Hello again! Alec taking back over blog writing and removing all the unnecessary Oxford Commas! At least Madeline isn’t a “two spaces after period” writer, otherwise we would be in trouble.
When choosing destinations for our year abroad Madeline and I primarily wanted to explore new places, but agreed that we each got to pick one to revisit, no questions asked. For Madeline that will be New Zealand and for me, Japan was the clear choice. While this was my 4th trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, it was my first with kids and first time to several new regions.
Japan holds a special place in my heart as a country whose culture embodies my very soul. If you can’t tell from my ordered, bullet-list-style blog writing, I am a particular person who can occasionally be spontaneous, so long as it is at the previously allocated “spontaneous time”. In Tokyo, the world’s 3rd largest city, there is no gum on the streets, there is no honking and if a train is running literally 1 minute behind schedule a railway employee is profusely apologizing to you. Every bowl of ramen and piece of pottery is curated and done to perfection. But then, pent up inside, is this whimsical and wild side. Here, you’ll find anime, cute animals and karaoke that leaks out all around the cities. I love this mix and knew the kids would too. Well, at least the fun side of it, maybe less of the staying silent and motionless on the subways bit.
Where Are We?
For this trip to Japan, we first elected to visit the southern island of Kyushu before meeting family for an “Intro to Japan” tour around the main cities. I decided to split the Japan blog up, so this one will focus on our two weeks down south. So why Kyushu? Being winter in Japan but traveling without heavy coats, we wanted to find the mildest temperatures and as a bonus see the tail end of fall foliage as it moves south(#Ginkos&Maples). Additionally, Madeline taught English at kid summer camps near Nagasaki during a college summer and some of her Japanese co-councilors and weekend host families still live in the area.
We focused our Kyushu exploration on three sections: 1) The Oita prefecture to find leaves and nature. 2) A longer stay in Fukuoka to see friends and city life. 3) A trip to Nagasaki to visit one of Madeline’s host families, who actually came to our wedding back in 2017. For Oita, we would need to rent a car and our journey started off in the most Japanese way possible. We arrived at the Toyota Rental Car for our waiting Prius that was perfectly cleaned inside and out. Waiting inside was a clear instruction packet with anime character diagrams explaining how to use the toll lanes. I was also informed that I would be refunded for my unused rental time since I picked up the car at 4:43pm instead of my 4:30pm booking time. *Enlightenment Achieved*
As our home base for Oita, we stayed in the town of Taketa at the cutest hostel (Hostel Cue), where the kids loved the capsule beds and Madeline loved the Kotatsu Table, a table with built in blanket and heater. I know hostels sound like the last place you would want to stay with young kids. Normally I’d agree, but in Japan the quiet and clean culture mitigates many of the typical negatives of communal living. The town of Taketa was also a fantastic place to explore. It offered plenty of walking/running paths and shrines and green spaces for “forest bathing”. I went to the other kind of bathing in Japan, the local onsen, where I enjoyed the thermal waters in the nude (gasp!).
Unfortunately for us, the leaves were past their prime, but we did find a few foliage pockets and plenty of other beautiful nature to photograph. Highlights for the area were the Takachiho Gorge, which really does look like the photos, and driving around the Aso Caldera, which was much bigger than we expected. Along the way we snacked on the local delicacy of chicken nanban, AKA really good fried chicken, and azuki bean dumplings. Overall the area left us wanting to come back and spend more time in rural Kyushu.
Next stop Fukuoka: known as a “mini Tokyo”and birth place of Tonkatsu style ramen. We loved our week here and took advantage of the slower days to spend time at playgrounds, meet up with old friends (Hello Akkinah-san and Haruka-san!) and see local holiday lights too! The Christmas Markets were really fun to see the “Japanized” German Tradition, complete with some of the typical dishes with a twist (think sausages, but on a stick with a sweet sauce). A highlight for Mae was the opera singer on stage at one of the markets that followed opera with a rousing rendition of “Let it Go”.
Our final stop in Kyushu was Nagasaki, where Madeline’s host family once again opened their home to us, this time with two little ones in tow. This visit we also got to meet their grown daughter, Misuzu-san, who acted as our chauffer and new best friend for Mae and Emmett. Akemi-san showed Mae the world of nail art stickers while Junichi-san let Emmett play with his personal collection of Hot Wheels Mercedes and Porsches, on the living room floor. It was a great mix of relaxing in their home and exploring Nagasaki and the surrounding sites.
