It’s a bucket list item: joining in a lantern release ceremony with hundreds of others. When I realised that we’d timed our Java trip to coincide with this celebration I was pretty chuffed! Java is home to the world’s biggest Buddhist temple at Borobudur and it is where about 90,000 people came to celebrate this… Read More Happy Birthday Buddha!🕯️
Java has loads of volcanos and many of which are active. One popular one is Mt Bromo and it’s usually visited at sunrise – which actually means getting a jeep about midnight and driving two hours to line up with other jeeps to wait for a couple more hours to see it. That sort of… Read More Bromo bronco
This was my first time away from Japan (that I know of at least – I was born in China when I was very young so I don’t remember) and Java has some crazy traffic. Usually I sit in the back and get to play Spotto – but when motorbikes don’t count in the game… Read More Esti in Java (by Esti)
There are loads of animal cafes in Japan, from cats & dogs to more exotic animals like piglets, otters, capybaras and owls, and many don’t have a good reputation when it comes to caring for the animals. So it was with a bit of concern that we looked into these. We think we found a… Read More Otterly adorable 🦦
We are now in Java, Indonesia for a few weeks and we can safely say that the toilet standard has dropped. From the fanciest toilets ever to not being able to flush toilet paper (instead it goes into the bin next to the toilet – if used at all) is a big shock. Plus the… Read More Culture shock 🚽🥵
We left our closer spot to Mount Fuji for Hakone, a place just south of Fuji Five Lakes but still with a gorgeous view of the famous mountain. During our only full day here, we took the bus to a park with impressive views, a few cafes, and a crafthouse. One of the services it… Read More Bead making in Hakone (by Z)
We should preface this post with the fact that theme parks aren’t really our thing. M isn’t really into rides and, personally, I vary between feeling ill/scared, overwhelmed by crowds and being in awe of the magic. But, for the kids, we felt we needed to do one of the three big ones in Japan.… Read More DisneySea
TeamLab (the folks who did the Osaka Botantical Gardens display) do a few more interactive art pieces, including Planets in Tokyo (there’s also Borderless but we only had time for one). Spoiler alert: I didn’t like this as much as the former (partly due to the crowds) but it was still pretty. My favourite section… Read More TeamLab Planets
We stayed a couple of days in Hakone. It’s a great little area with lots of onsen (traditional Japanese baths) which we did not partake in – the kids would not have been up for that 😬 Instead, they did a glass bead making session. (The adults were considering doing it too but it turned… Read More Open air art & bead making
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?!
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