and they're holding their phone taking pictures and videos of the view because it's just beautiful so that was a cool moment because i did not expect this and it was just a nice view so we just stopped appreciate the moment and took a picture and then keep going the second one is mochi making we also did not expect that we were just walking strolling by the streets and at some point we're like hearing oh yeah yeah yeah oh yeah yeah oh yeah yeah yeah and we're like what's going on and then there's a crowd of people around and it's at night it's already dark and there's that guy that's pounding the mochi dough or when he's not pounding there's another person that flipped the dough and that's the process flip the dough pond pond flip the dough pond flip the dough pond and then they make mochi balls so we bought the most overpriced mochi mochi's uh there but it was cool to see and i took some videos and we're like okay this is such a cool thing and the mochi were delicious too we had the matcha tea and or the green tea and chocolate and that they put a little strawberry on top that was a cool moment my best quiet or reflective experience was probably at our hotel when i decided to meditate for a few minutes so in our room we had a place where they put one of those chairs that you just still sit on the ground but you have a back where you can rest your your back and they had that little gold like boing i call it and then you just doing and hit it on the bowl that goes with it and yeah and then just breathing and breathing in and breathing out and just focusing on the moment and that was probably yeah almost quite reflective and just appreciation of where i was still in the best the best sense of cultural depth it definitely was when we went to that maiko's performance it was one of my favorite activities a geico ko is a geisha okay a michael is a geisha that's in training and so we saw and we met and we talked with and we played with because yes i played the game with her so we saw one of her performance actually two performances from her we got to ask any questions we wanted to ask and we also for those who wanted play the game a game with her and it was just so neat and then we visited a shrine and she was there too with the translator and it was just very cool so that was probably my like one that was one of my favorite things i can share with you the two questions that i ask so i ask um what advice would you give to a young girl wanting to follow your path and what do you wish more foreigners would understand about you the first one got lost in translation i think from what i remember and the second one it was really good so make sure to check uh that's short video uh once i have it up because i did voice record now worse worst crowded moment definitely at the orange columns shrine that i was talking about uh get there early if you can we would start our day every time around 7 7 30 we would have breakfast and then we would head out but that we were at the orange column later in the day because i think we did something else before there was just always a lot of traffic in terms of people walking so just something to keep in mind worst weather or timing issue honestly we had great weather the whole time when we first arrived in hamamatsu it was pretty warm we were wearing shorts well i mean i didn't bring shorts but sam was wearing shorts and we were playing tennis outside and it was just such nice weather like we were in short sleeves and it was just sunny like very warm in the 20 something degrees actually close to 30 maybe so in the 70s fahrenheit very nice a couple days after it started cooling down a little bit worst expectation versus reality moment i did not expect to love the toilets yep i am here we are this is the honest truth i've used one of those techie toilet before where you have multiple buttons that do multiple things heating your seats and flushing like they're everywhere even if you go to a very basic restaurant they still have let me tell you the functionalities that like are always there that i think it's pretty is that you can put sound how many times have you gone to a public restroom and there's one foot gap on each side around you that doesn't make it private well with those you just press the button and it does like no i can't even reproduce it it's like ambient bubbly relaxing noise machine sound another bidet that or at least that the image it's kind of like think of it as a peach you know where there's that line of the peach yeah so i'm guessing in my cover more when it sprays so you'll have to experience for yourself and by the way if you want to buy one of those seat toilet seats you probably want to buy it in japan because they're much more expensive in the us if you want like a good one like there are some in japan so something to consider another worst expectation versus reality moment was the room was stunning and the service exceptional and i am talking about the hotel we had in kyoto it's called so waka and we were blown away by the exceptional service the quality of the food there and also our room we were just blown away it was very spacious we had a little bath like cocoon bath outside one other top moment in hamamatsu let me just go back there for just a little tangent here the spa at our hotel that was one of the best thing too where it's it's the onsen it's what they call the onsen so it's men women though so sam and i were not together but it was the same display say hey i went there and it was like the same arrangement of the facility how it was done and uh it takes a little like get used to at first because you