A highlight when we visit is the random adventure we invariably go on with Junichi-san and Akemi-san. For our last day together, we had planned to take the kids to the Penguin Aquarium. So we got in the car… and drove to a temple that was “on the way”. We finished with the temple and then walked to what can best be described as a “feeding zoo” where you give various monkeys, horses and birds treats. After finishing the side quest, we did in fact make it to the Penguin Aquarium and saw the flightless birds of the world before heading to our next undisclosed location for food. Lunch was at a roadside kiosk that sold oysters in buckets, corn on the cob and all sorts of other sea creatures for self-grilling on open charcoal grills. Finally, to conclude the day, we stopped at the 100 Yen store to buy stickers and candy. We don’t often go with the flow but we always do with the Yamamotos for a great time! The experiences and kindness they show us is one of the reasons we love Japan so much.
Favorite Experiences
Places
Here were some of our favorite activities from the trip! I put these on a map at the end of the blog along with our accommodations.
- Takachiho Gorge and Surroundings Forest Temples – Seeing the Gorge with fall colors was THE reason we picked Kyushu. The foliage wasn’t quite perfect, but we still enjoyed hiking the trail along the gorge. A pleasant surprise was that the area around the gorge had some unique nature shrines, including the Amanoiwato Shrine with tons of cairns in a cave. The drives were also through beautiful country side… and would have been even more beautiful with fall leaves :(. Go in Mid November vs early December.
- Daizafu– A 30min train ride from Fukouka, the town of Daizafu hosts the Tenmangu Shrine and an adjacent market walking street. The temple is a Shinto shrine for those seeking academic blessing and we saw plenty of students during exam week visit to touch the a bronze bull statue to ensure their A+. The lakes on the temple grounds were beautiful and we enjoyed feeding the koi while purring cats watched from the shores. The market street sold all sorts of tasty treats, including local azuki bean dumplings and mochi wrapped strawberries, called ichigo daifuku that were a family favorite.
- Playground in Oita – We found some really cool playgrounds with unique play features during our time driving around Oita. The 竹の子ひろば playground near Taketa had a huge, inflatable mountain that the kids could ran up and sled down. The best one, though, was Crest Park up along the mountain that had a wooden, mine cart coaster that the kids could ride. To my despair, I exceeded the recommended weight limit.
- Fuku no Yu Onsen – Another fun adventure with the Yamamotos in Nagasaki, they took us to a family friendly onsen (Japanese bath house often with hot springs water). Most onsens require men and women to use separate baths (nude), but this one also had private rooms that our family could use. It wasn’t as relaxing as a no-kids spa, but the kids had a blast playing with the contrasting hot and cold water buckets. I also won a claw game in the lobby to win a giant Pokémon Gengar, so win-win.
Crest Park had a gravity-powered mine cart!
Food
Japanese food is in my top five cuisines. Their cultural perfectionism extends to their dishes with the focus being on the raw ingredients versus ingenuity in most cases. That’s a lot of jargon for saying ramen is bomb and if you haven’t had okonomiyaki before, you’re missing out. I loved everywhere we ate, but picked a few that were unique/stood out. These along with the rest of the places we ate are in the map at the end of the blog.
Restaurants:
- Wasousakuen, Taketa– Madeline and I alternate putting the kids to bed and on my free night, I elected to go to an Izakaya (no kids allowed) sushi place. I ended up being the only person there and had that quintessential experience you would hope for visiting Japan. In limited English, I talked with chef for hours about everything from skiing in Colorado to his career change at 40 to become a chef, all while enjoying piece after piece of the best sushi of my life.
- Torito Tomago,Taketa – The best way I can describe this is as “the” bougie egg place. A large store and cafe dedicated to just eggs! The dish to eat here is raw egg with specialty soy sauce over rice, but they also offered delicious egg custards with matcha, vanilla and brown rice flavoring as well.
- Stop at a Kakigoya, Isahaya – I have no idea what the actual place was called, but the style of restaurant is called a Kakigoya and is an open charcoal grill where you self-cook the seasonal, local oysters and other seafood. If you look up “Oyster Huts”, there are many near Fukuoka in the town of Itoshima. The kids loved the interactive culinary experience and were more adventurous eaters than usual because of it.
