Since we were jet lagged and slept in a parking lot, it's no surprise that we woke up at 3 AM. We lay in the camper trying to go back to sleep for a while, but eventually made the decision to get up and all that jazz, especially since the service area is open 24h.

The washrooms were super clean, and even had indicators for which stalls were taken, and if they were sit or squat toilets! I know it's so minor, but doing a whole trip in a camper made me really appreciate nice toilet facilities (of which there were many in Japan – I can only think of maybe one or two washrooms that were questionable, and they were still nicer than some I've been to in Toronto.)

Anyway, we got a hot meal of gyuudon. Keelan had one with onsen tamago while I got a grilled salmon with mine. A hot meal after all that travel and poor sleep was super satisfying. We did some wandering around after eating, including buying some coffee and tea from the vending machines.

The cups were also super cute!

By this point in time, it was around 6 AM, which is not a great time to be awake, but no longer obscenely early. But the most unfortunate thing is that places don't seem to open until 10 AM in Japan!!

We took our sweet time driving out to the Gotemba Premium Outlet area and still got there super early. And Google Maps took us on some weird side roads. We eventually decided to go to yet another Service Area (Ashigara), since they had a dog park and a little grassy walking area!

You can see our camper behind the red motorcycle.

It was a bit overcast and dreary, but it was super nice to do a little walk. The leaves were starting to turn in this part of Japan too!

We didn't end up going into the dog park (and there was no one in it anyway) but it was nice for all of us to stretch our legs.

Keelan and I had second breakfast at the Starbucks. He had a sausage roll, a cinnamon bun, and another coffee. I had another matcha latte and an Aomori apple pie with custard. (I didn't take notes on this so I'm just going off my memory and the photos! Don't fail me now, brain...)

I also managed to do all the ordering for this in Japanese, which helped build my confidence more. I mean, Starbucks is probably one of the easier places for an international traveler (in any country!) but it was nice for me haha.

In case you're wondering what Koharu did as we ate, the answer is “sleep in the camper”.

After this, we ended drove to the SWEN outdoor store in Gotemba and spent an hour in there, picking up various supplies we thought we'd need. (We also spent like half an hour in their parking lot waiting for them to open and reconfiguring our camper, now that it was light out and there was more room without tons of moving vehicles!).

In terms of stuff we bought, it was a fire pit (since most places in Japan don't have built-in fire pits, like campsites in Canada, and you obviously don't want open fires in random places), camping chopsticks, and a cute camping lantern. I think we also bought some small consumable stuff like butane canisters, charcoal, etc. But it was nice because we got most of it tax-free! They were set up to refund tax for tourists, which I was not expecting, but I guess Gotemba is a pretty major tourist area.

Once we did our shopping, we drove to the actual outlets, but specifically Hotel Clad for the onsen, Kotonoha no Yu. It was really nice!! We rented a private bath for one hour and I really liked it. Plus it was nice to slough off all that travel gunk finally.

Very relaxing and a lovely view, especially since it cleared up and was turning into a bright sunny day!

We could've eaten lunch there, but opted to keep going. Mostly because it was starting to get pretty toasty and we didn't want to leave the dog alone for that long. I don't think it would've been a concern, but I always joke that I'm the one with separation anxiety. I don't like being away from her for too long!

For our lunch, we went to a dog friendly restaurant (Hoto Labo) in the Fuji Five Lakes area that I had looked up in advance. I was really looking forward to it, since it's a local specialty and everything, but it was actually a really weird experience. We waited for a table and that was fine, but then when we were taken to our table, the person just kind of... dropped us off at the entrance and left? So we were standing there being like “uhhhh?” and then just opted to sit down at the table next to us, since it was empty. One of the other patrons asked me if we were supposed to be there, lol.

Eventually they came back with water and then pointed to an iPad for us to do the ordering. At least ordering was simple! And the food was tasty, too. We even ordered a little hoto meal for Koharu!

Even though she looks excited for it...

She did not even touch it lol.

My meal was pretty good though. I apparently didn't take a picture of Keelan's, whoops. The other customer who was originally like, “why are you here” asked me about Koharu and I asked about her shiba inu, and managed to not suck that much at Japanese.

But the entire experience was like... super strange. Because it was so quiet in the restaurant. Everyone was essentially couples with their dogs but no one was talking!! Just really odd and silent.

When I went to go pay, they asked me if I posted on social media, so I put up a couple pictures of Koharu not eating her food on Twitter and got a little discount lol.

Anyway, after that, we walked along the lakeside trail!

And as it is in the Fuji Five Lakes area, you could see Mt Fuji! It turned out to be a beautiful day and I think we were all happy to go for another walk and enjoy the weather.

Something that we only realized as we were driving out was that Mt Fuji was actually right behind us when we drove in. We didn't notice it at all until we were leaving though!

