As some of you may know, my grandma is from a city called Nara, Japan. During our visit to Japan we spent Christmas and New Years with my obaachan (grandma) in Nara.

I am posting this a year later (I don’t know why it took me a whole year to post this). I am not sure if anyone will see this post but I like looking back at my blog to see what I did and have done. It is a nice travel diary. I should start posting more 🙂

Fun Fact: Nara is the oldest city in Japan.

Another Fun Fact: Nara is also known for their famous deer park.

The deer are really calm, they bow to you, they let them pet you and you can feed them little snacks that you can purchase there.

It’s always fun to go to the Deer Park also known as Nara koen (koen means park in Japanese). I have been going to this park all my life.

Please see old photos of me at Nara Koen below:

Me and my ojiichan (grandpa in Japanese) when I was around 1 or 2 years old.

My outfit was very interesting! haha I am not sure what was going on there

 

Me freaking out about the deer with my aunt.

 

白骨温泉 (Shirahone Onsen)

My obaachan (grandma) took us to an onsen town called  Shirahone Onsen which is in the mountains in Japan so there was lots of snow. (Onsen means hot springs in Japanese).

It was such a new experience for me, to be in an onsen outdoor in the middle of the mountains while it was snowing. To have shared this weekend with my family and my grandmother was so wonderful.

The hotel we stayed at was so beautiful, I took a photo of these lights because I thought they were cool haha

In hotels in Japan it is common for them to give you this yukata attire.

 

We later visited a town near Shirahone Onsen:

 

 

 

 

わかやま (Wakayama)

We went to a town called Wakayama, in Wakayama there is an umeboshi factory (pickled plum) which is my favorite thing in the world so my family brought us to Wakayama. Where we visited a Japanese temple and the umeboshi factory.

This is my aunt (we also ate amazing ramen)

Then we went to the umeboshi factory.

Later we went to eat kaiten zushi (which is sushi with the rotator belt)

New Years (The Year of the Dog)

In 2018, it was the year of the Dog ( funny enough the year that I was born was also the year of the dog and my grandfather who passed away was also born during the year of the dog).

In Japan during the first day of the year we go to the Jinja (temple) to pray for good things for the year to come.

At the very bottom of the temple there was a huge fire place!

Later that night we made sukiyaki which is an amazing Japanese hot pot dish.

Other Photos in Japan:

My cousin used to work at an okonomiyaki shop so we went to visit him there.

He made us these amazing Okonomiyakis.

 

My brother and I went to Universal Studios Osaka, we usually try to go every time we are in Japan. We always have the best time. I didn’t take too many photos but here a few:

 

またね日本♡

(See you Japan)

With so much love,