don't know okay yeah you have to wash your body with a cloth because like basically you're naked divided like or you have a little seat all lined up and then you have a shower all lined up but you stay seated on your plastic seat naked with your towel um and um or your washcloth i mean and yeah you just rinse yourself there's soap given to you and then you like ta ta ta and like rub and in front others mirrors and each station and i learned that after that because there's a bowl also in front of you so the bowl you will you can like fill it up with water and then splash that on you or you can use it however you want but basically when you're done you flip the bowl upside down and you either leave it on the counter or put it on your little bench i did not know that so then someone took my spot so see that's what i mean by the learning uh but then i realized okay not everyone knows that actually so it's just that because you're like butt naked i think you want to try to use the same spot because you do that like you will go in the sauna or in the baths and then you'll come back and rinse or wash you know you can spend all day there but yeah highly recommend the onsen i'm gonna call it weirdest local moment sam and i took a bus to go to that geisha experience and we ended up running late because we went in the wrong direction but when we finally were getting off the the bus no the suka was on his phone so he confidently show his suka card on his phone as a way to pay in the suka card you have to understand this is used in underground train like the metro station and also you can use it for vending machines but not for the bus and we didn't know that and we didn't even know how much the bus was so we're just like kind of scrambling the bus you pay after you don't pay when you get in which is interesting trying to count the change uh because we had bills that were too big trying to make it work oh my gosh you don't want to give more than a thousand yen but it's cost way less and sam told me that when i was like scrambling to find the change and the exact change that we end up not having so then we had to give a big bill there was two women when the the bus driver said oh no we don't accept suka card or you can't pay with that there are two japanese women in the back they're like putting their their hand in front of their mouth and just laughing at us and like and uh just like oh suka suka like they're using suka and then something in japanese and sam told me when we got off the bus and i just thought that was cute and funny and i'm like well it is what it is we don't know what we don't know and that was just a humbling experience now weirdest peaceful moment in a busy place it's more different than weird and it is the standard shinto shrine prayer ritual and that movement is called nirei ni hakushu ishi rei and it's basically you bow twice so two deep bows and deep bows mean you you bow down your waist clap twice hands together in front of your chest and pray silently bow once more and before you do that typically you will toss a five yen coin and why the five coin is because it's for luck and if there is one one bell you do ring it to get what they call the kami's attention so to remember it simply it's just two bows two claps one bow ritual two bows two claps one bow and before that you throw the coin uh you might pray for whatever that shrine is good for for sometimes it's like it might be good for love now the city of nara nara known for its deer population yes so first time first time in nara yep mostly deer related half a day was sufficient for us i think you could do a day there's a shrine nearby there are gardens there are some little shops you can go to we actually ended up talking with some young girls at a local coffee uh we skipped the shrine because of a lack of time after seeing the deer simply because we ended up going to a beautiful garden and i'm going to tell you more about first interaction with the deer now you have to watch yourself because if they smell food in your pocket and you're not giving it to them they're gonna they might bump you with their nose and try to get it even if you don't want to give it to them or if you have like too many at once like you just need to watch yourself constantly and some are more aggressive than others but it was fun best photo or memory we were as i was saying supposed to go to a shrine within walking distance from where the deer are and by the way the deer like you realize you're there because suddenly because the deer just roam they roam roam freely and so you start seeing a couple of deers and then oh and then people selling the crackers that you can buy to give them and then oh and then there's more deer suddenly more people and it's just happening under your eyes we saw the an entrance for a garden so we decided to buy tickets to get a visit it was actually a private guide i don't know sam bought it um he's really into history so anything like to learn about the place a little deeper uh he's all about that so we did that and it was great it's called the isu in i s u e n i su in garden and we stayed there for lunch there was a little line because they just opened um they didn't they were not open in the morning all that to say why i was sharing about this is the best photo is a rock with tied rope on it to mark either you can enter or not enter typically a tea house so in front of the entrance of a tea house they will have those rocks it's typically a smooth rock like the size of a smooth rock like the size of my hand and there's rope imagine like you take a piece of rope you tie it around it and then you