こんにちは konnichiwa!!
First off, I have officially exceeded my space limit on here and just had to purchase some more. That’s a sign that I love all of you dear readers so much PLUS I can’t believe how many posts I’ve written since just this summer! I’m working my up towards 80 posts… holy cow.
Very belated update on the rest of my trip with my parents but here it finally is! As last mentioned, we safely arrived in Nagoya and stayed at another teacher’s house (Sylvia- YOU RULE) which was so sweet of her. We didn’t do much in Nagoya (because frankly there isn’t too much here) besides showing them my apartment and our school. It was so nice for them to see what my life is here like in Japan! I think my family was super intrigued about our curriculum and how an international school works because they started to ask so many questions! I can imagine how it hard it might be to really picture what my life here is like on an every day basis. I remember feeling the same way when my friends were abroad- besides the facebook posts and random skypes/postcards, it was really hard to get a detailed image in my head.
Anywhoooo as my Grandma says, there are only a few snapshots of our time in Nagoya. Sadly, the picture below is evidence of possibly the worst breakfast I have ever had. Coming from someone who absolutely adores breakfast, like rushing down the stairs status to make it- this was extremely disappointing. Breakfast really isn’t a big thing here in Japan. If you remember from previous posts, something that is very common is that people will go to a cafe and order a coffee before 11 AM and get a piece of toast and a hard boiled egg for free on the side. Don’t forget though that the bread is a huge piece of stark white bread and slobbered with butter… yuck.
Sylvia lives right near this place called the Pelican Cafe and I figured it would be a good place to take them since I’ve been there before and they had okay pancakes. Problem numero uno: we thought we had learned our lesson of over ordering after the airport incident but clearly not. We ordered coffee, two different pancakes, and 3 orders of what we thought was a piece of toast, egg, cheese and tomato. We were very very wrong- it was egg salad mixed with cheese on toast. That was probably the most disgusting combination of foods I have ever tasted… mayonnaise and cheese YUCKKKKK. Such a waste of food and it was just carb overload- we felt like we needed to be rolled out of there. And it was about $70 for breakfast! Craziness. I think this was such a horrible experience it made Nagoya drop a few notches in my parents eyes haha
After our disgusting breakfast, showering up, visiting school, and v-chatting with my grandparents we were ready to make the trek to Tokyo! The lovely Hiroko called us a cab and we magically squeezed all our luggage in and ourselves as well. Off we go!
Someone had once warned me how crowded Tokyo is around New Years time but oh my goodness- crowded was an understatement it was CRAZYYY
Even though the Shinkansen isn’t too long to Tokyo. It still takes some time to get the train downtown and then get on the Shinkansen it’s about 3-3.5 hours. So we didn’t get to our hotel until about 4/5 PM. We checked in and had to make a pit stop at the gym to see what was up- never have I ever seen a mini rodeo machine in a gym. We definitely had some good giggles from this 🙂
We were unsure if we should eat at the hotel or venture somewhere else. The hotel restaurants looked super fancy and also very expensive. We thought we might as well go out to explore and I’m so glad that we did! We went to an Izikaya restaurant that was absolutely AMAZINGGGGG. Izakaya is like small tapas portions but Japanese style.
Surprisingly, I didn’t take a picture of my favorite dish which we ended up getting seconds of (so good and small portions which means you can try more!) was the chicken and leek skewers. The restaurant was called Torigen in Shinjuku right by our hotel. If you ever go to this area in Tokyo I highly recommend! We ordered so much more food than what I posted above and it was only about $70- for the win.
The next day was our free day!!! Yippe! Sadly though, the day started in an international clinic and I was diagnosed with the mumps due to the fact I had a fever and my throat gland was as swollen as a grapefruit. Yes, I know I didn’t think mumps still existed either but apparently they do! You can still get it even if you had the vaccine and especially in Japan there are people who weren’t vaccinated- fun fact.
I was a bit worried about what our free day would be like because so many things I wanted to do with my parents were closed :(. What is still left on my list for Tokyo is: Imperial Palace, Rikugein Gardens, go back to Tsukiji market to eat sushi for breakfast, and go out. but all of those were closed!!! Thankfully some of the places I have been to before were still crowded with people and we had some good time adventuring about. I took them to Takeshita Street in Harajuku, the sky tree (my first time!) then to Asakusa at night to see Senso-ji temple!
Mom was in heaven with the shopping because she is perfect size for all women Japanese clothing haha… maybe you should move here ma, you fit in so nicely!
If you ever go to the sky tree make sure to book tickets in advance! The line is always CRAZY long but thankfully Hiroko helped us reserve tickets so we got to zoom on ahead.
It was absolutely breathtaking to see Tokyo from so high up- I didn’t realize how truly big it is until that moment. I’m also glad we went at 4:30 because we got to see the sunset and watch the city during the day to being all lit up at night! 
The next 2 days we were super tourists but it was kinda nice to have someone take us around and not have to worry about time/transportation. The first tour day we went to Mt. Fuji and stopped at some of the surrounding lakes. On the second day of being tourists, we went to Nikko which is a world heritage site- both super cool!
These views were absolutely breathtaking! We took a big ferry across Hakone for a nice scenic view. 
So I learned that the monkeys that symbolize hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil comes from Nikko! If you look in the upper left corner of this picture there are the monkeys!! 🙂
Last day it was time to say goodbye. I am beyond grateful that my parents came to visit me. Such special memories that I will cherish and I know I will never forget. I sobbed and blubbered like an absolute baby but I can’t wait to reunite again in June! ❤
Thinking of you guys as you moved into the new lakehouse today! Can’t wait to see it this summer… may the stress continue to fade away and only happiness overflow this house!! 🙂
さようなら sayonara for now!
The Traveling Teacher 
Lindsay. You captured the trip so beautifully. Wow I am in a lot of pictures
Love Pops
Thanks Pops!! Yes you are, do you feel famous?! 🙂