Family Trip to Japan

I took my mom and my nephews to Japan!

Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto

We were there for about two weeks and we got to spend time in Tokyo and Osaka. We got to see more of Japan by taking day trips to Kyoto, Nara, and Lake Kawaguchiko. This was my first international trip in almost four years and it was also the first international trip of my nephews in almost a decade!

Dotonbori in Osaka

Several years ago, I asked one of my nephews if he wanted to go anywhere for the summer. He said he wanted to go to Japan. I told him that it was too expensive for a summer trip but I promised to take him once he graduates high school. Unfortunately, passport issues and the pandemic prevented me keeping my promise. That is, until now.

Mt. Fuji

My family was actually planning a different trip this year but because my grandmother was confined for a while before passing away earlier this year, we weren't able to make that happen. I thought that maybe we could go to Japan instead during my nephews' school break since visa application takes only a week and Japan is not that far away. Unfortunately, because this decision was practically last minute, my mom was the only other person in my family who could join us since everyone else couldn't take 2 weeks off of work on such short notice.

Hachiko statue in Shibuya, Tokyo

What helped me was that I already prepared a high-level itinerary for a trip to Osaka and Tokyo a few years ago. (The initial idea was to go there back in 2020 but we were faced with a global pandemic at the time.) I dug up those plans and started adding more detail into it. It also helped that many of my friends had just been to Japan and they shared a lot of tips and suggestions. In the end, our itinerary looked like this:

Day 1: Travel from Manila to Osaka
Day 2: Day trip from Osaka to Nara
Day 3: Universal Studios Japan
Day 4: Day trip to Kyoto
Day 5: Day trip to Kyoto
Day 6: Travel from Osaka to Kyoto via Shinkansen
Day 7: Lake Kawaguchiko to see Mt. Fuji
Day 8: Senso-ji Temple, Asakusa, and Ginza
Day 9: Akihabara and dinner at Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu
Day 10: teamLab Planets and Odaiba
Day 11: Disneysea
Day 12: Shibuya, Meiji Shrine, and the Imperial Palace
Day 13: Travel from Tokyo back to Manila

Unicorn Gundam statue in Odaiba

It was a full schedule and in fact, we ran into some bad luck: bad weather disrupted our plans and we didn't get to see everything we planned to see. Nevertheless, it was an incredible trip that I got to enjoy with my family. Over the next several blog posts, I will write in greater detail about this amazing trip.

Torii gate at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo

Next: Osaka

Escolta at the Peninsula Manila

For the first time, I took my family to Escolta, the luxury buffet restaurant at the Peninsula Manila. We were celebrating the birthdays of my mom and my brother and I thought this place would be a perfect venue.

Another reason why I chose that place was because I got a 1-year membership package at the Manila Pen. This membership comes with a free overnight stay at a Superior Room along with several discount vouchers. One of those vouchers gave me 50% off for Sunday Brunch at Escolta for a party of 4 to 12 people. The challenge though is that Manila Pen is a very popular place to visit on Sundays, which means parking is always full. We had to park some distance away from the hotel because when we arrived, even valet parking was full!

My membership also allows me to avail of up to three vouchers at a time, so I decided to also use my vouchers for a free celebration cake and for a free bottle of wine. The requirement to claim these gifts is that you dine at any Manila Pen restaurant in a group of at least 4 people and that you inform them in advance of your plan to use these vouchers. 

Having buffet brunch turned out to be a great plan because everyone enjoyed the food and ate a lot! I have now more than made up for the cost of my 1-year Manila Pen membership: I've used my free overnight stay, I got 50% off of Sunday brunch for 9 people, I got a free cake, and I got a free bottle of wine. Hopefully, I can use more of my vouchers and that my family can enjoy more meals at the Peninsula Manila.

New Shoes

I kinda went on a bit of a shoe buying spree recently. In two weeks, I ended up buying three pairs of shoes. To be fair though, I needed to replace two pairs. I wrote about having to retire my blue and yellow Metcon 2 Flywire shoes a couple of months ago. Most of my other pairs of shoes were predominantly white or black (or a combination of both) so every time I would go to a shoe store, I would check whether they had any shoes with bright colors. Recently, when I went into a Nike store, I saw these Nike SuperRep Go 3 Next Nature Flyknit shoes. They are bright blue with yellow-orange highlights, similar to my retired Metcons. I tried them on, thought they fit well, and decided then and there to buy them. This purchase came with two bonuses. First, the salesperson told me that if I bought three items (including those shoes), I could get 30% off on all of them. My brother's birthday was coming up so I decided to buy a couple of shirts for him and that allowed me to avail of the 30% discount. Cool! The second bonus is that these shoes I got are made with at least 20% recycled content. Awesome! While I may not be able to use my favorite Metcon shoes anymore, I'm happy I was able to find a good-enough replacement.