- Umenohana Tenjin, Fukuoka– One of the best meals we had in Kyushu, this was a set menu where every dish was tofu based. I’ve never had that many different styles nor that tasty of tofu before in my life. Fresh tofu was even cooked on the table in front of us! We also had a private room, which gave the kids some space to play. Thanks Akkinah for taking us here!
Family Moments
- Watching the Paragliders at the Caldera Rim – On one of driving exploration days we went around the town of Aso in the namesake caldera. We stopped at the Daikanbō Lookout for a picnic lunch and were treated to a half-dozen paragliders riding the updrafts of the caldera and appearing to almost hover in place. The kids (and adults) were memorized by the colored sails with the expansive backdrop.
- Staying at Akemi and Junichi’s House – Staying in so many hotels and AirBnBs we definitely miss the personal touch and comforts of home. Staying with Madeline’s host family around Christmas with all their decorations out was a great respite from the Ikea furniture and exactly four water glasses found at most of the accommodations. We spent a lot of time playing in their living room and trying all of Akemi-san’s delicious food.
- Meeting up with Friends – It’s crazy that a decade can go by and you can pick up with friends right where you left off. Madeline was able to reconnect with Akkinah and Haruka from over a decade ago in their home country and get to meet their newer kid family members! There is a common parenting language that transcends English and Japanese. We hope they can make it to Seattle someday!
- Per Mae (5 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Playing with new friends” – Mae loved meeting all of the new people in Japan. Specific memories she mentioned were running along paths with Misuzu-san and buying stickers with Akemi-san.
- Per Emmett (2.5 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Shinkansen” – The shinkansen are the bullet trains in Japan, but in this particular case, Emmett is referring to a sushi place that we went where we ordered on a tablet and the food came delivered on a track by a mini shinkansen. We only had to tell him about a 100 times to move his face out of the way of the oncoming train.
Tips & Lessons Learned
This is where we put all of the things we learned along the way about traveling in the region as well as traveling with toddlers.
About Kyushu:
- Renting a Car in Japan – This was far easier than I expected. Yes they drive on the left and yes the signs are in Japanese first with small English text underneath but everyone is very polite and patient on the roads. We found driving to be the best way to get around Kyushu. Trains are still dependable, but not as frequent and don’t service some of the best sites to see. I highly recommend renting with Toyota Rental Car. The website isn’t the best, but availability, price and pickup was a breeze.
- Public Transit in Fukuoka – While the outskirts of Kyushu are best explored by car, Fukuoka is best by public transit. Google maps does well in Japan for train schedules. All the day trips we took in Fukuoka were by train and we made sure to stay close to a subway stop (near Ohori Park).
- Finding Places to Eat with Kids – In Japan we had a hard time finding spontaneous kid friendly places to eat, especially for dinner. By kid friendly, I mean had a table vs bar seating and no reservation required at 6:00PM. There are a lot of really small places where even a party of four was a big ask and anything called an “Izakaya” doesn’t allow kids. In general we didn’t see many families out eating either, so plan ahead for dinners versus expecting to just walk into a place. Also, note that most coffee shops, especially outside the city, don’t open until late morning. Plan to have breakfast at the accommodation or a quick bite from the local konbini (convenience store).
- Cash – For all its technological advances Japan is still super dependent on physical money. The good news is that convenience stores, plentiful in Japan, always have low fee ATMs, particularly the 7-Eleven for easy withdrawals.
- Quiet Country + Loud Kids = Find Playgrounds! – Japan is known for being quiet and orderly. We love it! It’s hard to get your kids to adapt though and especially staying in small accommodations. They have to be quiet in the small hotel room, then quiet on public transit, then quiet at a restaurant, etc. It is helpful to plan to stay within access of a playground to let all that pent-up energy out!
About Traveling with Toddlers:
- Kids Love Bunk Beds – If you want to get your kids jazzed about going anywhere, book a place with bunk beds. If you can get past the fighting of who sleeps on top (we obviously always put our 5 year old vs 2 year old Emmett no matter how much he protests), it makes bedtimes something to look forward to versus a drag.
- Hotels with Kids – Our kids wake up hungry. In Japan, this was an issue if we didn’t have food with us as many places are closed early in the morning! We try as much as possible to find hotels that have mini fridges in the hotel rooms or a communal fridge. Go-to traveling breakfasts are instant oatmeal (using hot water pots and mugs) or yogurt/fruit/granola.
Closing
Thanks for reading! I’ll be following up soon with the remainder of our trip to Japan, including Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagano!
