Just 2 days ago on July 30th my parents and I got back from our 5 week trip to Japan. It was definitely one of the best experiences in my whole life, as I got to explore my culture and the place my grandparents have spent practically their whole lives. In Hitachi, we visited numerous beautiful rural areas with great scenic views. Hitachi was also the only place I could afford to run in, as Tokyo and other areas were too crowded. Then we went to Tokyo and explored Shibuya, Shinjiku, Ginza, and others. I got to see some of my cousins for the first time in five years and had some of the best food ever. A few days after this dinner, we spent some quality time at DisneySea Tokyo and I even went shopping with my cousin Rui. After this, we went to Yokohama because of my little cousin who wanted to visit the cup of noodles museum. While there, we saw the venue for the Pokemon Go Worlds and the nearby area. We went to the museum, chinatown, and the nearby amusement part thing. The rides were pretty old but it was an unforgettable day. After this, we went to a hot spring (onsen) hotel to plunge in the hot springs. My cousin and I made our own butter and ate fresh softcream at the nasu senbonmatsu dairy farm. Finally, we went back to Hitachi with just about a week left of our vacation. However, I felt very sick and after a quick test, it turned out that my parents and I all had covid, so we’d have to quarantine for a few days. On the last day of our quarantine my uncle, aunt, and cousin left to return to San Dimas. The following day, my parents and I left to tokyo for a two day one night trip. We more thoroughly explored Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ginza and other spots such as Cat Street and several pokemon stores. We stayed the night in Kabukicho and the hotel we stayed in consisted of a lot of Godzilla themed items. There was even a decorative Godzilla head on the side of the hotel. After another long day of walking in Tokyo, we returned to Hitachi once more and spent the last few days with my grandparents, talking and playing card games such as blackjack and poker (no betting of course). On the last full day for dinner we finally ate wagyu, something I dreamed of eating ever since the internet wagyu craze and it met up to my expectations. We bought gifts for my friends and the next day, a cab drove us over to the Narita Airport, where we played poliwag community day, and took our plane to Hawaii and then the next back to Los Angeles. And that basically wraps up my trip to Japan, a truly unforgettable experience that I’ll look back on. I think that this trip was definitely a wakeup call and a reminder that I should be picking up the pace with learning Japanese so I can communicate with my relatives before they get old. I’m so glad to have been able to go on this adventure and I look forward to going again sometime possibly in the near future. Thank you to my cousins Rui, Rio, and Abbie, along with their parents; my aunts and uncles. And most importantly thank you to my grandparents for making this trip a magical experience and my parents for making it happen.