Day 2 : Exploring Downtown
To start day two, we walked to Sumpu Castle, which from the outside looks like a traditional Japanese structure, complete with massive walls and a moat surrounding the entire area. But once we entered, it was actually more like a family park—ponds, sakura trees (not yet in bloom), jungle gyms, picnic areas, food trucks, and more. It was really heartwarming to see so many families out enjoying the day.
After that, we headed toward downtown and stumbled upon a festival-like market. There were booths selling all kinds of food and goods, along with performances like a kids’ show and a shamisen player.
I also tried kintsuba for the first time. It’s kind of like mochi, but made with herbs/leaves and filled with red bean, then lightly grilled.
At the end of the street there was a huge fountain!
Then we went to the Parco department store—another multi-floor mall packed with different shops. At one of the stores, I bought a bear bell and met a man named Kazuya. We had a short conversation in English about my trip.
There was also a Jump Shop pop-up in the building, so I went to check out the anime-themed merchandise. I even found Luffy’s hat!
At this point, I was getting hungry—and what better place to go than Yoshinoya? It’s a super popular fast-food chain in Japan known for its cheap and quick beef bowls (gyudon). Simple, affordable, and honestly really good.
Yes, you’re reading that correctly… 453 yen, or about $2.85. Imagine getting two of these for lunch for under $6. You really can’t beat that. Plus, it even comes with miso soup.
At this point, we had done a lot of walking, so we decided to pick up some food from an underground grocery store and head back.
That’s when it really hit me(again)—I don’t have a plan for after this week with my friend’s mom.
I don’t know my route. I don’t know where I’m going to stay. All I know is that I want to experience Japan as deeply as possible. Ideally, that means staying with Japanese families—improving my language skills and not feeling completely alone along the way.
So that night, I spent a few hours emailing as many host families as I could find.
But pretty quickly, I noticed something… the website I was using felt outdated. Most of the profiles were from 2005 to 2008.
At that point, I realized this was basically a Hail Mary.
And honestly? That’s kind of what this whole trip is right now.