Road Trip to a Small Hidden Japanese Town

hey good morning everyone we have a special video for you today we are actually traveling in time in this one if you saw our last video wolfie was still in the summer we were still in the summer but now it is a winter because we have a special opportunity we got invited to shizuoka prefecture toy in izu city basically the toy onsen in association invited us we had to like take this opportunity because we just wanted to take some time with wolfie and go to this new spot that we actually haven't been before but in return we agreed to do this video and share our experience with all of you so we are fast forwarding in time you'll see wolfie in just a bit he's going to be a little bit older but after this video we'll revert back to our previous late schedule so you guys might be a little bit surprised wolfie is a lot older but if you're watching our main channel you probably just saw the week before wolfy was in the video and he was a lot older so we're traveling in time and then we'll be back so yeah i gotta go pick up the car oh one more thing let me just show you real quick so that's our itinerary schedule that michael made if it's not clear on this phone i'll put it up here but yeah i don't know how much we're gonna be able to do this whole thing because you know we're with wolfie and he has to take his maps and everything but michael put it together and we're gonna try to do as much as possible and as you can see here we are supposed to leave at nine o'clock it is a 7 30 right now i'm gonna go pick up the rental car and then we're gonna head out he wore his shirt on his own earlier i mean this one it's like good job dude okay let's go i'm really happy okay you can help me no no you need to get in the seat can you sit come in okay it's been a while since wolfy used a car seat as living in central tokyo has a luxury of not needing a car so we were a little bit worried he might have trouble enjoying a three-hour drive are you ready to go [Music] all right our road trip journey finally begins off to a small hidden japanese seaside town about a three hour drive south of tokyo all right we are finally on the road it took a little bit longer we are planning on leaving at nine finally left around 9 30. we are running a little bit late this is what happens um we had a little bit of trouble getting wolfie's car seat in the next stop we're going to it being a rest stop we'll check that place out and then continue on on the way we decided to stop by the beena service area i'll rest up on the highway you wanna i think i'll change his diaper okay okay go with mommy yeah i'm gonna look you wanna put the boys the service area has a huge food court and many food stalls so if you don't know which rest stop to go and we recommend this spot [Music] bobby's gonna love this so one of the coolest things about driving is that you get to stop at rest stops like this and just try all the different food on your way to wherever you're trying to go so yeah it's actually a little bit better sometimes to take a car than a train michael likes the nikumaki from here rice wrapped in beef on a stick so we got that and i got a little something for wolfie that him and i can share okay one more no no no [Music] backwards by the way wolvie is one year and seven months old now and learning to speak more and more words both in english and japanese it's been kind of an explosion of learning new words every day which is completely amazing to watch for us as parents look look outside so we're a little bit behind schedule and we're planning on making it to lunch by now but things are just taking a little bit longer than we expected opie needs to eat so we've stopped at this place ichigo plaza yeah ready you wanna go over there yeah we're two hours late for wolfy's regular daily lunch schedule so we made the best of the situation and fed him fruits and snacks in the car luckily he's been pretty well behaved at least for now where is bear yes this is zebra bear is this one yeah good yeah all right so here we go we are feeding wolfie right now he didn't like his food it's got him some udon i'm cutting up his food let it cool down and then we'll get him back here here you go and of course wolfie doesn't like it it's always a risk of him not eating it when he tries something new especially on the road like this i guess it's up to me to finish the rest [Music] since we just ate we decided to skip the lunch plan and go straight to the hotel to check in i know it's a brilliant start given the scheduled itinerary but it's probably to be expected with a one-year-old we are hoping though we can get back on track with the schedule but as parents we're learning to manage our expectations with this one and this is the ryokan we're staying at for the next two nights meiji khan oh and this ryokan was directly connected to the beach i must say it must be nice coming here in the summer as well [Music] we usually try to book a japanese style room with a separate bedroom for wolfie to sleep but today we're staying in a western style room with an in-room onsen a little bit different but we'll see how it goes this time around [Music] in addition to the full amenities the room comes with various baby amenities upon requests like nap beds diaper disposal wipes and diapers quite kid-friendly okay so we finally made it to the hotel it is just past i don't know what time is it 3 30. just past 3 30 wolfie still hasn't taken his nap we're gonna try to put him in his nap now um if he can't then we'll go back out i think you're just gonna go to the place we're supposed to go today on the last day yeah yeah or tomorrow but overall this hotel is pretty nice we have an actual onsen bath just inside of the room it overlooks the beach it's pretty cool quite spacious i'm kind of excited for this trip it's starting