Today was probably the best day of Forrest’s life yet. We went to the Sendai Anpanman Museum! For the viewers here who haven’t lived in Japan, Anpanman is a huge cartoon character that’s extremely popular with young children. His head is a bun filled with red bean paste, and he breaks off pieces of himself to feed hungry children. A chef then remakes him. There’s a weird cat alien looking thing that’s apparently the bad guy. Anyway, Forrest is obsessed and will always get excited when he sees the characters. Today we found out there’s an Anpanman Museum and when we showed Forrest the pamphlet, he got so excited. We knew we had to go!
Right from the exit of the train station, we started seeing lots of Anpanman stuff, including tiles and signs pointing us to where the Anpanman wasAnpanman character statues all along the way to the museum.We made it!Forrest got so excited when he saw the giant Anpanman at the entrance!Are you making Anpanman?Help! Forrest was naughty and now he’s in jail!Forrest really really loves Anpanman.Forrest made an Anpanman hat! He then promptly took it off!Forrest picked out his favorite plushie, which was Baikinman (the bad guy) dressed up as Anpanman!
After naptime, we went to the Sendai Pokémon Center. Forrest went crazy looking at and holding all the different Pokémon plushies. For someone who doesn’t watch TV, he sure does love the characters from the TV shows Anpanman and Pokémon. Then we found a cat café, or a “nyan nyan” café as Forrest would call it. We couldn’t go inside because we were after last entry time but we enjoyed watching the “nyan nyans” from the window!
One of the many things I love about Japan is the public transportation. From Hachinohe station (about 30 min away), we took the Shinkansen bullet train to Sendai making a 3 hour cramped driving trip into a 1 hour laid-back relaxing trip where Forrest could play and enjoy the whole ride! We got him new toys for the trip including an Etch-a-Sketch since he loves drawing.
Shinkansen loungin’
Once we got to Sendai, early check-in made life so easy since Forrest could take a nice nap. Leanne checked out the city while I watched the little one and studied Japanese while he snoozed.
Once he woke up, we went to one of Sendai’s specialties, a beef tongue restaurant! Delicious!
Then, it was time to see a band I’ve wanted to see since medical school over a decade ago, Asian Kung-Fu Generation!! The best part was Forrest saw the way others were pumping their fists and he copied them the best he could, even clapping when everyone else clapped. I think he loved his first concert!
Here in Japan, summer is “matsuri”, or festival, season! There are festivals in towns and cities, from small as in Downtown Misawa to huge in cities like Sendai and Akita. The best festival this year, however, was the one that Forrest’s daycare threw for the kids! Forrest was given a special outfit with his name on it, and when he came there were 12 stations set up! Each station had a game or activity, that when completed, Forrest would get a stamp. Once he got all the stamps, he got a fun prize. The games and activities all had little prizes too. Forrest had a field day!
Pokemon is taken very seriously in Japan. Though Pokemon Go may have died down in the states, it is very much alive and well here. In our nearest “big” city, Hachinohe, the art museum has a limited-time exhibition for Pokemon art intricately handmade in traditional Japanese art styles. Going to the museum was a blast! Leanne and I went there on a date while Forrest was in daycare.
Every year in the summer, there are tons of festivals (known in Japanese as matsuris) in Japan. Right when we got back from Hokkaido, there was a festival in Misawa! We got ready in our festival gear and headed out the door!
Forrest’s class picture was up at the festival! Here Leanne is pointing to Forrest.Can you find Forrest?Forrest loved running through these!
One thing we learned at the festival is that Forrest loves to dance! We couldn’t get him away from the music!! He also invented a new dance that appears to be a cross between a rain dance and the chicken dance. Video posted below!
Hokkaido is the island in the northern-most part of Japan. We’ve been to big city Sapporo before the “Yuki Matsuri”, or Snow Festival, that happens in the middle of winter, but we’ve never seen the rest of the beautiful island. With 5 days off, we decided to make the most of our time and see as much of it as we could!
When we landed in Sapporo, we were greeted with the ongoing Summer Festival! Seriously, do they just party there all the time? The current festival was a beer festival, broken up into 5 parts. The first part was all the Suntory beers, second was Kirin, third was Asahi, fourth was Sapporo, and the fifth part was beers from around the world.
We stayed the night in Sapporo at a hotel with onsen, free nightly ice cream and ramen bowls, and free morning Yakult yogurt drinks. The next day we took off for Noboribetsu, a city known for its volcanic activity and fantastic onsets. The hotel we stayed at had 5 different types of onsens! These included a ferrous sulfate onsen, salt onsen, sodium onsen, and a sulfur onsen. Each has different minerals that provide different healing properties.
Hokkaido is known for its curry soup, and it did not disappoint!
In Noboribetsu, we went to “Hell Valley”, which has tons of active volcanic activity. No wonder the onsets here were so great!
Noboribetsu’s “Hell Valley”
Next up, Otaru, a city known for its European like architecture and canal. Here we went to a Brew House to try the local craft Otaru beer, the canal of course, a music box museum, hand-crafted glass stores (glass blowing is a specialty in Otaru), and shopping on the side streets.
Side streets in OtaruSomething’s not quite right with this guy.. Very cute fish though!The Music Box Museum in OtaruThe crabs at the Otaru fish market were bigger than Forrest!Ate super fresh seafood at the local fish market in Otaru.
Next up, Furano, a city known for its flowers. When we went, lavender was in full bloom. One of the places we went to in Furano was Ningle Terrace. This is a cute woodsy area with tons of little handicraft shops, all of which are log cabins. The atmosphere was so beautiful, and here we found Forrest’s favorite dessert: baked milk.
Ningle Terrace in Furano
Huge flower farm in Furano.Lavender and melon swirl ice cream. Forrest loved it!
Seeing Hokkaido in the summer was such a great experience! Hopefully we will get to continue to explore even more of Japan while we are here!
Our hotel in Chiang Rai was so fun, with a really beautiful outdoor display for the season.
Today we went to the White Temple, which like the Blue Temple has intricate and ornate design, with the exception that nearly everything here is all white.
Leanne refilling the bowl. Creepy…
Outside the White Temple were some neat things to explore, including a walk through cave.
