It's FALL!!! The weather cooled down significantly this month seemingly all of a sudden in the second week and suddenly it was sweater weather and I didn't want to go outside because of the cold sometimes. The month started with my parents finishing out their visit [My parents' 7-day Japan trip], but we kept busy in the following weekends too with a hike & day out in Matsumoto, a weekend stay in Izu and Okinawa at the end of the month! (Since the Oki trip breached two months, I've decided to move it to November.)
Karasawa Cirque Hike
My parents left on Tuesday night, we worked on Wednesday and then left early (03:00am!) Thursday morning for this 2-night hiking & tent camping trip with our friends in Kamikochi.
As has been happening to us a lot lately, the weather was less than ideal so we changed our itinerary, but was still an adventure for sure. My husband and I were happy to finally be able to tent camp, and the setting was beautiful when it wasn't raining. Please check out the full blog post here if you're interested!
Post-Kamikochi hike Matsumoto city visit
After our somewhat disaster of a hiking trip in the rain [see above], we exchanged what was sure to be a second night of cold, wet and miserable camping in the rain for a dry and comfortable night in a hotel - the recently constructed Celeton Matsumoto. Since we were a last minute booking, the room rates were really cheap and we still got some really great amenities like the first floor bath.
Once clean and dry, we went to Matsumoto PARCO where my husband and I bought full sets of clothes to wear from GU and changed right after purchase lol. We also went to check out the Muji and Murasaki Sports before going to dinner just across the street for ramen to close out an exhausting day in the rain.
The next day, we enjoyed the hotel breakfast selections and then checked out. I liked our short stay for what it was but the parking for this location is a bit junk since it's like a scattering of spaces through 7 different areas ranging from 2-4 blocks away.
First stop, nearby Matsumoto Castle. It was a beautiful day, and I was glad we bought "regular" non-hiking clothes from GU to wear the day before since I would have felt a bit out of place walking around in leggings and dry fit top.
The castle itself is definitely worth paying for admission and checking out here if you're able bodied. It's 7 floors and includes quite a few very steep sets of stairs but there's lots to see and explore. You remove your shoes upon entry but are provided a small bag to carry them.
It got a little backed up in the upper areas while we were there, but I can tell that during peak periods, there's likely even longer waits everywhere in the castle because it's worth it!
Lunch is next at Matsumoto Brewery. I don't drink but everyone else enjoys a brewery/beer, so I got a Shinshu apple soda!
They were able to try quite a few different beers as we all relaxed, had a few bites to eat and chatted before I drove us the 4 hours home to close out our chilly and rainy weekend adventure.
Izu weekend getaway
(My husband is wearing the same shirt from the Matsumoto Castle visit, but this was an entirely different weekend lol.)
My husband has a friend from HI who has been living in Japan for about 8+ years now. We joined him and his girlfriend for a 1-night stay in Izu to celebrate his birthday! He has a very cute mini shiba who joined us as well.
We picked them up and headed out for lunch in Odawara. They were able to find a pet-friendly restaurant and it seemed to be very popular for that reason. There were so many cute dogs!
Along the way, we also stopped at Izu Panorama Park and took the ropeway to the top. The facility is pet/dog-friendly but they need to be secured in a carrier while riding the ropeway. The facility has strollers you can rent/borrow. The view from the gondola was so beautiful - the weather ended up being a really nice this day.
Our main destination for the trip -
Laforet Shuzenji. They had booked 1 night in one of the rarely available pet-friendly rooms that also includes an outdoor hot spring private bath. The room was surprisingly big and even had 4 separate beds!
We had a delicious dinner at the Marriott in the same property which was really good and had so many choices - appetizers, sides and dessert were buffet style but you ordered your main course entree.
After dinner, we stopped by the multi-gender, swimsuit "spa" area at the Marriott which turned out to basically be a slightly warm indoor pool lol. The Marriott also hosts an onsen-type bath as well, but we headed back to our room to use the Laforet Shuzenji bath facility (split men and women) instead and that's how we closed out the night.
I awoke early the next morning to a curious shiba sniffing my face and took the opportunity to use our room's private outdoor bath while everyone else was still sleeping to watch the sunrise. 
We finally had a clear view of Fuji too! Even if it was just for a handful of hours in the morning. 