Anyway, our next stop was Fujisan Winery, and that was also a bit of a weird experience. The drive itself was beautiful – quiet little roads with forests and hills and some small buildings every once in a while. But the entrance to the winery was a totally sketchy dirt road that was overgrown and did not feel like the right place, except there was a sign that said “Fujisan Winery” pointing down it, so... off we went.

We did eventually get to the winery, though. We got out of the camper and were like, “okay now what” because there were multiple buildings but nothing was clearly marked, and there were some people doing a wedding(?) shoot (but maybe it was for PR purposes?). Some guys that looked like they worked there were like, “you here for the winery?” and when I was like, “yes, the winery” (because what else would you go there for?), they pointed me at a building. So in we went.

Also super weird because like. No one greeted us, even though there was someone at the counter polishing wine glasses. We browsed around and picked up two bottles of wine – one was a Pinot Noir and the other was a Japanese grape, the Koshu. I'll be honest in that I don't recall much from either of these bottles – we drank them during the trip and I didn't take notes on them, nor do I have particularly strong memories of them. So they were drinkable and inoffensive, which I personally think is the bare minimum for a bottle of wine. But that means I wouldn't go back, especially with the strange experience. When we went to purchase the wine, the person at the counter didn't notice us (or was ignoring us but giving them the benefit of the doubt here...) for a good minute or two.

So yeah.

Two odd experiences in the same day is not exactly the greatest start to a trip, but hey, at least they were mostly inoffensive!

Anyway, after we got out of that, we went to the Asagiri Kogen Michi no Eki to pick up food for dinner. Michi no Ekis are like a combo farmer's market/tourism office/road and rest stop – I really liked visiting them! We picked up some frozen food made for barbecueing, some breads for breakfasts, and other little things. Actually, when we went to check out, there was an issue with one of our items so our cashier had to call someone over, and then they had to figure out why something wasn't in the system and it was a whole thing. But eventually we managed to pay!

So once we had all that sorted out, we drove to our campsite, Fumotoppara. This is a pretty famous one because a) featured in YuruCamp, b) you can see Mt Fuji from it, and c) huge space for camping wherever you want. We arrived just before sunset and checked in without any issue, especially since I printed out the confirmation and could just hand it over. We paid with card, because we were told that rural areas don't take card ever, and so we wanted to save our cash for when we were there. However, as you will read when I finish writing about my trip, that was actually not the case and we ended up with a surplus of cash by the end of the trip.

We picked up some firewood from the on-site store, and then drove to our camp spot. Since the campground is “free” style, you can roll up to anywhere. We picked a quieter area near the edge, but still with a nice view of Mt Fuji and near a water station.

It was the first time we were setting up camp, but I think it went pretty smoothly. The camper rental came with a bunch of stuff, but one annoying part was how the awning was broken so we had to set up an external canopy thing if we wanted any rain coverage. Luckily, it was looking to be a completely clear night, so we didn't bother! We also had a little folding table, some camp chairs, and various tools like a burner and cutlery.

We also got to bust out our new fire pit, and the bonus is that we could burn all the cardboard and packaging right in it lol.

And of course, dinner was cooked over an open fire, since we could.

Koharu wanted to eat our dinner too.

Anyway, after eating dinner, we finished our bottle of wine (and I only know it was the Koshu because of this photo) and washed up. I remember when Keelan went to the washroom, there was a super weird car that drove around announcing “be careful of fire!” for like 15 min straight. I guess when you're that popular of a campsite, with so many people, you gotta really hammer it in?

Anyway, we went to bed pretty early since, y'know, awake since 3 AM. The metadata on this photo tells me it was taken around 7 PM, which I would believe. I'm pretty sure we fell asleep before 9 PM, haha.

I put most of my photos into this post, but there's a few additional ones in the album. I think I'll just be adding to this album as I write up posts!

#travel #japan2024 #photos

Back in November 2024, my husband and dog and I went on a trip to Japan, which we had originally planned on doing in 2020. Unfortunately, some things happened in 2020 that made it impossible to go, and we only managed to carve out time last year for it!

In 2020, I remember talking about my upcoming trip plans with coworkers at the end of February. They had asked if I was concerned about not being able to go – I flippantly remarked, “Well if I have to cancel my travel plans, there’s something really crazy happening in the world!”

…I guess I was really asking for it.

Anyway, I was wondering how to split out my trip report but I guess the tried and true chronological approach would work best. There’s a lot of pre-trip work that I had put into this too, so this might end up being more of a blog post on the logistics travelling with a dog to Japan, rather than anything about my trip itself!

So first of all, Japan is a rabies free country. As Canada is not a rabies free country, bringing a dog into Japan requires a lot of work before you will be enter without having to quarantine for 180 days. It’s all detailed on a government website so it’s not too difficult – it’s just time consuming.

