A 3-Day, 2-Night Family Trip to Minami-Izu for an Extraordinary Experience

We went on a trip to Minami-Izu over this three-day weekend.
There were some days with bad weather, but here is the conclusion.

“It was the best trip where we could have an extraordinary experience.”

What is an extraordinary experience?

• “Amagigoe”: A journey crossing the “Amagi Pass” in Shizuoka Prefecture (driving over the old mountain road)

• Seeing the Joren Falls

• Bathing in Japan’s largest all-cypress bath (Kanaya Ryokan https://kanayaryokan.com/)

• Jumping into the sea from a slightly high spot

• Playing on the rocky shore

• Sand skiing (sliding down a sand dune on a sled)

• Having a BBQ

• Looking at the night sky

• Screaming at the many insects (a centipede we’d never seen before, a cockroach, a very large spider that got into our room and we had to fight, a praying mantis, a grasshopper, a Japanese beetle, a stink bug, and others)

• Handheld fireworks

• Riding a small boat to feed fish, seeing moray eels swimming, and watching many fish (the sea water was cold) at Hirizo Beach
  

Just writing this out shows how many experiences we had.
Because our 9-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son, and the adults were all able to experience things with their five senses,
experiences felt with the body and heart—natural smiles, laughter, feeling scared, cold, summoning courage, screaming, getting dirty, feeling the cold, and pain—are nothing but precious.

Such experiences are etched into the heart, and it is through experience that one can grasp things that are difficult to convey through videos or games alone.
I strongly felt that this trip would lead to curiosity, a spirit of inquiry, a desire for self-improvement, and independence.

I want to continue having these kinds of extraordinary experiences once a month.
Next time, maybe a BBQ.

If you have any recommendations for extraordinary experiences, please let me know in the comments section.