off a little bit rocky you know trying to just get out of the house and get here it's starting to get pretty good [Music] finally wolfie fell asleep around four so we decided to let him sleep just before dinner time we usually stick to a strict schedule for wolfies eating times and nap times but i guess we'll just have to roll the dice on this one and see how dinner and putting him asleep later tonight goes i've spent a thousand yen on this yeah [Music] so the dinner was a classy kaiseki style meal because the hotel was minimizing customer contact as a safety precaution they didn't have a server bring and explain the dishes one by one as it would be normally served but the quality of the food was still pretty amazing and enjoyable okay we are having a family dinner look at this amazing food i'm just going to show you quickly look at this the poppy's like what are you doing daddy so it has some thai it has some kampachi uni hotate and ise we have some boiled fish here this is like a pickled salmon chawa mushi a butter lemon away and look we even have tempura oh what's this it looks like we have this soup here crab hotate scallops bacon and then it has some cod as well this is pretty nice we are just right in front of the beach it's hard to see right now because it's pitch black but the food selection is pretty good michael what do you think i already started from the dinosaur it's really good for wolfie they offered either microwaved instant baby food with rice or a kid's meal and we went with the instant which is used to look at this our bee throw a little bit lemon on it butter lemon and this wonderful texture how can you go wrong and look at this a fresh ise ebby look how thick that piece is that tastes just so fresh that is amazing so sweet what did you do dude the place offered a dessert buffet including fruit and since wolfie is still a bit of a picky eater but fruits are his thing right now it helped us out a lot and the dinner on the second night was also phenomenal so we just got back to dinner wolfy is full we're full and i think we're just gonna go get some little bath time action and then go to sleep and then start the rest of our day tomorrow [Music] [Music] [Music] what are oh and it might be surprising to some but this hotel room has a lot of running around space for wolfie compared to our tokyo apartment so we let him make the most of it i'm gonna get you good morning hey you want to give me my phone so i'm doing it how'd you sleep wolfy you want some bread yeah okay [Music] take a bite [Music] yeah good job [Music] all right so we just woke up it's about 7 30 we got to go down for breakfast and then after that we'll go start our adventure [Music] wolfie's ready to go we're gonna go outside what do you have here drying gloves [Music] [Music] [Music] wow so this is our wonderful breakfast as you can see we are by the ocean you couldn't see that yesterday just look at all of this amazing food this is one of the reasons why it's awesome to stay at a japanese hotel you get these wonderful dinners and breakfasts even wolfie says wow i mean i can have this every morning [Music] wolfie what's behind my back i have something behind my back can you see [Music] you want to open yeah [Music] [Laughter] by the way i don't know what it is but ever since wolfy could walk he loves to throw things away and clean even mopper wooden floors it's so cute [Music] it looks like mommy needs a little bit more time to get ready so wolfy and i will just play with his new toy that i got him [Music] so our plan this morning is to visit toy gold mine which is kind of like a theme park based on the area's gold mining history apparently toei kinzhan was the biggest gold mine in the izu prefecture from the edo period up until the closing in 1965. who would have known [Music] so we made it to kinsan we're a little bit early in the year so all of the sakura hasn't blossomed yet but i mean you can see a little bit which is pretty cool it was also known as kind of like a gold mining area so there's going to be some gold mining stuff later on but it's just nice to be able to enjoy all of the cherry blossoms [Music] so this is one of the main attractions the gold mining tunnel kind of like a cultural museum inside of a cave the 350 meter mining tunnel allowed us to learn a little bit more about how gold was mined back in the edo period it was pretty cool this puts everything in perspective you can see they're all wearing sandals in the rocks you really feel like you're in a mine here no wolfie doesn't want to mine okay wolfy got a little scared in the semi-dark tunnel but he had a lot of fun feeding the koi fish and running around in the park [Music] oh toy is also known to have a very early cherry blossom blooming we filmed this video in late january and as you can see the cherry blossoms have already started to bloom look at this [Music] [Laughter] to finish off we did one of their attractions panning for gold in the dirt and maiko unsurprisingly was really good at it while wolfie had a lot of fun just throwing the dirt around mommy is the one that finds the gold uh-huh let's take this off [Music] we were able to finish that toy kinzan a little early so we decided to hit the lunchbot we missed yesterday shimacho a seafood restaurant it was actually within walking distance so it was perfect [Music] look at this super duper temperable it has everything it's so big look how big that ebby is this is amazing this is what it's all about going to these like little hole in the wall places and getting just fresh seafood even maiko looks like she got the sashimi i went with the tempura bowl oh that is so crispy and it has kind of like a unique sweetness to it as well and wolfie likes interesting is like we fed him his bento packet but then he ate my orange as well as the soup this is perfect by the beach