do that second time like perpendicular so opposite side that you did and basically this gets moved um during a tea party uh because basically a tea ceremony can last all day in that garden there were multiple tea houses so it was pretty neat and we can look through some of them and that's where they have like the tatamis and just a very social moment that they make very intentionally worst worst surprise or miscalculation the taxi ride we took from nara to osaka because it ended up being almost an hour due to traffic and it wasn't it wasn't a smart financial move uh considering public transportation is so easy and accessible but we were tired i took a nap during the ride and we didn't have to worry about anything but looking back we could have think about that a little better weirdest weirdest weirdest animal moment in nara well some deer won't move and they will lay down with their eyes closed and i thought oh that's cute like they're just taking a nap they're tired they're they're just relaxing on the flip side sam thinks that they're just overfed and just sick of eating all these crackers which there's probably some truth to that they're probably thirsty too so there are most likely some truths into that now osaka so we went through hamamatsu nara now osaka and then we're gonna have uh tokyo so osaka first time first time first impressions of osaka versus kyoto and that's a good comparison because osaka it's faster energy it's retro is a street food at every corner it's really like flashy and colorful and very different ambience our first street food moment we decided to go last minute to a popular restaurant that have honestly some of the i think i had that was one of my favorite food they had those balls and i forgot what it's called but the restaurant is in kitaori and it's on the corner of the street i know very helpful for you to find it but we had though those delicious fluffy balls they were really hot so that it made it hard to eat at first but so delicious like saucy and i'm not a sauce person but these fluffy balls they were saucy and so good wow so good so i hope you get to find those if i cannot find the name of the restaurant for you best best food moment i was looking for all the instagram spot from the influencers and creators and i saw some of them that i decided not to go to and one of them is the cheese coins like it looks like artificial cheese it's just that it stretches you know a meter distance the meter is what four three foot so like it stretches super long so already there you know it's artificial cheese it's not their real kind and then in the coin it's like a a cookie of some sort like it's just not the type of food that we eat and like it's like it's cool for the gram but it's not worth it to us instead we actually and that was sam was really proud of that one so we saw a place that had those egg tartelettes so tartelettes those and they were so delicious it just melted in your mouth and they were still warm it was just delicious we had a couple of those they were so good highly recommend worst worst crowd or chaos moment very crowded in general okay if you go to osaka it is crowded i would recommend to have a specific list of places that you must go or that you really want to go to be more time efficient considering there's there's more people to go around and it's just a lot to navigate in that and that's not something that we did but i think it would be worth doing weirdest weirdest sign interaction or night moment for us is when we walked by we saw a whole fish probably a tuna and it was picked cleaned down to the bones outside the restaurant which seems very unusual and like i'm talking like not a small fish i'm talking a big fish like a big carcass of fish fish bones and obviously you still see the head the tail and like no more flesh it was just displayed right there as you walk by i guess you can get fresher than that best only in tokyo experience hmm well something i really wanted to do by going in tokyo was to go shopping for some onitsuka tiger shoes this is the place to buy shoes if you don't know now you know yes you can get those customized no we didn't get those customized because no we were not willing to wait a full day or 24 hours to get our custom shoes made there's also specific location that you need to go for the customization we just went to the store in ginza or ginza g-i-n-z-a and it opened at 10 we didn't even plan around that schedule but we arrived there it was 9 45 or 9 50. so we wait for about 10 minutes before getting in because there was a line still even if it's not the custom store and it was crowded so packed my friend it was like you have to ask for the sizes of all the shoes that you want in one setting because you're gonna wait there for too long it was just it was like think of it as boxing day at sephora or boxing day at best buy it was just a lot of people and then people grabbing shoes and and then you can't keep the shoe with you because people need to be be able to see them on the wall and there were three levels so we each got a pair of socks each got a pair of like they had some cute socks i got from there and a pair of shoes i was planning on buying two but i could only get one among the styles that i liked that had my size unfortunately worst worst sensory overload moment well i'd say it was definitely culturally unexpected a japanese commercial that we saw multiple times that i finally was able to film that we saw during multiple taxi rides and it's um basically it jumps from a woman clearly in pain like her belly her stomach it hurts and she's like holding her her stomach a