We just spent a month living in Japan with three kids, all five and under.
This year my wife and I sold the first business I started nine years ago. We still run a few other things, but we've spent a while setting them up so we can actually leave for a stretch without it all falling apart.
Two years ago we took the kids to Japan, Indonesia, and New Zealand for three weeks across three countries. That one was totally spur of the moment. It just sort of came together and we loved it, so now we're putting some structure around it and really making a run at it.
The Route
Most of this month was in the Japanese Alps, up the middle of the country. We usually stick to the Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka triangle, so this was the first real time out of it.
Tokyo. Where we started, and where we always start. Went back to Hikiniku to Come in Shibuya for lunch. Had a family photoshoot in Shibuya with a local photographer. Stayed at HOSHINOYA. Great experience.
Matsumoto. Small town, high up in the Alps, and it grew on us. Two casual izakaya we loved, Kimama and Fukazake. The area is known for basashi, horse sashimi (actual horse), which I wanted to try and never got around to.
Nagano city. Stopped on the way through. They hosted the Winter Olympics and you can still spot the leftovers around town. Mainly checked out Zenkoji Temple.
Toyama. Home base for three weeks of Japanese preschool. It's the Alps on the map, but the city itself is a working port on the bay, and we were 30 minutes south of that anyway, out where the rice is grown. Kids in a local preschool, 9 to 4.
Kanazawa. Went back three times. Fantastic food scene. Often referred to as Little Kyoto.
Fukui. Day trip out to Katsuyama on the dinosaur train. Went for the dinosaur museum and then Daishizan Seidaiji Temple. Kids loved it.
Himi. Out on the coast. Charming, little fishing town.
Kyoto. Two days on the back end. teamLab Biovortex with the kids. Still our favorite city in Japan.
The Preschool
The preschool part was through a program called Japan Preschool Exchange. They handle the housing, the kids go to a local school all day, and you get to just live there.
Really good service, and honestly it's what made the whole thing feel doable. It took the "how would we even pull this off" question off the table. I'm not sure we'd do this exact program again, but I'm glad we started with it.
The Food
We're both serious about food, and one of the best things we've worked out is trading off. One of us goes to dinner, the other stays home with the kids, then we swap. You don't get to sit across from each other, but you do get to eat at the places you actually came to eat at. That's most of the reason we kept going back to Kanazawa.
Standouts there were Respiración, MAKINONCÎ, and Tempura Koizumi, which we did for lunch. And Himawari Shokudo 2, the Italian place in Toyama, was one of the best meals we had all month.
What Surprised Me
The thing that surprised me most is how little you actually miss. You build a month away up in your head as this big disruptive thing. But normal life with little kids is mostly pretty ordinary. Groceries, school drop off, hanging around as a family. We were doing all the same stuff, just in a different country. And then we got home, started catching up with friends and family, and it had been life as normal for them too. That makes it a lot easier to go.
We're also not treating these as vacations, mostly because we want to do this a lot and that math doesn't work. There's still work to do. So you end up building a rhythm to the days, pretty much like you would at home.
Japan made that harder than I expected. Fourteen hour time change, so our day was their night. Running the businesses and staying in touch with our people was rough with everything flipped like that. Europe would be easier, I think, just from the overlap while everyone's awake.
Why We Do This
We had a great time, to be clear. Our daughter got sick the last four days, which stinks, and there's no planning around that. But the point was to live somewhere new for a while, not to be on vacation for a month.
We do this because we like it. We like dropping into a different culture and seeing how other people do things. But mostly I want the kids to grow up knowing there's more than one way to do just about anything. This isn't a knock on America. I just think seeing the rest of the world is good for you.
What's Next
We're homeschooling this fall so we can commit to it. From here I think trips run anywhere from three weeks to three months. We're still figuring out what actually works.
We do still have businesses that need us. We're opening Domo, a cafe here in the Heights, which is not exactly a leave-it-alone situation. But I feel good about the systems we've put in place. That's the whole thing that makes any of this possible.
A month in Japan with three kids under five. It's doable. You don't miss as much as you think. And building a rhythm in a new place teaches your kids something school never could.
The key is setting up your work so you can actually step away. That took years, but it's what makes all of this possible.
I'll write about how we're doing it as we go.
