We took the kids to Japan for their Spring Break. Given the relatively short time available (nine days including travel), we skipped Tokyo and just stayed in the West and South. Based out of Kyoto, we took a day trip on the Shinkansen through Himeji, Okayama and Hiroshima, a day down to Nara to feed the deer, and the final day to Arashiyama to feed the monkeys.
This is all pretty standard Western tourist fare: for the last few days we broke the mold and flew down to Yakushima, a small island off the coast of Kyushu. It’s famous in Japan for having cedar trees thousands of years old (akin to the Redwoods and Sequoias of California), and for being the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s anime movie “Princess Mononoke”. The island is only about 12 miles across, with a series of six thousand foot peaks in the center. The peaks attract lots of rain, but our timing was pretty good: it poured on our travel day but we were in short sleeves by the end. We rented a car (right hand drive), and stayed in a Japanese style room. The kids liked sleeping on futons spread over the tatami floor, and enjoyed going to the public bath, washing themselves while sitting on plastic stools. We seemed to be the only non-Japanese in the place.
They both did well with the food. As long as Kade got his salmon eggs and Sierra had raw fish and miso soup- all was right with the world.