It's officially summer and rainy season! And boy am I suffering from the humidity at the end of the month knowing that it will just get worse in July and August. This was the same time of year it was when I did my study abroad in Kobe and I don't know how I handled it! Despite the muggy weather, we still did a small variety of things during this month and life is definitely starting to feel slightly more routine.
Jinmuji temple hike
In anticipation for a larger hike we're planning to do at the beginning of July, we wanted to try out my husband's new hiking accessories (backpack, shoes, etc) with our friend who will be joining us. I did a search on All Trails for something simple, and we settled on this 7km loop trail from Keikyu Taura station. This would be my first hike in Japan that's more similar to our smaller hikes we would often do in Hawaii. (I don't count climbing Mt Fuji in 2017 because to me that's a whole different type of hiking.)
It's definitely a little different to have to start from a train station and walk through neighborhoods to get to the start of hikes (vs driving to the start and parking there), and it's really interesting that a lot of the trails (in this area, it seems like anyway) have temples along the way or as the end point. Almost all of the hikes we've done in Hawaii are just ridge trails and end at the top lookout point. We did our best to follow the All Trails map and ended up at a Keep Out sign, so we had to retrace our steps and didn't end up going on a loop, but the good thing about not driving to the start is that we just made our way to a different train station and made our way home from there.
Back in HI for lychee season
Mentioned this in past years (because it's an annual thing) - every summer my husband's family gets together on the Big Island to help harvest the lychee on their family farm. It's quite the endeavor, and my husband missed it last year because he had just started his job in JP and couldn't travel back and forth (pandemic travel restrictions and also it just didn't make sense). We were both determined to help out this year and planned a trip back on the weekend estimated to have the peak fruit ready for picking.
We chose to fly ZipAir which is fairly new - the budget airline for JAL. The tickets were quite reasonable, especially with the exchange rate at the time although you do have to pay for any "extras" (seat reservations, checked bags, meals, etc). 
Service was minimal but pleasant (we don't usually ask for much when we fly) although the seats on the airplane itself did feel a bit lacking compared to what we're used to. There's limited space between rows and the seats don't recline very much as a result. Overall, I'd say you definitely get what you pay for. We're using ZipAir again in August (booked prior to this trip anyway) and I'm not dreading it entirely at least.
We landed back in Honolulu first, picked up Taniokas, stopped to see my grandparents, went to see Top Gun Maverick in the theater and then went out to dinner with my parents as an early Fathers Day celebration on Thursday. The next day, we flew over to the Big Island and then spent the weekend picking and packing lychee before returning to Honolulu on Sunday night.
The following day, we got our COVID tests for our return to Japan, and then facilitated the Oahu lychee pick up and did a bunch of drop offs and a little bit of omiyage shopping before meeting up with my friends for dinner. We flew out the next morning (Tuesday) and returned to Japan. It seemed like a short trip (Thursday to Tuesday HI time while basically only having time to get to the airport on Tuesday) but because of time required for the flights and the time difference, we were basically gone for a week!
It's only been a few short months since I've been home, but it was good to see my family again, especially my grandparents. We're really hoping that people can come visit us in Japan soon!
Yokohama Homemade Marche
This event was basically like a super large craft fairs with hundreds of individual small vendors in an open exhibition space at the Pacifico in Yokohama. Literally hundreds. One of our friends recommended this to me after they went on the first day. Another mutual friend and I headed over for the second (of two) days to check it out!
There were tons of small vendors with things from crafts to jewelry to bags, clothes, decor, art, food and more! It almost seemed like an impossible task to see each table, but we were determined to look because we didn't want to miss anything. There is a small admission fee (1200yen if you pay day of) and then each of the vendors handled their own payment. We didn't end up leaving with anything huge, but it was really interesting to see each artist's work.
What we ate
Shanghai dumplings from Yokohama Chinatown
Yokosuka Perry - we sought out the bar/restaurant that had my husband's favorite curry from last month's Curry Festival!
Mendokoro Shin-ya ramen (again - bc it's my favorite)
Kura Sushi (again) but we tried some new things!
Seafood shoyu ramen, tantan ramen and chahan from Tanzo
Deep dish (Devil Works and Abe Froman Deviluxe) and pan pizza (BBQ chicken) + chili fries from Devil Craft
Gyu Kaku for a work lunch (we have this restaurant in HI as well but it's slightly different.) We also went for a dinner with our friends.
横浜家系ラーメン 大津家 Ootsuya Ramen
グリルとぽ where you order an entree and then can add salad bar, drink bar, curry and soup bar for a set price.
Meals from our ZipAir flights - Grilled chicken, Hayashi beef, gyudon and omurice
Tantan and shoyu ramen from GomaTei on Oahu
Short rib arancini, Maui beets, grilled tako appetizers; Salsiccia pizza, braised short rib loco moco, herb crusted lamb rack, tagliatelle entrees; Chocolate macadamia tart, ube pave dessert from et al on Oahu
Random udon from the food court at Narita airport
Pikachu pineapple frappe (new flavor) from Family Mart
Unlimited bread bar and meat sauce gratin from BAQET
Milk and milk/match soft serve from Sekiguchi Ranch
Shabu Shabu Gyuta lunch course with all you can eat non-meats + curry, miso soup, ice cream and drink bar
Fukusei shoyu ramen (it actually reminded me of saimin a little bit)
Personal life/miscellaneous
The AC stopped working in our car just as it started getting essential to have it (air outside is warm as heck even if you're driving pretty fast and have the windows open), so we had a mechanic look at it and paid for a repair that we're crossing our fingers will fix it for the rest of our time here. We also finally got an ETC card! Which we didn't use at all this month but have immediate plans for next month.
I was randomly spotted out in town by an old classmate from when I did my study abroad in Kobe back in 2012 (10 years ago!). We both had no idea the other was in this area and I hadn't seen her at all but she reached out to message me and we arranged to meet up. Unfortunately, she is leaving to go back to the US in July, so our small reunion was short-lived, but it was still such a funny coincidence and it was so good to see her and hear about what she's been up to in the last decade.
I continue to run as my main source of exercise, but I really did start to feel the heat and humidity taking its toll in a different way than it would in Hawaii near the end of the month. I anticipate that I will end up cutting back on the miles in July and August and opt for some cross-training activities on some days instead. But for June, I did hit some of my recurring goals for the month and I'm happy to keep it up as much as I can.
Outfits are posted here in my separately monthly OOTD recap! I definitely had some lazier days and just straight up skipped capturing some outfits that I thought weren't even worth posting, especially while we were in Hawaii. Definitely moved towards short sleeve outfits without outers in the second half of the month as the rainy period ended!
It is very much starting to feel like this place is my "home" now but I realized recently that while the typical saying is "home is where the heart is", for me it's a bit more like "home is where all my stuff is so I'm not living out of a suitcase and having only a limited selection of clothes". I know that's a bit of a materialistic way to look at things. I'm grateful I even have stuff at all, but mostly what I mean is that my heart is definitely still in HI, but I'm just more comfortable in our house in Japan now because it's where I live! So it feels like comfort and "home" to me in that way. I don't love living here but I can acknowledge it as my current home.
This month went by quite quickly but not in a bad way. I think having the trip back to Hawaii in the middle really makes things feel different. It was so nice to see my family and my in-laws during our brief trip back. We didn't end up having a ton of downtime and it wasn't really strictly like a "vacation" since we had specific tasks to do, but of course we knew that going in, and it was absolutely time well spent.
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