The next morning we checked out of our hotel. Jeffrey had to have a picture by this piece of art before we left. Of course he likes it so much because he recognizes it from Disney’s Little Einstein show (kid show that teaches about art and music). Taylor then drove 1.5 hours up a windy…

Jonathan has been obsessed with trains lately and there was a Thomas the Train event going on in Shizuoka prefecture so we went on a weekend trip to the area. We drove up and stayed at a hotel right next to Shizuoka station. The boys loved it because they could watch the trains go by…

These pictures are from some fun we had earlier in the summer, but I’m just now getting around to posting them. Better late than never! Poppies at Kurihama Flower Park In May, the poppies were blooming at Kurihama Flower Park. This is the same park we visited in January with the Godzilla, but this time…

A few weeks ago we decided to do a little trip to Kamakura. We’ve found that we really like Kamakura, lots to do and easy to get to. Our first stop was the Kamakura Owls’ Forest. We found this “forest” on the 3rd floor of a building in the middle of a shopping and restaurant…

I always thought we would wait until the boys were a little older before we would attempt a family Disney trip, but we had been told that now was the time to go. Tokyo Disneyland still has limited capacity and so there are very few lines. No lines sounded fantastic to me with two young…

Mt. Takao is one of the biggest natural attractions for the Japanese because it is so close to the Tokyo metroplex and it offers some excellent views and hiking trails along with very popular attractions, like Yakuoin Temple and a monkey park featuring over 40 Japanese macaques that you can feed and watch perform in…

Our last day in Hakone was spend at the Open Air Museum before we drove on home. I absolutely loved this place. Beautiful landscape, rolling hills, really awesome works of art, and perfect weather made this one of my favorite experiences in Japan so far. It was easily the longest I’ve ever spent at a…

Day two started with us venturing to Gora Station to hop on a cable car which then led us to the Hakone ropeway! The ropeway brought us to Owakudani, a volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. It was created about 3000 years ago as a result of the last eruption of the…

For our three day Memorial Day weekend we went to Hakone! Hakone is known for its natural hot springs, its natural beauty, and views of nearby Mt Fuji across Lake Ashinoko. We drove up using the toll road route after Taylor got off work Friday evening, about a two hour drive. We caught a beautiful…

We took another hike at Mount Nokogiri in the Chiba prefecture! Just to get to the mountain was a lot of fun. Instead of driving or using the train, this trip started with us taking the Tokyo Bay Ferry. It was about a 40 minute ferry ride to get across the bay. The boys loved…