A trip to Japan with my teenage nephew leads to life lessons

“You know,” Mike, my brother-in-law, said to me when his son Matthew, was born, “when he’s 16 you’re taking him to Japan.”

“That sounds cool,” I said, thinking to myself “Yeah, that’ll happen.”

But Mike is pretty persistent, and 16 years later Matthew (now Matt) and I were on a plane to Tokyo.

Our 10-day trip turned out to be full of surprises and an education for us both: Matt learning about the country, me learning how to travel with a teenager, and for the both of us, an unparalleled bonding opportunity.

Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times