Golden Week v2: A Golden Start
For Golden Week last year, my family came to visit, and it was a lovely time together. This year for Golden Week, my friend Henry was coming to visit. The days before I was getting pretty excited about the trip, but also a little nervous. After a few hours together I knew I had nothing to worry about.
Golden Week is a slightly odd holiday, as it’s 4 holidays in a bit of a weird spread. April 29th is a holiday, and marks the beginning of Golden Week. Then there’s 3 work days, followed by 3 holidays in a row. All this is to say, I was able to nab 12 days off for just 5 vacation days.
After work on Friday, I darted home, closed up my suitcase, and tried to wolf down some food. The bus that leaves my rural town only runs every 3 or 4 hours, so if I wanted to meet my friend Henry for dinner I had to hustle. I made my way to the bus stop, suitcase in hand, and was about ready as I could be for the weekend.
What I wasn’t quite ready for was getting onto a bus filled with all my students heading home. I probably should have expected it, but the possibility never really crossed my mind. I sheepishly got settled, made a bit of conversation with a student, and waved to them as they got off at their various stops.
We had decided to stay in Shinjuku, since it’s a pretty central location, so the route there was a fairly familiar one. Henry was on his way too and we were texting back and forth along the ride. He seemed to be having trouble catching the train, likely due to it being around rush hour. I told him to just stand behind a Japanese person and follow them. It must have worked since he got to the hotel about an hour before me.
When I was just about to reach the hotel, my nerves started acting up again. I’ve been long time texting buddies with Henry, long enough that I’m not sure exactly how long it’s been. The thing is though, we’d actually never met. I was pretty confident we would get along, but there’s always a nagging voice that wonders, what if?
I’d committed to a fairly big trip, 12 days together across Tokyo and Osaka with plenty of activities planned, several already booked. If we did have any issues would we just have to stick them out? Could we find a way to split the difference and go our separate ways if needed?
When I saw Henry, almost all of that went away. I gave him a big hug, and from there things just felt pretty natural. I put my suitcase in our room, and we set out to find some dinner. I don’t eat too often in Shinjuku, so I didn’t really have any go-to places. Henry wanted some sushi though, so that was a good starting place.
I found a sushi place that could seat us immediately since we were both pretty hungry. I realized pretty quickly that it was a bit of a nicer sushi place than I usually frequent, but still quite reasonable. I picked an assortment of tuna sashimi, since that’s always a safe bet, and a glass of umeshu, Japanese plum wine.
Henry had a habit of copying my order at most restaurants throughout the trip. I always thought it was a bit funny that we always ended up eating the same thing, but it always made ordering easier. You can’t steal bites of each other’s food this way, but it is kind of fun to feel like you’re sharing the exact same experience with someone.
Once we got our sushi we started digging in. I even followed more of the sushi etiquette rules by dipping just the fish in soy sauce. There was some wasabi between the roll and the rice, which normally I probably wouldn’t like. In this case though, this sushi was simply divine. It was the best sushi I’ve ever had in Japan, and possibly the best meal from the trip.
With our bellies full, I started giving Henry a quick Shinjuku tour. We stopped by Golden Gai, a few alleys crammed full of tiny bars that often seat only 5 or 6 people. It’s a fun area, but I’ve never really been drinking there. I feel like you would want to know about a bar ahead of time rather than bar hopping. Instead, I took Henry to some of my favorite haunts.
We started at a standing bar, usually a good place to meet people. It was pretty busy since it was a Friday night, and we chatted with some other patrons a little, but mostly just caught up and worked to find our own rhythm.
Henry doesn’t seem to go out a ton, and I wasn’t too sure how he felt about dancing, so I decided karaoke could be a good option. I didn’t know many karaoke bars in the area so ended up just picking a nearby one. It was fairly small, maybe 10 or 15 seats. We grabbed a spot at the counter, and ended up buying a bottle to share between us.
We sang a rough rendition of Dancing Queen together, and I requested a few different songs throughout the night. We stayed for around 2 hours just chatting with each other, singing, and making our way through the bottle. We were nowhere close to finishing the bottle, but I was reaching my limit, so we decided to head out.
On our way back we stopped by one last bar, danced for maybe 45 minutes before calling it for the night. It felt like the perfect night to break the ice and help us warm up to each other. By the end of the night I had a feeling everything was going to be just fine, if anything, this trip was going to be pretty stellar.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was time to turn in, so we got ready for bed, confirmed our plan for the next day, and went to sleep. After last year’s golden week I wasn’t sure how this trip would compare, but after our first night together I was probably more excited for the trip than I had been before.
This was a lovely start to our trip, and set the tone nicely for the adventures ahead. Any nagging doubts had been assuaged. A good friend had come to visit me in Japan, and I was ready to do my best playing tour guide, and also taking in new experiences with great company.
My golden week was off to a golden start.
