Sayonara Japan

The three of us took the train this morning from Kyoto back to Tokyo. After escorting my mom to the correct track for the Narita Express, we said our goodbyes and she headed to the airport to catch her return flight to the US. It's been fun showing her around for the last 10 days - hope you liked it too, mom!

Sarah and I found our way to our hotel for the night in Shinjuku, dropped our bags off, then went to find a late lunch nearby. After having a quick bite we wandered around the neighborhood for a bit...until we found something Sarah's been on the lookout for ever since we got to Japan in November: a Japanese photo booth. We've heard legends about how funny these things are so we had to try it out for ourselves. As we posed for silly pictures, we were surprised to see that the images looked like cartoonish caricatures of ourselves: wide eyes, extra soft skin, shiny hair and elongated features. That wasn't the end of the experience though...then we went to the "editing booth" to add our own finishing touches. Needless to say, Sarah was laughing out loud the whole time!

This is just one of the six pictures we got. Thanks for adding the eyeliner, blush and lipstick for me babe!

Giddy over our photo booth experience, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. We'd been saving Tsurutontan Shinjuku for our last meal in Japan since we enjoyed it so much the first time. Fortunately for us, it was just as good as we'd remembered (yes, we prioritized revisiting all of our favorite restaurants - can you blame us?!). We both got the curry tonkatsu udon and loved it. Seriously this is one of our highest recommendations if you ever visit Tokyo!

One happy customer!

After dinner we walked along Shinjuku's busy streets to the Park Hyatt for our last activity of our time in Japan: spending a few hours at the famous New York Bar.

Shinjuku's busy streets.

Jazz at the New York Bar.

The perfect end to our trip.

Bill Murray's favorite view of Tokyo.

Tomorrow we plan to do a little shopping before heading to the airport and flying back to the US. We're not headed straight back to New York - we have a stop over in San Francisco to celebrate a friend's wedding. But after that, we'll be officially done with this whole crazy trip. I can't express how fast the last 13 months have gone by!!

Konnichiwa Kyoto

The train ride to Kyoto went smoothly but by the time we were settled into our hotel it was already early evening. We cleaned up for a bit, then headed out to see some of the city and grab an early dinner.

Temples are nestled among modern streets throughout Kyoto. Here, we stopped at the Bukko-ji Temple on our way to dinner.

We never found the restaurant where we were originally planning to eat dinner because we stumbled upon a great looking sushi place with a line out the door (always a good sign when locals are queued up to eat!). We grabbed a drink across the street while waiting for the crowd to die down a little, then feasted on delicious sushi and sake.

After dinner we headed home to bed early - there's a ton to see here and we want to be well rested for our final days in Japan!

We woke up early on Monday and headed over to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, one of Sarah's favorite places we visited in November. It was just as crowded as we'd remembered...but we also knew that once we got further away from the main shrine, the crowds thinned out dramatically. Fortunately, we were right! The slow hike up to the top and back took about three (very sweaty) hours but we all loved seeing the thousands of orange arches with only a few other tourists passing by.

A statue of a dog guards the entrance to the shrine.

Sarah and my mom loved the multicolored cranes.

Me and mom at Fushimi Inari.

One of the main shrine buildings. We had to wait about 10 minutes for this shot to clear...

...but there were no tourists to worry about among the arches.

As the sun came out the light reflected off of the shiny orange paint, making the arches look even more impressive.

Some mini arches were left by other visitors as an offering.

We were all so hot from the hike that afterward we headed back to our hotel to shower and take a short rest. Once we were feeling like normal humans again, we walked over to Ichiran to introduce my mom to one of our favorite Japanese foods: ramen. She was a little hesitant to order a bowl of hot soup on a day like today, but the A/C was blasting and she managed to enjoy the whole thing without breaking a sweat. I think we have a convert!

Re-energized from the ramen fill, we got on the subway and went to explore a new temple in a new part of town. We stopped on the way for green tea ice cream - always a great way to cool off on a hot day in Japan! We arrived at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple with only a little time to explore, but all of us were wowed by the giant pagoda near the middle of the complex.

Quite an impressive structure.

Another corner of the temple complex.

Extremely detailed tile work on the pagoda, which Sarah loved.

Next stop for us in Kyoto: a cooking class. Sarah and I also did this - albeit with a different company - when we were here before. We enjoyed it so much that we though my mom would also have fun with it. Turns out she had more fun than anyone! We're especially glad because I think we can expect to see some of these dishes at home in New Jersey when we're back...

The beginning stages of dashi, a staple of Japanese cooking.

Showing off my knife skills.

Enjoying our dinner after a couple hours of prep / cooking.

After dinner we headed to Pontocho Alley to do some people watching and relax with a drink outside. Like we remembered last time, the alley was lit up with beautifully decorated lanterns, creating an amazing atmosphere to walk through.

En route to Pontocho Alley.

One of the many colorful corners of Pontocho Alley.

