Japan is more than a travel destination to me, it’s part of my roots. My father is from Japan and all of his family still lives there. The first time I visited Japan I was 14. I discovered I also had thing others had, called relatives. It was my first international trip across an ocean. I made it memorable by having appendicitis on the plane over and ending up in a Tokyo hospital on arrival–an interesting introduction to a city that would become my favorite. Since that summer in Japan I’ve gone back twice, once with our entire extended family for three weeks, and another time with just our own family. We rented an apartment in Tokyo near Ueno Park for a month, and it was too short. After that stay, everyone in the family agreed that we need more time in Tokyo.