Essentially, your dog must be microchipped, have a minimum of 2 rabies shots with at least 30 days between the two shots, do a rabies serological test from an approved laboratory, and then wait 180 days. During the waiting period, you must also fill in paperwork to submit to Animal Quarantine Services (AQS) and provide advance notice of your arrival, get paperwork from your own country’s export procedures, as well as everything else one does to go on a trip.

I thought everything was really clearly laid out and I didn’t have any trouble following the instructions. It’s certainly not cheap to do the serological testing though, especially since we had already paid for it in 2020… Contacting AQS with advance notification of my arrival was straightforward, and since you have to send paperwork ahead of time, it helped with catching any mistakes! I made a typo on one of my forms and they caught it before I had gotten it certified by my vet and the exporting agency here, so it also saved me potential re-work in correcting a certified document. I also booked my export appointment at the same time, since I also knew when I’d be leaving the country.

In terms of flying with a dog, we just had to call Air Canada and tell them we’d have a dog in cargo. Then you just show up to the check in counter and pay for the dog’s ticket on the day of departure! After that, it’s just a matter of getting the right crate, water bottle, and etc. Dogs typically must be crated when moving through airports, plus they need to be crated during the flight anyway.

We flew out of Toronto Pearson and got there around 9:30 am for our noonish flight. Check-in was pretty smooth, considering we had the dog with us, and the person who helped us was very helpful. She was friendly and I think she really enjoyed getting a dog onto our flight. It seemed like she always did international flights, so she mentioned that she didn’t often get a chance to deal with pets! There was a lot of paperwork to fill out, but it was all super simple compared to the paperwork I had already done for import/export procedures.

Once all the paperwork was done and our check-in agent had called down to get a loading person to take our dog, we wheeled her over to be x-rayed. Specifically, the crate and anything going with her went through the machine – Koharu stayed outside with us. Keelan actually forgot her treats, which apparently also needed to be x-rayed, so we were there for longer than necessary. But that was okay since by the time we were done and Koharu was loaded back into her crate, the porter was there to take her!

Honestly, I had a lot of anxiety watching her be wheeled away, but now that I’m on the other end of the trip, I know it wasn’t necessary. But watching someone take my dog away from me isn’t particularly easy!

The rest of the airport adventure was as normal as any other trip would be. Security was easy so we had lots of time before boarding. We got Starbucks and sat next to the gate. Keelan bought some sandwiches for the flight, but I didn’t actually end up eating mine until we got to Japan!

While we were waiting, they made announcements about how the flight was overbooked. I think they were offering to fly any volunteers to LA and then put you on the next flight out of LA to Tokyo. Obviously we couldn’t take it haha.

The flight itself was pretty smooth. We flew on Premium Economy and I really liked it. I would definitely do it again! It wasn’t that much more expensive but it’s a really nice experience. Keelan managed to see the farm from his window, which was pretty cool!

We were served a drink and snacks shortly after take off, and I appreciated getting a real glass with my wine. And it’s actually because of this flight that now I eat so many Twigz pretzels! It’s nice to see a Canadian company featured in Air Canada haha.

Dinner was served pretty early – right after we got to cruising altitude. I didn’t think Keelan was expecting it (hence why he bought the sandwiches in the airport). He had the chicken curry shown above, while I had the yuzu salmon below.

Honestly, really tasty for an airplane meal. I also really liked that I had real flatware! According to my notes, we also had a second beverage service with dinner, too.

I’m a nervous flier to destinations (not sure if anxiety or excitement, but if you can’t sleep, does it matter? lol) so didn’t get much rest. I ended up paying for in-flight wifi to poke at things in between nap attempts. We had a snack mid-flight of Lotus biscoff cookies.

Breakfast for me was a chicken yakisoba but I wasn’t very hungry at that point. I think I poked at it before giving it to Keelan to finish! I eventually managed to fall asleep shortly before we landed but obviously that wasn’t enough sleep haha.

After landing, deplaning was super fast since we were near the front. Haneda is super easy to traverse and not that big, so we also got to customs quickly! Being Premium Economy, we also got our bags really quick. Unfortunately, the dog did not come out super quick so we were standing around for a while, wondering where she would pop out.

We wandered around the baggage area for a bit, asked some people, but eventually Keelan stood in front of the oversize baggage area and I stood next to the quarantine counter with our stuff, hoping we’d be able to get her no matter where she came out. Eventually she did come out of oversize baggage and we took her to quarantine.

At the counter, there was just more paperwork! I did 90% of it in Japanese, which was pretty good for me coming off of a long flight with no sleep haha. Luckily it was simple and mostly confirming information they already had on file, and them telling me the info again. They also did a physical inspection of Koharu, which Keelan handled. Essentially they took her into a room, looked at her, then put her back in.

