🗾🍣 Journey Through Japan’s Tourist Wonders
Step into the vibrant world of Japan’s famous spots! Reflect on our project as explorers visiting cherry blossoms, temples, and sushi delights—celebrate highlights, learn from detours, and plan an even better itinerary for our next adventure.
Template Columns
🌸 Sakura Successes
Share the highlights of our project, just like celebrating beautiful cherry blossoms.
Base column: What Went Well⛩️ Tricky Temples
Discuss obstacles and challenges faced along our journey, like getting lost in ancient temple paths.
Base column: What Went Wrong🚄 Bullet Train Improvements
Suggest ways to speed up and enhance our project travel for the next trip, inspired by the bullet train’s efficiency.
Base column: What We Want to ImproveAbout this template
The Journey Through Japan’s Tourist Wonders retrospective uses a travel theme to help teams celebrate successes, identify challenges, and plan improvements together.
When to use this template
Use this template when you want a lively, visual way to reflect after a project phase or sprint and encourage the team to connect with both accomplishments and challenges in a positive, collaborative manner.
How to facilitate
Introduce the travel-inspired theme, explaining that each column represents a different aspect of a journey through Japan and sets the mood for open sharing.
Ask everyone to add their Sakura Successes—moments to celebrate—focusing on what the team did well or particularly enjoyed.
Move to Tricky Temples, inviting the team to openly identify confusing, challenging, or unexpected detours experienced, encouraging honesty and empathy.
Next, brainstorm Bullet Train Improvements, ensuring every team member suggests practical ways the group can move faster and more smoothly next time.
Discuss the submitted thoughts as a team, look for patterns, and prioritize the most impactful items for action.
Collaboratively agree on a few actionable next steps and who will own each one, keeping the mood constructive.
End with a quick reflection or fun icebreaker related to Japanese culture to leave the team energized.
Pro Tips
Prompt quieter team members with specific questions to help draw out thoughtful feedback.
Keep the Japanese travel theme present using visuals or fun trivia to encourage engagement and lighten tough discussions.
Revisit improvements from previous retros to show progress and strengthen trust in the process.
FAQ
What if my team isn’t familiar with Japanese culture?
You can introduce the theme with brief explanations or images—it's designed to be light and fun, not requiring prior knowledge.
How do we keep conversations focused on improvement?
Always link each challenge or success back to specific, actionable ideas in the Bullet Train Improvements column.
What if the team focuses too much on negatives?
Balance the discussion by revisiting successes first and ending with concrete, uplifting plans for next time.
At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-12 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
What Went Well, What Went Wrong, What We Want to Improve
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective