iki goals
About

Iki Goals.

A curated field journal from a family of three about to spend a long stretch in Osaka — started because we couldn’t stop researching, and curating helps remember.

Why this blog exists.

I have been staying up too many nights researching this trip. I am so excited about being in Japan for a longer time that I keep collecting — far more than fits in any spreadsheet.

Eventually I thought: why not curate it — for myself, so it stays memorable, and for anyone else who can use it for their own trip planning, for inspiration, or for real-life examples of what Japan looks like with a family.

Japan doesn’t have to be a luxury vacation
with a huge budget.
It can be enjoyed on a budget — maybe even more.

That’s the thesis underneath all of this. Real receipts, real addresses, real meals — showing how some of the best things cost very little.

Who’s we.

Three of us — Elli, John, and our toddler — sun-backed, water-spray around
family of three

Three of us: my husband John, our 1.5-year-old son, and me — Elli. We’re spending the first full month of summer 2026 in Tennoji-ku.

John is the more adventurous eater of the two of us. I’m doing my best to catch up.

What you’ll find here.

Iki Goals is a record of our actual weeks in Japan — what we ate, what we saw, what it cost, and what we’d do again. Five things show up on the site:

Eats.
Every restaurant we walk into — what we ordered, what it cost, how it tasted, what we liked.
Visits.
The parks, sento, markets, shrines, and ordinary streets we kept coming back to.
Tips.
The things we wish we had known before we landed.
Articles.
Longer pieces, when there’s something worth saying.
Maps.
Curated lists, packaged as Google Maps files you can save offline before the flight.

Why “iki goals.”

There’s a personal reason this name stuck. We’ve been gravitating towards less-is-more for a while now, though we hesitate to call ourselves minimalists. When we read the Edo definition of iki, we saw ourselves in it.

Iki is an Edo-period concept of refined restraint — taste expressed through small, considered choices. The merchant who looked best wore the plainest kimono with the most considered lining. Sumptuary laws kept Edo merchants from showing off wealth, so a culture grew of small, almost invisible decisions.

For us, the “Goals” part is literal. Ikiis what we genuinely aim for. Slower, cheaper, more curious — that’s the trip we’d pick every time.

There’s real joy in this way of life. Choosing carefully, eating where locals eat, spending where it counts. By our own reckoning, we have everything that matters. For us, the aspirational hashtag is #ikigoals.

This is the idea for now.
I have a lot in mind, but we’ll see
how it actually works once we are there.

Weekly updates.