Japan Memories: Videos!

Last October was the 1 year anniversary of our 2017 trip to Japan, and I revisited all of the memories in a series of daily blog posts featuring my photographs and journal writings (check them out if you’d like, starting with day 1 here!)

I miss Japan very much- it’s like a reverse homesickness where I have a special place in my heart that aches to visit this far away place again. I am still thinking about Japan every day, and I convinced Dustin that we need to go back sooner rather than later- so we are going to spend Christmas in Tokyo this year!

When we went in 2017 we traveled around from Tokyo using a JR pass to get to Gunma, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kinosaki. We saw so many gorgeous places and ate so much amazing food. It was a fantastic trip.

This Christmas we are planning to spend the whole time in Tokyo so that we aren’t moving from place to place so much (resettling into new inns and hotels, moving our luggage around) and we can just explore at leisure from our home base in Ikebukuro. There are so many spots in Tokyo that we have only barely explored, or not at all. I can’t wait. I even have 2 tattoo appointments penciled in with a studio in Shibuya!

Wish us luck! I’m saving all of my pennies… (well, figuratively- they don’t make pennies anymore in Canada…)

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I finally made some videos with clips from our 2017 trips around Japan 🙂

These are just mashups of videos taken from my cell phone, my camera, and probably a little bit of Dustin’s cell and camera too. Some parts are a bit shaky but I kept them in because they were still cool memories. A few of these seem to be things that I didn’t even realize I was filming at the time… each video has a whole bunch of quick clips featuring some of the cool and beautiful things we saw in Japan.

Video 1: Tokyo- Ikebukuro, Ikebukuro street festival, Shinjuku, Shinjuku park, Shibuya, Shin Okubo, Harajuku, Ueno, Nagano Broadway, etc.

Video 2: Gunma- Takaragawa Osenkaku onsen ryokan (family run hot spring inn)

Video 3: Kyoto, Osaka- Higashiyama, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Universal Studios Japan, Harry Potter World, Kyoto Station, etc.

Video 4: Kinosaki- Mikunia onsen ryokan and ryokan town (hot springs town), autumn street festival, kaiseki meals, etc.

 

 

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Japan Memories Day 12: Universal Studios Japan!

This is day 12 of revisiting my journal from our trip to Japan last year! If you’d like to start at the beginning, here is day 1.

So, day 12, here we go!

From Shauna’s Journal

Day 12, October 12th, 2017

Today Dusty and I went to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. The Osaka main station is huge and confusing, but we made it eventually >.< For Universal Studios, we pretty much had interest in one place only- HARRY POTTER WORLD!

 

As we navigated our way around, there were special Halloween touches everywhere. I really loved Hello Kitty’s special Halloween outfit!

 

The first thing we did was head to the HP area and get something to eat at the Three Broomsticks. It was overpriced (just like the one in Florida! haha) but it was fun to eat pumpkin pasties and drink butterbeer! We got the special Halloween Feast. 

 

After that, we went to the Hogwarts Walk. The other attractions were packed with huge lineups that didn’t look very fun, so this was the only HP “ride” that we did, but it was also fun to just look around at all the cool recognizable sights- Hogsmeade, Zonkos, Honeydukes, etc. The Hogwarts Walk was very dark, but it was cool to see Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione and Ron speaking Japanese!

I bought some Hogwarts robes and a wand (willow). It’s official now- I’M A HUFFLEPUFF!!!

 

When we finished with HP stuff, I rode the Flying Dinosaur rollercoaster (Jurassic Park). The lineup was massive but I took the singles line and got on fast while Dusty took a break. It was very fun, but over so fast!

When we were just about ready to leave, there was a Halloween parade- Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, Minions and Peanuts characters all decked out in their Halloween best.

Check out the bat dudes on rollerskates!!! The song they played on repeat a billion times will be stuck in our heads forever- it’s like pure adrenaline…. it takes you to the world beyonnnnddd…

Before leaving we got some tasty sushi and desserts at another conveyor restaurant with a super cute sign.

 

Tomorrow is day 13: Fushimi Inari Shrine, Osaka BL Cafe, and Being Lost (Without a Care!)