Four-day escape to Japan | Stripes Korea

Glamping views of Mt. Fuji (Photo by Erin Henderson/Stripes Korea) Feeling th…
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Exploring Japan: A Family Adventure

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Waking up in Tokyo to the surreal sound of silence – no horns, no traffic snarls, just the gentle hum of millions of people getting around on foot, bike, and rail. That was our introduction to Japan and set the tone for the whole trip. We spent three weeks exploring Japan and fell in love with the trains, anime characters, charming shopping streets, and bidet toilets. This was the first overseas trip for our daughter, and she did an amazing job embracing the triumphs and challenges of traveling through a foreign country.

Our adventure took us through Tokyo, Kyoto, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Osaka with day-trips to Himeji, Naoshima, Miyajima, Nara, and Hakone. A small slice of the country, but we covered the main highlights. We loved every moment of it and left fulfilled but knowing we could have spent longer if it wasn’t for the reality of school and work. If you want more details about what we did on our trip, I wrote a daily trip diary here and have more photos on Flickr.

Family Highlights

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Me:

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Astrid (Age 9):

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Emily:

Observations

There are a lot of things I will remember about this trip. Most of my cherished memories are not of specific places we visited, although there were some memorable ones, but the overarching experiences we had throughout Japan.

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My main takeaway from visiting Japan is how amazing the transport systems are. I knew the Shinkansen bullet trains were fast, but I didn’t appreciate how frequent and convenient they were. It’s 500 km between Osaka and Tokyo (similar to Montreal to Toronto) and trip is less than 2.5 hours on the train, downtown to downtown, with no security to clear, and with trains that leave every 5 minutes so you don’t need reservations. Just show up and jump on the next departing train. It’s amazing and so liberating.

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In the cities, I was surprised by how little car traffic there is, especially in Tokyo. 37 million people and the vast majority don’t have a car. It was so interesting to see how the urban environment changes when you build a city around walking and public transit. Roads are narrower, the city is quieter, people are skinnier, streets are safer, and small retail stores are thriving. A big change from North America.

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One of the coolest parts of this trip was watching our 9-year-old daughter turn into a world traveler. We pushed her outside of her comfort zone and she rose to the occasion. It wasn’t always easy – there were tears after long days when we made her write in her journal. But for 3 weeks she kept up with us and had no problems with the long walking days, lack of routine, and culture shock. At the end of the trip, she didn’t even want to come home. I’m so proud of her for learning 20 Japanese phrases and using them in public, writing in her journal every night (she said it got easier after the first week), and embracing the independence Japanese society affords children. She loved going convenience store shopping for our breakfast by herself. I’m not sure what she’ll take away from this trip, but I hope it has a lasting positive impact on her.

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There is so much culture, both old and new, in Japan. We did our best to immerse ourselves before the trip and learned a lot more while we were traveling. I was surprised by how pervasive anime characters are. I expected to find it in nerdy areas, thriving in subcultures, but it is very mainstream. Everywhere you look you’ll see characters from One Piece, Pokemon, Sanrio, Spy x Family, and countless other manga/anime series I didn’t recognize.

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We spent 9 months planning for this adventure and all that work lead to a very smooth trip. We had a multi-tab spreadsheet with our rough itinerary and things to do each day, starred locations on Google Maps, and already booked the coveted Nintendo Museum and Studio Ghibli tickets months in advance. Emily did her usual amazing job of keeping us on track during the trip, ensuring we had a plan for the next day, including how to get around and what restaurants looked good. There was still moments of chaos when things didn’t go right, but adapting is part of the fun of traveling. We also got really lucky – the weather was awesome with warm temperatures, little rain, and perfect conditions for seeing a freshly snowed Mount Fuji on our day in Hakone.