having some seafood enjoying the day and then after this wolfie's just gonna have his nap good morning just like yesterday wolfy ended up getting a later nap than usual but now we've got plans to check out today's sunset so we gotta get them ready quickly and then leave [Music] [Music] all right so we are here at lovers point and apparently this place has a really really awesome deck at the end with an awesome view of the ocean and just the area itself as well as a view of mount fuji go ahead so it was about a 10 minute walk or should i say hike from the parking lot to the cape we don't often get to do nature hikes with wolfie in tokyo so it was nice to see how much he really enjoyed it [Music] the sunset view from koebito misaki lovers cave is pretty spectacular coming after wolfie's nap turned out to be a perfect time and the view of mount fuji made it even more picturesque by the way if it was just michael and i we could probably finish visiting all the spots in one day but with wolfie it took us two days it may have taken an extra day but it's nice sometimes to take things slow and enjoy the moment especially when you're with kids at this age having a car also made it infinitely easier to get around good morning good morning [Music] recently wolfie's really into music and dancing so it's so cute when he dances in the music and remembers the choreography so i think the plan for today is have breakfast and then spend a little bit more time around the hotel not travel so much by car and just have wolfie kind of enjoy the day and enjoy the area a little bit more and then we'll make it back to tokyo [Music] since our checkout is at 10 we have a little more time to hang out in the room michael found an unpoundman bubble set at the nearby convenience store earlier and we were planning to use it on the beach but we really wanted to play with it so here we are [Music] whoa good job [Music] i know [Music] well he wants to do the pink one for now ready to go whoa okay but you got your shoes we gotta put your other shoes on them so we're right next to the hotel it's kind of like a five minute walk yeah and it looks like there's quite a bit like a little park has a clock over there and i think there's an ashiyu over there where we can soak our feet in so let's check that out oh you want to go to the clock first yeah okay [Music] it's not a slide we have an hour before our last stop so we decided to hit up matsubada park which is about a five minute walk from our hotel in fact i was pleasantly surprised that many of the spots on our trip are close by which makes it easy especially when you're with a one-year-old in the park they even have a foot onsen called oh no golden hot water [Music] the plan was to soak our feet in but i think it's just a little bit too hot today maybe i'm not quite sure why but it feels super super hot wolfy wanted to try though but maybe next time yeah yeah yeah well maybe i was supposed to adjust the temperature with the water hose don't really know though that's oh there's a gun he's like excited and scared at the same time [Music] [Music] and for the final spot in a road trip adventure we decided to have a nice lunch at a fairly new italian restaurant that's in a 300 year old traditional japanese house laquat well michael decided i mean look around of course maiko chose this place so what's really nice about this place is that it has like traditional a japanese vibe you can just look around and see kind of like the glass through into the garden and these like wooden tables everything just seems so hand crafted and attached to it there's a bakery next to us even has gelato so it has just a bunch of different kind of uh goodies and surprises just coming to this one place in fact if you wanted to stay here they have two rooms kind of like a vip treatment hotel slash restaurant and the food just came wolfy is having a blast he's reading his book and look at the selection of these appetizers man look at this piece put some chili oil on it and the best thing is wolfie likes my pizza too how's your pasta it's good it's good i like it like it's a little bit on the salty side which i like i'm here wow and the main course just arrived it is a fully roasted pork that loveliness you can just see all the oils glistening oh and it's dripping let's take a bite oh that is a delicious roasted pork and just right here it has kikuimo kind of like a potato paste let me just kind of dip that in there like that this is the perfect meal to end the trip and of course he got a little fussy and chaotic at the end but this is our new normal as parents you just gotta go with the flow [Music] so there you go this was our trip to izu i know our plan got a little bit out of schedule but you know we still got to do most of this stuff and you know wolfie was happy doing it and that's like the most important thing so if you guys want to see more of these type of videos we'll be back to our regular younger wolfie videos after this and then we will catch up back to this time so thank you guys for being a part of this and sharing these moments with us and if you guys want to see more videos like this or anything related to our family hit that subscribe button in the bottom and we'll catch you guys in the next one

Channel: Tokyo Zebra

Views: 396,017

Keywords: paolo, paolo fromtokyo, tokyo, japan, japan life, living in japan, tokyo life, living in tokyo, japan vlog, tokyo vlog, paolo from tokyo, maiko, paolo & maiko, japanese baby, japanese mom, japanese mom and baby, wolverine, japanese mother, tokyo mom, japan baby, japan family, tokyo family, life in japan, japanese boy, wolfy, japan family life, newborn baby, toi, izu, shizuoka prefecture, road trip, japanese road trip, japan road trip

Id: Q38JpOBGxBs

Length: 24min 35sec (1475 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 05 2022