My prior knowledge of the Ghibli Museum was only that it had to do with the movies Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. I’m not even sure if I actually ever watched Totoro or just bought a lot of Totoro things when I was a little kid and I’m still not exactly sure what a […]
On our last trip to Japan, my husband had an ACL injury and I wanted to make sure the hotels we booked were close to all the things we wanted to visit so he didn’t have to walk too far. In the past we have stayed in Tokyo in Shibuya at the Hotel Century Souther […]
Family travel is always unpredictable and some of our favorite trip memories come from times when things don’t go as we expected. On a recent trip to Asia I was really excited about all the fun restaurants we’d get to see! I was really intrigued about one called Dim Sum Icon, a cafe that I saw on […]
In another life, the only car I could have reliably named on the road was a Volkswagon Beetle but my husband has managed to pass on his passion for vehicles down to the next generation and now if I DON’T know the cars around me, I’d be totally outnumbered in the family. So I try […]
We have been back from our trip to Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo for over a month and with the end of school and all our other summer planning, I’m only now getting to the posts. There are many amazing things to see in Tokyo with kids, but the one thing my guys have always talked about […]
When we first found this rooftop playground in Tokyo a couple years ago the boys’ eyes lit up like firecrackers and if we had enough 100 yen coins we could have entertained them for hours. Of course we looked for more magic of this sort when we returned. And we found a few fabulous ones. […]
If you talk and walk with me, I could go miles and not have any idea where I’m heading or where we’ve been so use this loosely as a guide and plot your own route on a map. We had a plan for a day in Tokyo and it consisted of these 4 places: 1) […]
I read about the National Children’s Castle in this book about Kid’s Trips in Tokyo, (a little-bit outdated guide from 1996 but useful nonetheless) and it sounded very cool, kind of like the kids’ museums we have in Seattle. Don’t mistake it for the Tokyo Metropolitan Children’s Hall. That one is currently closed until at […]
The boys recently got hooked on the book I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, by Dr. Seuss and in it the big cat explains to the little cat, “the more that you read, the more you will know and the more that you learn the more places you will go.” I hope if we can […]
As usual, we were last-minute in looking up what to do in Toronto for our summer trip (all we had planned was the Hockey Hall of Fame) and discovered online that there is a Toronto CityPASS and instantly knew we didn’t really need to do any more research. We are big CityPASS fans and have […]
It is pretty difficult to find soufflé pancakes in Seattle and we’ve searched the area a lot. We went to Japan in 2019 and managed to get some that were pretty spectacular. (I think we’ve all seen soufflé pancakes on TikTok’s from Japan) When I was doing quarantine in my parent’s basement in Vancouver during […]
(this list of pnw books contains affiliate links to a site that supports local bookstores) I often read books with a sense of place before I go on a trip, so here are a few that feel very Pacific Northwest if you are visiting the area or even if this is where you call home. […]
Yes, travel is about bucket lists and places we dream about. But it’s also about budget too. So when we booked our Ireland trip from Seattle we were actually dreaming about going to Japan. We found that tickets for Japan were on the spendy side and we only had 5 days (with teenagers who have […]
The hardest part about travel now that we travel with teenagers is that we don’t have all the time and flexibility we used to have when they were younger because of school and sports. One of the main ways we choose the places we go to is by if they have nonstop flights from Seattle. […]
If there is a subscription box I can’t help but try it. Over the years I’ve been a big fan of ones like Birchbox, Raddish Kids, Fab Fit Fun, Trove and even a clothing rental subscription called Armoire from Seattle. Most recently, I’ve been trying out Sakuraco, a Japanese snack box that comes with authentic […]
More and more I’m finding that we have to pre-book and pre-plan things for travel. Are you finding this too? Everything is just a whole lot busier than it used to be. We like to be “go-where-the-wind-blows-us” travelers and we usually plan our days by the weather or what we feel like doing that day […]
If you are traveling from Seattle, flying to Tokyo is usually about a nine hour flight-I like to justify a family trip to Tokyo to travelers with kids by saying it’s just a few hours more than a flight to Hawaii which is a very popular destination for families in the Pacific Northwest. And because […]
Being from Seattle, we are very proud of our Pike Place Market. I’ve spent lot of time volunteering there and I’m always happy to tell people it’s not just a tourist attraction or a place to shop, but every single penny given to Rachel or Billie the famous market piggy banks, goes to support a […]
**PS. Seattle, you can now get Souffle Pancakes at Beanfish at Uwajimaya. I’ve been told Cafe Remix who used to have them is now closed. ** Is anyone else out there obsessed about Japanese Souffle pancakes? I first saw these thick, fluffy pancakes on Instagram and put them on my bucket list of things to […]
I know it’s supposed to be the groundhog that tells us that it’s spring but for me it’s totally the cherry blossoms. When we seem the fluffy pink blooms pop up like party confetti balls in Seattle I know it’s time to celebrate that the worst of our winter weather is over and we’ll likely […]