My first test as a travel agent
My navigation skills have improved a lot over the past few years (albeit starting from a very low base) but I am proof that you don’t need good navigation skills to make it as a good travel agent. Ok, I won’t go as far as saying I have set up my own travel agency but, when we got to Japan, I took on the self-designated role as our travel aficionado and culture vulture...talk about a millennial (on a very jammy career break) trying to give her life some purpose.
Having already passed my first cultural test (see previous posts referring to Setsubun and the cat photo exhibition), my first travel test was to plan a day trip from Tokyo for Wil as my demanding "client". With a national holiday coming up, we wanted to make the most of Wil’s day off work and get out of the city as a reward for the several hours spent in household shops that week as we figured out what to buy for our flat.
Based on the experience of planning this day trip, here are my three simple, but tried and tested, foolproof, pro-tips (ok, can’t think of any more superlatives to throw in there) to guarantee client satisfaction as a travel agent:
Find a place that you want to visit yourself.
Present your destination of choice as one of three options to your client. But throw in something that will really strike a chord with them about your preferred destination of choice to ensure they pick it (in this case, it was a street dedicated to sweet shops...read on to hear more about this!).
Step back from your travel agent role and step into your even better role as travelling companion and tag along on the trip.
In our case, these three steps resulted in a day trip to Kawagoe, a town which is known as Little Edo due to its historic Edo day feel and look. Here’s a rundown of what we got up to...
Once we got to Kawagoe, we had the option to get a bus to the old part of town or do the 30 minute walk to get there. As newly arrived gaijin (the Japanese term for foreigners) we had an abundance of enthusiasm for experiencing all things Japanese so we decided to walk to see what a typical high street might look like in a small Japanese town.
And it was a good job we did walk as otherwise this great moment might not have happened. Mascots are huge in Japan - literally and figuratively.
No joke but one of the first things we did was to hit up a Japanese goods store. We are probably going to have to go easy on the “souvenir” shopping whilst we are here but hey, this was our first trip out of Tokyo and we did try to stick to essentials: a calendar for the new flat, chopstick rests, socks...
We visited some temples (an essential element of any day out in Japan) and an old clock tower as we explored the old part of town.
We paid 67p to see the remains of an old castle.
We then hit up a street full of sweet shops, and it was ridiculously quaint and cute. The shops were full of traditional Japanese snacks and Japanese sweets but then you would suddenly be reminded that you were still in the 21st century globalised Japan as you came across the basket of Thomas the Tank Engine chocolates (which I did buy for Wil) amidst everything else. We are still making our way through the haul of sweets we got that day but we did manage to take a few photos in between filling our baskets with sweets.
Oh so the other thing you need to know about Kawagoe when it comes to food is that the town is known for sweet potato. So we got various purple sweet potato snacks including these little things called imo koi with sweet potato and red bean paste.
Oh and this trip was momentous because I had my first taiyaki since we moved to Japan. A taiyaki is a Japanese waffle in the shape of a fish (sea bream to be precise) and it comes with delicious fillings with the most common one being sweet red bean paste. I discovered taiyaki when we came to Japan for our honeymoon and they quickly became one of my favourite treats in Japan. I often opt for the custard flavour, but given the local speciality, I went for sweet potato. And who could resist that sign...
So did I learn any lessons from my experience as a travel agent? Yes! To make sure you check the opening times for sights! We just made it in the nick of time to the Kita-in Temple which is famous for the 500 statues that represent Buddha’s disciples. Each one is different so it is quite interesting to walk around them all and to pick out your favourites and to hunt for the twelve statues with the zodiac animals.
But all in all, it was a great day out (even if I do say so myself) and I’d definitely recommend it as a day trip from Tokyo (but only once you’ve spent a decent amount of time hanging out with me in Tokyo).
Plus, we both made friends with birds.
Setting the scene for as I wrote this blog:
Location: In the flat that we now call “home” in Tokyo :D
Weather: A lot better than it is in the UK right now, sorry. But you will have your chance to gloat about the mild British summer when I am dying a sweaty death in the hideously humid Tokyo summer that I keep on getting warned about.
Soundtrack: Ease My Mind, The Shout Out Louds
Bonus fact: The Shout Out Louds were the first band that Wil and I saw together! No, no, it was not a romantic thing and we went with one of Wil’s school friends who was also a fan. If anything, Wil was the third wheel as he was not a true fan at this point.
