Snow festival in Hokkaido/Sapporo (must-do)
Cycle the Shimanami Kaido between Hiroshima & Ehime – travelling over the islands in the seto inland sea
Kabuki theatre play
Glowing firefly squid in Toyama bay
Canyoning
Okinawan bull fights
Traditional pearl divers
Diving a WWII artifact (must-do)
Martial Arts classes
Peace Memorial Museum
Amami Oshima islands for beach getaways. Kayaking and mangrove forests there.
Sumo Wrestling (must-do)
Japanese baseball game (must-do)
Basically all the festivals – but esp Ohara Matsuri in S. Kyushu (dancing), Furusato Matsuri Tokyo (bonanza)
Virility Festival (must-do)(cancelled in 2021 but hoping for 2022)
Sasebo – WWII city (must-do)
Takachiho Gorge and nearby temple dance (best combined with a Nagasaki trip)
Motonosumi Shrine (123 torii gates in Yamaguchi on the coast – far away, might miss)
Christmas/winter illumination
Chinese New Years’ in Yokohama
Skydiving?
Cities/Areas:
Nagasaki
Hiroshima
Fukuoka
Kawagoe (done!)
Suwa (done!)
Kobe
Hokkaido/Sapporo
Okinawa
Gunma (done! and could go back)
Tokyo (done!)
Nara (done!)
Fuji 5 lakes (done, but going back!)
Osaka (done!)
Kyoto (done! – but could go back)
Hakone (done!)
Sado island (done!)
DONE:
Climb Mt. Fuji (done!)
Pepper’s Shrine (done!)
MORI / teamlab digital art museum (done!)
Vending machines that vend strange things (done! – my favorite treat is still hot Milk Tea in winter)
Taste all of the sake, whiskey, coffee, and tea. Maybe make favorites at home. (ongoing!)
Skiing (done!)
Explore Tokyo (ongoing!)
Forest Bathing (done!)
Eat the black eggs in Hakone and live 7 years longer (done!)
Suicide Forest (done!)
Eat all the sushi and all the noodles (ongoing!)
Spas and Onsens (Aokiya open air onsen in Ibaraki, Dogo Onsen) (done! and done!)
Deer Island or the Nara deer (done!)
Japanese Macaques (done!)
Zao fox village (We may pass on this after seeing all the poor animal treatment in Japan)
Everything religious (Shinto Shrines (Izumo-Taisha), Buddhist Temples, etc) (ongoing!)
Learn the folklore and myths (ongoing!)
Inari shrine (done!)
Sushi/Ramen/Curry/etc (done!)
Ashikaga Flower Park (done!)
Fire Festival (done!)
Daruma festival (done!)
Bonsai gardening (done!)
Things I could do without:
Cherry Blossoms. I get it, they’re pretty. They also grow in a lot of places, so…
Haikus. Meh.
Robot shows
Cutesy kawaii theme stuff and hello kitty
Geisha spotting or dressing up in kimonos