We made it through the first week of school, and still managed to squeeze in a few fun activities in town…
On Tuesday night M got to play ball with the local professional basketball team. They did some drills together and even scrimmaged, kids vs pros. The kids didn’t do nearly as much dunking as the pros, but they still had a good time.
Last night we tried a new local restaurant — this was more of a Japanese-style Chinese restaurant. The tables were low, but E was relieved to find a well for our feet (rather than sitting like a pretzel); there was was delicious oolong tea, served with a candle warmer; and the featured dessert was black sesame jello with honey (pretty tasty!)
We also continued with gardening (we have 4 fruit trees now!), ceramics classes, kickball practice, and swim team.
Looking forward to a break in the weather soon!! Actually, I just booked us tickets for the Snow Festival this winter, which will be a stark contrast to our current temperatures!
Speaking of trips… if you have any suggestions for what else we should do in Japan I am all ears! I've heard of all kinds of amazing things— everything from a traditional tea ceremony (a 500 year old ritual) to drinking tea with capybara (or bunnies, or owls, or hedgehogs…) and they’re all going on the bucket list!
What would you add?
Note: I’m not big on theme parks so I’m not likely to do Tokyo Disney or any of the anime parks like Ghibli or HelloKitty Land, but I could get on board with Small Lands (miniature museum) or Huis Ten Bosch (Dutch-themed village)
as a nerd for architecture there is a Minka-farm house museum -https://www.nihonminkaen.jp/index_english.html
I would definitely visit the Kinkaku-ji, in Kyoto
If you can make it to a Urasenke - one of the oldest style of doing tea - tea ceremony you will be up for a treat.
there is a woodworking tool museum - Takenaka tool museum -https://www.dougukan.jp/?lang=en
Yokohama is the sister city of San Diego where you might find some common ground.
Most of these will require travel perhaps around fall and spring breaks.
Shosenkyo Gorge is beautiful! Especially, in the fall.