Japan 2026

2026-01-28 Wednesday: Kamloops - Vancouver
Family left for the airport at 0400
Packed for Japan
Amber came over to say goodbye during lunch
Drove to Vancouver early in the afternoon, stayed in a hotel in Richmond which included long term parking for our trip.

2026-01-29/30 Thursday/Friday: Vancouver - Niseko crossed date line
Woke up at 0530
Shuttle to airport at 0610
At gate 0730, 2 hours early, I question why Mitch insisted we wake up so early
10ish hour flight. Read a lot of my book, “The Name of the Wind”
3 hour layover in Narita (Tokyo), needed to take a shuttle to a different terminal
1.5 hour flight, sat next to Jared. Read more of my book.
Took the Shuttle to Camper rental location
Hit road at 1900 en route to Rusutsu

Stayed at a parking rest stop near Rusutsu with a bathroom.

The van setup was cosy but home for now, I was deliriously tired at this point, I could’ve slept on a rock.

2026-01-31 Saturday: Rusutsu
Woke up at 0400 with the van super cold. Power ran out and the heater turned off
Had to go to the bathroom so I climbed out of my bunk, couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards, read some of my book and dozed until 0700 when we all started moving
Skied Rusutsu. Rusutsu was sick, but they hadn’t had a lot of snow in the last few days so it was only about 5 cm of powder on top of hardpack.

The one perk of it not being a massive pow day is we could actually see.

Drove to Niseko and tried an onsen. They had an outdoor hot tub and sauna with a cold bath right beside it. It was mind-blowing, I need a cold bath beside my sauna.

It was a full sauna with wood benches and a bucket of water to throw on the rocks for steam. I stayed in as long as I could, then jumped into the ice bath and forced myself to stay there. When I got out I was so lightheaded I had to grab the railing just to stay upright.

Then I went and hung out with Jared in the outdoor hot pool and watched the snow come down around us.

It was weird not being allowed to wear any clothes, but you get over it pretty quickly.

We drove to Hirafu and checked out some of the food trucks that are everywhere there. Some drunk and casually racist Aussies (bogans) recommended a food truck for a pork and rice bowl. It was insanely good, the cook placed and checked each piece of meat with an absurd level of perfectionism. Stayed at a rest stop near Niseko because we couldn’t find anywhere in Hirafu which is where the resort is located.

2026-02-01 Sunday: Niseko - my birthday
Skied Niseko, was snowing all night and day. Crazy deep powder.

We had to try out the infamous pizza box lift, not as scary as expected when there’s a foot of fresh snow below you.

Stopped for lunch and had some great ramen.

Went to the onsen in Niseko afterwards. Same as yesterday, amazing. Dragged Mitch with us this time, but he disappeared pretty quickly. He found a naproom and hung out until Jared and I were ready to leave. Drove back to Hirafu after because someone in the hot tub had some pointers on where we could park overnight and I wanted to go out on my birthday. Nowhere to go out in Niseko itself. Went to some food trucks then to an apres bar full of Aussies. Played darts, I got really tired, definitely not on Japan time yet.

2026-02-02 Monday: Niseko
Even deeper powder at Niseko.

Skipped the onsen after since we didn’t want to give up our parking spot and we were all exhausted. Stayed in a parking lot right near the hill, not exactly sure we’re allowed to, and it’s not level, but it worked and we got away with it.

Went out to some food trucks after, we tried to go in some restaurants which only resulted in discussions on tax brackets and which ones the restaurant’s target customers must be in.

Wandered around a bunch and checked out an Arcteryx store, needed a photo with my Arcteryx clothes beside the Arcteryx store.

2026-02-03 Tuesday: Niseko - Tokyo
Still storming with new powder but not as much as yesterday. Started with the full hike to the peak. Still dumping so we couldn’t really even tell we were on the top, all you see is white.

Skied a half day so we could make it back to the rental dropoff and the airport. We couldn’t have done more, we were all exhausted and making mistakes, Jared had a bad crash with a tree and his mouth and shoulder are sore. I tried to ski through a branch hanging across a trail and clotheslined myself, lost an earbud. The branch came up from knee level and took me down by my goggles, ripped my goggles and earbud off. I was done after that. Hopefully no concussion. Packed up some of our gear in the camper and headed back to the Sapporo airport.
Stopped at a 711 with a food truck outside for lunch. Dropped off Van a few minutes late, wasn’t able to get gas since Niseko so we’ll need to pay a fee to refill. Got to airport, it has a sweet mall, got a box with real crab and rice for only 1200 jpy. It was sick, I really like crab.

