It was such fun to explore Japan from home! We have always been huge fans of Japanese food, but we realized we are fans of Japanese culture as well!

We can’t wait until we can travel to Japan!

A Few Facts About Japan

• Japan is in Asia
• Japan is made up of 4 main islands, although there are several smaller ones as well.
• Tokyo is the capital city of Japan, and you can visit Disneyland Tokyo while you are there!
• The Shinkansen is the fastest train in the world, you can go from city to city in Japan at 200 miles per hour!
• The ruler of Japan is the emperor and it is a title that is passed from father to son.
• The most famous food from Japan is Sushi, which is raw fish, seaweed and rice.

What to make for your Japanese Meal

Yaki Udon recipe

Like all meals seem to go at my house, we got started late in the day and ended up eating at 9:30 pm, but it was so so worth the wait.

My little guy and I decided we wanted to make handmade udon noodles instead of buy them (we have made lots of noodle in the past), but they had to rest longer than I had anticipated.  Don’t let that deter you! If you are up to it, the handmade noodles were easy to make and had such great texture. Just get started before 6:30 pm.

making the dough

We used this recipe for our fresh udon noodles.

Dough after being kneaded for 6 minutes.

It was very easy to follow and very easy to make. In my case, it took about a half cup of extra water to get it to be able to knead out smoothly. (You could also make this with a dough hook in a stand mixer, just be careful not to over knead it.)

You need the amount of salt that it is in the recipe, so don’t skimp!

After 1 hour the dough was still too hard to roll out

We tried to roll out the dough after an hour, but it just kept springing back into place. I covered it, left it for another hour, and then rolled it out nicely. It could have been thinner, but we were hungry!

This is the dough after 2 hours.

Follow the cooking instructions exactly, including the adding of cold water.

Estimated time 2 and half hours, but 2 of those were waiting for the dough to relax!

The recipe for Yaki Udon we used was this one from BBC.

This was a very easy recipe that I didn’t change very much. I added 1 very oversized chicken breast to the recipe for some protein, and I added 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder to the sauce. If you can’t find mirin and don’t want to venture out for it, you can use 2 Tablespoons of rice wine vinegar and 2 Tablespoons of white wine.

It was delicious! My middle son said it was the best thing he had eaten in weeks.

Estimated time to make dinner (minus the time for making your own noodles) was 45 min.

What to watch for your Japanese movie

“The Ramen Girl”

We watched “The Ramen Girl” on Hulu. It was a charming movie about an American girl living in Tokyo who decides she wants to learn to cook ramen. Despite her language barrier she gets a ramen chef to train her. It’s a little bit Karate Kid meets Hell’s Kitchen.

Even though it is an American made movie, it does a great job at capturing the difference in culture. It gives you a real feel for Tokyo and its food scene as well.

We really enjoyed the movie, and I think it would be great for kids 8 and up. There are partial subtitles, smoking, and suggestive situations.

“Spirited Away”

If you have younger kids and can handle sitting through some Anime this is a good movie. We have watched it in the past, and it even kept my attention. A 10 year old girl goes with her parents to an abandoned amusement park and her parents get turned into pigs. She has to work to free herself and her parents.

Available on Amazon Prime for purchase.

What to read from Japan

We read “I Live in Tokyo.”

My older kids balked at reading a book geared toward younger kids at first, but they actually really enjoyed it. It follows the life of a Japanese family and explains their cultural differences and their food. It also has great pictures. It is something younger kids would enjoy reading multiple times, and the illustrations are so good that I recommend actually purchasing this one.

For older kids here are some other recommendations:

Naruto comics– Great for preteens who struggle to read, these a great way to get them excited and help them enjoy reading.

Memoirs of a Geisha. 

For older teenager and young adult it gives a fascinating look at pre-modern Japan. Hard to put down.

What to craft from Japan

We chose to make Japanese salt art and followed the tutorial from The Crafty Classroom.

Follow her directions and you will come out with some really cool looking designs. We adapted her method by using old paintbrushes to put the watercolors on the salt. It was easier, and it used things we had on hand. We also used black cardstock instead of pasteboard, but construction paper would work as well.

Make sure you have a great place for these to dry because the salt makes the glue run like crazy at first.

Game from Japan

Get your family together and get ready to get the giggles! We are going to be playing..

Fukuwarai

This game is frequently played during New Years and means lucky laugh in English. I think it is the most similar to Pin the Tail on the Donkey but with way more pieces.

To play you will need to download this cutout of a face and this one of the  nose, eyes, eyebrows and lips.

How to play Fukuwarai:

• Place the face on the table or a wall.
• Add tape to the back of the facial features
• Blindfold the person whose turn it is.
• Hand them each facial feature
• The blindfolded person will attempt to correctly place the facial features on the face correctly
• Take off the blindfold and see how well you did!

How else can you explore Japan from home?

Learn all about Ninjas with the kids from National Geographic’s “Are We There Yet?” There are 4 other videos exploring Japan in this series, so click through all of them.

We watched this YouTube video and learned a few phrases from the Dueling app. There are dozens of things you could do to expand this and I want to hear about what you have done!

This adorable video will teach you and your kids how to sing Twinkle, Twinkle little star in Japanese!

Learn some Japanese calligraphy! This is a fabulous time to try new skills. Plus it is appropriate for kids and adults.

Activity sheets

Buy my activity sheet bundle for Japan for $2.99  and let your kids do some learning while you take a break!

Enjoy views of Japan

This fabulous YouTube channel has videos that show you life in Japan. They offer a unique glimpse into Japan in a way you can’t get by reading or watching a movie. I highly recommend it.

Virtual Japanese Tours

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