Japan 2018 - A Family Video Adventure

On our second day in the big city, we ventured out, first to the Shinjuku area and then on to Roppongi Hills for lunch with two of Marie’s Filipino friends, both of whom are in the diplomatic service. In the afternoon Evan took the grandkids off to Akihabara to submerge themselves in everything “geeky” - video and virtual reality games, action figures and collectibles, the latest in anime and manga.  Sarah and Marie opted for Asakusa and the shopping arcade leading up to Sensoji, Tokyo’s best known Buddhist temple.  Heidi and Lee returned to our AirBnB for an afternoon nap. We shared our last evening meal in Japan with Takuma, grandson Sean’s host brother, at a seventh floor restaurant in the VelVia Building just off the Ginza - a nabe do-it-ourselves hot pot delight thoroughly enjoyed by all. On our way back to the subway, we happened on a small display window featuring very detailed miniatures depicting recognizable scenes and props from the animated films of...

Fifty-three years ago to the day, Heidi and Lee were married at Christ Church in Bangkok by the Reverend John Ironsides.  It really took!  We came to Japan on our honeymoon, and now we find ourselves here yet again - this time with a son, daughter-in-law, great family friend, and three grandchildren in tow.  Quite amazing, especially when considering there are still another eight relations back home in the United States! The run up to our three nights in Tokyo enabled the grandparents to let the “youngsters” go off on their own.  They shopped along Takeshita-dori, stopped in at a cat cafe, subwayed out to Nakano Broadway for a bit of roller bar sushi and to take in all the local anime, manga and video game stores in the area. Heidi and Lee, meanwhile, sauntered down Kagurazaka, an upscale tree-lined street, stopping for lunch at Paul, the city’s best French bakery.  The neighborhood also houses narrow alleyways lined with exclusive restaurants, often fronte...

A bright, sunny Sunday morning turned into the highlight (!) of our last day “on the road” before reaching Tokyo.  Lee had planned a grand “circle tour” of the Hakone area from our delightful AirBnB in Ohiradai involving the local Tozan rail line, a cable car, two ropeways and a pirate ship. A bright, sunny Sunday morning turned into the highlight (!) of our last day “on the road” before reaching Tokyo.  Lee had planned a grand “circle tour” of the Hakone area from our delightful AirBnB in Ohiradai involving the local Tozan rail line, a cable car, two ropeways and a pirate ship. Our first stop was at the Hakone Open Air Museum featuring contemporary sculpture from all around the world.  The grandkids especially enjoyed the Woods of Webs, an interactive playground unlike any other,  while the adults appreciated both the sculpture and  the care with they were placed in their surroundings, giving each piece the needed “breathing room”. So far, so good....

Breakfast at Tully’s - Peace Park and Museum - lots of time on four (!) trains to commit oneself to working for world peace - a sobering day, indeed ....

Kanazawa has been linked to Tokyo by Shinkansen for only a little over three years, but the city has always drawn visitors because of its gardens, crafts and cuisine - now more than ever! We started our day-long visit with bakery goods and added coffee from a nearby 7-11 located in Kanazawa Station. Next we wandered through Kenrokuen, one of the three most famous large gardens in Japan, a quiet and peaceful stroll highlighted by a wide variety of flowering trees. We then walked around a preserved neighborhood of high-ranking samurai compounds along narrow streets lined with tile-topped clay walls.  Here we entered the Nomura House to view the family’s incredibly beautiful small garden. For lunch we once again bought ekibento to eat on the train which took us late in the afternoon to Hiroshima, our next destination. All day long we basked in bright sunshine and proclaimed every cherry tree we encountered as more stunning than the last.

Our intrepid group of travelers visited two contrasting worlds on Thursday, both within five miles of one another, one urban, the other rural. We first strolled through Takayama’s designated historic district, dominated by three streets of preserved tradional urban shop-residence facades running parallel to the adjacent river. Most of the interiors have been remodeled into contemporary shops and restaurants, making for a great interaction between commerce on the one hand and historic cityscape preservation efforts on the other.  The warm, sunny weather added to the ambiance.  Heidi even shopped a bit as we wandered about the town. In the afternoon we bused to the outskirts to Hida no Sato, a beautifully sited and arranged selection of authentic traditional residences representative of the various architectural styles of traditional Japanese rural life in the Japan Alps.  The variety is ascribed to climate variation from region to region - steeply patched roofs i...