2026-02-04 Wednesday: Tokyo
Stayed at airport hotel. First time in a real bed since Kamloops! Headed to our hotel in Shinjuku then wandered around until we could check in, found some fantastic ramen.

Wandered through some vertical malls and found some new headphones to replace the ones that I lost in the snow. Took train to see temple. Huge tourist trap, shops everywhere selling tourist things and food. It felt kinda gross, like people’s religion and history was being commodified and exploited for tourism. It was really cool though, we got our photos just like everyone else.

Went to a super narrow alley full of tiny restaurants selling skewers and visited a couple of them for dinner, Omoide Yokocho, Shinjuku.

Then went to a similar alley full of bars. Felt kinda sketchy at first, had to walk through a crowd of guys trying to sell us drugs. The bars were pretty cool, super small, you squish in and drink. Then we went back to our area and were going to find a club but the one we were thinking of was closed, there was another but there was a high cover charge and it was 0100 so we decided to bail. A sketchy guy came up to us and tried to get us to come with him to his strip club but we passed, we did chat for a bit and got some good info on how things worked in the area. A lot of prostitutes/pimps asking us if we wanted “massages” or to come into their strip clubs. It never felt sketchy though, even the pimps here are very polite.

2026-02-05 Thursday: Tokyo
Hungover. Plan for today: Tokyo Tower, imperial palace, and want to see a district full of knife stores. Wanted a quick breakfast but I went to the first place that was open, which happened to be a 24 hour Korean BBQ place, not what I was looking for but it was great, that happens in life.

We walked to Tokyo Tower and looked around the observatory in the south tower. Great views but couldn’t see Mt Fuji due to smog. Looked into the imperial palace and apparently to actually go in we needed to book a tour. So we walked to the Meiji Shinto shrine instead. It’s a huge forested park in the middle of Tokyo. The shrine itself was really cool. I really liked reading all the prayers hanging around the prayer tree.

Amber had a rough day so I found a quiet place to sit and we chatted for a bit. Jared and Mitch found me and told me it was time to go. We took the subway to get to the street with all the knife stores. Mitch stopped us at a bakery, it was absolutely amazing. Got a croissant, it was fantastic, not as good as I got in Portugal but the closest I’ve come since. Also got an egg tart thing and a donut, the egg tart was unreal. We went in a knife store with knives around the wall on magnetic strips. Sorted by metal type and style. I bought a 1000 grit sharpening stone and a nakiri knife. Like 500$ total. I wanted a carbon steel knife but I wasn’t allowed to test it so I tried a stainless knife of a similar style. That knife was absolutely gorgeous and blew me away when they let me test it so I bought it.

On the train to Shibuya for dinner and maybe karaoke. Saw Shibuya crossing and walked across a few times like absolute tourists, cause we are. Got a burger and fries at a scramble crossing burger bar with window seats perfect for people watching. Huge tourist trap, but worth it.

Tokyo lights up at night, the mornings are dead but once it’s dark the city lights up, especially Shibuya.

Walked around Shibuya until we ran into the karaoke bar we were planning on going to with Slater. Slater and his friend literally ran into us in the bathroom. It was all you could drink, Slater’s friend Pascal passed out in his seat and Slater was having trouble walking by the end. But we killed it at karaoke. It was a private room and you could order free drinks from an app.

Then we ran into some Aussie girls and two Americans from Colorado who we ran into earlier and wandered around as a group looking for somewhere to go. The drunker and I think shirtless(?) American left his friend and walked off with a stranger. They took us to this weird church bar, where the servers were dressed up as nuns. We went in cause we needed the washroom but it turned out the Aussies were underage and they just bailed.

Got some ramen on the walk home, Mitch and Jared didn’t want in so just wandered around.

Found out the next morning that Slater had a wild walk home, he ended up on the 8th floor of a Don Quixote, what he did there we can only speculate.

2026-02-06 Friday: Tokyo
Hungover, changed plans to do Nikko another day since it needs a full day. Plan: imperial palace and TeamLab. Turns out the east gardens are closed on Mondays and Fridays, so we just meandered our way down toward Tokyo Tower where TeamLab is. Stopped for lunch at a restaurant near Tokyo Station. Had a salmon sashimi on rice bowl, so freaking good, it was like 10cad each too and we were the only tourists there, everyone else looked like business men on lunch. We checked out Tokyo Station, it was a beautiful building, Jared noticed that the ceiling had each of the animals of the Chinese new year on each corner.

