Archive for the 'Japan' Category

This is the end of my Japan 2016 entries! We ended with something I’ve been really wanting to do: visit the Ghibli Museum. For those who aren’t familiar with Studio Ghibli, it’s an animation studio in Japan that has made many beautiful, award-winning Anime films. Their most well known ones include Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle. (Full list here.)

I actually tried to get tickets two years ago, but sadly, they sold out. This time, I put in my request 3 months in advanced, which is the earliest they allow, and managed to get tickets for my third choice in date. On August 11th, we went to Mitaka to see the Ghibli Museum!

The first thing we saw as we got close was Totoro greeting us through a window. That immediately put a smile on my face, and I felt so excited to be there.

Read the rest of this entry »

On August 10th, we took a day trip to Yokohama from Tokyo. It was our first time visiting! Even though Yokohama is close to Tokyo and can be reached by local train, we didn’t go to it during our first Japan trip two years ago.

Our first stop was the Ramen Museum, which was really less of a museum and more of a food theme park. The main attraction is the basement area that is a replica of Shitamachi (an area of Tokyo) around 1958, when ramen was becoming popular. Within this replica are 9 mini ramen restaurants that represent different regions of Japan.

Read the rest of this entry »

The past few Japan posts have been about my stay in the Tohoku region, with us staying in Sendai and taking day trips from there. You might remember that back in 2011, Japan was hit by a major earthquake and tsunami, and the Tohoku region was greatly affected. It took many lives and caused a terrible amount of destruction. It was especially bad along the Sanriku Coast, and I wanted to make sure I visited a couple cities along it. It’s been 5 years, so the cities have mostly bounced back since, but any tourism helps these areas!

On August 8th, we visited Shiogama, which is on the Sanriku Coast and is largely known for its fishing industry. It’s also known for having highest number of sushi restaurants per capita in Japan! We started by looking around the fish market, and though I read you could order sushi and food there, we didn’t find many places.

Read the rest of this entry »