Caching in Japan in July

[Esper Ranger]

I'll be heading back to Itami, Japan for vacation on July 11.

My younger daughter is going there tomorrow to spend the summer with her Japanese grandparents and I'll bring her back at the end of July.

Of course I plan to do lots of geocaching while I'm there. I've already got several spots planned between Itami City and Kobe on the Hankyu train line and up in the mountains where I'll be hiking most days.

Hopefully I'll find a few travel bugs that want to make their way out of country.  

[Esper Ranger]

I've got a few caches downloaded to the GPS so far. Right now mostly in Nishinomiya and Kobe.  

[Esper Ranger]

I've been in Itami, Japan for almost a week now. I've spent the first week mostly doing shopping with my younger daughter who has been here for 6 weeks already. I plan to start my hiking in the mountains next week as well as visit Himeji castle with my Japanese in-laws.

I tried one urban cache in downtown Osaka yesterday but it looks like it has been muggled (a common occurrence in Japan where out of place items are considered garbage).

Also yesterday I saw the new Rebuild of Evangelion movie and visited the Osaka Pokemon Center. Fun, fun, fun!  

[Esper Ranger]

My daughter and I managed to snag a couple caches in the Namba area of Osaka with tons of muggles around. Very difficult. The Namba area contains "Den Den Town" which is sort of the Akihabara of western Japan. Great deals on electronics, anime, video games and more. They even had a multi story Namco game center.

Hopefully we'll head to the Himeji area today to visit Himeji Castle (look it up on Wikipedia) and hit a couple caches there.  

[WiFiDucky]

my cache is here http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=95766a53-258c-4ce0-84f5-ab334386d039 if you see it if you ever go back can you take a pic sad noone seems to take pics and i want to see where it is lol its on its way to russia  

[Esper Ranger]

Someday maybe. My wife and youngest daughter will be heading for Japan late next month but will be staying down in the Osaka area (only a brief stop over near Tokyo's Narita airport).

Someday I want to visit Tokyo if only to visit the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka.  

[7raindrops]

I have never been caching outside of the country. Is it more difficult?  

[Esper Ranger]

In Japan I could say it is more difficult. It's pretty hard to place an "urban cache" that doesn't get muggled by someone cleaning up their neighborhood (which they do often). And even if the cache is well hidden it is often hard to grab it and put it back without someone seeing you since it is so crowded.

The forest caches work better but seeing how most of Japan's forests are on the side of mountains, they take longer to get to and require more work to reach once you are in the area.

Most forest caches are tupperware type since ammo boxes are hard to come by there. It's not easy to find a military surplus shop. I'm not even sure they exist.

Still I like doing it in Japan just as much if not better. I get a much bigger sense of accomplishment climbing the mountains and geocaching. Getting to claim the cache on top of Mt Fuji after an all night 11 hour climb is still my greatest achievement.