The Place That Started It All

For my first blog post the only thing that would make sense to start with the one place that sparked my interest in traveling in the first place Japan. Japan is a beautiful country that has a lot of history within its borders. In my four years of living there we had the opportunity to not only try a lot of new foods but also experience some of the cultural ceremonies and holidays.

In my time in Japan we had visited a lot of the ancient temples and different museums that have to do with their history. One of my most favorite ones was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Even though I was so young I remember so much about the whole experience. One of the things that I thought was really cool was that they still had some of the buildings from the day that the bomb was dropped and they have been virtually untouched. Another thing that I loved about this museum was that they didn’t only focus on the parts of the story that everyone learns in their textbooks but they focused on the facts that nobody really knows about.

This is one of the buildings that is still standing many years later.

While going to school in Japan as a family we got to experience some of the Japanese ceremonies and go on field trips to places we had never heard of before. One of the ceremonies that we had participated in at school was the Ocha ceremony. As a class we would all put on our kimonos and go in to the commons area and participate in this ceremony where they had made traditional green tea and gave us little candies to balance out the taste of the tea. For the field trips of one of the most memorable would have to be Kid Zania. It is a place where kids are able to act like adults for the day. For example you can go to the Hi Chew factory and make Hi Chew to take home. Or work as a barber and get to cut the hair on a mannequins face. Those are just a few of the examples of the things that you can do while being a adult.

Now for the really good part…the food. Since I lived there for so long I had the opportunity to try a lot more of their food then I would have if I was just visiting, but that said I still do have a favorite restaurant. The name of my favorite restaurant was named Kaguras. This place was a lot like your everyday Osaka Steakhouse restaurant with the people cooking right in front of you but what made this place different was at the end of our meal they would give you green tea ice cream. Even though I absolutely despise green tea I have to admit it wasn’t that bad. Also at the end of your meal they would give you hats and take a fun picture to take home.

People always ask me if I member a lot about Japan since I was so young and my answer is always yes and no. I would say this because I remember all of the fun new experiences that I had like being able to see the floating Torii Gate in Miyajima, or getting to see the reindeer in Nara park. On the other side I would also say no because you aren't able to remember everything that you experience and because I was so young that just makes it even harder.

All in all I would really recommend visiting Japan no matter what part you go to it is all so nice and beautiful. I would recommend going to some of the places that you wouldn’t normally go to because it could put you a little more outside of your comfort zone and maybe you would even be able to find a hidden gem. Not going to all of the touristy places is one thing that I am happy we did while we were there.