Wandered our way through some of the Tokyo parks and gardens. It’s crazy how many people live here yet it doesn’t feel dirty, crowded or claustrophobic. Tokyo feels dense but controlled. Toronto feels more chaotic in comparison. Saw a sign for Mt. Mikasa and immediately made it a goal to summit it.

Stopped by a Japan Sword store, it had a bunch of old swords 100s of years old, the real ones were in the 10s of 1000s of CAD, but you could get a zinc alloy unsharpened replica for like 700$. Team labs was crazy, super cool. A bunch of rooms with projected art displays. My favourite was a mirror room filled with hanging LED stringers that put on a lightshow.

There was another one that had mist and lights that was pretty sweet.

There was an alcove with a projected video that was crazy to stand and watch, after a while you lose your frame of reference and aren’t really sure if you’re still standing up.

We ended up running into the same two very hungover Americans that we ran into twice last night. They both survived. Insane that in a city of 40 million we ran into the same two guys three times.

After team labs we walked across a park and got to a city centre and found the best ramen I’ve ever had. Sent some strangers on the street in after we left.

It was established that Mitch does not possess taste buds and had taste blindness to go along with his colourblindness. Headed back to Shinjuku. I wanted to find a small bar with some cheap beers to chat about tomorrow but Mitch took us into the entertainment building, we got to see the end of a boy band act that was pretty cool. Then found a barcade with super expensive games and drinks, not really worth it. Then Mitch rallied us to go back to the hotel so we could plan Nikko.

2026-02-07 Saturday: Nikko
Got up early to catch a train to Nikko. The express was sold out so we had to take a regular train. Took a metro to the end of the line and transferred to a regional train. Got to Nikko, left our luggage at a locker and wandered around the three shrines at the national park and UNESCO heritage site. Saw a cool statue fountain with Mushu.

The shrines were incredible, the decorations were detailed and elaborate with a ton of gold leaf and brass/bronze.

It’s a super old site going back to the 700 or 800s CE. My favourite part was a carving of an elephant clearly made by someone who had never seen one before. I think this may now be my favourite genre of art.

The main temple was incredible, we saw the coolest gate that only really cool people get to walk through, not us.

The last temple we checked out had a kind rabbit offering us a berry. We politely declined.

Wandered back toward the train station after things closed down and found a restaurant to eat and plan in. Had some cheap but mediocre ramen (450 jpy) and skewers. Went to the wrong train station at first but figured it out before it was too late and moved to the JR station. Mitch found a bag laying unattended in the train car and investigated. Found some banana bread-like things and pudding in glass jars. We ate the banana bread things, hopefully we don’t all get sick, we didn’t trust the pudding. We did in fact all feel kinda sick afterwards but not too bad. Had a panic attack at Tokyo Station trying to find our Shinkansen transfer but we figured it out. Got to Kyoto, crossed the street to the hotel and passed out. These beds are amazing.

2026-02-08 Sunday: Kyoto
Wanted to go for a run but a snowstorm hit and it’s dumping…..
So I joined the guys to check out the bamboo forest and walk around that area. The bamboo forest looked sick with the snow, Jared called it right. Wanted to see a place with monkeys nearby but it was closed. The snow didn’t start until we already left the hotel so I wore the wrong shoes, slipping everywhere and cold wet feet. Had lunch in Arashiyama then went to see the Golden Temple, it was absolutely gorgeous, fully covered in gold leaf.

The current temple is a reconstruction, the original was burned down by a monk suffering from mental illness who burned it down and attempted suicide. Apparently he was disgusted by the commodification of their temple for tourism. Based on what it’s like today… I think he may have had a point.

Went to see the Imperial Palace after, our guide was a super cute old man. On our way in we were graced with a heron who flew in and decided to pose for us in the pond.

We got to go inside the palace and saw the room where the Meiji Restoration was announced by the Emperor. The snow had just let up and the gardens were beautiful with a coating of snow on top of flowers.

2026-02-09 Monday: Kyoto
Went for run. 24 k ish with lot of walking. Started by jogging down to the temple at the base of Mt. Inari and ran/walked through the crowds up to the summit through the 10000 tori gates.

Ran along the ridge and followed a trail marked on garmin maps and gaia. I ended up in this serene bamboo forest all by myself.

