CHERRY CREEK FASHION — DISPATCHES FROM JAPAN: Reena and Suchit Majmudar

Dispatches is a new column in the magazine, taking readers behind the scenes to international destinations all around the world with well-known personalities from Denver and beyond. They share personal photos and experiences from their work trips and vacation spots. This month, Reena and Suchit Majmudar share details of their family trip to Japan.

Name: Reena and Suchit Majmudar

Occupation: Reena Majmudar: Speech Language Pathologist

Suchit Majmudar: Co-founder, Sunday’s Spirits Ltd. and Consumer/Retail Investor and Advisor

Destination: Tokyo, Japan

When: Thanksgiving 2019

Why: We love Japan - I went there for the first time in 1999 and really became enamored with the culture during many subsequent visits. Reena and I went for her birthday in 2017 (her first time) and she shared the same feelings about the country. I also have a business with roots in Japan, Sunday’s Spirits Ltd., which is a Japanese spirits company. We make whiskey and sake under the Sunday’s brand name (our product should be available for purchase in the US by mid-2020).

We have two young children, Nilaya (7) and Kinnari (5). While we have exposed them to different cultures and countries, we hadn’t traveled outside of North America until this trip. Japan was the perfect “introduction” for a variety of reasons:

+ Truly unique and different culture (language, food, population density, ethnicity, etc.), especially compared to their day-to-day lives in Denver

+ Existing level of familiarity with Japan given my business and our prior travel there

+ Cultural attributes that we find to be important and inspiring and that we want to expose our children to, such as pride in one’s work (regardless of what it is) and patience (a culture of apprenticeship still exists)

+ Direct flights from Denver to Tokyo

Autumn Colors Along Meguro River in Nakameguro

Summary of Trip

We wanted to balance creating an eye-opening cultural experience for our daughters, while also making sure it was truly fun for them. Education and travel have been extremely important in both Reena and my families - those were the two main reasons our parents immigrated to the US in 1972. Fun was the goal for our family because we wanted this trip to be the first of many international experiences that the girls would genuinely look forward to with great excitement, rather than solely remember their parents dragging them from “attraction” to “attraction” (which would have been boring to them).

Exploration

While we did have specific plans each day, we also left certain blocks for exploring different neighborhoods. Tokyo is made up of 23 “cities” and each one has its own charm and character. Some of the more popular ones include Harajuku, Ginza and Shinjuku. But there are many others just as worthy for an afternoon (or more!) of walking and relaxing. Tokyo is a very walkable city, in addition to having reliable public transportation. Taxis are also plentiful and we used them often, as it was convenient with two little ones whose feet got very tired during days that we walked more than five or six miles.

Exiting the Beautiful Nezu Museum in Aoyama

Art

Art has taken on more importance in our lives after having moved to Denver. Our two daughters are very into all forms of visual art and ballet and music as well. I joined the Museum of Contemporary Art - Denver Board of Trustees earlier this year and it’s been fun to have various forms of art impact our family.

We saw three museums with the girls during this trip, including teamLab Borderless, the Yayoi Kusuma Museum and the Nezu Museum. All three were remarkable and worth including on any itinerary to Tokyo. teamLab was very interactive and an entirely different museum experience than anything we’ve ever seen. We were blessed and lucky to see so much of Kusuma’s work in her dedicated museum (especially when her exhibits and work require reservations and lengthy waits in other parts of the world). The Nezu was simply beautiful - the art, the architecture of the building and the gardens were breathtaking.

Food

Tokyo is a foodie’s paradise. We mostly dined at casual spots because we had our girls in tow but we came back with delicious memories of ramen at Afuri, Indian food from Isetan’s basement food hall (a must go!) and Thai at Khao San. You can easily find incredible sushi and udon shops everywhere, but our favorite meals were at two pizza spots, PST and Savoy. Once you have pizza in Tokyo, you’ll keep wanting to go back for more. If you only have time for one, we think Savoy is the place to go (they do take reservations, but only for an hour's time slot). It’s tiny, cozy and fun to watch your pizza being crafted with such care and love. We also loved a cool spot called Locale - it’s run by an American-born chef who has lived in Japan for seven years. She cooks on her own in a beautifully designed space and serves food and coffee in pottery that she designed herself.

Waiting for Caffeine and Sugar at dotcom space Tokyo in Harajuku

Coffee

Sometimes you need a little pick-me-up, especially with the jet lag, gray skies and parenting challenges. We tried a few spots as a nice break in the early afternoon. Tokyo has no shortage of top-notch coffee, and some of our favorites included Little Nap Coffee Stand (Shibuya), dotcom space Tokyo (Harajuku) and Paddlers (Shibuya).

Language

While it was great to have the technology (Google Translate, speedy internet service) to help with language (most people do not speak English), it was also great to stumble our way through conversations, get lost sometimes and be able to resolve miscommunications with patience. That difficulty was a nice thing for our girls to witness (they realized language barriers aren’t a big deal). And, by the end of the trip, they had a few phrases nailed down, in addition to knowing the names of several neighborhoods.

Goofing Around During Family Bike Ride - About to Experience Vending Machines

Retail

Tokyo could be the world’s most dangerous city for “retail therapy” - whether it’s vintage American denim; beautiful handcrafted ceramics; pens, stationery or stickers; luxury goods or anything else you can dream up, it’s available in Tokyo in plentiful amounts. As much as you try to stay away, it’s almost impossible. The best place to get some really unique products (clothing, art, housewares, etc.) is the multi-level Beams flagship in Shinjuku. Our favorite spot for pens, stationary and almost everything from nice luggage to stickers to cooking utensils is Tokyu Hands (we liked the Shibuya location).

Summary

We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Tokyo as a family. It was a wonderful trip and we learned so much about ourselves and a new country and culture. The Japanese have a certain attention to detail, level of patience and a focus on uncompromising quality that is hard to find anywhere else in the world. Of course, Japan is not perfect (very homogenous population; very slowly evolving cultural norms; etc.), but no country or culture is. The ability to witness the differences we all have, yet fundamentally experience that we are all human and crave the same things (kindness, empathy and fairness, for example) was tremendously valuable.

Yuzu Tequila Cocktail at Bar Ben Fiddich in Shinjuku