On the way back, we stopped at Mentai Park. Neither my husband or I are huge fans of mentaiko, but if you like it, this is definitely worth checking out. I think there are multiple locations across Japan! There are ready-to-eat items as well as foods to buy and take home. We enjoyed the informative exhibits too (all in Japanese though).
What we ate
An assortment of foods but also some old favorites! As always, a lot of noodles though.
Cheese pizza slice, bulgogi wrap (not pictured), quinoa chicken sandwich (not pictured)
and Hokkaido soft cream from Costco food court
Mendokoro Shinya
sausage and bacon half pizza, shinsshu apple cider for me and a bunch of different beers tried by my husband from Matsumoto Brewery
Celeton Matsumoto hotel breakfast
Sazo miso tsukemen and seafood miso ramen from Mensho Sakura (Matsumoto)
Shoyu ramen from Karasawa Hutte mountain hut (Kamikochi)
Pre-hike Jolly Pasta dinner
Udonkoubou Sanuki (my parent's visit)
Yokosuka Fish Festival (my parent's visit)
Aji fry and assorted donburi from ふるはうす (Odawara)
Dinner (appetizer and dessert buffet with chosen main dish) from Izu Marriott Hotel Shuzenji (Izu)
Breakfast (buffet) from Laforet Shuzenji & Country Club (Izu)
ParMo Fuji (Mishima)
Shio and shoyu ramen from Ramen En
Takoyaki night with friends!
Dinner set and family size garlic naan from Royal Spice
4 curry plate from Tsunami and Yokosuka Shell (Autumn Yokosuka Curry Festival)
Butter chicken & Keema curry from Gorkha Palace (Autumn Yokosuka Curry Festival)
Chicken broth okinawan soba and chicken thigh yakitori from 焼鳥 くもじ晴れ (Naha, Okinawa)
Okinawan soba + inari set from Teishiraji Soba (Naha, Okinawa)
Yakitori etc from 夢・いおり (Naha, Okinawa)
Fluffy tofu teishoku and Okinawan soba from 富久屋 (Naha, Okinawa)
Aimori katsu teishoku from Katsuno-ya (Parco Ginowan Okinawa)
Blue Seal ice cream (Okinawa)
Personal life/miscellaneous
My Fitbit Alta HR (originally a gift from my husband (then boyfriend) from 2018 suddenly died. I thought that maybe I would take the opportunity to wear my non-digital/tracker watches (like the Olivia Burton ones) a little more. But I still wanted something I could wear while exercising/running, so I definitely needed a replacement. I decided to go with the FitBit Inspire 2, an upgrade from the Alta but not the latest model.
I've felt a bit adrift at sea with my outfits this month. In the latter half of the month, it was finally cool enough for long sleeves and outerwear, but I feel like I have so many choices, I don't know where to start. I did feel similarly overwhelmed when summer turned and I got all of my short sleeve options back too tbh lol. Season change is a new concept for me to experience in person as its happening, so I'm still learning to adjust!
October's OOTD recap can be found here. I started with a bunch of short sleeve items but you can tell when it started getting cooler lol.
Last month for my birthday, my SIL sent me an Ohora starter set including 4 mani designs, 3 pedi designs and the UV light lamp. It was just in time for when I was removing my gel nail set I got in Hawaii back in August, so I tried it out immediately!
They don't last as long as I would like based on how (unintentionally) rough I am on my nails, especially compared to salon gel nails. However, if I don't mind a very slightly less than ideal fit, I realized I can get two sets (all 10 fingers, 2x) from a single box which is a plus to me, and I'll definitely be trying them out more in the future.
We've also been playing more Pandemic Legacy lately with our friends/neighbors! My husband bought the game and we had started it last month, but we really picked up steam in October. (Photo of the board is upside down because that's my usual view of it lol.) We're almost done with the campaign - just one "month" left.
As I mentioned at the top of the post, we spent the last few days of the month in Okinawa with our groups of friends. We actually spent Halloween over there but didn't do anything special for the holiday, so nothing to mention on that front unfortunately.
Since it'll take a bit to reconcile the photos from everyone, I will include the Okinawa trip summary in November/next month's recap which is when the trip concluded! (Food photos from the meals we ate in October are here though.)
I'm grateful to have so many different activities and opportunities lately and continue to have things to look forward to as we head into the holiday season :)
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