My 2017 Favourites

It’s become customary for many bloggers, myself included, to look back on the year’s highlights with a review post. This was my 5th year writing on Celia in Tokyo, can you believe! And this is my 4th yearly wrap up post. It’s always fun to try come up with different ways to review the year…

2016 Review “A to Z”

2015 Review “A Year of Colours”

2014 Review “Top 10 Trips around Japan”

2017 was not my best year blogging as I took an unintended few months break in the middle of the year. That’s not to say I didn’t have a lot to blog about!

I kicked off 2017 in my dream city, Paris (!!!!), joining the countdown on the Champs-Élysées, and spending the first day of the year wandering through the Musée d’Orsay. And now, I will ring in the new year in my home city, Tokyo.

The 52 weeks in between were full of all sorts of activities, bus rides, train rides, trips to different parts of Japan, and overseas holidays to Australia and Spain. As usual, I did a lot of solo travelling, but this year I was also lucky to go on several trips with friends and spend some quality time with all of my family members! Skype is great, but there’s nothing like being together in person <3

Reflecting on the year that was, I was inspired by the Daily Post’s Photo Challenge, 2017 Favorites, to share my best experiences in Japan over the past 12 months and hopefully give anyone visiting Japan in 2018 a few ideas.

These were my favourite things of 2017:

✴ EVERYDAY LIFE ✴

My favourite cafe decor in Tokyo:

Aoyama Flower Market Tea House, Omotesando

My favourite cafe with a view:

Bills Kamakura, Kanagawa

My favourite non-Japanese restaurant in Tokyo:

Cicada, Omotesando

My favourite bowl of ramen in Tokyo:

Wonton ramen at Afuri Sangenjaya

My favourite winter illuminations in Tokyo:

“Christmas Tree Forest of 100 Colors” at Omotesando Hills

My favourite thing to do for fun:

Tokyo DisneySea

My favourite cultural experience:

Starting a Goshuincho (shrine book)

✴ NATURE ✴

My favourite sakura spot:

Kawazu, Shizuoka

My favourite hydrangea spot:

Hattori farm in Mobara, Chiba

My favourite momiji spot:

Oku-Nikko, Tochigi

✴ TRAVEL ✴

My favourite wow moment:

Seeing the giant sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival

My favourite unplanned experience:

Capturing Mt Fuji and the Shizuoka tea fields from the shinkansen traveling at 300km/h!

My favourite regional food on the road:

Okonomiyaki at Kiji, Osaka

My favourite ski trip:

Sugadaira Kogen, Nagano

My favourite off-the-beaten-path location:

Iya Valley, Tokushima

My favourite shrine:

Futami Okitama Shrine and Meoto Iwa (husband & wife rocks), Mie

My favourite temple:

Rurikoin, Kyoto

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And that was my 2017 Favourites! Makes my heart warm looking back at all of these and recalling the memories attached to them. It’s been another very eventful year living in Japan.

Thank you all so much for reading, clicking, liking and commenting this year.

Enjoy the remaining hours of 2017!
Happy New Year!