Biking along the Han River in Seoul

by Holly

We flew mid-day from Tokyo to Seoul and took a cab from the airport; turned out to be one of the tricked out vans with tinted windows that celebrities always ride in K dramas.

Fake sushi making class in Tokyo

by Holly

We signed up for this Airbnb experience in Iriya neighborhood, Taito City, Tokyo. Our host Mika told us Iriya is where fake food in its modern form was invented some decades ago. The class was held in a peaceful, bright studio in a building with other studios; a great venue for a quiet few hours activity making fake sushi.

Making samurai sandals in Saitama

by Holly

We signed up for this AirBnb experience about an hour north-ish from Tokyo. We spent the morning walking around a little in Shibuya - took in the hedghog cafe and had an excellent ramen for lunch. Becky stayed there to do some shopping while the kids and I took the train up to meet our host Mayumi at Mizuhodai station.



We were all tired because we didn't get home until like 2am the night before from our ghost stories in a country town expedition the night before in Hadano, southwest of Tokyo. The railway was still shut down after we finished there because of an accident with a car which happened when we were on the way down. Luckily we could take the train the other direction and eventually switch to a JR line going back toward Tokyo, but it took forever and we were on literally the last train of the night for every leg of our return journey.

Sandals woven from straw served as footwear for many people in Japan for at least a thousand years. They don't last very long, but the raw material was in abundant supply and they didn't take too long to make. Our host said horses even were shod sometimes with rice straw shoes. These would only last a day or two, but were pretty fast to make up so could be replaced continually.

Our host served us some dango balls and green tea while she gave us a short history of straw sandals in Japan. We then inspected some traditional waraji type sandals made of real straw; these are a design which tie on your leg and were used for work and travel.

The ones we made were woven from plastic rope rather than straw, and were a flip flop style called zōri. Mayumi had prepped some materials for us so we could actually finish our sandals within a few hours.

The main weaving part was something the kids could reasonably do themselves.

Various aspects of finishing and getting the foot strap integrated were tough for them but Child 1 got hers done and the host and I helped Child 2 and Buster.

Buster fell asleep face down on this pillow; as I mentioned we were all pretty exhausted from the previous day!

Buster's sandals ended up a bit short, but otherwise they all turned out pretty well.

On the way back to the station, our host took us to take a quick look at a nearby estate with historic buildings that was once the seat of the local daimyo.

Ghost stories - Main article

Ghost stories

Hi Again! IceCreamRain here. We have just gotten back from a fun-packed, and maybe even fright-packed trip to Japan and Korea. One activity we went to was "Ghost Stories". I'm going to write a little bit about those! Links to the ghost stories are included in this article, and at the end of it too.

Ghost stories - 1st story

    "Long ago there lived a family. They were part of a happy little tribe. The father in this family was the head of the tribe. He had two sons. His older son was kind and thoughtful like his father, fit to be a wonderful leader. The younger son was gullible and quick to anger. The mother in the family was the Miko, and she listened to the gods and had visions and such.

Ghost stories - 2nd story

    "There once lived a small boy who loved animals. He loved them so; he could never bear to see an animal in distress.
    "One day the young boy saw a cat while he was playing outside. He followed the cat, and the cat started to run. So the boy started to run too. Soon they were running and running down toward the river, where the boy's mother had warned him not to go.
    "The steep climb down to the river would take some time for a grown man to do, let alone an eight year old boy-- so the young boy soon lost track of the cat. But here he was, tangled in leaves and branches, and he couldn't turn back, so the boy knew the only way to go was forward.

Ghost Stories - 3rd Story

    "There was once a very wealthy man who lived on a mountain. He had all the money that he needed, and never had to work. Without any job, any work to do, he was often bored and longed for something to take up his time.
    "So he took up fox-hunting. He went out to the forest each day, and hunted and hunted and hunted 'till he had so many fur coats he needed a separate room for them. He had a large amount of land, and it was crowded with foxes.
    "One day the man went out with his rifle hunting. He waited in the bushes outside a fox den until the mother fox left. Then he snuck into the den, and killed all three of the young foxes. Content, he went back to his house.

Ghost Stories - 4th story

    "A long, long time ago, there was a small village. The people lived happily, with nothing to fear but one thing. In a house on the outer bits of the village lived a strange old woman. The villagers called her many things-- a witch, a ghost, it didn't matter. They all thought her evil. It was rumored that she had been cursed from a love she could never have.

Ghost Stories - 5th (and final!) story

    "There were once three friends. Their names were Hanna, Aia, and Hiro. They did everything together. Truly, they were the bestest of friends.
    "Aia was a beautiful young woman. Her hair was as black as night, and her eyes were a warm deep brown. Her skin was as white as snow, and her step was light and dainty.
    "Hanna was kind and strong-willed. Her hair was a short black bob, fun and cheery, her eyes chocolate brown, and she had slightly tanned skin. Her stride was sure and strong.
    "Hiko was the kindest of all of them. He had a twinkle in his black eyes, and his friends loved his charming smile and gentle touch. They each fell deeply in love, both Aia and Hanna wishing Hiko was theirs. Hiko, in the end, fell in love with Aia.

Making silk bracelets in Nara

We signed up for this AirBnb experience for the late afternoon in Nara. After taking the train to Nara, we spent the late morning and mid day walking around the big park with deer and giant buddhas, then walked down to a tiny workshop run by two old Japanese ladies, Michiko and Toshiko, on a street full of artists' shops.

Best Live Action Show I've Seen!!!

by Buster

When we were in Kyoto, we went to the Kabuki Theater.  Kabuki is a traditional form of Japanese theater.  This is the front of the theater.  It is very fancy!!

This is Child 1, Child 2, and I standing in front (or below) a Naruto poster.  Naruto is the show that we saw in the Kabuki theater.  Naruto used to be a Manga comic and then they made it a show.

Child 1 and Child 2 are sitting in the theater in this picture.  I am behind them taking the picture. There were little English-translation-thing-a-ma-bobs.  We had a little earbud to listen to it.  It told us basically what was going on in the show.  We got them because we were in Japan, and of course it was in Japanese!

This is a picture from the Naruto comic.  The person in blue is Sasuke.  His is a "frenemy" with Naruto. By the way, Naruto is the person in orange.  He is the main character.  He has the nine-tailed fox demon spirit inside him.  It makes him very powerful and all that nonsense.

 This picture is the live-action, as you may have guessed.

This is a picture of the slug goddess, with her slug around her, the toad spirit thing, and the snake thing. Those purple things on the bottom are ninjas attacking Naruto.

 This is a picture of our lunch.  This is Japanese lunch.  We got it at the Kabuki theater. Everyone else had one, so that's why we got one.  We had to eat lunch there because the show was about 4 hours long with 2 intermissions!

This is basically the final part of the show.  Naruto and Sasuke are fighting in a waterfall.  It was real water, in case you are wondering.  They splashed it all over the front row of the theater.  Luckily the people in the front row got plastic things to cover them so they didn't get wet.  I was glad that I was sitting in one of the top rows so I didn't get splashed!  This was my favorite part of the show.