Can we believe it has been a whole year since I arrived here in Japan? Part of me wants to say, “No way!”, but I can’t pretend that the beginning didn’t happen, when every day seemed to trudge along at a glacial pace as I struggled hard to acclimate. Now that I have settled in, can communicate, and have some friends besides Chase, I am very happy to report that those days seem far, far away.

One year. Sitting here on my purple couch that I carted across the globe with me, I am reflecting on the first post that I wrote from this same seat in my apartment in San Antonio: how excited I was to share the news, filled with anticipation and a sense of relief for having figured out what my next big adventure was going to look like. Even though it looks a little different than I imagined and was more difficult to adjust to than I thought, I am so glad we made the leap and decided to come here; Chase and I are both better for it.

So here on my same purple couch, with my 365 days of expertise (wink), I am going to share what I think are the best and worst things about living in Tokyo, in no particular order.

The Best Things

1. Food. Not to be cliche, but it was love at first bite ❤ Not only is Japanese food totally delicious, but the standard of quality here is incredibly high. There are a million great restaurants and any kind of cuisine you can imagine. Even at fast food chains like McDonald’s, you are going to get the gold standard, the kind of McDonald’s burger that the folks at the corporate office believe all their stores are serving. And it’s like that pretty much everywhere, nearly all the time. Incredible.
2. Public Transportation. Oh my, my, my! How will I ever go back to living without trains to take me anywhere I want to go? Even if the train ride takes an hour, that is an hour of me reading a book or taking a nap instead of an hour of me actively paying attention to the road while driving myself; truly, what a luxury.
3. Konbini (Japanese convenient stores)! Chase and I are going to name our firstborn 711 Family Mart Lawson Hessman. Not really, but these places are every bit as good as the internet says they are.
4. Four Distinct Seasons, each beautiful in their own right. Texas has its charms for sure, but I cannot say enough good things about having three months of winter, spring, summer, and fall. This is the first time I have lived somewhere with four noticeably different seasons as an adult and it is such a treat! In the same vein, Sakura season is amazing and worth seeing, but there has been something in bloom since the middle of March, from tulips to irises to roses and now the hydrangeas, there is always something beautiful to look at lining the streets or in public parks.
5. Lower Barrier of Entry for Winter Sports. I am being 100% serious when I say that a ski lift ticket cost us $30 USD/day here last winter. Need I say more?
6. Everything is very orderly. Even though places are crowded, everyone waits patiently in orderly lines for everything and it is so nice to be able to rely on that. The odds of any kind of chaos are incredibly low. There are about a million examples of this, but on escalators for instance, if you want to stand still, you stay to the left, and the right is kept clear for people who are walking/in a hurry. Everyone follows this unspoken rule and so many others; the US could never!

The Worst Things

1. Humidity In the Summer. She thought she would be prepared for the heat, coming from Texas. She thought she would power right through. She is me. She was wrong. My body was noticeably wet for the entire summer. If you can see my sweat in photos I posted, no you can’t.. 😉
2. Loneliness. For all its population density, Tokyo remains quite a lonely place. It is not in line with Japanese culture to strike up conversation with strangers out in the wild on the train or in a cafe. Most people keep to themselves, which can be nice, but on the other side of that, no one is going to say, “Hey, I love your skirt!” on the train and become your new bestie. It was quite a shift from how normal it is to strike up conversation with strangers in the states.
3. It is uncommon for someone to tell you “no”, even if the answer to your question is decidedly “no”. There is a joke that there is no word for “no” in Japanese because no one ever says it. Coming from a place where people are more direct with each other, this was difficult to get used to.
4. Missing my family and friends from home and not being present for the big and small moments in their lives. We can’t really put that on Japan though, can we? Sending love to you all! ❤

This year has been memorable, to say the least and I can’t wait to see what our second year in Japan brings! More later xx