PB&J Adventures: Japan 2017

One of the main reasons for starting this blog is to have a space for going more in depth into our little PB&J world and to recap our adventures. Our most recent travels took us back to our most favorite place in the world: Japan!
Our dog making a cameo on our Tokyo adventures via #DatsyTravels


We've had a connection with Japan over the years. PB actually lived and worked in Japan the summer before we met in 2007. Over the course of our relationship, Japan served as the destination for our first major international trip together in the summer of 2009. Through the years we made it a point to visit this beautiful country as often as we could, with repeat trips in early autumn of 2011, late fall/early winter of 2013, spring of 2015, summer of 2016 and most recently, our winter February 2017 travels. 

There's just something about this place that leaves you so.... happy. If you've ever met anyone who's traveled to Japan, I'm sure they'd agree with me that it's indeed a magical place. There's a little something for everyone. The food is delicious, the shopping is incredible, the culture is amazing, the people are among the most polite and friendliest we've ever met, and of course, Tokyo Disney! The latter is worth a million individual blog posts dedicated to it's wonder, but I'll get to that soon.
PB&J Tokyo Disney adventures through the years! Top L-R 2009, 2011, 2013 Bottom L-R 2015, 2016, 2017


Hearts & Hope tour of Japan
When we decided to make our most recent trip to Japan, it originated for an entirely different purpose. Our February travels were supposed to be for our babymoon aka the last big trip as a PB&J duo before our son was to be born. We thought the timing was perfect, we've experienced almost all the seasons in Japan with exception of winter. February would have worked perfectly, I'd just be hitting the end of my 2nd trimester, international travel was cleared by my doctor and most importantly, the baby merch, oh all the cute baby goodies we wanted to bring back home. On Christmas Day 2016, PB booked the airfare and my parents gifted us a hotel stay at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Everything was falling into place...

Then our world shattered around us. We lost our son in early January 2017 due to his rare congenital heart defect. We were devastated, our Japan trip was the last thing on our minds. Just when all hope looked to be lost we heard the following from our doctor: "Live, laugh...travel the world, find your reasons to smile again". After some thought and with the overwhelming encouragement of our loved ones, we decided to continue with our travel plans. Though now for an entirely different reason, we would continue on our trip with the intentions of healing, restoring hope and adding much needed smiles back to our faces and in our hearts. 
Christmas Day 2016 Tokyo love.

On February 3rd, 2017 we boarded a plane to take us on our #PBJstrong travels of hearts and hope around Japan. We even had a stowaway coming with us on our travels, our little hope mascot "Peanut 2.0". A wonderful occurrence happened on our way to the airport when we saw this... a rainbow in the sky. Or as we like to think, a little sign from our Peanut above, smiling down on us 💙
Rainbows & hearts on the horizon the day of take off.


Thank you for reading along. Stay tuned for the next recap of our adventures around Japan! *Here's a little sneak peek at whats in store for the next post, the a visit to the happiest Disney Store in the world: Disney Store Shibuya!*
The happiest Disney Store in the world! Shibuya, Tokyo.




2 comments

  1. I've loved following you on your Instagram account and I'm excited to get to read more about your adventures!

    I'm glad your doctor advised you to travel. Not that I can even begin to relate to that experience, going somewhere where it would be completely impossibly NOT to be happy had to have been great for you both.

    Looking forward to reading more and best of luck to you and your future family! 💖

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for reading and for following along on our adventures on Instagram! I'm so glad that we took everyone's advice and continued with our travels. Japan brought back some much needed smiles and happiness!

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