Most people find airports stressful and congested, a chaotic gateway from destination to destination. I actually love being in airports and look forward to it both before and after going on a trip. The key is getting to the airport extremely early so that you feel complete relaxation the entire time. Line? So what!? I still have 4 hours until my flight. Take all the time you need loading your belongings into the trays for the x-ray machine. Or even better like today, 0 line, why? Because I am just that early. Love it.

I’m currently sitting in Narita International Airport on my way back to Korea from Tokyo, Japan. I’ve been here for the week, exploring with my cousin who flew out here from Boston just to see me! Well, and she has always wanted to see Japan. We were talking the other evening about what our favorite thing we did so far in Japan was, and for me that was a very difficult question to answer at the time. I normally have a hard time writing blog posts on anything other than my favorite things. I actually originally titled this post “Mt Fuji” because I figured that was one of the most interesting things we did this week, visit the mountain. But it struck me last night as we were looking through our videos of the trip that my favorite thing I did this week was not truly “a favorite” thing at all, but a compilation of things. My favorite things from the week were the things that weren’t really things at all.

My first night in Japan I bought a clear umbrella. It was raining and I forgot to bring an umbrella with me on the trip. Everyone out on the streets had clear ones, so I popped into the nearest convenience store to buy one myself thinking it didn’t really matter if I brought it home or not, it was about that particular moment. And that particular moment walking through the streets of Tokyo holding a clear umbrella, was perfect. (I am bringing it home though for the record, it’s my second carry-on item, the one I will store in the upper compartment :p.)

Another moment happened our first day exploring the city. We were in Harajuku, a funky part of the city where people dress up and tourists come to navigate the busy streets to shop. We were down one of the alleyways and I happened upon a sign that read “Japanese Squishy Association.”  I asked my cousin if she knew what squishes were, and when the answer was no I dragged her that direction. I thought it must be one of those stores that sells squishes, and that it would be a quick in and out. Turns out it was something very different. Remember those bead stores that I’m sure still exist but that I at least used to go to as a child? The ones where you have a tray and you get to pick out all the beads you want to make whatever jewelry piece it is that interests you. Well think about that but for squishy making. You pick your base, then your decorate items (an extra $1-$3 per one) and then you sit down at the craft table to complete your piece. Theres fluffy colored glue to make frosting, and bows to sticky on and sprinkles to dazzle up your creation. Oh I forgot to mention each base is a baked good like a donut or cupcake. We spent about an hour making our own squishes, spending roughly $20 each. We definitely paid for the experience, yet that moment was one of my favorites in Japan.

On my second day in Japan we decided to go see the Tokyo Tower. Modeled after theEiffel Tower in Paris, this tower overlooks the city center, positioned next to a beautiful park and temple which was an ideal photo location afterwards with cherry blossoms. When we arrived at Tokyo Tower there was quite a crowd. This made sense as it was school vacation week in Japan, cherry blossom season and apparently there was a world cultural festival happening that day, where all the embassies set up booths and sell traditional foods. Score! We thought- amazing foods to add to the amazing experience of going up in the tower. Unfortunately, as we wandered around the base of the tower looking for it’s entrance, we realized a small issue, the line to go up in the tower was easily over an hour long of waiting to buy tickets. Luckily, my cousin is a genius and as we sat outside the tower munching on samosas she went online, bought tickets for that day, and downloaded them. Once we were done eating we skipped the line completely and got to go straight up in the elevator with our online tickets. This must be why I teach kids to be thinkers and incorporate technology into learning :).

The last moment I want to write about in this post comes from last night, which strangely enough was the first time this entire trip that we ate ramen. We kept talking about how we needed to get it but it just never happened. So last night my cousin looked up a good place nearby in the Shinjuku area to eat. She picked a restaurant called Fu-unji, which was supposed to be good and only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. At first we weren’t sure we wanted to stop since the line was out the door but after surveying the surrounding area we decided to give it a go. Thank goodness we did. Turns out the line was actually short when we arrived there and after we got inside, the line grew by about 20 people almost instantly. One of the restaurant staff actually came outside and adjusted the line to start waiting across the street because it got to be so long. Apparently this place is extremely well known for their dipping ramen, a fact we did not know at the time. But honestly I’m happy we went traditional with our regular ramen choices. I got the special ramen as my curiosity peaked. Special ramen ended up just meaning it included an egg, extra meet, and extra seaweed. My cousin went with the regular ramen. We both got mediums which was more than enough food. Upon walking in, we quickly concluded that that restaurant would never be able to operate in the States because there would definitely be a fire code against that number of people in such a small space. After ordering our food and paying on a machine at the entrance of the room, we were issued order tickets and proceeded to continue to wait in line. There were about  10 more people who were lined up behind the about 15 people sitting down and eating ramen already. At the end of the cue just before our turn to sit, they took our order tickets so that when seats opened up we were instantly served our food. We ate our ramen and then headed out the door; easy, and delicious. The ramen was thicker than I’ve had before, almost gravy like in consistency but with a chicken base. Leaving the restaurant the line was even longer than before. I guess we hit the place at the exact right time. Looking up the restaurant later we realized this was one of the most popular places in Shinjuku to get ramen!