Magrilless

Hoping to escape super high summer temperatures, we planned to fly north for the end of our time in Japan. But it was high on our list for more than just low temps. The northern island of Japan, Hokkaido, is not only a similar latitude to Washington and British Columbia. It’s got mountains and volcanoes and hot springs and dairy cows. Let’s go!

We based ourselves primarily in Sapporo. We wandered parks, botanical gardens, a college campus, a zoo. We ate cheese and ice cream. We relished the mid-20s temperatures!

And the kids really wanted to go fancy one day. So we rented yukata (the lighter summer equivalent of a kimono) for them. We wandered parks and gardens, and ate ice cream. But fancy! And they got a lot of smiles and comments (like kawaii, which means cute) from lots of locals. It was a lovely experience!

And then we took the train down to the southern coast of this northern island. Closer to the ocean, closer to the volcanoes, so close to the hot springs that we had our own private onsen in our house! And although Hell Valley is sulfurous, it was fascinating and beautiful and we stuck our feet right in there (where we were allowed and where it wasn’t 86 degrees C). And, of course, we soaked in our own onsen twice a day!

Which is pretty much our last stop of the trip. And, boy, did we end on a high! Go to Hokkaido if you go to Japan! Now we have Just a full day in Tokyo left before we fly back home. It’s gone so fast!

Nagoya is one of the largest cities in Japan. Right in the middle of Tokyo and Kyoto. A manufacturing and shipping hub. And apparently it has a reputation. As the most boring city in the country.

We might have used that as an excuse to take it easy for a few days. (Well, that and the typhoon that kept it raining for the entire 4 days we were there.) But, really, we only stopped there for 2 very specific reasons. One of which was Studio Ghibli Park!

Howl’s Castle. Arietty’s secret miniature world. Tons of scenes from movies to step into. Characters to pose with. New movies to add to our watch list!

We spent hours and hours wandering the park. Through Totoro’s forest under our umbrellas. To Kiki’s house above the bakery (under our umbrellas). Past Princess Mononoke’s watchtower. While under our umbrellas. We got to see a special short film about Mei and the cat bus. (Dry, in the enormous warehouse of built sets.)

It was fabulous! And definitely worth the travel commitment!

And we also visited the nearby village of Tokoname. It was one of the major producers of pottery for Japan. Like, for a couple centuries. Pipes, pots, pretty things. Huge kilns and soaring chimneys and narrow alleys just littered with ceramics.

It’s literally paved in ceramics. Built of ceramics. Decorated with ceramics. And still home to lots of artists and studios and galleries. A must-see for any potter in your life!

Now, I’m absolutely sure we could have found much more in Nagoya to amuse us. A planetarium, a museum about the Toyota company, shrines and temples and a castle. For now, though, we’ll say thank you for our special and very specific visit. We are quite satisfied.

And off we fly to Hokkaido!

“Don’t skip Kyoto!” everyone said. Okay! Here we are!

We had a lovely week here. Mostly. The danger with “don’t miss” places is that everyone else isn’t missing it either. So we did have some instances of “so many, too many, people” (looking at you, Temple of the Golden Pavilion). But in general, we’re good at getting off the beaten path.

Like this mountain temple Jingo-ji, whose number of steps to approach I couldn’t even count. But where we got to throw our troubles off the cliff in clay disks, and hike along a peaceful river and through magical forests beside waterfalls.

And random things, like the train museum (where we got to go underneath a train and look up!). And the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace (which we expected to be busy but was the opposite). And a bamboo forest next to the mossy statue-rich Adashino Nenbutsuji. And all the mossy statues at the temple!

Of course we did the things we were “supposed to” as well. Like Team Lab (an immersive modern art exhibition) where we stumbled through dark hallways into soapy foam clouds and across multicolored squishy mounds and amongst glowing crystal stalagmites and, in one case, had to don galoshes to wade through molten gold. And shrines like Ryoan-ji with its centuries-old rock garden. And the Nijo castle with its palaces and moats.

And we ate good things. Like okonomiyaki pancakes that we ate straight off the griddled tabletop. And conveyor belt sushi where we got to snatch little plates (all for 150 yen) as they marched past.

Our apartment was fabulous. Just at the base of the hill-top Kenkun shrine, with bicycles and umbrellas for us to use at will (which we did, both).

Yes, we are glad we didn’t miss Kyoto! We’ll see what Nagoya holds for us next!

We took the train out of the city. (It was a series of trains, actually, from the very full standing-room-only commuter in Tokyo, to the short and cute and increasingly sparsely populated chugger through the mountains.) And we ended up in the Fuji Five Lakes area.

It is just what it sounds like. A series of communities (from blinged out and uber touristy to quieter with fewer amenities) around five lakes (from big and boaty to small and foresty) with stellar views of Mt. Fuji (when he decides to come out of the clouds).

We did what we always do: wander and then play wherever we find ourselves. And we found lots of things! Beautiful gardens, tasty restaurants, a cave with bats (and mandatory helmets, thank goodness, with the crouchy ceilings), and shrines built to impress.

And we did the touristy things too. Like go to an amusement park (with seriously impressive rollercoasters, and a ferris wheel for the rest of us). And get soft serve in the super popular Oishi Park on Lake Kawaguchi. And climb 400 steps to a pagoda (which I forgot to take a picture of–woops!) for the view. And rent bikes to go around Lake Yamanaka.

We loved our time here! (Especially our house, which was so cozy on the rainy mountain mornings, with an under-heated table.) And we feel lucky to have seen Fujisan, a lot! Now we head back to big city life: on to Kyoto!

What a surprise Tokyo was! Quiet and clean streets where we could walk down the middle. Friendly locals who allowed us to try out our language skills. Bathrooms with toilet paper and soap around every corner. And, not surprisingly, so much to do that we ran full days every day and didn’t come close to going to all the interesting places.

We catered to our audience, of course. So we spent multiple days in malls full of manga and anime stalls. (In Japan, they call it otaku culture, which is roughly translated to nerd. Sounds like us!) And Harajuku is a district full of wild and colorful shops and cafes and the birthplace of the (currently very popular in our household) decora style. It was really fun to see how mainstream some of these things are here, whereas they can feel pretty niche back home.

We made sure to visit some Shinto shrines as well. There is so much we don’t understand about all the traditions and rituals and history. But we try to be respectful and observant. And, gosh, there’s a lot to look at and take in! We did let the kids pay for their fortunes at one shrine. One of them was favorable, and the other one got tied to the fence so the monks could burn it away. Let’s just say, I hope we never have to test the predicted bad lawsuit outcome!

We certainly did some of the big tourist things. Like going up to the top of the Metropolitan Building for the incredible view. (Maggie even got to play the piano at the top for all the sightseers.) And we rushed across the street at Shibuya Crossing at the same time as thousands of other folks. And we watched the cat play games from his 3D billboard at Shinjuku. And we took the train with all the Disneyland goers (but spent the day with hammerhead sharks at the aquarium instead).

Really, though, we found lots of gardens and parks and peace and quiet. Green spaces and pathways and ponds and fishes. Families and dogs and even one lovely old woman who handed us candy because we were simply kawaii (cute).

In general, we spent the week simply soaking in this new place. It’s easy to succumb to fomo in a place like Tokyo (fear of missing out). So let me assure you (and us) that we did a lot, all of it rich, even if we didn’t quite tick everything on our (and popular) to-see lists. Plus, we’ll be back briefly at the end of our trip to finish whatever itch didn’t get completely scratched. In the meantime, we head west toward Mt. Fuji!