little bit to a lineup of very muscular men like flexing and like going like this and then once the bicep is up there's clothes up on these googly eyes like think of those like arts and crafts googly eyes like kids use for like arts and crafts they're on his bicep and he's there like flexing strange i know and then you see the black pills in the woman's hand that she popped in and suddenly she's smiling with her hair blowing and she's like and is this is this classic japanese commercial someone please tell me but i could not wrap my head around this one who knows but that was a a moment it sure was worst tired but still going moment oh i had those definitely so around day 10 or 11 i started feeling sick yes not fun but i push it through because we had that same night our omakase scheduled and we struggled to get that because we waited last minute and if i had a recommendation is if you want to do certain things again make sure you book those certain things certain experience ahead of time because some book out omakase is one of them and an omakase basically is a series of dishes prepared by a chef and it's what you see is what you get and that's the only menu of the night but it's usually like 12 courses or something like that a very small portion and with alcohol of course today's episode is brought to you by birmingham breadworks they've been serving up amazing sourdough bread european style pastries pizza soup sandwiches all made from scratch since 2014. everything they make is fresh no preservatives no additives just simple clean ingredients Their cafe is the perfect cozy spot with natural lighting, warm wooden tones and art from local students and photographers. It's perfect to grab a coffee or something delicious to eat. Plus they're big on sustainability as a goal level member of the EAT, Earth Aware team. Stop by Birmingham Breadworks and taste the difference of fresh local food. Oh, that was a hard time for me. A little bit like kind of not feeling so great, but I kind of push it through. And also we didn't do any souvenir shopping at that point in the trip. So I definitely want to keep going. So I went to a convenience store and bought all the all the TikTok things that you can think of that say for when you're sick, like the jelly thing that you slurp. I got the soup. I got some cough drops as well because I was coughing. So yeah, weirdest in Tokyo. Weirdest vending machine that I've had. Or I guess the weirdest vending machine store or like experience in general in Tokyo. Tokyo. Well, for me, it was the vending machine. There was a vending machine selling freshly squeezed orange juice right there in the underground metro station. What? I wasn't craving an orange, freshly squeezed orange juice at that time, so I didn't go for it. Maybe I should have just to like have the trill of getting a freshly squeezed orange juice in an underground metro station in the afternoon. Like who would have thought this was a thing? I love it. I love Japan. Okay. Now that we've been through all the cities, I want to share with you about a few things regarding hotels and just just tell you why this trip has changed me for the best, but also things that I would do again the same and things that I would change probably or do differently. So regarding the hotels, first time going to a breakfast buffet, it was at the Hamamatsu Hotel. And it was literally one of the most delicious breakfasts that we've had. The Eggs Benedict were definitely a keeper. We went again and again over to have those. And theirs had avocados on top too. And it was with smoked salmon. Oh my gosh. It was just delicious. They had also at the buffet, those fresh lichies like still in their shells. And that made me very happy. Of course, fresh juice. And another thing that's pretty cool is as soon as you walk in and we didn't notice at first, because obviously we're like not regulars there. One dispenser for warm hand towels. So a warm hand towel dispenser. So you just press the button and then it's electronic and it just dropped the hand towel. And it's just pretty neat because then you can wash your hands without having to go to the restroom and it's warm. Love it. Love it. Love it. So yeah, the breakfast was literally out of this world. And it was in Hamamatsu, you know, like, I think that's a cool thing too, that we got to see like a more chill city. Because of visiting family, like that's not a place that we would have gone otherwise. And if I had one suggestion is, yeah, go to Hamamatsu or just go to a city that you've never heard of or that is never recommended in any type of guides, just to get a different feel. And go to the grocery store and go experience a local bakery. Try something out of the beaten path. Is that how you say it? And go see for yourself because you might surprise yourself. And you might be surprised. First. First reaction to space layout amenities. Because yeah, that's quite a topic in Japan. And the reason is, everything in Japan is typically much smaller than you're used to. So when it comes to room, if you're lucky, you're going to have space under your bed for your suitcases. And that's great. Or maybe you stay at a more luxurious hotel and there's more space. Great. But generally speaking, you're going to have to be creative and you're going to have to close back your suitcase. That's just something to keep in mind and make sure you are organized when it comes to packing. Because that might help a lot. Especially if you're, of course, like not traveling alone. I mean, you could be traveling alone, but still it's going to be a tight space. As far as amenities, they're