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The food in Japan was good, but eating vegan required some planning – and my soy allergy made it extra difficult. We ate onigiris from the konbini every morning. Astrid is now obsessed. Our most common meals were ramen, udon and soba noodles, and Japanese curry. We ate surprisingly little sushi because the veggie options aren’t as good as in Vancouver. We relied heavily on Happy Cow to find vegan restaurants, but some of our best meals were from random little restaurants where we managed to order meat-free dishes (although we purposely didn’t ask too many questions about broths or seasonings).

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Now that I’m back in Canada, I find myself missing a lot of the little things that made Japan special.

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• Everyone is so patient and the culture of respect permeates everything. On public transit people talk in whispers. People line up calmly for everything and wait to cross the street even when there are no cars. It’s common to see cars, bikes, and pedestrians all sharing the same space and yet no one honks or rings their bell. The faster vehicles just wait to pass.
• Public washrooms are abundant and most toilets have fancy electronics. It took me a while to get used to heated seats and water sprayers, but I’m a convert now and want to upgrade our toilets at home.
• Public garbage cans are scarce, but the streets are amazingly clean. Everyone carries their litter in a bag until they get home. Japan burns most of its trash, which seems horrible but really isn’t any worse than the landfills that we have.
• Convenience stores (konbinis), like 7-Eleven, are everywhere, open 24-hours, and they always have fresh and tasty food like onigiri. In Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka our hotels often had 3 konbinis within a block.
• There is so much independence and responsibilities given to children. I was constantly impressed by the small school kids riding public transit alone.
• The price is the price. There are no hidden taxes or fees, no tipping, no haggling, and no upsell scams targeting tourists. I also liked that kids were charged 50% of the adult price for trains, public transit, and most attractions.
• I love all the vibrant shopping areas (shotengai) – car-free streets covered with glass roofs that are full of cute little shops. With Vancouver’s climate, they would be perfect here.
• Discovering and eating regional specialties, like yatsuhashi in Kyoto, okonomiyaki in Hiroshima, takoyaki in Osaka (the vegan kind because eating octopus is so wrong), and lemon-flavoured everything in Setoda.

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Expenses

Japan isn’t expensive but it isn’t cheap either. Our total trip expense for 3 people traveling for 3 weeks was $15,005.82 (or ¥1,560,125).

Notes:

• Our hotels averaged $330 a night in the big cities (Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka) and only $150/night in Okayama, Hiroshima, and Setoda.
• We saved $1800 on hotels (full price listed above) using vouchers from our life insurance.
• Food averaged out to around $40/person/day.
• Our most expensive dinners were only $80-85 for 3 people at the fancier restaurants.
• Our most expensive attraction was a ramen cooking class in Kyoto ($155 / ¥15,813) but that included dinner. TeamLab was almost as expensive at ¥11,659 / $114.30.
• Studio Ghibli Museum was ridiculously cheap – only $23 for 3 tickets (no wonder they’re so hard to get).
• We flew with ZipAir, which is bare-bones but is considerably cheaper than other airlines.

#backpacking #Hakone #Himeji #Hiroshima #Japan #Kyoto #Miyajima #Naoshima #Nara #Okayama #Osaka #Tokyo #tripReport

During my final afternoon in Hakone, I visited Gora Park and two museums. I provide a brief summary of my time in Hakone in this post: https://journeys.klebanoff.com/2025/11/gora-park-and-2-museums/

#travel #Japan #hakone

Today in Hakone, Japan, I spent the whole morning at the Hakone Open-Air Museum. It was spectacular. You won’t want to miss this post. Or maybe you will want to miss it. I can never tell with these things. Anyway, here it is: https://journeys.klebanoff.com/2025/11/hakone-open-air-museum/

#travel #Hakone #Japan

Today, on the journey back to Gora from Lake Ashi in Hakone, Japan, I tried to see some stuff at the ropeway and cable car stops along the way. I didn’t have complete success, but it was a good afternoon nonetheless. Read about it here: https://journeys.klebanoff.com/2025/11/journey-back-to-gora/

#travel #Hakone #Japan