Skip to main content

How I celebrated my 10th birthday in Japan

By Nathan
I celebrated my 10th birthday in Japan by going to the Kyoto Samurai Museum.  The Kyoto Samurai Museum is a museum in one of the outdoor sheltered malls.  In the museum you can look around at old Samurai armour but if you make a reservation beforehand, you can head to the upper floors.

The reservation that we made was for Parker and me to do a Samurai lesson with real Samurai swords and for the whole family to throw ninja stars at targets, shoot blow darts at targets, try on some armour, and watch a Samurai and a Samurai student perform a demonstration of Samurai battles.  We also had a guided tour and history lesson about the Samurai era in Japan.  Mom and Dad surprised me and everything was so much fun!!

Samurai were warriors that fought and were also like police at the time.  Only the Shogun and the Emperor were higher ranked than the Samurai.  Samurai were quite powerful until the mid 1800's.

Some of the farmers were Ninjas at night.  Those who work as Ninjas during the night time work for one of the Samurai clans and spy on the other clan.  One of their offensive moves was to shoot blow darts that have snake poison on the tip of the dart.

Our samurai training gear

My Katana

It was so much fun!

Throwing ninja stars

Full samurai attire

After our experience at the museum we went out for Nepalese food for dinner.  I ate delicious tandoori chicken and naan bread.  I had a really great day!

Comments

  1. RoseNovember 1, 2019 at 5:54 PM

    Glad your birthday was so much fun Nathan. We were thinking of you on the 29th.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 1, 2019 at 6:45 PM

    Awesome pictures and great post, Nathan. Happy birthday! Big double digits!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 4, 2019 at 5:00 PM

    hi nathan! happy birthday P.S max is super jealous you get to go to japan!

    Nora hodgins

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing the Family

By Nathan
This is my first post.  My name is Nathan and I am a 9 year-old boy (almost 10) and can't wait for this trip.  My older sister Chelsea is 12 years old and my younger brother Parker is 7 years old.   I am looking forward to sharing pictures and stories with you over the adventurous year ahead! This picture was taken a couple of years ago so we are all a bit bigger now!
6 comments
Read more

Tongariro Crossing - New Zealand North Island

By
Sorry for the brief hiatus folks - limited wifi slowed me down!  We did the Tongariro crossing 15yrs ago and fell in love with it then - we knew our kids had to experience it too. Ummm... can anyone say AMAZING! For those unfamiliar, the Tongariro Crossing is a 20km hike/tramp that takes you into the caldera(s)  of Mt. Ngauruhoe (more famously known as Mt. Doom in Tolkein's Lord Of The Rings trilogy). The mountain lies above Lake Taupo - New Zealand's biggest lake - which makes for a fitting backdrop throughout the 2nd half of the hike. Turangi - not far from Tongariro National Park We holed-up in VRBO/HomeAway a little town called Turangi, close to Tongariro National Park.  Cheryl's wrote a post about Turangi - check it out ! The hike route This hike is, very debatably, the best day hike in the world - certainly the best we've ever done.   If you like the outdoors, you're fit, and you can do only one thing in NZ - hike the Tongariro Crossi...
11 comments
Read more

Lanterns and Rice Paddies- Hoi An, Vietnam

By Cheryl
When we were in the planning phase of this trip, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to Vietnam.  I was nervous about stories I had heard about crime, health and safety, crowded buses, etc. and I wasn't really sure how comfortable I would be taking the kids to this country.  After doing some research, I came across some information about a small town called Hoi An and  decided this might be a great place to spend some stationary time- soaking up the culture, enjoying cheap food and doing some school work.  So that's just what we did.  We spent 10 lovely, low key days in Hoi An, Vietnam. One of many flower displays along the river A calm town in the morning The famous Japanese covered bridge Hoi An is a town of about 120 000 people.  It used to be a major port- for the Champa kingdom from the 2nd to the 10th centuries and then, after the 15th century, it was one of South East Asia's major ports. The Old Town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritag...
4 comments
Read more