15 May 2025 3 min read

Life on the Other Side

My flight monitor from the airplane, showing an imminent arrival at Haneda International Airport.

Well, we made it!

Sunny made it, Amanda and I made it, our stuff made it. We made it.

Things started going a mile a minute from the moment we landed. Looking back at that day now, it seems ten years ago.

Turns out if you're arriving in Japan with a valid visa in your passport, they just print you a Residence Card right there at Customs & Immigration. Neat!

We were collecting our boxes and Sterilite totes at Baggage Claim when we saw Sunny being wheeled by on a massive cargo cart. Flagged down the Animal Quarantine employee that was wheeling her around and got that whole rabies check done in about 10 minutes.

The Animal Quarantine officer asked, "will your dog be returning to America?" "Nope, she's a Japanese dog now."

I'll never forget how well Sunny handled the trip. She didn't bite at her crate, she didn't make a mess, just laid down the whole time apparently. Once we made it out into the pre-security area, she drank about a pint of water and immediately went down for a nap. Total trooper.

Picked up the rental van, offsite, even though that wasn't mentioned in the reservation confirmation. By the time we left the airport it was well past 11pm. My goal was just to survive long enough to make it to a rest stop so we could nap in the car until sunrise. I wish I'd realized earlier that the sun rises at like 4:30am here. By the time we made it to Dake Onsen, in Fukushima Prefecture, it was 11:30am the next day. I was TIRED.

Sunny relaxing at a dog run in a Japanese Service Area rest stop.

I'll fast-forward a bit. We stayed in the mountains of Fukushima in a town called Dake Onsen for Golden Week, one of the biggest holiday weeks in Japan. Fortunately for us, Dake Onsen is a very small town, and we got to relax surrounded by nature for a few days before making our way to Sendai.

Amanda walking down a street lined with arches of Sakura trees, just past bloom.

It was lovely.

We've been staying in Shiogama the last 11 days or so, which is a small city outside Sendai I've been to many times. It seems primarily to be famous for two things: sushi and the eponymous Shiogama Shrine. It's also located between Sendai and Matsushima on a JR Line, so it's got an incredibly convenient location.

Sunny has proven extremely popular with many locals, having a dog in Japan seems like a shortcut to friendship. I find it really charming that, no matter where you are in the world, dog people just love to talk about dogs.

Our current lodging is what is called in Japanese a "minpaku" or 民泊. It's an older house, probably built in the 1960s or 1970s, that the owner attempted to turn into a bar! So it's got a really cool 8-seater bar setup in the living room. The owner is about to open another private lodging in the city, called Roadside, and he's invited us to stay there for the rest of our time in Shiogama. He's a pretty nice guy, I'm glad our paths have crossed!

Tomorrow we're touring a potential house rental of our own, it will be my first in-person house tour since February! Here's hoping that goes well. Things have been pretty fluid for us recently; I suspect we're both ready for some stability. Maybe even a desk to work at!

The Aoba Festival is also this weekend in downtown Sendai, so I'm hoping we'll get to enjoy that, too! Keep an eye on our socials for all the new stuff, of course. Thanks for reading.