Foreign tourists in Japan is an overly common sight these days and I’ve been fortunate to meet up with a fair few friends, family members and other such contacts in recent times. Two decades ago though it was very different and visitors really were quite rare. I had very few visitors in those early years but my two sisters thought they had better take advantage of me being in Japan as they’d maybe never get another chance once I left after doing a year or two of teaching English!!

Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa

Beforehand they were a little worried about whether I’d actually plan anything and thought we’d just be wasting time sitting around in my tiny apartment in Matsudo (Chiba Prefecture)! If only! What actually resulted was a fairly brutal schedule where we were out all day every day travelling around Tokyo and quite far beyond!

Not only that but it was Euro 2004 and so we all got up in the early hours to watch England in a couple of games. My small apartment was located 20 minutes on foot from the nearest station meaning that it was only really convenient for sleeping and having a shower in the tiny unit-bathroom. My eldest sister Ruth brought a yoga roll mat with her (I still have it!) to sleep on the floor whilst I was on the sofa next to her. My older sister Lorna brought her fairly new boyfriend Stuart (now husband) with her and they were given my luxury loft-style bedroom which was accessed by a ladder.

I had wanted to visit some of the sights we went to but held back to experience them together for the first time when they arrived. They were flying in from England and Australia respectively on Sunday 13th June and I went to Narita Airport to meet them but I made a fatal mistake. I can’t remember exactly but maybe I disembarked at Narita station instead of Narita Airport and then had to wait an hour for the next train which meant I was late for meeting them. Not the ideal start with a busy day hanging over us. It was then straight back to my apartment to basically throw their bags in and head off for their first taste of Japanese culture…

Day 1: There weren’t too many requests for things to do but one of them was to see some sumo wrestling. Luckily there was a sumo elimination tournament on at Ryogoku Kokugikan National Sumo Arena. I had been to collect some tickets from the venue earlier that week and we arrived mid-afternoon to see the final few hours of action which was sufficient enough to satisfy everyone’s appetite. I do plan to go again one day but for now this is still the only live sumo action I’ve seen!

We met up afterwards with my then-girlfriend and went for dinner at a Japanese style restaurant in Akihabara followed by karaoke. Both of my sisters are vegetarians so I have no idea what they ate here or indeed for most of the trip as Japan is very much a meat and fish eating country!

Day 2: A day of Tokyo’s most famous sights awaited us beginning at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa followed by a Sumida river cruise down to Hama Rikyu Gardens. Imperial Palace was next before we had some chill-out time in Hibiya Park where I think we all fell asleep! That must’ve been some sight for any passers by to see four foreign people getting some much needed shut-eye! Harajuku and Shibuya were our final destinations for rounding off the day.

Day 3: On paper this seemed like the easiest of days as it consisted of just Tokyo Disneyland which was fairly conveniently located directly on the Musashino line from my apartment. I don’t think I was ever expecting to do to Disneyland before their arrival but I think it was suggested as none of us had ever been to such a place and wanted to experience it. The main thing my eldest sister remembers is me practising my Japanese with some young giggling girls in the queue for a ride. Cringe! These were different times though!

Day 4: The conveyor-belt tourism trail at Hakone was the next big day-trip which involved using multiple forms of transport (train, bus, ship, ropeway etc) to circumnavigate the area in a clockwise fashion. Mount Fuji was something we all wanted to see as I was still yet to lay me eyes on it properly. Sadly, it was a cloudy day though and we could only see a rather faint outline of it.

We may not have seen the iconic mountain from Lake Ashi but we were able to see some other great views, and got to experience eating some black eggs!

Day 5: Yet another day trip with this one to Kamakura. My memory is fairly sketchy but I think we took a hiking trail between Jochij-ji Temple (stopping for sweet mochi balls along the way!) and the Great Buddha at Kotoku-in.

The bookmark-style ticket for the Great Buddha did become something of legend for us as we continued to test each other on the history information (height, weight, date built, incidents etc) on the back for the rest of the trip, and even beyond! I’m not sure how this all started but maybe it was because Stuart was always reading this information!

I’m not sure why we stopped by to look around Yokohama on the way back but we did. Sure, it’s a great city but it’s not exactly essential when on such limited time. The sight of many vending machines in a row was a cool one.

Karate Kid crane-kick poses in the harbour is a pretty strange choice. I can only guess that those 1980s movies were our main source of Japanese culture back then!

Day 6: I think my eldest sister left in the morning to fly back home to Australia whilst Lorna, Stuart and I went to Odaiba before returning to Asakusa again.

Fuji TV Building in Odaiba

It was back to work for me the following day whilst Lorna and Stuart took the bullet train to Kyoto for a few days which included staying in a monastery of some kind. They returned six days later for one more night at mine. As it turned out, my sisters visiting me wasn’t quite the once-in-a-lifetime opportuity they thought it would be! My older sister hasn’t been back since but my eldest sister has returned with her family twice since then in 2015 and 2023. When the next time will be I really don’t know!

Click here to read ‘My Eldest Sister’s Family Came To Japan & Spent Christmas At Our Place’

Click here to read ‘My Parents Came To Visit Us In Japan For The 1st Time In 7 Years!’

Click here to read ‘TF Flashback: Christmas In Australia (2001)’