Waking up to 30 degrees heat inside an apartment that's hotter than the outside (when the maximum temperature is 36 degrees recently 🥵), the only way to cool down is head to the beach! In the last year and half that I have been living in Japan, we have visited 3 different Japanese beaches (Atami, … Continue reading Escape the Tokyo heat to beach town, Shimoda
Monday was a Mountain Day, another public holiday in Japan so we headed 2 hours north west from central Tokyo to 奥多摩 (Okutama) for some cooling riverside air and openness, while still being within Tokyo. 🌳🌳🌳 So much greenery! 🌳 🌳🌳 Riding the rapid Chuo line took us to the most outer edge of Tokyo … Continue reading Is this really Tokyo? Cooling off in Okutama
In last week's post, I shared a little bit about Yamagata prefecture located in the northern part of Japan's main island as well as our Day 1 and 2 itinerary from our recent trip. This post is about what we did on the second of half of our Yamagata road trip 🚗. Day 3 After … Continue reading 3 nights 4 days in Yamagata, Japan Part 2
Japan had Marine Day and Sports/Health Day back to back from this year to create a 4 day long weekend with the plan to celebrate the opening of 2020 Tokyo Olympics.The Olympic was 'postponed' but the calendars were all printed and plans were made so the 4 day public holiday has remained.Upon deliberating as mentioned … Continue reading 3 nights 4 days in Yamagata, Japan Part 1
From this week, Japan is now (finally) in a state of emergency for not only the 7 prefectures (mentioned in the last week's post) but for the entire country. Basically, the conditions remain the same with no strict enforcement but the government is asking people to reduce human to human interaction by 70-80% (aka working … Continue reading The last trip on a plane before covid-19: Skiing in Aomori
Last Wednesday (March 25), Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike strongly urged people to work from home, stay at home at night and during this weekend as Tokyo's coronavirus infection rate continue to rise. Similar to many other cities around the world, panic food shopping happened in Tokyo as well that night... All the essentials stocked out … Continue reading Glamping near Tokyo
February 11th (Tuesday) is 建国記念の日(Kenkoku kinen no hi) which is a public holiday in Japan so we took a day off on Monday to have a 4 day break to explore Hakuba in Nagano, a region famous for ski resorts. ⛷ Welcome to Tsugaike, Hakuba! Firstly, what is 建国記念の日 (Kenkoku kinen no hi)? This holiday … Continue reading 3 days skiing in Tsugaike (Hakuba, Japan)
Setagaya ward is one of the 23 Tokyo wards that is known as the address for the wealthy💰 . However within Setagaya is 下北沢 (Shimokitazawa), a cool neighborhood with an old school Japanese feel filled with lots of vintage shops and soup curry restaurants 🍛 with queues out the front. Voted amongst Timeout’s “Coolest neighborhoods … Continue reading Tokyo suburb highlight: Shimokitazawa
Known as one of the 3 most famous onsens or hotspring regions in Japan (the others being Gero onsen in Gifu prefecture and Arima onsen in Hyogo prefecture), Kusatsu onsen in Gunma prefecture gushes out the most volume of onsen in Japan. Not only famous for its volume, its healing properties, proximity to a ski … Continue reading Ski into onsen: a long weekend away into Kusatsu Onsen
For a couple of years, my husband has been dying to go to 🔥hell🔥; that is 地獄谷, Jigokudani or Hell Valley in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan) famous for 温泉 (onsen, hot spring)♨. Japan has many famous onsen destinations but Noboribetsu is the most famous area in Hokkaido and is often highly ranked … Continue reading Noboribetsu, Hokkaido: A weekend in a steamy onsen demon town
Native Expat 