But I was happy that we managed to get the dog into the country without issue!

Koharu seemed pretty stressed out but otherwise fine. The water bottle looked like it leaked because it was completely empty and the bottom of the crate was sopping wet.

Our flight arrived early, and even with the wait for Koharu to come out of the baggage area, we had to wait a while for the camper to be dropped off, so we ended up wandering around to find a spot to let her out and clear out the crate as much as we could. Everyone we passed seemed to think Koharu was super cute though.

We eventually ended up in a corner of the parking lot and I gave Koharu some water while Keelan discreetly drained the crate. We also walked her around a bit to let her stretch her legs. Eventually we managed to get in contact with the camper company and it was them saying they’d arrived.

We met up with the girl dropping it off and went through the regular procedures about how to use the stuff, documenting existing damage, etc. We also paid for them to store the crate for us, but we kept the crate pad since it was kinda gross lol. But at least we were able to get on the road! At that point, though it was like 7:30 PM. The sun went down at 4:30 PM. So we had to drive out of Tokyo in the dark after a 12h flight. Not sure I recommend.

Luckily Keelan was able to sleep on the plane and wasn’t as tired as me, so I navigated while he did the driving. The highways were totally crazy though – multiple levels, underground sections where you were suddenly yeeted above multi-story buildings… But at least highway driving is just following the road! So while visually it was confusing, we just had to keep going straight haha.

Eventually we made it to the Ebina Service Area which was where we were staying that night. I originally wanted to find us a pet friendly hotel near the airport but there was pretty much nothing. Finding accommodations that would take pets was such a struggle! So if we had to rent the camper for a day, we might as well get some distance in and sleep in a parking lot for free. The first night into a trip is never particular comfortable anyway.

We managed to figure out how to set up the sleep configuration in the camper, got a bit of a walk in for the dog, and then picked up dinner. We weren’t super hungry so we just grabbed a couple rice balls from one of the stores inside, especially since we didn’t feel like figuring out how to order from the food court. I didn’t even remember to take a picture of the onigiri because I was so tired haha.

At that point in time, I had no trouble sleeping at all!

#travel #japan2024 #photos

Shortly after our failed canoe trip, we went on a trip to Quebec for Keelan's mom's 70th birthday. We stopped in Quebec City on our first night, which is where the majority of my photos came from, then headed to the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region for the majority of it. And finally, Keelan and I headed into Montreal for one night to see friends.

It was as nice of a trip as I could've expected.

I actually am really proud of the photos that I snapped in Quebec City, though! Gallery here, with some of my favourites under the cut. And also minor commentary about the trip, haha.

Although Saguenay is known for its fjords, I was more excited for the wild blueberries – the other thing it is known for. And I pretty much ate all of them before taking photos of them.

We did go to a really lovely microbrewery/pub in Alma and I had an amazing beer! They advertised it as being like a lemonade, and it seriously tasted like lemonade in beer form. It wasn't quite like a typical sour, but it was so refreshing to drink while sitting on their patio! I wish I could get it here, but the microbrewery only sells their beers within Quebec. Alas.

I was actually hoping to take more photos in Montreal, but due to the comedy of errors that was driving from Saguenay to Montreal, we only arrived in the city at like 7 PM... we started driving at 9 AM.

We took the longer way back, along the St Lawrence River and through the Charlevoix region, which was amazingly scenic. I wish I took pictures from the car! We wanted to visit various places in Charlevoix, since they are known for their food, but when we stopped by a mushroom farm, we discovered that somehow, it would take us 5 more hours to get to Montreal. The drive time from Saguenay to Montreal through Charlevoix was supposed to be 5h total, and we'd already been on the road for 2! So we nixed all of the planned stops and started driving – it would put us into Montreal for around 5PM, but that would still give us time.

As we drove closer and closer to Montreal, the time estimate... didn't go down. We also ran into the following problems (to arriving on time for dinner with friends):

• people slowing down along a lovely beachy area (which is somewhere I'd wanted to stop, when I thought we had time to do so!)
• following a slow-moving dump truck along twisty hilly roads
• the worst highway design I have ever seen – two highways fed into a small town's red light
• red lights every 100 metres (well, that's what it felt like) along the highway, with no discernible reason as to why they would be so frequent
• seeing a tow truck and ambulance (lights on) pass us – stuck in traffic – along the shoulder
• finding street parking on Montreal streets when half of them were closed (for pedestrian traffic, which I agree with and like, but it made navigating one-way streets much more difficult)

So... we eventually got there, haha. And we eventually checked into our hotel and had a good night's sleep. And then the next day, I got to walk on Mont Royal, which I'd never done before, even though I've been to Montreal a few times! We even got croissants for breakfast and ate them in the park.

#travel #photos