Let's Just Go

I had wondered about going to Japan since I was small.

There used to be an animated series, Mysterious Cities of Gold, about a rag-tag group of explorers in South America – which I found out was made in Japan.

In the 1990s as I was growing up, there was a big wave of futurism, with interest in futuristic gadgets, many of which were made in Japan or the idea was Japanese. With the advent of the internet, it was possible to talk to people from all countries around the world, and learn more from normal people about how their life is.

Asian inspired cuisine and fusion cooking took off in the 1980s and 90s with chefs keen to bring a taste of East Asia back to the UK. Chain restaurant Wagamama opened in 1992, and brought canteen style of dining into the UK restaurant scene, where you sat around long tables, often with others close by.

Sushi and Sashimi made its way to the West and was popularised for the first time – with the chain Yo! Sushi opening its first conveyor belt sushi shop in Poland Street in Soho in 1997. Before this time, Japanese food was only found in very specific restaurants in large cities.

London has the Japan Centre – which opened its doors in a small premises in Soho in 1976, as a community hub, selling foods, goods, and books, all imported to the UK. By 1993 the centre was hugely popular so opened a huge shop on Piccadilly, accessible by some glittery mirrored escalators. This sold books, goods, cooking equipment, cooking ingredients and fresh Japanese food of all kinds. The Japan Centre has now expanded again, featuring a food hall and kitchen with lots of space to eat, on Panton Street near Leicester Square, and a new expanded store, Ichiban, in Westfield White City.

The event Hyper Japan, held at various exhibiton centres over the years, nailed down the popularity of discovering Japanese culture, customs, foods and ways of living.

I was enthralled by the futurism, the sushi, some of the anime, and upon finding out more about Japanese culture, I was enthralled by the notion of actually going to Japan – although from someone of a lower working class background, this was probably not going to be possible in my lifetime.

Or is it?

I got into playing around with points and Avios and realised that Japan may be a lot closer than I initially thought it would be.

I came up with a plan. I had a lot of unknowns – I’d not flown that far before, and wasn’t sure how I would be able to cope with jet lag, or being on the opposite side of the world to all my friends and family.

My plan was – I’d try my first long-haul flight in a very long time, to Singapore, to see how I did with that. Singapore is far – but it also had a lot of availability of Avios flights, and I figured I would try out Economy to start off with and see how that went – I had saved up around 50,000 Avios at that time, and an off-peak return to Singapore in Economy was £300 plus 40,000 Avios.

Singapore is also quite a good jumping-off point into Asia – I didn’t need to learn a new language to get by, and I could experiment with going there and seeing how things are, trying new local foods, and then perhaps going to Japan in another trip another time after that – depending on how that trip went.

There was a lot of learning for me on that trip – mainly that I don’t sleep well unless I am flat on my side, so trying to sleep in Economy was not fun, especially not with a child kicking you all night – also that it took me around 5 days to get used to being in a different time zone so far away – and that therefore going on a 6 day holiday there, really wasn’t the best idea!

I also learned what I felt like as a person whilst being very jet lagged, in another place where I know no-one, and pretty much alone to discover a new (and super warm and humid!) city. I’d done some small trips alone before, but not something so far away…

This was all very good practice for future trips – Asia 2025 and then finally, getting to go to Japan in January 2026.

It had been a long time coming, but I had forty-odd years to prepare myself for going somewhere I always wanted to be.

Nothing could have prepared me for the reality of being there, though. Nothing at all.