Japan

A short trip, just the two of us. We woke up and were out by nine. The first day was Tokyo, Shin-Okubo to Shinjuku, and the day I bought my first pair of Jordans. Yellow. The next day was Odaiba, then Asakusa. After that, Hiroshima, and Kyoto.

Out by nine

Tokyo, Shin-Okubo to Shinjuku

We woke up and left around nine. Dad had gone ahead, so the day started where I caught him: Shin-Okubo, then the fish market, a temple and the station statue, Shibuya, Harajuku, food at Yoyogi, and Shinjuku to close it. Somewhere on that walk I bought my first pair of Jordans. Yellow.

Shin-Okubo

Korea town. Dad was already on the sidewalk with a friend, which is not what I expected to walk into at the start of Tokyo.

Dad’s friend in a black shirt and Dad in a black-and-white leaf shirt, standing together outside a restaurant in Japan. — Dad and his friend in Shin-Okubo. I was the one still catching up.

Selfie of Dad’s friend, Nico in a yellow jacket, and Dad in a leaf-print shirt on a bright Tokyo street, with a Yoshinoya and a bear-shaped sign behind them. — The three of us on the street. Yoshinoya behind Dad, a bear over the road, and the yellow jacket.

Fish market

Harajuku

Nico in a black t-shirt standing in front of a wall of stacked sake barrels covered in Japanese calligraphy. — Harajuku, the wall of sake barrels. Rows of straw, ink, and brewery names.

Temple, station, statue

Nico standing with arms crossed in front of a dark wooden Japanese temple hall, a pine branch hanging over the roof. — The temple. Arms crossed, the pine sitting on the roof.

Nico in a black t-shirt pointing up at the bronze statue of a samurai on a rearing horse. — The station statue. The horse is rearing. I am pointing at it.

Dad jumping with both arms up in the stone plaza in front of the red-brick Tokyo Station. — Tokyo Station. Dad in the plaza with both arms up.

Shibuya

Samurai in the street, working the crossing in full armor. A rugby crew stopped us because they wanted a picture with the armor and with us. The flag says Samoa.

A Samoa rugby group posing in Shibuya with two samurai performers, one person holding the Samoa flag. — They wanted the photo. Samoa flag on the left, samurai in the middle, and us in the pile.

Nico dressed in red samurai armor, holding a katana, posing in a studio with more armor on display behind him. — Shinjuku. I put the armor on. Red, two swords, a red floor.

Yoyogi

We ate. Hot pot, small plates, the two of us at the table.

Nico in a yellow jacket and Dad in a leaf-print shirt smiling over a hot pot, sashimi, and sake cups. — Yoyogi. Hot pot, a pile of small plates, and sake cups.

The next day

Odaiba, then Asakusa

Odaiba first. The bridge, the little Statue of Liberty, the Gundam, and teamLab. Asakusa after that, under the big red lantern.

Odaiba

Nico in a yellow jacket pointing up at the teamLab Planets Tokyo sign on the white museum facade. — teamLab Planets. I pointed at the sign.

Nico in a yellow jacket holding up a giant glowing balloon in a dark room full of soft colored orbs at teamLab Planets. — The balloon room. You push them and they glow.

Nico in a yellow jacket standing in a dark teamLab room where blue light and flowers are projected across the floor and walls. — The other room. Light on the walls, flowers in the projection, the floor moving.

Asakusa

South

Hiroshima

The Atomic Bomb Dome is still standing, the steel frame of the roof open to the sky. I did not have much to say in front of it.

The night, then the morning

Kyoto

We got in at night and ended up at a table with people we had just met. In the morning it was Fushimi Inari, the torii going up the hill. That afternoon we flew home.

Nico and Dad squeezed into an izakaya booth in Kyoto with three other people, waving over a table of noodles, small plates, and iced drinks. — The table we shared. Hands up, noodles in the middle, and people whose names I did not keep.

Nico in a yellow jacket and blue shorts standing on the steps under the orange torii gates at Fushimi Inari. — Fushimi Inari in the morning. The gates go back until they turn into a tunnel.