usually given to you. Oftentimes, you even get a pajama or a robe. So, a pajama, like two pieces and it's unisex. So, don't worry about that. Or a robe. And that's usually something that you can even wear, like going to breakfast place or other places around within the hotel. It just looks like very decontracted. I like it. When we went to the onsen at the hotel, we wore those. And we would just walk freely. And to go to the onsen, we would wear that too. You know, it's because it's much easier to then, I guess, get naked. But also, just get around and stay comfortable. Go to your massage. Yeah, we had an amazing massage. And Hamamatsu too. And one technique that Sam was very pleased with is they used their nails. And that's like just something you don't see as much in America when it comes to massage. She would just put like in a nice way, like the nail behind your tibia. So the lower part of your leg. And she would just put pressure and use her nail. And it just felt really good. So yeah, that was cool. But other amenities that you get at the hotel. You will always be given a toothbrush and a toothpaste, a comb or a hairbrush. And of course, in your room, you will find body wash and shampoo conditioner and usually a hair dryer. And then there might be some extras like powder to put in little powder packs to add to your bath. Or facial sheets to put on your face. Things like that. When it comes to staying in Japan in some hotels. Well, if I talk about the best hotel, best sleep, best everything. Definitely Osaka. The hotel we stayed in Kyoto. And they provided the best service. Thoughtful detail. It just was such an experience we did not expect. You're going there for an adventure. You're not going there to stay at the hotel. So every time we arrive from an activity or something back at the hotel, they will welcome us. And then take our shoes. Because you don't walk with your shoes in the hotel. They will give you slippers. They will take your shoes and put them behind their main desk. And they know which shoes goes to each which guest. That's next level service to me. And not only that, when then you're ready to exit. They will be like, "Oh, what do you have planned for the evening?" You know, kind of doing the chit chat. But also it's to know when they can have the cleaning crew to go to your room. To arrange your room while you're away. And they will give you water if you want to water. Like there's water bottles there. But also it was getting cold at night. So they will give you those hand warmers. And that was just so neat. Because obviously we didn't think of that. And so I'll have those in my pockets. And then they bring your shoes back. And it's like, "Okay, well have a good evening." And you can have better thoughtful... Yeah, than that. That was... And that's just one example, okay? Another example. Let's go there. We made a reservation. Restarance within the hotel for dinner. Which breakfast is included. But dinner you have to make... Like it's kind of out of pocket. And we one night had dinner there. It was amazing, of course. But not only that. They surprised us with the most thoughtful detail. And we didn't notice right away. And at some point, you know, we were chatting. But Sam go and use the restroom. And then I'm kind of just looking around. Disappreciating the layout. The flowers. And I'm like, "Oh! What is that little black box doing there?" So I decide to open it. Pull the sticks out. There were wooden chopsticks. With my name engraved. And I thought, "Oh my gosh! This is so cute!" And of course, I had another set of chopsticks to eat with. So this was just the gift. And when Sam finally came back. So I put the chopsticks back in the box. Like nothing happened. When Sam came back, I was like, "Okay. I want you to open. You see that little box?" And I filmed him. Because I wanted to see his reaction. Because mine was just like, "Wow!" You know, I was just kind of blown away. And the server noticed my surprise. And he come and he said, "Is it the right name?" Because if it's not, we can redo. And I was like, "Oh no! This is perfect! Thank you so much! This is great!" So definitely full of little attentions. And very thankful for the staff that made our stay the most memorable. "Worst hotel experience." Now, worst hotel experience. Okay. I'll preface by saying that it ended up being also one of the best. Do not say the best. Our hotel in Hamamatsu, we had to ask for a new room due to a bad smell. Like it was smelling of sewage a little bit. And I remember filming and Sam was like, "Yuck! It smells bad!" Like just as I'm filming. And we had to go back downstairs and say, "Hey, sorry, but like our room stinks. Can we get another room?" So they changed us to a different room, thankfully. And they even gave us access to what they call the executive club lounge on the top floor. We had some sake, some snacks, like plenty of alcohols, plenty of snacks. Wearing or... was it their PJ or a robe? I think it was a robe there. So we're wearing a robe or slippers and everyone does that by the way. And then just chilling. Like that made it fun. And that was just the worst room that we got at first. That turns out to be a still a fun. And we had some of the best breakfast there too. So it was still a really... Like I would highly recommend that hotel. The weirdest hotel experience. Still in Hamamatsu. Because we stayed purposefully at what they call a gym. Japanese style room. With traditional floor mats. And they actually let us make our own bed. So we have those mats that we carried on the floor. On the tatami. Which is the bamboo made mats. That are all