We spent a couple of hours exploring Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji Temple which has over 1200 carved stone figures made by the community. They were encouraged to create their own rakan statues (representations of Buddha’s disciples, not actually Buddha) as they wished so there is a HUGE variety of figures. Some are in prayer while others have… Read More Mario Buddha?!

One of Kyoto’s most Instagrammable spots is the Fushimi Inari Shrine – famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates. With the kids not being interested in temples and shrines, plus the crowds, M & N made a quick evening dash to this one for some photos with the kids (AKA complaints). We arrived as… Read More A lot of torii gates ⛩️

This was not what we expected, to say the least, but it was still an amazing experience! We had to rush a bit to get to the perfume making on time, because we were in another store, but when we got there, we had assumed there would be another room to pick your scent. It… Read More Perfume making (by I)

We were lucky enough that we managed to include the Hello Kitty shinkansen* into our schedule 🙌 We rode it for just over an hour and that was good amount of time for everyone to explore and enjoy. I’m not sure I trust the conductor though… There’s the compulsory photo areas which Esti enjoyed. Even… Read More Hello Kitty Shinkansen

We diverted off the extremely well beaten path to the fairly well beaten path to the island of Naoshima, famous for its yellow and black spotted pumpkin for a couple of days. We stayed on the quieter side with a severe lack of restaurants, made up for by art. We stuck to the outdoor /… Read More Art Island (Naoshima)

So, there’s a lot of talk about Japanese toilets and their features – and they are pretty cool as a general rule. We attended the World Expo today and this was the sign with their toilet controls… The thing about Japanese toilet culture is that there’s a BIG difference between cold water and warm water,… Read More “Wash to Clean”

One of the top three views in Japan is of the giant, “floating” torii gate just off the little island of Miyajima. Combining this with it being an easy day trip from Hiroshima, means it’s painfully popular during the day! A couple of school groups didn’t help but there were loads of tourists too. And… Read More The serenity of the selfie stick

Hiroshima means two things to me: the first atomic bomb and okonomiyaki. The former, we need to remember and bear witness to in case we ever forget the suffering humans that are capable of inflicting on each other, and the latter is just DELICIOUS!!! When we were here BC (before children) we loved okonomiyaki but… Read More Hiroshima

Obviously, with the kids we aren’t all about culture and fine dining 😜 so we need to throw in some more fun stuff – like VS Park which is sort of physical games, often combined with virtual reality. We got a two hour pass and it was pretty empty so that gave us just enough… Read More Outrunning a bison