Winter Break is coming to an end as we head back to Tashkent and school starts on Monday. We finished our time in Japan visiting a few more friends (Mike and Ana), tidying up the house, packing, shopping, and eating. While the girls were shopping in Daiso, the dollar store of Japan, I went for a walk in Kita Senri Park. There is a nice trail that winds through a bamboo forest, similar to the famous UNESCO World Heritage site in Kyoto. It is right behind our former school and the path leads to our neighborhood in Onohara-Nishi. We also had so much shopping that we needed to go to a second hand store and buy three carry-ons to make sure we could take everything back with us to Tashkent.
Nadia, Ocean, and I then ate tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets, cabbage, rice, and miso soup) which on this visit was my favorite meal. Of course I had the deep-fried oysters as well because they are in season. Hiroshima is famous for its oysters and I saw them on menus all over the city. Ocean needed to do some last-minute clothes shopping. We discovered Gu the sister brand of Uniqlo. It is a cheaper version and I really couldn’t tell the difference between the clothes.
We then went on the La La Port Expo City Mall Ferris wheel. These are big in Japan and other East Asian countries. The symbol of the 1970 Expo, the iconic Tower of the Sun was lit up. It was created by Japanese artist Tako Okamoto and it is such an unusual building. I don’t know if the tower gets built in 2023, but in 1970, it was a centerpiece of the Expo and today it is a museum and still visited. We used to take students to Expo Park on field trips. The Osaka metropolitan area has a population of just under 20 million people and you could see the long spread of lights leading to the city center.
Our good friends Yumiko and Wakaba helped us get to the train station and on the limousine bus to the airport. The Osaka International School community always treated us with so much kindness! It is a process to get to Kansai International Airport as it is an artificial island in the south of Osaka Bay. We first traveled from the end of the Hankyu train line into the city center. From the Hankyu Umeda station, we then took an airport shuttle bus to the airport. The airport has been renovated since we lived here.
Chinese tourists were spending money like crazy not only at the airport duty-free shops but downtown as well. With a weak Yen, goods are very affordable. My friend reports that 30% of admissions at the international school are from Chinese applicants. Families are investing in Japan and receiving 10-year visas from the Japanese government. This includes buying hotels, apartment blocks, etc., and raising their children in Japan. I think this is a sign that upper-class Chinese people are hedging their bets on the future of the country. I would guess the Japanese government appreciates the influx of capital into their economy but does not want to be overwhelmed by a much louder and brash Chinese culture.
I love travel days because our adolescent kids are trapped with us and have to talk to us! I had a great day with them and we laughed a lot! I don’t know how many more full family travel days we will have as Owen is already in his third year of university, Oliver is off to college in August, and Ocean will be graduating in two years. As I wrote earlier in the school year, I am savoring my time with the kids!
The sun was setting in the Land of the Rising Sun as we hopped on the shuttle train to our departure gate. I hope Japan stays strong and preserves its unique culture as it struggles economically with a rapidly aging population. I think the social cohesion and trust will get them through the next 20 to 50 years and they will come out the other side in good shape.
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