over like the floor. And then we would put the sheets on top of it. But we put the sheets wrong at first. We had to just look at YouTube videos. Because it doesn't come with instructions. And then we finally figure out how to do that setup. For when we're ready to go to bed. I would say... Now that I've done it once. I don't want to do it again. And the only reason is... I'm a side sleeper. I'm a side sleeper. And as a side sleeper. I need thickness in my mattress. And it was like maybe thick... What? One, two, three... Like three inches. And that's not thick enough for a side sleeper. Or your hips will dip in the floor. Through the mat. And so that wasn't enjoyable. So I woke up with bruise. And... Yeah. That's not ideal. Right? And so definitely... Uncomfortable. But also kind of memorable. For the first time experience. If you know what I mean. Japan gave me a chance to slow down. It made me appreciate the little things. It made me honor. And show respect. And appreciate the respect that Japanese people have towards each other. It's the love for the little things. It really just gave me a deeper trust in its people. Really an appreciation for that culture. And noticing the small moments. And slowing down. So it really made me do that. At the tea ceremony. You know. We were really encouraged to slow down. And appreciate not only the drink. Which is already by itself something difficult to do. Because oftentimes when we drink our coffee. Let's say our tea. It's on the go. Right? It's like... Oh! There's drive-thrus. They don't have drive-thrus. At least I haven't really seen any. They sit down. They just appreciate being there. Drinking. But there's also appreciating the visual of the cup. When I look at this. Or think of that notion of slowing down. Japanese people in their history have learned to do that. And this is a beauty. That I can really really appreciate. It felt pretty perfect into our eyes. Both Sam and I. We would pretty much do it the same way again. It was that good. I'd look for more unique experiences. Like our geisha experience was just fantastic. I would do even more of those. Maybe something creative. Where we learn something. We're into doing. The making of. And just to learn even more about the culture. And what made up that culture. That Japanese culture. So rich. And unique. And I would totally encourage you to do the same. One thing I'm very happy we did. Is a list of all of our must do. And like to do. So that allows us to be. In line with what are the must do. On this trip that we want to do. Whether it's just me. Whether it's just Sam. Or us together. And to not miss out on those. Other aspects of the trip. That we would like to include. But it's okay if we don't. And we're both okay with that. So it allows us to gain alignment in that area. Starting early our days. Again. Is definitely something that made us appreciate. The time that we were given. To make the best out of it. And so getting up at 7.

7: 1:08:16

30. Or actually having breakfast. Yeah.

So we'll get up sometimes 6: 1:08:19

30. But. It just made. Our day full. And start early. Where it wasn't as packed. Especially more touristy activities. So. It just turned out to be the best. Starting our day early. It just made the most sense. It just made the most sense. Especially in touristy cities. Like Tokyo. And also. Attending touristy attractions. So make sure you start with those. Or have at least one plan in the morning. If I had one advice to give. Is that. And that's something that I would. Move forward with doing. If we ever go back to Japan. Which at first. I thought. Hmm. I just want to go there once. And then I'm done. But now that I've been. I'm thinking I might be back one day. What would I do differently. If I ever go back to Japan. If I ever go back to Japan. Well. I think Osaka. We didn't spend enough time there. I think there's just so much more. To discover. When it comes to the nightlife. And. I would also plan. Some specific places. To go in Osaka. Because it's. Very crowded. And I feel like. We were just kind of. Going wherever the crowd. Would bring us. In the way. And. There are things that I felt like. Maybe I missed out. Like. That we missed out. That I wanted to do. But it also wasn't as defined. So. I didn't know where to go. When. You know. It gets tiring. When we got to. Tokyo. I was doing. 25,000 steps a day. So. It's a lot of steps. On day. Two. I started getting blisters. But then we didn't. Walk as much. So. I was fine. I think it was in Tokyo. If I remember correctly. Yeah. Because I think that's when we. Walked the most. And if you. Do that. You definitely want good shoes. Which I had. But still. I got blisters. There was also. Or there is. A city. With some of the most. Oldest people. In the world. Living. And it's in a city. In Japan. Called Okinawa. I really wanted to go there. Because I have once. Watched a Netflix documentary. And I was just amazed. Based. I actually ended up doing. A Toastmasters. Presentation. About it. Because. It was just really neat. To learn about. How. Large. The population. Of individuals. That are a hundred. Plus years old. That live. So happily. In this city. And it's based on a. Like really good. Diet. They are very focused. On connection. And community. And. They. Have a. Slow. And grateful. Kind of. Way of living. If you will. With daily. Physical activity. And. I was just. Very. And I still am. Very curious. To hear more about. And just go there. To experience it. And I think Okinawa. Is known for other things too. But. That sense of. Purpose. And good living. And. I'd like to go visit. And experience