This Month on Maction Planet – April 2025

April 2025 was the busiest month ever on Maction Planet. ‘Nuff said.

Featured image: Kids of all ages hanging out in Harajuku! Thank you to Nina and family for choosing Maction Planet.

The month began with the Burgers choosing Maction Planet for an evening and a full day. Rain put paid to our plans to go to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows season opener at beloved Meiji Jingu Stadium… but having anticipated such a situation, we simply went to the (new) season opener the next day! The Swallows won 5-4 in extra innings after being 4-1 down.

Earlier that day, 2 April, I had guided Steve and Andi in Tokyo. The adventures continued on 3 April at, amongst many other places, teamLab Borderless!

Then, the next morning I was on the first bullet train west to meet Dudley and Morgan for their (we have lost count, let’s just call it latest) trip with Maction Planet. We began in Hiroshima. Here we are pictured in front of the floating torii of Miyajima.

Together, we headed to Fukuoka and from there our adventures included…

Beer-veraging on Iki Island…

Dodging bridges in Yanagawa…

… growing the gang in Kumamoto…

Karaoke in Hitoyoshi…

and being the first non-Japanese to sample a certain whisky in Kagoshima… at sunset on Fukiagehama, Hioki – literally the land of the setting sun!

Our final moments in Kagoshima were spent at Whisky Bar Josui, where its legendary master, Toshiyuki Nishimura, poured us some drams of the Ghost Series #23 tryptych. Check out this video for the epic story of the creation of these whiskies, and this video for the taste test.

Each day we spent to together could fill its own edition of This Month on Maction Planet. I returned to Tokyo to guide…

Emily and family and friends for two days of fun and frolics around the Tokyo metropolis…

… before catching the first Shinkansen on the morning of 15 April to meet Dudley and Morgan in Kanazawa where we spent three incredible days…

… that ended at Jingu Stadium. This time, we witnessed a 7-5 loss against the Hanshin Tigers but as you can see from our faces, it didn’t matter. [EDITOR’S NOTE: We had just come back to level things at 5-5 at this point so we were temporarily very happy].

The next day, 18 April, I was honoured to spend a day with Robert and family catching Yaezakura around Tokyo!

19 and 20 April were spent with Daniel and the gang. Our time together also ended at Jingu Stadium where we won 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th!

What an honour to spend 25 April with Tracy and Sophie. Never before has Shibuya Crossing been crossed like this. This was probably the least impressive thing we did all day… and we still owned it!

FC Tokyo fans have not smiled much this season, but this rare occurrence happened on 25 April when the (former) Gasmen beat Gamba Osaka 3-0 at the National Stadium! I was in attendance, sitting next to my buddy Kei, husband of the amazing chef – and my partner-in-cooking – Nahoko, fellow host of the ‘Maction Planet x At Home with Nahoko’ online cooking classes we held during the COVID-19 pandemic – still bookable by the way, as are Nahoko’s in-person classes at her kitchen in Kunitachi!

Carlos and family’s trip was a long time in the making, but all the planning was worth it. Don’t believe me. Read his own account of things here!

Former Maction Planet guests The Offspring were back in town, and they put on an absolutely fantastic show!

Chiitan makes her second appearance on the Maction Planet blog! The ‘0-year-old fairy baby’ was also roaming around Whisky Festival in Yokohama 2025 on 27 April!

And, speaking of whisky, we end this especially energetic edition of This Month on Maction Planet with a new Kanpai Planet video! In this episode, I journey to the Yamazaki Distillery in Osaka Prefecture and review the Yamazaki 12, one of the most famous Japanese Whiskies of all time, alongside its main components – liquid aged in American White Oak, Spanish Oak and Mizunara Oak. Did any of the parts compare to the sum? Watch to find out. Kanpai!

Maction Planet runs bespoke Private Tours and Experiences in Tokyo, and beyond. To book yours, or to purchase a gift card, contact us at info@mactionplanet.com

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