The trail disappeared into an area with a trail camera and ended up at a fence with a locked gate. I was worried I was already on the wrong side of it. It happens all the time around Kamloops, I keep running past “No Trespassing” signs facing away from me despite me never jumping any fences or walking past any to enter the area. The side I was on had sketchy overgrown trail and trail cameras, but the other side looked like a park. There was a sign, but I didn’t have service to translate it, and I could see English signs on the other side, so I crossed. I later was able to translate and it said, “no entry, mausoleum of emperors, Imperial Household Agency”.

So, I royally fucked up.

Got even more lost in the place I wasn’t supposed to be and Amber texted asking if I still liked her the same as when I left, of fucking course I do, so I called her right away and talked to her for 40 min as I stumbled through the mountainside jungle, completely lost. She was quite concerned and wasn’t sure if I should be talking to her, but the conversation kept me calm and the absurdity of it all kept me from panicking. The rest of the run was great though, cut it a bit short and didn’t do the third ridge I planned. I ended up in Gion district and wandered around looking for a Valentine’s Day gift for her. Saw this guy shooting arrows with a traditional Japanese bow and asked if I could take a picture, I didn’t feel like paying 2000 JPY to try myself though.

Had lunch in a super creepy place with mannequin companions and erotic wall art and ate something I can only describe as crepy. I was lured in by an old lady on the street.

I kept wandering until I found a nice little handmade craft and calligraphy shop and found some earrings I think she’ll like and got her name in Japanese calligraphy on a postcard. Then I ran back to the hotel, showered, and met the guys for all you can eat crab legs. I ate all I could.

On the way back to see some temples at night we were then struck by an existential crisis caused by the idea that I’m Donut?

Our crisis was resolved by wandering some beautiful temples after dark.

2026-02-10 Tuesday: Kyoto

Toured Nijo-jo Castle, it’s pretty cool, the shogun announced the Meiji Restoration in a room that we saw. We were a little confused because two days ago we toured the imperial palace and saw the building that the restoration was announced in. After some discussion we figured out the Shogun announced that he would be giving power back to the emperor in Nijo-jo castle and the emperor announced that he would be assuming power in the Imperial Palace. It was incredible to see the exact locations of two sides of such an important event.

Then we just kinda toured around Gion district and I showed them a couple cool things I found yesterday. We got tired and found a ramen shop to sit down at, they hit me with an obvious lie that we should go back to the hotel and then they’d rally to go do something at night. So I just drank wine and watched the Olympics then went to bed early.

2026-02-11 Wednesday: Osaka, Kyoto
On the train to Osaka. Plan: Osaka Castle, seafood market, see what else we find. The castle was cool but the inside felt more like a modern museum than a castle, but there was a lot of interesting history there. The castle was completely rebuilt after the last time it was besieged. You can still see the damage from an American bomb during WW2. My favourite part though, was the plum tree grove next to it, which was just starting to flower, each tree had Japanese poems hanging on them. Found a quiet place to sit and chatted with Amber, overall it was one of the most serene and peaceful places I’ve been.

Wandered seafood market, very cool, got cheap drinks and a weird dish that moved around.

We didn’t want to risk missing the last train back from Osaka so we headed back to Kyoto for Karaoke.

2026-02-12 Thursday: Kyoto
Hungover
Went to kurama hot spring onsen. It was in a really cool spot but the facility itself was overpriced and not amazing. Still had a good sauna session but the onsen in Niseko was better. Met the guys in Gion district at a ramen shop for dinner.

Then took them to see the creepy place I got the crepy thing a few days ago and learned a lot more about the place. They only serve the one dish, and also only play one song on repeat that was made for the restaurant, and have mannequins to eat with. Then wandered around and looked for places to spend the rest of my Yen. Bought a battery pack from Anker, wandered around the store with open beers and nobody seemed to care, things are much different here.

2026-02-13 Friday: Kyoto - Tokyo - Vancouver - Kamloops
Zip air check in was a nightmare, they tried to double charge us for our skis. We pushed back and refused, they went back and forth until they agreed to “make an exception” the rules were very clear on their website, they tried to point to their internal manual on how to handle it, but the public information didn’t match what their internal manual said. She kept trying to argue that it said the same thing despite it clearly not saying what she claimed it did. Anyways, this took ages to sort out and we ended up getting to our gate just before the flight boarded. I understand why Mitch insisted we wake up so early in Vancouver.

We made it to the flight back to Vancouver and drove straight back to Kamloops, we were all exhausted but we survived our second Friday the 13th just fine.

Amber came over for an early Valentine’s Day and I made a Japanese chocolate charcuterie board, she thought it was best to wait until the 14th to get her Valentine’s Day gift.

Mitch and Statues

Mitch found his calling as a statue.