Glimmers of a Future Life in Japan

A decade ago, my husband and I took a fateful trip that foreshadowed our move from Brooklyn to Tokyo

After 25 years of visiting Japan, I thought I knew it inside out. I’d already lived in Tokyo as a college intern, had longtime friendships from those days, and navigated the city like a local. But it took coming here with my husband for the first time to really fall in love with Japan on a deeper level. I needed to see it through the eyes of someone I love.

That trip was right around this time 10 years ago. Decade-old photos from that trip are popping up as “memories” and I’m still in awe that we’ve since built a life here. Honestly, I pinch myself every day – is this real? For anyone considering moving across the world at midlife, I highly recommend it.

This is the beginning of the rest of our lives. We both have that post-Narita-arrival glow. I’ve got so many fun things planned, jetlag be damned.

We relocated here from Brooklyn the year after that fateful trip and it’s already been nine years in Tokyo. We’ve gone through job changes, toughed out the pandemic years in our metaphorical “desert island” away from our families in the US, bought a second home in Izu, and watched Japan become the world’s hottest tourist destination.

I have so much to share about all that’s transpired since then, but for now I just want to show the glimmers of a life that was yet to come – the magic of a trip that preceeded a major life change.

Everlasting love: Tokyo's iconic Kabuki Theater. The charming tenugui selection at Kamawanu in Daikanyama. My favorite garden at Nanzenji in Kyoto. An stoic, sacred tree at Hakone Shrine. Tsutaya's temple to print media in Daikanyama. A timeless beauty in Kamakura.

The itinerary I crafted for that time was a bit of my own Golden Route greatest hits, with a detour added in. We flew in and out of Tokyo, hopped on the then-new Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa (where I’d been once and wanted to explore more), headed down to Kyoto, and then had a beautiful respite in Hakone before returning to Tokyo. Kamakura was a memorable side trip.

The most important thing to bring to Japan is your appetite.

I already had one success of convincing my husband to move somewhere (New York City, where I’d gone to university), so I suppose I had it in the back of my mind that maybe this trip would plant another seed. Maybe showing him some favorite spots and throwing in some new adventures would make him understand my endless fascination with this country.

It worked.

Half a year later, we talked seriously about finding a way to move here. We visited again a few months later to start putting feelers out. And then eventually we found our chance to make the big leap.

Looking back, I can see so many hints of what was to come in the years ahead. I’ll leave you with this last image, which hits home because I always dreamed of having my own Japanese garden. As I write this, my very own little version of this is right outside my window. And I’m still pinching myself.

Me in my element: a mossy, magical garden in Kanazawa.