Japan experiences at home

We love travelling to Japan! If, like us, you have had to cancel your Japan travel plans, you can still have a mini Japan holiday at home. Check out what we have been doing to recreate some Japanese experiences at home. Ok perhaps we are struggling to accept that we are not going to Japan anytime soon, but we have had great fun hanging out as a family and having these adventures at home.

1. Have a Japanese meal

Travelling to Japan is all about the food! Japanese cuisine is popular around the world so, organise your favourite Japanese take away for a Japanese meal right in your own home.

Our good friends, who were going to join us on our Japan adventure, instead joined us for a Zoom dinner and Japanese take away, complete with Japanese beer, Umeshu, Japanese trivia, chopstick challenge and Origami! Amazing time with amazing friends (and very full bellies)!

If you haven’t tried many Japanese foods before or the kids aren’t too sure about something new then start with sushi, chicken karaage (fried chicken), chicken or pork katsu (schnitzel), kushikatsu (meat skewers) or vegetable tempura (lightly fried vegetables). If you are feeling more adventurous then go for nigiri (fish, egg or meat on top of rice), sashimi (raw fish), okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake), yakisoba (soba noodles) and gyoza (dumplings). Check out this post with our top 15 food to try in Japan (or at home!).

Shabu shabu is a Japanese meal that you cook as you go, right on the table, it’s lots of fun for families and can easily be cooked at home. Shabu shabu is onomatopoeia for ‘swish swish’ as thin strips of meat are literally waved through hot water to cook it.

Gyusha Meat store is an amazing meat supplier in Sydney that supplies fresh Wagyu and Angus meat from their family farm. We tried their very generous family shabu shabu meal pack and it was an absolute hit with adults and kids alike!! The pack came with stock, seaweed, black sesame sauce, ponzu sauce, vegetables, egg, udon noodles and 1.5kg of finely sliced meat!! Simply set up a gas cooker on the table and bring the stock and seaweed to the boil. Add the vegetables and Udon and remove and eat when cooked. Using chopsticks ‘swish’ through your own thin slice of meat, dip into a sauce if you wish and eat! Simple!

2. Enjoy some Japanese drinks

In Australia, most local Asian grocery stores have Japanese drinks. Ramune is a popular Japanese drink that has been described as a lemonade but really it’s a flavour all of its own. It’s lots of fun as you have to push down the glass marble into the bottle to open the drink. The kids also enjoy Pocari Sweat which sounds gross but tastes like a lemon sports drink.

For the adults try Umeshu (Plum wine), Sake, Japanese Whiskey or Japanese Gin which you will find in any good bottle shop.

For beer lovers, most local bottle shops will sell Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin. Also check out Two Suns, an Aussie company that makes beer in the Japanese way. If you are in Australia, Beer Cartel import Japanese craft beer such as Kagua and Coedo and deliver Australia wide.

3. Japanese dessert – yes please!

This is the best part! Most local Asian grocery stores will have a variety of flavours of Japanese Pocky and Meji chocolate.

We are fortunate enough to have an outlet of the Japanese Gram pancake store near us and they offer awesome take home packs of different flavoured pancakes. Oishii!!

Hokkaido baked cheese tarts is not a Japanese company but they are found across Australia and Asia and taste just like the cheese tarts we have had in Japan.

4. Japanese games and activities

Origami
Our youngest son loves Origami. He made origami chopstick rests based on the ones that are given out in many Japanese restaurants in Japan. He also led us all in an origami session to make Samurai helmets. There are heaps of online Origami tutorials and you can use any coloured or plain paper if you don’t have origami paper.

Karaoke
The mums wanted to do Karaoke after our Zoom dinner but sadly, we were outvoted on this activity so instead we settled on Japan trivia that hubby made up for us. If you are up for the karaoke challenge, just sing along to your favourite tunes or download one of the many Karaoke apps and sing along with your friends and family!

Chopstick Challenge
This is yummy and lots of fun! We did this challenge to teach the kids to use chopsticks before going to Japan on previous trips. Nothing motivates kids like chocolate! Place 10 Smarties or M&M’s into a bowl, the first to eat them all with their chopsticks is the winner! Yummy and fun!

Pokémon
Gotta Catch ’em all, Pokémon! Pokémon or Pocket Monsters as they are known in Japan, was released as a GameBoy game in Japan in 1996. It was created by Satoshi Tajiri a Japanese video game designer. Since then the franchise has grown and is popular worldwide with animations, trading card games (official trading card game rules), Pokémon Go and most recently the Detective Pichachu movie.

Learn how to make a Kokedama
Kokedama or moss ball is an ornamental ball tied with string and covered in moss. These are becoming very popular in Australia. Make your own with some basic supplies from your local garden store.

5. Enjoy the outdoors

Picnic
Have a Japanese picnic! Hanami means ‘flower viewing’ and is a picnic under the cherry blossoms. Although it’s not the right season in Australia, we can still have our own version of Hanami. Put your tarp out in the backyard and have a picnic, under the autumn leaves! To make it truly Japanese experience, pack a bento lunch box and make sure you take your shoes off when you sit on the mat!

Forest bathing AKA bushwalk!
Forest bathing is very popular in Japan and claims to cure many illnesses. It doesn’t mean having a bath in the forest but taking in the atmosphere of the forest through our senses. If you live in the city, this will be tricky with current restrictions, however, if you live near a national park that is open, and your local restrictions allow it, then going for a bushwalk is a great way to pretend you are in Japan, just say ‘Konichiwa’ to everyone you walk past ;). If you are not near a national park, then perhaps just hanging out under a tree or any type of plant will do!

Watch Japan on livestream
If you really want to feel that you are in Japan and can’t get outside, there are a number of live streams of Japan that you can watch from home including Snow monkeys, Shibuya crossing, Cherry blossom, view from Tokyo tower. Also check out vloggers that document their walk through the streets of Tokyo.

7. Japanese Culture

Learn Japanese
Learn Japanese basics or Japanese characters – Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji. There are lots of apps to help you learn (we love Dr Moku for learning characters) or make your own flash cards.

We changed our Satnav language settings to Japanese in the hope we could learn Japanese directions. Luckily, with current restrictions, we are only driving locally or we’d be completely lost! 😉

Watch a Japanese movie
Studio Ghibli movies are our favourite and we are so excited that they are now on Netflix! Whoo!! Our favourites are; My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Nausica ‘a’ Valley of the Wind, Laputa Castle in the Sky, Tales from EarthSea and Kiki’s delivery service. I’d love to know your favourite, leave a note in the comments!

Ghibli Studio Museum has released a YouTube Channel so that you can see inside this amazing museum during the current closures. Tickets for this museum usually have to be purchased well in advance (see our post here) and there is no photography in the museum, so this exclusive inside look is a rare treat!

Shared family experiences are priceless. From our family to yours, stay home, stay safe, enjoy time as a family and we look forward to our next trip to Japan, whenever that may be.