Welcome to my ultimate guide to Lotte Arai, Japan for first-time visitors and solo snowboarders and skiers! This is my sixth stop on my Snowboarding Around the World Trip and my third destination in Japan. Lotte Arai wasn't a part of my original plan, but when I noticed that it was on my Ikon Pass, I thought why not go there and visit since it's already included in my pass. Related Article: The Ultimate Solo
Welcome to my ultimate guide to Hakuba Valley, Japan for first-time visitors and solo snowboarders and skiers! This is my fifth stop on my Snowboarding Around the World Trip and my second destination in Japan. Not a lot of people might recognize the name but Hakuba Valley was the main resort of the 1998 Winter Olympics. As a kid, I remember it being referred to the Nagano Olympics but had no idea it was held
These are my top things to do in Nozawa Onsen that doesn't involved snowboarding or skiing! Nozawa Onsen is one of those surprising places where there's actually a lot to do in town so you don't even need to be a skier or snowboarder to come and visit. Also, after staying here a week, I found this place to be more culturally enriching and educational than more western places like Niseko or Hakuba. So, let's
Welcome to my ultimate guide to Nozawa Onsen, Japan for first-time visitors and solo snowboarders and skiers! This is my fourth stop on my Snowboarding Around the World trip and my first destination in Japan. Timing for Nozawa Onsen was crucial because I not only wanted to come for snowboarding, but I really wanted to experience the annual Dosojin Fire Festival, which takes place every year on January 15th. The fire festival is super popular,
Welcome back to Part 2 of where I stayed during my Snowboarding Around the World trip! This blog post will cover every accommodation I stayed at during my 7-week trip in Japan. If you're interested in where I stayed in France and Finland, feel free to check out Part 1. I know a lot of you have been asking for this and I apologize to not getting it out sooner, but better late than never!
If you're tired of researching for the best places to eat in Niseko, then you've come to the right place! When I was researching for Niseko restaurants last year, I literally got a headache from the amount of places I was trying to research. First, there isn't a lot of information on where the best places to eat in Niseko are. Second, a lot of the restaurants I wanted to eat at were already booked
Deciding where to stay in Niseko is probably going to be the biggest decision you make in terms of the type of experience you want to have there. I recently visited Niseko for the first time in February and got to experience two areas: Hirafu Village and Hanazono. Both places had their pros and cons, but both had great locations regardless if you are mostly interested on just getting on the mountain. I know there
Today, I bring you my ultimate Park Hyatt Niseko review! If you don't know by now, I'm on a mission to stay at every Park Hyatt hotel there is. Usually, I can only afford to stay one night at a Park Hyatt, but this time I had a friend with me that was willing to share the cost so I got to stay two nights for once! Also, if you read my other Niseko blog
These are my top 7 things you need to know for your first time in Niseko. Of course, everyone knows that Niseko is famous for it's powdery soft snow, but what about the logistics of getting and staying there? Since this was my first time going to Niseko and Hokkaido in general, there were a lot of things that I learned on this trip that I wish I knew before I went. If you are
How to get to Niseko by public transportation was a big research item for me since it was going to be my first time traveling there. Usually, Japan is really good about their train system, but after doing some initial research, taking the train from CTS airport was way more complicated than convenient. This especially holds true if you are planning on bringing a ski or snowboard bag since there were at least two transfers
Since the Japanese Yen is weak against the US dollar right now, I decided to make for the first time, a Louis Vuitton Pricing Guide! I really wanted to see if if Louis Vuitton Japan is cheaper than in the U.S. or not especially, since in the past, it was infamous for being more expensive. I remember even as a kid, all the Japanese tourists would come to the States, especially Hawaii, to buy all
This is the official guide to calculating the VAT refund in Japan. There are a LOT of information out there about what percentage you actually get back and I thought I would finally write a blog post so you don't have to wonder where those extra dollars went. This is from my personal experience at Goyard Japan and I've recently visited a Louis Vuitton store in Sapporo that confirmed the same structure. So let's dive
I've always wanted to buy the yearly limited edition Starbucks Japan's Sakura merch, but I'm usually never in Japan around that time. I didn't think my recent trip to Hokkaido would overlap either, but Starbucks Japan luckily release some of their Sakura products early! I couldn't believe that I would get to bring some of these goodies home. On top of that, Starbucks Japan is going to release two full collections. The first release was
I've visited Arashiyama Bamboo Forest almost a decade ago, but for some reason, I couldn't remember much of it so I thought I would visit it again on my most recent trip to Japan. Especially, since I rented a fancy new camera for the first time so I definitely wanted to take as many pictures of Kyoto as I possibly could. Seeing that Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is one of the most popular destinations in Kyoto,
Fushimi Inari Shrine probably has to be the most famous and most photographed spot in all of Kyoto, if not Japan. I haven’t been back to Kyoto in probably 8 years and honestly, it wasn't even on my radar until some friends of mine invited me to Japan. Even then, I was planning on just traveling around smaller cities, but then I noticed that my timing lined up too perfectly with the momiji (red maple
Hi Everyone! Today I'm bringing you an updated 2023-24 Japan Goyard Price List as there is new information that differs from my 2022 post. I somehow made it back to Japan this year and finally bought my first Goyard bag! Granted I didn't really have a choice on what bag I got, but I still finally got one at least. Since my visit last year, I noticed travel to Japan has really been ramping up
I honestly had no plans on going to Shibuya Sky during my quick trip to Tokyo. Over the years, I've already been to the observation decks at the Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree so I literally thought why would Shibuya Sky be any different? Well, I was extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it and I honestly think it's my new favorite rooftop top view of all of Tokyo. Related Article: 2022 Goyard Price
I'm excited to present to you today a Japan Goyard Price List! If you already don’t know, the U.S. dollar is extremely strong abroad right now so I thought it would be interesting to see what certain Goyard bags are going for in Japan. I would have never considered buying luxury goods in Japan since I’ve always heard it’s more expensive, but now that the USD is so strong, I wondered if it would be