Reflections from our recent Japan trip (April-May 2025)

Travelling is not all white, sweet-scented roses - it gets on my nerves when I prepare a mountain of travel documents for the whole family, or when I overwhelm myself with commuting options in these cities. But beyond these two, everything is joyful. If you’re like me, you will not mind researching places to visit just to experience a new culture, or walking for hours throughout the day to see a new environment, to try interesting food. 

Welcome back, dollings! Today, in this post, let me share some things I realized during my family’s recent trip to Japan. Of course, I brought along a travel doll, and this time it’s Luwalhati.

Lua (for short) here in a Yukata, which I crammed to prepare a day before our flight. I know…

The trip brought us even closer together as a family. I mean, my husband, our son, and I have always been close since the beginning, but trips always bring out your unusual side that the other will have no choice but to accept. You discover in each other the tendencies that aren’t regularly surfacing in the comforts of the household. And that is just beautiful. We may have disagreements while choosing the best route, or having to wait for the other person too long, but all that is fine. Travelling presents you with uncomfortable situations that are necessary for strengthening relationships. Nowadays, families do not spend enough time getting to know each other, even at home, but travelling together will give you this opportunity. The three of us realized how important travelling is, and it quickly became a priority when it comes to allocating our precious resources.

A miniaturized version of one of the structures around Kanazawa castle

Lua, checking out the castle grounds

Experiencing a different culture lets you see what you can improve in your situation. As humans, the most common goal is to try every day to improve our situation. Japanese culture isn’t as worlds apart from Filipinos, so exploring the country is an opportunity to see an improved way of living that we can apply at home. My husband and I are fascinated by the art of  Japanese woodworking, so we visited related museums, craft stores, and temples. We made sure to see buildings that exhibit this art. We are mesmerized by their trees and plants, and how the people take care of them as a way to show their gratitude for nature. Our country has a long way to go in terms of personal awareness, so seeing how respectful the citizens are to the country’s laws and policies is very eye-opening. I saw a grandmother lead her granddaughter to alight a bus via the front door, as is how it should be done in Kanazawa city, even if the middle door was conveniently next to them. People respectfully wait for their turn to cross the road, while cars stop a few meters away when the stoplight turns red for them. Of course, there are many things to praise Japan for, but these I mentioned are based on direct experience. 

Lua, strolling around Nagamachi Samurai district

Reminding us that life is transient, that we should live in the moment. Most of the time during our travels, we see new things and we get instantly fascinated. We temporarily leave our overthinking minds behind and become at peace with what is in front of us. When we travel, we take vehicles that we pray will take us safely to where we want to go. But that is not always assured, even in Japan, where safety is top priority. We are again reminded that we are lucky to be in the company of our loved ones as travelmates. We feel grateful, and it’s the greatest feeling, bringing out the best in us all.

Here are some photos of the Oyama Shrine

Setting my sights straight. Among other lessons travelling teaches us, I love that it forces you to bring along only what is necessary. This teaches us to be more conscious of our possessions, whether material or mental. I have always battled with my crafting collection, but this time, I somehow developed some clarity in my goals. I realized I can only attain a few in a certain period, so I have to pick the ones that matter at the moment and simply focus on them. No more buying things that I won’t need very soon. I did purchase fabrics and a doll body type I had been wanting for a long time, but that’s all that I got that is related to crafting. Buying new dolls that I won’t be able to play with soon is just a complete waste of precious resources. The state of being able to resist the opportunity to purchase while telling myself to prioritise finishing my ongoing projects is very liberating.

Okay, I bought a few comics and gachapon, but that’s because I’m learning Nihongo again. After all, it’s more fun this time with my son and husband learning the language, too. 

So yeah, visiting our favorite country again sparked new ideas for ateliernishasha again, but it also allowed me to reflect on what’s essential and to bravely face a list of unfinished business. I have so many ongoing projects, but I haven’t put enough time into finishing them in the last few years. Just after arriving in the Philippines, I grabbed my idea notebook to see which items needed to be done first. Never was I this brave to carry on with abandoned projects. Arigatou gozaimasu for realizing this, indeed.

Thank you so much for reading til the end, dolling, and I wish I had taken more doll photos to share with you. I’ll be better next time! I took a lot of short video clips and compiled them here, though, so you might want to check out my Youtube video here:

Much love from the Philippine islands,

shasha