Uploaded August 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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Thanks for tuning into the last of the Japan vlogs! I had a blast going there and making these videos has been really interesting and a fun side activity to do during travel. I'm always happy to answer questions if you're thinking about going yourself. Is listening to the audio from the original recordings nice? How does it compare to the music in the previous videos?

Some notes:
- If you’re planning to go to the Pokemon Cafe, make a reservation. We made ours like 2 weeks in advance and there were only two time slots left, both very late at night.
- If you go to Nikko, get a guide.
- Himeji Castle is beautiful, but you may want a guide. There is very little signage within the castle itself. Also, wear walking shoes because the stairs are very steep and within the castle, even more steep. You're required to take your shoes off to climb the castle which makes it a slightly more treacherous climb.

The Mori building was very incredible and tw rooms in particular were very interesting. They had a small area set aside for drawing and you could color in an animal—lizards, birds, butterflies and frogs for the first one, and turtles, jellyfish, seahorses and other aquatic animals for the second. They would then scan it and your creation would appear on the floor. The first room we did a bird and spent a long time trying to find it but couldn’t.

On the way out, we passed a sign that explained how the room worked. The animals interacted with each other in particular ways. Alligators at birds. Frogs ate butterflies. Lizards ate frogs. So there was a certain kind of balance to the room depending on what people choose to draw. Unfortunately, there were a lot of alligators and nothing ate alligators so they only got removed from the ecosystem when they timed out so birds got eaten pretty fast—that’s why we think we couldn’t find our creation.

In the sea themed room that had a similar drawing and scanning activity, we were more careful to select an animal towards the top of the food chain. The video shows our turtle come to life and wander around a bit.