it. For myself. And so. That's definitely. A place. I would go. If I ever go back. To Japan. Or that. I would have. Maybe done differently. But at the same time. I'm grateful. For where we've been. And all the things. We have been able. To experience together. Sam and I. I think that's where. You have to. Say yes. To certain things. And say no. To others. And that was one of the things. That I was willing. To say no. Because it was a little. Far. From our. Where we're going. And. That's where. Because of the time. That you have. You have to make decisions. And then. If you end up. Going somewhere. That's much farther. You won't be able. To spend as much time. In some of the cities. That you're. Planning to. Visit. And. At that time. It just made the most. Sense. To not go. I would dedicate a full-time shopping. I think we were very scrambling at the very last minute for souvenirs at the end and I was sick so it didn't make the experience much fun and we did while we were in Kyoto we did buy some seasoning and things that we wanted more for ourselves at home but just a handful of things and if I would do it again I think whenever I see something I would just buy it and especially tea, matcha tea is good you can buy it in Kyoto but I wait until last minute in Tokyo to buy it make sure it was matcha grade so there's some green tea they're gonna sell like green tea matcha in Tokyo it's not bad but it's just for baking or cooking you don't want to drink it as matcha tea that's like intended to be drink and high quality so you want to make sure you use your google translate app for the picture and also ask chat GPT if you need to to ensure it's high quality and it expires so once you buy it make sure if you buy some to your family and friends make sure you tell them that they need to drink it not just keep it you know you always have that one person that's like oh I want to keep it forever well you can't you can keep the box after you're done drinking the tea and the next time I travel to Japan I'd also leverage google maps a little more efficiently I think at first we were I don't know making calls for ourselves especially me when I get impatient I'll be like okay let's just go there and then we ended we ended up in the wrong direction because of that but we were able to go back get back on track eventually so I think leveraging Google Maps to explore places and to just know what's the next thing next bus to take or next metro next train would be helpful and we knew that was a top app we just I don't think use it in a way that that made it easy for us and that makes me think about the ticketing system whenever you go to an underground train make sure you keep your ticket for exit and if your path has changed from what you initially paid it's going to ask you to pay the balance if you stick to the plan of your final destination then you should be fine but you do need a ticket otherwise you're going to have to talk to the people at the gate like at the place where they not they sell tickets but they like check people when they come in and come out and you're going to have to explain yourself I lost one I had to explain myself they let me go but just something to know finally why this trip mattered so much to us I think first of all it was to see family family that have been living in Japan for 20 plus something years and it felt like the perfect opportunity family also that got to travel with us and also being their first time in Japan and we went to places like Team Lab in Tokyo that was a cool place to go to and highly recommend of you doing it there's different experiences depending on when you go by the way they have those all over the world so if you don't go in Japan you can go to another city it's typically most metropolitan big cities in the world secondly cultural travel we wanted a place where we would feel disoriented out of our comfort zone and just go a little farther than we've been before and that was just one of the top three destinations that we've identified wanting to go and so it seems like the perfect time to do it and thirdly believe it or not it was Sam and I's first experience internationally traveling together outside of the US, Canada and the Cayman Islands where we met initially and believe it or not even eight years later it was a test in a way that turns out to be good and we just wanted to do it again now so please tell me what destination do you recommend for us to go next and why? I'd love to hear I'd love to get your take on this we love traveling and we're always planning different trips and that's just one of our biggest joys so on this I hope this was helpful and I hope you got some takeaways and learned some things to better plan your trip to Japan whether it's in the fall the spring the summer the winter I know you will have a blast the people there are generally some of the most respectful and likable individuals I've ever met whether for us was perfect in fall the beauties of nature just doing its thing was fabulous and we could not have asked for a better trip thanks for watching thanks for listening and on this note keep exploring thank you for tuning in to from where to here if you enjoyed this episode be sure to hit subscribe leave a review and share it with someone who loves who loves discovering new cultures follow us on instagram at from where to here pod for exclusive updates behind the scenes moments and a peek at upcoming guests until next time keep learning keep connecting and keep celebrating the beauty of languages and cultures a bieto and we'll see you guys next time and see you next time and see you next time