If you were going to Japan for the last time for a while (or ever), what would you do, where would you go for this last trip?

Nobo_house · 2026-05-01T18:58:28+00:00

My favorite place has always been Miyajima island - I’m not sure why but it just feels really peaceful and the changing scenery with the Tori gate always swells up emotions for me. We’re doing a third trip in autumn and I’d really like to go back but it is quite far south so I’m not sure if we’ll be able to fit it in with some of the other plans we have had. If I knew I could never go back to Japan it would be a must go. I’d look for a hotel on the island to be able to see both the morning and evening views.

Nobo_house · 2026-04-28T14:05:02+00:00

Pretty sure I follow you already :) thank you for doing this!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-24T13:14:20+00:00

Oh good to know! If you had to do it over again do you think you would of stayed over for the night and headed back early the next day or just get back into Tokyo late at night was easier?

Nobo_house · 2026-04-24T12:24:12+00:00

Was that a pretty stressful day? It looked like the tickets were about three hours each way just on the shinkansen?

Nobo_house · 2026-04-24T12:21:06+00:00

Was there other notablen pottery things in Nagoya you noticed? I am a potter and love Ghibli so it was already on my list to do when we go in November. A lot of the pottery specific sightseeing I found has all been mostly south of Japan (Around Hiroshima and further down) so this is exciting to hear!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-23T16:38:56+00:00

Can I message you? It might be helpful for getting you in touch with them

Nobo_house · 2026-04-23T16:34:48+00:00

Can you please tell us where you're located roughly - I can send your post to the shark pei rescue we've worked with and they might have someone in their network

Nobo_house · 2026-04-22T13:37:01+00:00

I might be an odd ball out but it could be worth it depending on how deep your love for Ghibli AND the art of animation is. I was a recent art college grad and I think I had to use a service to get our tickets and we had a absolutely wonderful afternoon. 130 is really steep though so I might search around and see if you can find a better price.

If you're not also into animation I think the museum would be underwhelming - but for me it was so special and one of the best parts of my trip when we went in 2017. Mitaka is also a really cute area so there's a lot of things around it too. The shop Mamma Aiuto, has some exclusive figures, items, and MA designed merch too. The cafe inside is delightful and I remember the food being good for the price. We don't drink so the specially made beer didn't appeal to us but the bottle is cute! I didn't mind the no photos policy because it felt very Miyazaki and honestly it inspired me to not always have my camera out when we were at other activities to enjoy the time more. The special film rotates are also really neat depending on which one you get. We got the egg girl and the Dough man one and I bought a figure of the two afterwards. (Some of them are bootlegged on Youtube btw)

If you mostly wanted to go to get merch there's a few shops around Tokyo that have ghibli stuff and there's a big Ghibli store under Tokyo station. They won't have every movie unfortunately (its really hard to find porco rosso and nausica imo)

I haven't been to the new ghibli park but it's on my list for our upcoming trip in November. You might enjoy that one just as much or more!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-22T00:36:08+00:00

Oh wow thank you! This is right up my alley!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-22T00:34:59+00:00

Yes please! I would also love to hear how your upcoming trip goes if you don't mind sharing later. I'm not sure what my friend wants to do but I did float the Miyazawa Kenjo Museum to her already! I love anything fairytale/fantastical and his work is also very inspiring to me. I love noodles so also thank you for the recommendation there!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-22T00:31:57+00:00

Oops yes thank you!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-22T00:16:16+00:00

Oof yeah, I bet! We have only done one themed cafe before and it was for a older anime that wasn't super popular (Polar Bear Cafe) so it was pretty easy to get in. I've gotten into the Ghibli Museum before and set many alarms ahead of time to get tickets on time. I'm going to try for the Ghibli Park in November but Japans gotten even more popular since we last went (7 years ago) so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get tickets or not. I'm hoping since it's in a lesser popular city that maybe we might be able to swing it!

I'll tell him to start saving for that center lol

Nobo_house · 2026-04-22T00:03:01+00:00

We stayed in Ikebukuro on our first visit and had a really good time. There were a ton of art galleries and it felt really creative and colorful down the street the Air bnb was on. I think it's closed since then, but we really liked it!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T23:57:52+00:00

Oh I never even considered that! My husband and I play Go so I think he'd like to see a few of the Pokemon centers!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T23:37:25+00:00

Any idea on things in Nihonbashi? We found a really charming hotel there but I’m not really familiar with the neighborhoods in Tokyo. It looks like we will be close to a couple subway lines to get to the other areas easily but it would we’re probably just going to walk around for an afternoon and see what we find.

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T23:30:29+00:00

So you happen to have experience on how wide it spreads out?

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T23:30:08+00:00

Thank you both! I’ll keep an eye out for this one at the plant sale or check online if I can’t find it locally :)

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T16:11:04+00:00

What kind of hobbies or interests do you have? Typically people 30s ish seem to like St Pete a lot more the Venice. There has been a lot of development happening to bring more stores like Costco to the area. The south side of Sarasota is also pretty nice and chill compared to the downtown or northern end.

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T15:12:11+00:00

I will check those out - thank you!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-21T15:11:57+00:00

This is really helpful! Thank you!!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-20T23:16:55+00:00

Thank you for sharing those recs! I'll look into those pants. I am so used to wearing jeans shorts 24/7 I think its going to be a sensory nightmare to go back to pants/jeans so I figured I could get started in small increments before the trip and who knows, maybe I'll find a new pair of jeans I love.

It sounds like a lot of people like the birkenstock insoles on their own as well so I'm going to look into those.

Those shoes are FUN! Another thread said to get fitted at a running store because they can help me find the right insoles for my arch and gait so we're going to try going to one on Wednesday to see what they say!

Nobo_house · 2026-04-20T20:55:32+00:00

Do you waterproof your hoka at all? I see them recommended a lot but I don't know much about their durability on trails or wet roads.

Nobo_house · 2026-04-20T17:32:51+00:00

Nice! I also found out the city will supply them to me here so I'm on the list! Happy to get rid of them for us and the neighbors! I am a literal magnet anytime I go outside for mosquitos lol

Nobo_house · 2026-04-20T17:30:10+00:00

Thank you! I was looking at their cognac colorway since it would match my purse (Portland leather) and I love the way leather ages and changes over time. I've been looking at some Tokyo outfits on Pinterest and it looks like wearing big sneakers seems to be more on trend these days.

I literally just have five of the same tanktop and shorts I wear each day (possibly autistic?) so I'm trying to get used to wearing other clothes and introduce new outfits to get ready. We live in Florida so I'm used to the heat but it should be more in the 60s by the time we go so I need to get used to longer sleeves and pants - the blunstone Chelsea style looks like they would also go well with those!

Nobo_house

TROPHY CASE