I received an email notification from Cebu Pacific announcing a seat sale last May 2024.
I promptly found roundtrip tickets to Kansai International Airport for August. Ticket prices were under P5K/person and quickly fall under “don’t think, just buy” category, huh?
All of this stemmed from a phone call with my dad in January 2024 while I was working remotely in London, UK:
“Papa, stay strong and take care of yourself, ha? Maybe one day I’ll save enough money and take you to Europe.”
“Ayaw ko sa Europe.”
“Ah, saan mo ba gusto?”“Sa Japan.”
“AHHHHH – even better!”
Cut to May 2024, and wow. I didn’t imagine that by August 2024, I’d be returning to Japan (after 9 years!) with my dad, mom, and sister. I told them they need to consider this trip like a birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day gift all rolled into one. Wahahah.
The last time I was in Japan was 2015, my first trip abroad bought with my hard-earned money as a working-class citizen of the Philippines. Japan had always been my top country to visit, being a big anime (and thus, a J-pop) fan growing up.
I remember loving that semi-solo trip so much because it was kind of a pilgrimage to baby me: my favorite anime of all time is Rurouni Kenshin, and I had crafted my itinerary largely to visit the shooting locations of the live action movie. I loved Pokemon, so I had the bestest time going into Pokemon Centers and humming “I want to be the very best” under my breath. I also really loved Harry Potter, and was thrilled to visit Universal Studios Japan and see HOGWARTS / HOGSMEADE in the flesh! AND tried and couldn’t book tickets to the Ghibli Museum because tickets were sold out EVEN A MONTH BEFORE. I’ve built up the Japan trip in my head so much because I really wanted to take the child-in-me on a date, and it will always be one of my happiest memories during the entire decade of my 20s. Let me show you some photos of that trip in 2015.
I can feel 12-year-old Najee’s face hurting from too much grinning.
(Also shout out to my friend P for taking these shots of 25-year-old me living her “Eat, Pray, Love” era.)
I can tell you that this trip made me realize how I’m able to build and accomplish itineraries. I did 90% of my travel plans (narrowly missing the Bamboo Forest but that’s okay) and it made me pay attention to the fact that I should probably think I’m always a tourist, even in my home country.
2024 just focused on Kyoto and Osaka, and this time, my realization was: “Oh. My. Goodness. Am I… going to go back to Japan just to eat?” The answer is yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This is who I am now. All I want to do is eat through every town in Japan, because everything was scrumptious, hefty, and relatively affordable for the quality. Shoutout to my sister, who always brought us to the best places to eat, complete with lines that don’t lie. My gosh, that was FUN AND DELICIOUS.
Here are photos from the most recent trip now – what a milestone:
Here’s to looking ahead!
2 responses to “Of Auspicious August and Joyous Japan”
What a great thing to read and with wonderful photos too! I especially loved seeing the first set of photos (solo) with the second set of photos (family) because I could sense how they were both fun trips but in different ways.
Thank you for always leaving me comments? Big hugs, chica. 🙂 I wish we all had more time to sit down and practice the discipline of reflecting on these beautiful life events! I hope you write about your camino journey, too. <3