My arrival in Japan will be in the middle of the baiyu or tsuyu, the rainy/monsoon season that occurs every June. The baiyu is humid, wet, hot, and miserable, and the worst time to visit Japan. Toward the end of the month though the rain slows and stops but the temperature turns even hotter and some real humidity sets in. Summer humidity in Japan makes what we experienced in Hawaii or the U.S. east coast mere child’s play. Last year’s summer in Tokyo was the hottest on record, and I’ve already been warned to be prepared to not want to go out all that much as this coming summer is expected to be worse.
Most of my time while I’m in Japan will be spent with my granddaughter and grandson. We’ll have chores to do every day at the house, and we’ll have to walk their dog, but I still plan to go out for a little bit most days, even if just in the neighborhood. K wants to eat noodles with me and go to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant among other activities and we can find those nearby. We’ll do some shopping together as well (Don Quijote, here we come!).
Heat and humidity aside, when Meiling and WenYu arrive for two weeks at the end of June the action will pick up big time. All three of us have been receiving an overflow of Instagram reels about places to eat, shop, and visit in Tokyo, and Meiling has put together a calendar with places we don’t want to skip. We’ll probably be out and about most days, heat and humidity or not, although I will not go along when they head to Tokyo Disney or Nagoya to visit the Studio Ghibli park.
I’ve compiled my own list of things I want to do while I’m there. Some will be done with my granddaughter, others with my daughters, and some on my own:
- Eat new and old favorites: karaage (fried chicken) and potato salad; konbini (convenience store) egg salad sando and onigiri; everything matcha I can find; fluffy pancakes; a filled crepe; fried pork cutlet (tonkatsu); katsudon (pork cutlet bowl); and a freshly-made creme-filled doughnut.
- Visit the Atsugi base one last time and shop at the commissary.
- Try a different ice cream every evening from 7-11 or other konbini.
- Take Meiling and WenYu to Sunday brunch at the New Sanno Hotel followed by stops at the nearby Sawamura bakery for a loaf of their incredible raisin bread and the National supermarket because it’s there.
- Go shopping on Kappabashi for Japanese dishes and to look at all the cool kitchen stuff
- Find as many flavors of KitKats as possible.
- Get a box of cookies at Nakayoshi sweets
- Buy A LOT of CookDo, some Kewpie mayonnaise, and a few other sauces to bring home, as well as a big variety of instant noodles for YaYu.
- Have a refreshing tea float at Tokyu Hands department store.
- Visit the Harajuku minipig cafe with WenYu (who adores pigs).
- Visit a craft store (or two or three) with my artistic daughters.
- Visit the Ginza Uniqlo flagship store with the girls
- Visit the Muji flagship store to ooh and aah (and hopefully not buy anything).
- Visit Gotenji Temple (lucky cat temple) and Sangenjaya, where Brett and I lived during our last two visits, with the girls. There are some amazing chocolate cream donuts available from a shop in Sangenjaya we hope to try and I can get Tokyo Rusk there as well.
- Visit Kamakura and the Daibutsu, and stop by the Hato Sabure (bird-shaped butter cookies) flagship store to get “bird cookies” for Brett.
Can I do all this in six weeks, and in the heat and humidity? I don’t know but I am going to try!
This may be my last visit to Japan and heat or no heat, I intend to make the most of it, and make as many memories as I can. I plan to be up early and out in the morning, be at home in the air conditioning in the afternoon, then head over to the Olympic park in the evenings for a walk before calling it a day.
I am so excited!!