Places we traveled:
Tokyo, Yokohama, Mt. Tsukuba, Mito (Kairakuen), Mashiko
Peaks:
- Visited the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama. Yeah, yeah, this is a total tourist trap. In my defense, we were in Yokohama to explore Chinatown (another WELL WORTH IT tourist trap). We really loved the Cup Noodles Museum though. It fully leans into a pop art exhibit vibe, is very affordable, AND you can pay a little bit extra for the pleasure of creating your very own, unique flavor of cup noodles. All-in we’re talking a very fun MAYBE 2-hour activity AND you get food. I would call it #worthit
- I leaned in HARD on Japanese skincare this month. In the first couple of months here, I noticed my skin looked worse than I’m used to. Not full on breakouts, but more small blemishes than normal. So, after about 100 hours on youtube I dropped ~$50USD on a new skincare lineup – cleanser, chemical exfoliation scrub, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, face masks, and sunscreen. I am very far from being an expert, but, one month into the routine I’m pretty happy with the way my skin is looking right now.
- Eating plum ice cream on Tskuba
- Made homemade tortillas for the first time! A major, major win considering the size of my kitchen and equipment on hand.
- Started taking kintsugi classes. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer and precious metal powders. I like really hands-on tactile art forms, so this has been a super good opportunity for me to get out of the house, meet Japanese people in the real world, practice using Japanese, and be a little creative.
- Hiking around Tochigi. The weather has been improving here, so I’ve been on a few hikes with my fellow dependents of persons working in Japan. Did you know Japan has, like, a lot of mountains? Ohio does not. Spent a few sore nights at home recovering with my favorite frosty #premiummalts.
- Buying hand-made ceramics in Mashiko: About 30-45 minutes outside of Utsunomiya, the town of Mashiko is famous for pottery and pick your own strawberry farms. It rained the day we drove out, so we only got around to the pottery. Also, their tanuki mascot lets it all hang out, real proud-like.
Valleys:
- Well, the real low-hanging fruit here is COVID, right? I’m a bit late writing this recap, so if I stick to the month at hand (2/15-3/15), Japan really wasn’t doing much during this time to regulate the population in a way that would prevent the spread of the virus here. Schools, museums, street fairs, and other tourist sites closed. Restaurants, public transportation, and offices continue to be open and in-use. Andrew has not been asked or told to work from home. Outside of a random toilet paper panic-purchase incident that lasted about a week here, grocery stores and pharmacies have been pretty chill. It is very difficult to find facemasks or hand sanitizer in stores. Overall, things were eerily normal during this time period. I didn’t think about COVID much until I saw the panic spread in the US. I’m not sure how this will all shake out, and I don’t know if we will ever know if the choices being made around the world now are right/wrong, too much/too little. For now, the situation has not escalated here and we’re staying in Japan.
