Golden Week: The Beginning
Golden Week is a collection of 4 holidays in Japan, and while it’s one of Japan’s busiest seasons, I also thought it would be a good time for my family to visit Japan. We had talked about this being a possible time to visit even before I left, but slowly the plans turned into reality. Almost 6 months after arriving here in Japan, I met my parents at Tokyo station, ready for a week of sightseeing and catching up.
I was nervous for my family to come for a few reasons, they didn’t speak the language, my dad has dietary restrictions, and my nephew, while usually an angel, is still an unpredictable toddler. I wanted to make sure the trip was fun for everyone, and felt a bit of pressure to act as a suitable tour guide. Above all though, I was looking forward to seeing them.
The first leg of my trip got off to a bit of a rocky start, I almost lost my suitcase. I planned to take a bus to the train station, since parking my car for a week would have been extremely expensive, if even possible. Google had told me to ride the bus to the end of the line, but when I saw the name of a familiar train station as the next stop, I decided to get off there. It was a quick decision, so I scrambled to get my bus fare ready as I exited the bus. I took about 10 steps before I realized. I left my suitcase on the bus.
I whipped around, looking for the bus, then took off after it in a full sprint. I never run anymore, and I must have been quite the sight, running down the sidewalk at full speed chasing a bus. Everytime I began to close the distance, the bus would start moving again, getting further and further away. Inevitably, my lungs gave up, and I could chase the bus no longer.
Thankfully, I remembered the final station the bus would be stopping at, and punched it into my GPS. I walked as quickly as could, huffing and puffing as I prayed I would meet the bus at the end of the line. It was only about a 10 minute walk by the time I was done sprinting, but it felt like an eternity. As I rounded the corner, the station came into view, with a bus in sight. I had no way to know if it was the same bus, but I summoned whatever strength I had left in my legs, and once again started to run.
As I stepped into the bus I knew it was the right one. I tried to explain to the driver, in between gasps for air, that the red suitcase left behind was mine. He asked me if I was okay as I grabbed the suitcase, probably realizing I had been running after this bus since he let me off. I assured him I was alright, even though as relief washed over me my legs threatened to give way. In a daze, I bought a ticket, climbed the platform, and crumpled over, propping myself up with my suitcase.
It would take the entire train ride for me to catch my breath. I was coughing the whole train ride as my lungs protested from the sudden and frantic exertion. It was one of those moments where I resolved to both do more cardio, and quit smoking. My body was on fire, and my shirt had become slick with sweat. I must have looked like a mess on the train, but I was too exhausted to care.
Once I got off at the station, I headed to the bathroom to try and clean up a little. I peeled off my sweat soaked t-shirt, and tried to wipe off some of the sweat. I grabbed a tank top from my suitcase and got changed, putting the old shirt back in the suitcase. I spent some extra time in the stall trying to compose myself. On one hand, this felt like a bad sign. On the other, it could only be uphill from here!
After another two trains, I arrived at Tokyo station. I knew I was meeting them at the shinkansen, but I doubted it would be easy to find them. As I wheeled through the hectic labyrinth, I got a call from my brother in law. We tried to coordinate where we were, describing gates and our surroundings until we finally found each other.
I gave everyone a big round of hugs. Seeing my family again just made everything else feel so small. They were here in Japan, and I just knew it would all be alright. When I said goodbye to them in Canada everything felt so surreal. I didn’t really process how long it would be before I saw them again. Then all of a sudden they were here, in Japan, and it felt surreal in a completely different way.
We got all our luggage organized, put our tickets in the gates, and found the platform where our train would come. Everyone was in good spirits, though I could tell they were all tired from the long flight to Tokyo. Once we got settled on the train people slowly began to nod off, though my nephew certainly put up a fight. It was a pretty quiet train ride, but it was comforting just being around my family again.
Finally we arrived in Osaka, and had just a 20 minute walk to go. I’d been on 4 trains and a bus at this point, and my family, an airplane and 2 trains, we were all ready for a break. It took us a while to locate our Airbnb, but it was nice to have a place to stay the next few nights. We each found a room, unloaded, and then my family shuffled off to bed pretty quickly. For them they were dealing with the jet lag and the exhaustion that comes from travel. For me, after a quick rest I was good to go.
So, I decided to visit some of my favorite places I found when I visited Osaka during my New Year’s trip. I was delighted that the owner of my favorite bar in Osaka remembered me. We caught up for a bit and as new patrons entered he did a great job of incorporating them into the conversation. Two of the patrons I met told me about a cosplay event happening at another bar. On a whim I decided to join them.
They were in the middle of a costume contest, though held entirely in Japanese. I was able to follow exceedingly little of it, but it was still fun to watch. I didn’t know many of the characters, but it’s always cool to see what kind of costumes people are able to make. There was a bit of dancing after the costume contest ended, but I didn’t stick around too long.
I had an earlier morning going to Nara, and I wanted to spend more time with family, not necessarily stay out until the wee hours of the morning. I said goodbye to the two travelers who invited me out, and caught a cab back to the Airbnb.
It was certainly an interesting start to my golden week, but I knew that this visit would be memorable if nothing else. I still had some worries in the back of my mind, but I was looking forward to seeing more of Japan alongside my family. We would see Nara, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, and that was just while staying here in Osaka. This kind of scattershot approach would let us see a lot of different places, even if we wouldn’t spend much time in each area.
This kind of structured, busy approach was so different compared to the more laid back solo travel I had started getting used to. But as I crawled into my bed around 1AM, I was just happy to be sleeping under the same roof as my family again. They had come so far to see me, and I was sure this week would mean a lot to me. Home had started to feel so far away, so having a piece of home come to me was all I could have asked for.
