Beau's Blog

It’s 10:20pm on May 29th and I’m sitting in bed in Ikebukuro tired from a run. After vegetating for a couple hours watching disc golf and eating konbini food, I’m craving some productivity so here I am writing.

May 9th, 2023 | Kyoto Great Food and Long Time Friends

The day started with taking a few different trains to go from Uozu to Kyoto. Mom and I arrived in Kyoto around noon where our long time friend Masakazu picked us up from the station. On the way back to his house, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up food for the upcoming teppanyaki dinner. I was particularly impressed that a pack of enoki mushrooms cost only 70 cents USD! For lunch, the three of us walked to a nearby nigiri restaurant. While everything was delicious, the toro and miso eggplant stood out as clear winners to me. I’m a sucker for miso eggplant and had never seen it served as nigiri before.

Thank you Masakazu for treating us to an amazing meal! Next up was naptime. I snuck in a solid 2 hour nap before Kenji and his family came over. As a teenager, Kenji had spent a summer with my family so to see him married with a couple of great little kids is special. We all delighted in playing with his cute two kids (6 and 2). His brother Shinsuke came over too! The beef & veggie teppanyaki (thank you Hitomi!) and beer and wine all also contributed to a very fun evening. I went to sleep feeling appreciative for having long time family friends that are always a joy to spend time with.

---

May 10th, 2023 | Farewell Mom!

First thing in the morning, Masakazu dropped off Mom and me at Kyoto Station. We picked up some brunch food at a konbini and then had the privilege of another shinkansen ride! We settled up on shared expenses, talked about our time in Japan together, gazed adoringly on Mt. Fuji and I wrote for the blog.

Before we knew it, we were at Tokyo Station and it was time to say goodbye. It felt completely surreal to say goodbye since the days had felt so jam-packed and that it would feel most normal to be off to the next destination together. Mom took the Narita Express and I took the Marunouchi Line back to Miyoko’s. Despite the Tokyo subway crowds, I felt very alone on that little trip. I happily was able to rest up with a nap, work and Miyoko treated me to another great dinner. I fell asleep feeling both that my own time in Japan was just starting and very grateful to have spent quality time over the last few weeks with each of my parents.