Forrest was bored so our poor taxi driver had to deal with us being silly in the backseat.
Another place we went was Sendai Zoo. Of all the exotic animals at the zoo, Forrest was by far the most interested in the ducks.
This morning we went to the Sendai Aquarium. Forrest loved seeing all the fish, dolphins, penguins, turtles, seals, sea lions, and jellyfish!
After seeing all the animals, Forrest needed to rest and process! He took a nice nap to recharge for the evening’s adventures.
Once he woke up, we went to Sendai Station to get some delicious beef tongue, the specialty of Sendai. Of course we also got zunda shakes! Zunda is made of green soybeans and makes for a delicious milkshake, and is another specialty of Sendai.
After eating way too much, we went to a cat café so Forrest could play with the “nyan nyans.” Yesterday we saw all the cats from outside, but today we got to go inside and play with all the cats. Forrest got so excited around them that all the cats ran away from Forrest. One cat was ok with Forrest feeding him though so we spent most of our time with him. Forrest absolutely loved the experience.
Today was probably the best day of Forrest’s life yet. We went to the Sendai Anpanman Museum! For the viewers here who haven’t lived in Japan, Anpanman is a huge cartoon character that’s extremely popular with young children. His head is a bun filled with red bean paste, and he breaks off pieces of himself to feed hungry children. A chef then remakes him. There’s a weird cat alien looking thing that’s apparently the bad guy. Anyway, Forrest is obsessed and will always get excited when he sees the characters. Today we found out there’s an Anpanman Museum and when we showed Forrest the pamphlet, he got so excited. We knew we had to go!
After naptime, we went to the Sendai Pokémon Center. Forrest went crazy looking at and holding all the different Pokémon plushies. For someone who doesn’t watch TV, he sure does love the characters from the TV shows Anpanman and Pokémon. Then we found a cat café, or a “nyan nyan” café as Forrest would call it. We couldn’t go inside because we were after last entry time but we enjoyed watching the “nyan nyans” from the window!
One of the many things I love about Japan is the public transportation. From Hachinohe station (about 30 min away), we took the Shinkansen bullet train to Sendai making a 3 hour cramped driving trip into a 1 hour laid-back relaxing trip where Forrest could play and enjoy the whole ride! We got him new toys for the trip including an Etch-a-Sketch since he loves drawing.
Once we got to Sendai, early check-in made life so easy since Forrest could take a nice nap. Leanne checked out the city while I watched the little one and studied Japanese while he snoozed.
Once he woke up, we went to one of Sendai’s specialties, a beef tongue restaurant! Delicious!
Then, it was time to see a band I’ve wanted to see since medical school over a decade ago, Asian Kung-Fu Generation!! The best part was Forrest saw the way others were pumping their fists and he copied them the best he could, even clapping when everyone else clapped. I think he loved his first concert!
Our friend Kate had some time off so she came to visit us in Japan! We took her to some cool spots in Tokyo.
We are all foodies so we went to get top rated ramen, fluffy pancakes, trendy chestnut desserts, etc.
Walking around the city is one of my favorite activities because you never know what adventures you’ll have. We happened across Tokyo’s Pokémon Center!
Not quite Seattle, but Tokyo has a burgeoning coffee scene. We went to Glitch coffee where they get the best beans from around the world and make it as perfectly extracted pour overs. I didn’t use to think much of coffee notes until trying coffee from Glitch.
Forrest loved the Art Aquarium Museum that hosts 30,000 living goldfish on display in really cool and unique ways. Forrest loved seeing the fish and saying “fshhh.”
We went on a food tour around Tokyo that took us to 5 different restaurants/izakayas and allowed us to try food from around Japan. We also got to walk around other parts of the city we didn’t know about before, like “piss alley” so named because there didn’t use to be a restroom there (thankfully there is now!), as well as around Kabukichou.
We ended the tour with delicious taiyaki desserts. Forrest is definitely a foodie!
One of the highlights of our trip to Tokyo was TeamLabs Borderless. It’s basically an art museum that you walk through that doesn’t follow a map or route. You can go anywhere and every room is different. Forrest loved all the projected interactive designs.
Since we couldn’t take Forrest to a sumo match (you have to be at least 3), we took him to a sumo experience. At the sumo experience, retired sumo wrestlers showed us the rules and did matches for us to watch while we ate sumo wrestler food (hot pot). Leanne got to compete against one of the sumo wrestlers and won!
The last highlight was Tokyo Disneyland! We stayed at the one of the Disneyland hotels so Forrest could take a nap during the day. Forrest loved all the rides, food, characters, and music! While Forrest napped during the day (I went back to the hotel with him), Leanne and Kate went on a Disneyland food tour and ate all the fall exclusive goodies.
Here in Japan, summer is “matsuri”, or festival, season! There are festivals in towns and cities, from small as in Downtown Misawa to huge in cities like Sendai and Akita. The best festival this year, however, was the one that Forrest’s daycare threw for the kids! Forrest was given a special outfit with his name on it, and when he came there were 12 stations set up! Each station had a game or activity, that when completed, Forrest would get a stamp. Once he got all the stamps, he got a fun prize. The games and activities all had little prizes too. Forrest had a field day!
Pokemon is taken very seriously in Japan. Though Pokemon Go may have died down in the states, it is very much alive and well here. In our nearest “big” city, Hachinohe, the art museum has a limited-time exhibition for Pokemon art intricately handmade in traditional Japanese art styles. Going to the museum was a blast! Leanne and I went there on a date while Forrest was in daycare.
Every year in the summer, there are tons of festivals (known in Japanese as matsuris) in Japan. Right when we got back from Hokkaido, there was a festival in Misawa! We got ready in our festival gear and headed out the door!
One thing we learned at the festival is that Forrest loves to dance! We couldn’t get him away from the music!! He also invented a new dance that appears to be a cross between a rain dance and the chicken dance. Video posted below!
Hokkaido is the island in the northern-most part of Japan. We’ve been to big city Sapporo before the “Yuki Matsuri”, or Snow Festival, that happens in the middle of winter, but we’ve never seen the rest of the beautiful island. With 5 days off, we decided to make the most of our time and see as much of it as we could!
When we landed in Sapporo, we were greeted with the ongoing Summer Festival! Seriously, do they just party there all the time? The current festival was a beer festival, broken up into 5 parts. The first part was all the Suntory beers, second was Kirin, third was Asahi, fourth was Sapporo, and the fifth part was beers from around the world.
We stayed the night in Sapporo at a hotel with onsen, free nightly ice cream and ramen bowls, and free morning Yakult yogurt drinks. The next day we took off for Noboribetsu, a city known for its volcanic activity and fantastic onsets. The hotel we stayed at had 5 different types of onsens! These included a ferrous sulfate onsen, salt onsen, sodium onsen, and a sulfur onsen. Each has different minerals that provide different healing properties.
In Noboribetsu, we went to “Hell Valley”, which has tons of active volcanic activity. No wonder the onsets here were so great!
Next up, Otaru, a city known for its European like architecture and canal. Here we went to a Brew House to try the local craft Otaru beer, the canal of course, a music box museum, hand-crafted glass stores (glass blowing is a specialty in Otaru), and shopping on the side streets.
Next up, Furano, a city known for its flowers. When we went, lavender was in full bloom. One of the places we went to in Furano was Ningle Terrace. This is a cute woodsy area with tons of little handicraft shops, all of which are log cabins. The atmosphere was so beautiful, and here we found Forrest’s favorite dessert: baked milk.
Seeing Hokkaido in the summer was such a great experience! Hopefully we will get to continue to explore even more of Japan while we are here!
