During the Neo break, my mother and brother came to visit. My mother has visited Japan a few times, but it was my brother’s first time to come to Japan. We travelled around Osaka, Kyoto, and a little bit of Okayama. It was a busy week, and there were a lot of crowds due to the 3-day weekend. But we had a good time.

They spent a few days in Tokyo to begin with, then I met them in Osaka after. Even though I was energized and ready to do many things they were already quite exhausted from their time in Tokyo. A lot of the first day ended up with us shopping and exploring around the Namba area. That night we went to a restaurant / bar near our hotel and had a long catch up about many things. The next day was a lot busier.

 We went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ), and though it was the day before the long weekend, the tickets had sold out. I had never seen so many people there before, it was crazy. Despite it being November, the Halloween event was still going on too. There were big crowds throughout the day for the Halloween shows, and in the early afternoon there was a great parade where the performers danced with the spectators. We managed to go on many rides throughout the day. We especially wanted to go on the Spider-Man ride as it will be closed early next year. Luckily, we managed to get in at a good time and the queue wasn’t so bad. At night was when the zombies came out, and the park shifted to a much scarier atmosphere. The zombies would try to scare guests, but every once and awhile music would start playing and suddenly they would all dance. It’s a big trend in Japan right now, and probably one of the reasons tickets had sold out. By the end of the day, we had spent about 13-14 hours there and so we were exhausted.

But our trip was far from over. The next day we went to Kyoto. Since the long weekend had begun, there were huge crowds of people. We immediately ran into a roadblock as there was nowhere we could store our bags. We had a lot of luggage, and this caused us frustration. After a while we luckily did manage to store our bags somewhere, but we had lost a lot of time. With the daylight we had left we went to the Nishiki market and Kiyomizu Temple. My family found a lot of the shops at Nishiki appealing, and me and my mother bought new phone cases based on famous traditional Japanese art. We arrived at Kiyomizu only 30 minutes before it closed, and while I was confident there would be less people at that time, I was very wrong. The area was still full of crowds. That night we finally got to where we were staying. It was a small house in an old traditional district. It was very cool and cozy, and certainly nicer than a regular hotel.

Our second day in Kyoto took us to many places. First, we went to a temple called Rurikoin. We had to book it. The pictures looked incredibly beautiful, though we were a little early for the autumn leaves there. After that we crossed to the other side of Kyoto to visit Arashiyama. It was my second time there; my first visit was during an autumn event at night. This time I experienced the area during the day. Despite the crowds, we managed to find a rice bowl restaurant to eat at that had a short wait time to get in, then headed towards the famous bamboo forest. Near there, we got on the torokko train. The torokko train is a scenic train ride through a beautiful mountainous area. Once again, it was a little early for the autumn leaves, but it was still pretty.

The next day was our last day of sightseeing together. Before we left Kyoto, we went to Nijo Castle. We had some spare time so I thought it would be a nice place to take them before we left Kyoto. Even though I have been there several times, I’m always amazed that someone built such an amazing structure so long ago. Some of the details in the castle are unbelievable. Later that day we came to Okayama and headed over to the Bikan District in Kurashiki. My mother wanted to visit a store dedicated to animal goods (particularly cats) that we visited last time she was in Japan. My family were also very interested in the denim goods being sold there. It was night by the time we arrived, and we were surprised to see a local jazz festival being held. A band was playing on the bridge in the middle of the district. It was a very cool and chill atmosphere to see.

The trip wasn’t all perfect, however. Besides the crowds, the exact time they visited Japan the temperature decided to rise again. It was surprisingly hot during the entirety of our trip. My family didn’t believe me that it was unusually hot for November. The trip overall was fun, just very busy and tiring. Hopefully I will get to visit my family back home sooner than later.