After three months of keeping the secret, I waited nervously in the hotel lobby. When they got out of the elevator, I held out my hand. “I am your guide, Ash-san.” My father went to shake it, paused, and then said, “Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?” When my mom realized who I
After three months of keeping the secret, I waited nervously in the hotel lobby.
When they got out of the elevator, I held out my hand. “I am your guide, Ash-san.” My father went to shake it, paused, and then said, “Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?”
When my mom realized who I was, she slapped my hand. “Is that the thanks I get?” I told her, as she cried (tears of joy).
I had never traveled abroad with them before, but I had flown from Australia to join them in Tokyo, where they had booked a trip after a two-week cruise to Japan.
Tokyo is one of the most populated cities in the world and I knew they would need help navigating through it. After all, this is not the obvious choice of travel destination for two 78-year-olds with vision problems and vertigo.
So I offered to organize a guide for their days in Tokyo, a free guide, courtesy of a volunteer program I may have invented.
In the end, I’m glad I got to experience part of Japan with my parents, but I still learned some lessons the hard way.
I played ‘Frogger’ with Tokyo traffic, so my parents would never have to face a train station
I found ways for my parents to get around Tokyo safely. Ash Jurberg
Tokyo is famous for its efficient train system that can take you all over the city and beyond.
However, many of the train stations are a maze of stairs, long tunnels and rush hour crowds. Mom can’t see the steps well, much less climb them. So we skipped trains and took taxis.
That meant a lot of time for me playing “Frogger” in busy traffic, running between cars to hail a taxi. The saving grace is that Japanese drivers are too polite to hit you.
In a taxi, Dad got a seat instead of a handrail. My mom walked out the door to the sidewalk, and I guided her every step that she couldn’t see.
When it came to food, I spent hours standing in lines so my parents wouldn’t have to.
My parents and I tried a variety of sweets in Japan. Ash Jurberg
Reservations won’t get you the best food in Tokyo. Normally you have to wait in line. So, I queued up for my parents as much as I could.
I went an hour early to Ichiran, my favorite ramen place, where you sit at a private table and order from a vending machine before you get to the counter.
I explained the vending machine to my parents three times before giving up and placing orders for everyone. The English family behind us watched with amused smiles as their young daughter mastered the machine in seconds.
My parents said it was the best ramen they had ever had.
My parents enjoyed some of my favorite ramen. Ash Jurberg
The next morning, I stood in line again for an hour to buy the wobbly viral pancakes at A Happy Pancake, turning a pair of tired parents into a pair of happy parents.
They tried everything I put in front of them. Mom took a bite of mochi, grimaced, and handed it back. Dad loved the curry pan he’d seen go viral on TikTok and posed taking it apart for the camera, just like the influencers who made it famous.
Dad had fun posing with the viral curry we tried. Ash Jurberg
I wrongly assumed that 15 minute breaks would reset everyone
I planned every day with coffee stops and I still made mistakes. I thought 15 minute breaks would be enough, but they never were.
Each stop lasted almost an hour, and once a coffee shop had WiFi, I lost them completely. They would both immediately reach for their phones.
“What’s so important?” I asked. “You don’t even have social media.” They laughed and kept scrolling, exactly like my teenagers do. Apparently, phone addiction is not age-specific.
I figured these longer, more frequent stops would cost us half the itinerary. Instead, we hit everything on their list, including Shibuya Crossing, the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection, where my parents proudly posed for photos before running (well, shuffling) the other way.
We made time to see the Shibuya crossing. Ash Jurberg
At one point during the trip, I said that it had been easier traveling with my twins when they were little: they cried less and needed fewer naps.
At the end of the trip, I realized I should have done this 20 years ago.
In the end, this was a memorable family trip. Ash Jurberg
My parents flew home the day before me. Mom cried when she got into the taxi, just like she did when she slapped me in the lobby. Dad hugged me and said, “We would never have been able to do this trip without you. We would have been stuck in our hotel rooms, overwhelmed.”
My only regret is that I waited so long to travel here with them. I still think that if we had taken the same trip 20 years earlier, the breaks would have been shorter and the walks longer.
And maybe I wouldn’t have had to stand in line by myself.