Grygla Senior spends time with family in Japan

Jordan Herseth is currently a senior at Grygla High School who recently made a big decision about his future. On January 19th, he was sworn into the Marine Corps. The ceremony was at MEPS in Fargo, ND. Jordan will be leaving for Basic Training on June 4th to Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. He is following in his brother’s footsteps, who was also in the Marines and currently lives in Japan. Jordan, along with his mom, Leighanne Kaczor, took a trip to Japan last summer and are sharing their unique experience below. 

So what brought you to Japan?

Leighanne: We went to Japan to attend my son’s wedding. He lives in Tokyo. Preston was in the Marines and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. During that time, he met the gal who became his wife. He is done with the Marines and has been in Japan for 8 years now.

What does Preston and his wife do in Japan?

Leighanne: Preston teaches Japanese children English and he also takes Japanese lessons to learn the language. Nana is a Beautician. They will make Japan their home. Nana is an only child and in the Japanese culture, the children stay and take care of their parents when they are elderly.

When was your big trip?

Jordan: We were gone from June 27th to July 12th. We stayed in this small urban district of Tokyo called Aobadai. It was just my mom, Leighanne, and I who went for my brother’s wedding.

Where did you guys fly out of?

Jordan: We flew from Minneapolis to Toronto, then to Japan.

Leighanne: The flight to Toronto was 2.5 hours. We had a 5 hour layover before boarding our flight to Tokyo. That flight was 13 hours in the air on a Boeing 757 that holds 500/600 passengers! It had 6 bathrooms on the plane and everyone had their own TV/game system to play, watch movies or listen to music. 

What was that flight like?

Leighanne: Your body gets very stiff sitting that long so we made sure every 3 hours to get up, go to bathroom and stretch/move a little. We didn’t sleep too much as we wanted to be able to sleep when we arrived in Japan that evening. 

Jordan: That flight was agonizing. I have never sat in so much pain and discomfort for that many hours. Let’s say that I hate flights now.

Leighanne: It was pretty easy to adapt to the time change once we arrived, but it was really hard when we got back home. The jet lag was bad and it took me about a week to feel good again. 

Did you have a lot of time to sightsee?

Jordan: Overall yes, but 2 weeks can fly by so fast when you are having a great time. I wish we had more time, but I also missed it back home. 

Leighanne: We went sightseeing every day! Did lots of walking, driving and riding the train. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, Japan, and it travels at speeds of about 200 mph!

Jordan: Visiting Kyoto was amazing. Kyoto is old traditional Japan, everywhere else is new Japan. Kyoto was the old capital and the place with the Golden Temple.

Kinkaku-ji

 “Temple of the Golden Pavilion” is one of the most popular buildings in Japan, attracting a large number of visitors annually. It’s a Zen Buddhist Temple and is designated as a National Historic Site and a National Special Landscape.

Leighanne: It was a beautiful place to visit. This trip to Kyoto was planned and paid for by my daughter in-law’s parents. They attended with us and we had a wonderful time. We also went to the bamboo forest. Everywhere we went had beautiful gardens, too. Kyoto is a city on the island of Honshu. It’s famous for its numerous classical Buddhist temples, as well as gardens, imperial palaces, Shinto shrines and traditional wooden houses. It’s also known for formal traditions such as Kaiseki dining, consisting of multiple courses of precise dishes and Geisha entertainers. 

What was your favorite food to try while there?

Jordan: I tried a lot of new foods. I ate real sushi, octopus and squid. My favorite thing I tried was real Bubble Tea. It’s milk tea that has little tapioca bubbles in it and it’s just amazing. I wish America was able to make it the right way.

Leighanne: The food is amazing…very good. There was lots of fresh vegetables. We ate at a Yakiniku styled restaurant where the beef was grilled in the middle of the table, which is pretty common there. Green tea is also really popular, along with green tea ice cream. It’s very tasty! 

Explain your experience in Tokyo a little bit:

Leighanne: Well, we first noticed the weather! You get to the airport and immediately feel the difference in heat and humidity. But then you notice the different styles of writing everywhere. It’s called Hiragana and Kanji. Also, the women are just beautiful and high on fashion in Tokyo. In Japan, you never wear shoes in the home; the homes are very different than American homes. They are very small and tiny. Let me tell you about the homes a bit: The kitchen and refrigerators are so, so small. There is no large oven like in America. It’s in the microwave with the choice to choose microwave or oven. Most cooking is done with stove top burners. The washer and dryer is all in one and the bathrooms are also really different! The people of Japan are very nice, very quiet and shy people. Tokyo is the largest city in the world with almost 14 million people. The city is clean and quiet. There is no smoking while walking down the street. There are designated smoking areas everywhere and you don’t see people just throwing cigarettes butts on ground. You don’t hear loud music in cars on the street either. It is very nice for a large city. The people and culture is wonderful. On the train, you cannot talk on phones because you would be too loud. The Japanese people will look at their phones or shut their eyes so they don’t stare at you. Like I said, they are very shy.

What were some of the trip highlights, besides the wedding?

Jordan: We went to the Tokyo Skytree Tower and that was really awesome. Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It’s 2080 feet tall with 32 floors. It’s the tallest tower in the world.

Leighanne: It was very tall! As we went up the elevator our ears were popping! While there in the night, we walked around and looked at Tokyo all lit. We also went to Tokyo Disney Land and Disney Sea; it made me feel like a child again. We went to a place called Kamakura that has many temples and a big Buddha statue made of bronze. We also went to Shibuya, a shopping district, which is rumored to be the world’s busiest intersection with 2,500 people passing through at a time.

Tell us about Preston and Nana’s wedding:

Leighanne: The wedding was at the Grand Sheraton Hotel on July 2nd. It was in a beautiful wedding chapel made of glass floors and all glass windows to see the beautiful grounds of the Sheraton. It was a Christian style wedding. The reception was inside the hotel in a reception room. It was very elegant and the bride arrived to the reception in a party dress different than the beautiful gown worn at the wedding. Nana also surprised my son at the reception by having Darth Vader and the Storm-troopers arrive; Preston loves Star Wars! After the wedding and formal reception, we hit the club district of Tokyo and had an after-party with all of their friends. We went to Coyote Ugly. This club was chosen by Nana because when Preston was younger, it was his favorite movie. We all had a great night!

Sum up your experience as a whole:

Leighanne: You are treated very good by the people of Japan, especially if visiting the family. You are given many, many gifts. You need another suitcase just for all of the gifts!

Jordan: I would have to say it was an amazing, once in a lifetime trip! Not many people get to leave the country, and even when they do, it’s rarely someplace like this. The people, the environment, just everything, It was all amazing. When I get the chance, I would like to visit Japan again!