If I talk to anyone about travel lately, it seems like they’re planning to go or have just returned from a trip to Japan. (Have you been to Japan?) And our family actually has a trip to Japan booked later this summer too and I’m excited to revisit since we haven’t been in so many years (We last went in 2019 to Shikoku the area where my family is from as well as Okinawa and Nagoya and we’re hoping to get to back to Shikoku this summer even though I think it’s extremely hot there). Japan has also been at the forefront of my mind lately because of a press release about Ultraman Rising on Netflix and an instrument called an Otamatone that a young friend told me about.
I found out I had covid the day I was supposed to do an interview about the new Netflix Ultraman Rising show and even though it was through Zoom I was literally a zombie and couldn’t attend. I’ve heard about Ultraman from trips to Japan before, he’s a popular character there and has been around since 1966 but I’ve never watched any of the shows. Ultraman Rising seems like a show that you don’t really need prior knowledge of the franchise to watch. I really liked the storyline and found it entertaining especially seeing glimpses of animated Tokyo and stores I know and also hearing a few bits of Japanese here and there. I had a little trouble understanding the idea of Kaiju in the movie and why these Kaiju come to Tokyo and cause destruction. So this is what I was going to ask at the press conference to find out more. But also, there are more Ultraman series on Netflix (I noticed three seasons) and I think I’ll figure out more of the backstory through these and I think this series would be a good one to watch with one of my nephews who also loves Pokemon and Camp Cretaceous from Jurassic Park. It has a bit of violence but underlying messages are ones that would be good to talk about with him and I’m glad I had a chance to watch this. I’ll probably encourage my guys to watch Ultraman Rising before our trip to Japan too. I really like reading or watching movies set in places that we travel.
An Otamatone media release also arrived in my email shortly after one of our family friends was chatting about this instrument/toy with me when we were talking about unusual instruments we could play if we made a band. I think it’s a pretty good alternative to a recorder for a young kid. I’m really not a fan of giving kids instruments they put in their mouths and to play an otamatone you use only your hands even though it looks like a recorder/clarinet/saxophone instrument with a cartoonish feature on the bottom. You slide your fingers along a screenlike area that resembles almost a keyboard or guitar string and this makes sounds that come out the mouth of the cartoonish character. I received the original otamatone but they also come in a variety of characters like Kirby or Hello Kitty. (I checked for Ultraman but didn’t see one-maybe one day but I would love the Hello Kitty one) Apparently this toy is very popular in Japan so I’m hoping we can find one in a store on our trip.
And I guess we’ll also hopefully find out what it’s like to book a trip to Japan sort of last minute. We just booked our flights using our miles with Alaska Airlines (we fly with them often and have a lot of miles) and Japan Airlines is a partner and we still need to book our flights to Singapore from Japan because that is also a big reason why we are going on this trip in the first place. (We have family in Singapore and it is a very long flight from Seattle so it’s helpful to break it up with a stop in Tokyo, Taipei or Hong Kong). I’ve seen a flower ice cream video that is making me want to stop in Kyoto. But also we want to visit my family in the south of Japan and are thinking of renting a car in Osaka to drive to see them. I know my husband needs to get an Interational Driving Permit for this. I checked out the route and noticed that there is a place called Hello Kitty Smile on Awaji island on the way and this might be a very compelling reason to visit this area. (Have you ever been here?). How much time before a trip do you think you need to plan a trip to Japan with teenagers? And have you ever been to Japan in the summer?
I’ll make sure to keep our trip details updated on the blog. And if you can play a song on the Otamatone I would love to hear about it.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
One thought on “Ultraman, an Otamatone and a trip to Japan”
Comments are closed.