Gigi's Blog: On a Once in a Lifetime Moment

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Japanese design sitting outside our hotel lobby

When David told me he was invited to Japan for an academic conference, I said, “not without me.” It is rare that David’s university trips align themselves so nicely with the family’s schedule. I just finished a big project for work and Emma is on Spring Break. Just as Austin braces for the invasion of the South By Southwesters, we are moving in the other direction and heading as far west as the imagination can take you. So away we go to Japan, more precisely…Kyoto.

The first few hours in Japan were a complete blur. We were all so jet lagged. A good thing David had been taking Japanese classes. With the little bit of English on the signs plus the English that was spoken at the airport, David was able to use his phrases and the alphabets that he learned in his “Japanese For Busy People” text to get us from the airport to our hotel room with only a few moments of panic.

The bus ride from the airport to Kyoto was unimpressive: lots of industrial concrete. Kyoto is very westernized and clean. From what I have seen, it is not particularly beautiful as the buildings are made of that same industrial concrete I could see from the bus ride. We were told before we came, that the beauty of Kyoto happens in the unexpected moments when you stumble upon a garden or temple. So we begin our visit to Japan, in search for the unexpected pockets of beauty in Kyoto, well aware that this entire trip Japan is actually an unexpected moment for our whole family.