Today we visited one of the most iconic and busiest pedestrian intersections in the world – Shibuya Crossing. During its busiest, up to 3,000 people cross this intersection at once from all directions. We went on a Sunday morning, which is a less busy time and it still felt crazy! Here’s a picture I found…
Month: August 2025
Field Trip Fridays and Family Movie Night
When we got ready to start school this morning, Braxton asked if we could have pajama day. This reminded me that Fridays were often a fun day for him in school. In 3rd grade he had ‘Friday Fun’ which involved getting to play games on his chrome book. In 4th grade, they had something very…
Akihabara Electric Town – Tokyo Turned Up
Today we visited Akihabara Electric Town, known as Akiba by the locals. This is Tokyo’s hotspot for Otaku culture. Otaku culture is the vibrant world of passionate fandom rooted in Japanese pop media—think anime, manga, video games, cosplay, and beyond. It is a sensory overload of neon signs, multi-level stores, arcades, and themed shops. As…
Zombies Staggering Into Tokyo
Today we ventured out to our first temple and restaurant. We are still not fully recovered from our jet lag, but wanted to start exploring the area more. Prior to going to the temple we researched appropriate attire and behavioral expectations. Shoulders and knees should be covered, it is customary to bow before entering the…
Jet Lag Curveball and Japanese Language
We all went to bed last night thinking we would sleep all night and wake up feeling less jet lag. Like a lot of things so far with our gap year, we were taken by surprise. We are experiencing what AI called a ‘jet lag curveball’. Apparently, the second day of jet lag can be…
New Country, Same Crew: Our First Day in Japan
We made it to Tokyo! By the time we got to our Airbnb we had been traveling for 19 hours. The flight was long, but didn’t feel un-manageable. None of us were able to sleep much on the plane, so by the time we landed we were exhausted. We had travel leading up to this…
Costa Rica Recap
As our time in Costa Rica comes to an end, we have been talking about all the memories we have made. I have had several people ask me if we would come back here again, and the answer is absolutely yes! There really is something about their Pura Vida culture that is calming. We rarely…
Happy 2nd Mother’s Day
Half way through school this morning, Dave got a notification from Uber that they were running a special for Mother’s Day. Confused, he looked to see if the date was wrong on his phone and discovered that today is Mother’s Day in Costa Rica. Not long after that we were sitting on our patio, and…
School in the Morning, Pura Vida in the Afternoon
Our first week of school has gone fairly smooth overall. There were a few power struggles, but nothing we didn’t anticipate. The kids worked hard on all of their subjects! Alexis completed a paper on the history of Costa Rica and Braxton wrote an opinion essay on his experience at El Miro. We all enjoyed…
Homeschooling Begins – Learning Where Our Feet Are
Today was our first day of school! Our original plan was to start in September once we were settled in Japan, but we changed our minds. We realized we would like to have more flexibility to take days off throughout the year. The state of Colorado requires that we log 172 days of school and…