Summer Vacation: Part 2

I arrived in Yokohama about 30 min ahead of schedule, arriving at 6:40am. Luckily I had been able to catch about five to five and a half hrs of sleep on the bus. My uncle was going to meet me at the train station around 7:30, so I had a little bit of time to explore the aria. But after I walked around a bit, I didn’t want to let lost, plus my bag was pretty heavy, so I resorted to just sitting outside on a bench and play Settlers of Catan on my iPod.

When my uncle got there, we came to the conclusion that we should grab some breakfast since neither of us had eaten yet, so we went to McDonalds. It was really nice to see my uncle James. The last time I saw him was about two years ago, but it was only for half of a day. So the last time that I really got to spend time with him was almost ten years ago, when him and his daughter came out around Christmas time.

Once we ate our breakfast, we checked my bag in a locker and spent the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon walking around Yokohama. He showed me lots of cool things, like the neighborhood where all the immigrants lived when Japan opened its boarders, then Yokohama’s bay. I don’t know how many miles or kilometers we walked, but it must have been quite a few.


When we were done with our mini tour of Yokohama, we took the train back towards his house. When we got there my Aunt Sayuri and cousin Cellie welcomed me. I had not seen Sayuri since my last visit in Japan when I was seven, and the last time I saw Cellie was two years ago, when it was only for a few hrs. It was nice to spend the afternoon and evening hanging out and getting to know my family. Later that night my other cousin Ellie, came home. Last time I saw her was almost ten years ago, and the time before that was when she was I was seven and she was three and a half.

Friday we woke up and got dressed for a nice lunch. We drove into Tokyo and went to this very nice hotel that has a revolving buffet at the top on the 14th floor. Here we sat and dined for almost two hours. We filled ourselves with delicious high-end food. My favorite thing I ate was “Authentic Chicken,” which was pretty much chicken that had a middle-eastern spice. I also made quite a few trips back to the grill where I ate a good amount of sirloin steak. It was an amazing meal, and I had a great time up there.


After we came back home, my uncle took me around Hiyoshi, which is the area they live in. Hiyoshi is home to a large university, so there are lots of restaurants and stores and he says that during school, the streets are busy with students walking to and from the university. I think would be a cool place to live because there is so much diversity in cultures with international students attending the university. As we were on our walking tour of the streets we randomly ran into my other cousin, Yui and her 3-year-old daughter Hikari! But it was great to see her and meet my little cousin…once removed?

Saturday was pretty mellow from what I remember. It was another day where we sat around the house and I felt like I could really start to know my uncle and his family. One thing that I realized with family is that you can hardly know them, but at the same time since your family you feel like you know them. For example, if they were just some family where I met a couple of them a few times a long time ago; it would have felt really weird for me to stay with them. But since they were family, it did not feel weird or uncomfortable at all. It was the first time that I had all of them to myself and I could start to learn and know about my Japanese family.

Sunday we went to church, and then we out for lunch before I said goodbye to the fam. My uncle was gracious enough to come with me and make sure that I got on the right bus. Instead of leaving Yokohama, I was leaving out of Shinjuku, so a little bit farther out of town. This time my bus left at 4pm and I was able to make it back to Sendai a little after 9pm.

I am very thankful for my Japanese family and how there were so welcoming to me and made me feel at home while I stayed at their house for 3 nights. Thank you Uncle James and family!