Two hands raising glasses with strawberries in front of illuminated cherry blossoms along a river at night
Strawberries in champagne beneath the night blossoms, Meguro River.

Japan · Sakura Season, 2017

Designing Around the Experience

A new points balance.
The beginning of a much longer journey.

Years later, I still remember the strawberries in our champagne beside the Meguro River, the cherry blossoms lit up against the night, and a day in Kyoto spent in kimono.

Japan in spring was part of the beginning of my full-time travels around the world. I had a fresh 100,000-point Chase Sapphire Reserve welcome bonus, and I wanted to see how far it could take me—and what it could make possible along the way.

Cherry blossom season was one of those possibilities.

A much longer journey ahead

Getting value from those points mattered. Japan was one stop at the beginning of something much longer, and I wanted resources left for whatever came next. I used only part of the bonus through Chase Travel.

When choosing where to stay, I started with the places we most wanted to experience. Being nearby shaped the rhythm of our days. We could spend more time enjoying where we were, without building the trip around early starts.

What stayed with me was how easy it felt for the two of us to explore.

Black-and-white photo of a traveler in a cap leaning on a suitcase on a long, brightly lit train platform
At the beginning of a much longer journey.
Cherry trees in full bloom under a clear blue sky, with paper lanterns below
Spring in Tokyo.

A different way to stay

Our hotel in central Tokyo was convenient, but the room felt cramped. For Kansai, I had already booked Airbnb stays, hoping for more of a local feel. Tokyo confirmed that instinct; we kept the plan.

A person in a red kimono, seen from behind, walking down stone steps through a lane of traditional wooden houses
The lanes near Kiyomizu, Kyoto.

In Osaka, I remember the Japanese-style balcony. In Kyoto, we stayed near Kiyomizu and spent a day out in kimono.

The stays gave each part of the trip a different character. That was something I had wanted before we arrived, and something I appreciated even more once we were there.

A hand raising a pink bottle beneath cherry blossoms, with people seated at red-covered tables behind
Under the blossoms in Kyoto.

What stayed with me

The photographs bring back different pieces of the trip: the deer gathering around me in Nara, the lanes near Kiyomizu, a bottle raised beneath the blossoms in Kyoto.

Then there are the smaller details—the strawberries in the glasses, our sandals beneath the kimono, the time we had to enjoy it all together.

That was what I had hoped those points would help make possible: a journey that could go further, with experiences I would still remember years later.

A traveler surrounded by deer on a wide lawn, with cherry trees in the distance
A day in Nara, during our Osaka stay.
Looking down at two pairs of feet in sandals and kimono, one red and floral, one blue, on old paving stones
A day in kimono, Kyoto.

Looking back

I would keep almost all of the ground experience: the places we stayed, the variety, and the pace of our days.

The flights are the part I would revisit. Today, I would look at whether business class could make that part of the journey more comfortable, and what using points there would leave for the rest of the trip.

A figure in a dark kimono walking away through a tunnel of vermilion torii gates at dusk
An evening beneath the torii gates, Kyoto.

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