Nike SuperRep Go 3 Next Nature Flyknit

I also recently noticed some damage in my brown Sperry shoes recently. I've had them for a while now so I thought that maybe it was time to replace them. I finally found a pair that I liked in Aldo. It helped that they weren't as expensive as the other brown shoes that I had seen and liked. After trying these Aldo shoes on, I decided to get them.

Brown Aldo shoes

The third pair I got were these white Metcon 8 shoes with bright crimson and obsidian highlights. I had been seeing this style of shoe for a while but I only saw this particular color scheme on the app. It was also on sale. However, it wasn't until I saw someone wearing these shoes that I decided I wanted to get them. I went to a nearby Nike store but they told me that this particular shoe with the colors I wanted wasn't able in any Nike store in the Philippines. It was most likely available on the app because it would be shipped from abroad, possibly Singapore so they suggested I just buy from the app. So that's what I did. It was my first time using the Nike app to make a purchase and my shoes arrived in 4 days, which was the estimated delivery time. I know that I just bought another pair of sneakers that I don't actually need but I got them at 30% off and I do like how they look so I guess I shouldn't feel too guilty haha.

Nike Metcon 8

If you're wondering about the shoes that I got rid off, I donated them. Don't worry, I made sure that the recipients understood the condition of the shoes and I checked if they were okay with them and they said that they were. Hopefully my old shoes can still serve their new owners well.

Fitting into my old new suit

My friend and ex-colleague Mitchell invited me to his wedding. The invitation specifically asked the men to come in a black suit. This caused me a bit of anxiety because I had only one good black suit; the previous two I had were a bit ill-fitting now because I had lost weight since I got them. The problem with my good black suit is that I had it tailor-made right before the pandemic, when I was at my thinnest in 10 years. I am still about 2 kilos away from my pre-pandemic weight so I was worried that the suit wouldn't fit me. I tried to go on a bit of a diet shortly before the wedding by eating a lot more salad but I didn't seem to lose any weight haha. Thankfully, on the day of Mitchell's wedding, I was able to fit into my suit, albeit very tightly. Still, I could close all the buttons and I could even sit! Hooray!

Mitchell's wedding ceremony was held at the Shrine of Jesus - The Way, The Truth, and The Life in SM MOA. There was threat of rain that day so it was cloudy but that also meant that it wasn't too hot inside the church.

After the ceremony and the pictorial, it started to rain a bit. Thankfully, there is a covered walkway from SMX (which is just across the street from the church) all the way to Conrad Manila, where the reception was held. There were a couple of hours between the church ceremony and the reception so cocktails were laid out for the guests to while away the time. While we were enjoying coffee and snacks, one of the wedding coordinators approached me to ask me if I could say the prayer before dinner. The coordinator didn't explain to me why I was being asked last minute but I just said yes.

(That actually wasn't the first time I was asked to come up with and lead a prayer at the last minute. The first time that happened, I was hosting my friends' wedding reception and even singing a couple of songs. I was stressed enough as it was so when I was asked to come up with a prayer, I ended up with something that felt too short and didn't really have any impact. I think I learned my lesson from that because this time, I was able to calmly prepare what I felt was a good prayer. And no, I didn't ask Chat GPT or Google to prepare it for me haha.)

It was a lovely wedding, with beautiful speeches and an abundance of delicious food. The experience was made even better by the fact that several of our ex-colleagues were there so it felt like a mini-reunion. I'm also really pleased that I managed to fit into my suit and that I finally got to wear it after I had made right more than three years ago! I do think that I need to lose about 2 more kilos to fit into it comfortably. Hopefully, I can achieve that before I get invited to another wedding haha.

More Fitbit Achievements

Just a couple of months after I got my previous Fitbit badge, I apparently took enough steps to earn me my latest badge: Japan. That's 3.007 lifetime kilometers I've walked.

And just a month after that, I got my next badge: India. This means that I have now walked a total  of 3,123 kilometers since I started using my Fitbit. Wow!

I also achieved a new record. In the previous week, I walked a total distance of 74 kilometers, my new personal best! 

I do have an upcoming trip planned. If that pushes through, I may just improve on my personal best pretty soon.