Our first stop on Tuesday was a site that Sarah and I missed the last time we were here, but it is world renowned for its beauty: the Golden Pavilion. The compound was very crowded with other tourists but the sight of a temple completely covered in gold leaf was incredible. Definitely worth a brief stop in Kyoto!

The Golden Pavilion.

To escape the tourists, we walked a few blocks south to check out the Hirano Shrine. Though not as spectacular as the Golden Pavilion, this shrine was a nice change of pace for us: we were the only ones exploring the grounds, giving it a more calming feel than the chaos at the Golden Pavilion.

Exploring the gardens of the Hirano Shrine.

The Hirano Shrine.

By this point in the day we were all getting hungry, so we headed to Kyoto Station to try the tonkatsu at Katsukura. As expected, the food was amazing...but we all needed a little siesta to digest it!

After re-grouping at the hotel, we walked a few blocks - through the pouring rain! - to see a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. I tried to emulate our very methodical host as best as I could but she clearly has many years of practice!

Making my own cup of whipped green tea.

Don't think any of us are experts but it was a fun way to wrap up our time in Kyoto.

Fortunately the rain stopped while we were making our tea so we headed up to CRafTMan for some drinks, then over to Sugar Hill for dinner. Both were great local spots - a perfect end to Kyoto. Tomorrow we take the train back to Tokyo, where Sarah and I have one more day to see the city and mom heads back to the US.

Mt. Fuji

We got up at 6am on Saturday to catch what would become our first of six trains for the day. Apparently there are a lot of connections required to get from Nagano - Kofu - Mt. Fuji and back to Kofu!

We got into Kofu, our home for the night, around 10am, dropped our bags at our hotel and set out to see some of the city before it was time to grab lunch at the train station and continue the journey to Mt. Fuji.

The old and the new: the view from the top of Kofu Castle.

We chose to see Mt. Fuji from Kawaguchiko. This small town is situated to the northeast of the mountain but is a great place to access Mt. Tenjo, one of the best places to view Mt. Fuji. When we arrived in Kawaguchiko we headed to the newly built Kachi Kachi Ropeway which takes people from town to (almost) the top of Mt. Tenjo in only a few minutes. However, we were all feeling ambitious (and a little restless after spending most of the day on the train) so we decided to take the walking trail to the top instead. It was a challenging walk in the hot weather, but we got many more intimate views of Mt. Fuji than we would've had if we simply took the Ropeway to the top. Plus we earned whatever kind of noodle dish we want for dinner!

The entrance to the shrine at the base of the walking track up Mt. Tenjo.

On the way up, we passed through "ten thousand hydrangeas," or at least that's as many as were advertised on the walking map.

Our first great glimpse of Mt. Fuji.

The walking path was mostly deserted but there was one friendly Japanese hiker who was willing to take our picture.

One more of the beautiful Mt. Fuji.

As we reached the top of Mt. Tenjo we were treated to another great view: looking back on Kawaguchiko and its lake.

After our (much faster) climb down to town, we headed to Lake Kawaguchi for some soft serve ice cream to cool off. Japan has some unique flavors of soft serve, but I think we all agree that the lavender was the best.

We made our way back to Kofu as the sun was setting over the mountains. All of us were pretty beat after our long day of travel and hiking so we wandered into Kosaku Kofuekimaeten, a restaurant right next to our hotel that turned out to be amazing. We all tried the Hoto Noodles, which was a first - they came in a cauldron (so it took a long time to cool off) and had a variety of delicious meats, vegetables and spices mixed in. Not exactly what I was expecting for dinner but a very pleasant surprise!

On Sunday we slept in to recover from two back-to-back intense days, then walked around Kofu for a few hours before hopping on a train to our next destination: Kyoto. Mt. Fuji was great and we're happy we had such a clear day (even today it is totally covered by clouds) but we're all pretty excited to get to Kyoto where Sarah and I can show my mom some of our favorite sites from our last trip here (and explore some new ones together)!

One of the old gates to Kofu Castle that has not been separated from the main castle by the massive train station built in between.

Some shops that Sarah and my mom liked.

They really like this one...

Nagano

The train ride to Nagano reminded us just how efficient the Japanese high-speed, long-distance Shinkansen trains are. We arrived on time, to the minute, in a new destination that is practically on the other side of the country! Unfortunately, by the time we got settled into our ryokan in Nagano, it had begun to rain so we didn't spend much time exploring the city on Thursday. Instead, we found a local bar for a drink and a quiet restaurant for dinner right next door.

We popped into the bar out of necessity - because it really started to rain as we walked by - but it turned out to be a pretty cool spot. The bartender recommended an IPA to me, Sarah tasted some local sake and mom tried the closest thing to a cider they had (which, sadly for her, wasn't that good). As a gesture of goodwill for his nice recommendation, I left a small tip as we left. But in typical Japanese fashion, the bartender ran out of the bar behind us (into the rain no less!) to return it as tips are not customary here (and it is often considered dishonest to keep one). What can I say, I tried!

The small restaurant we chose for dinner was next to the bar and there were loads of locals in there so we figured it must be good. Though the owners spoke about three words of English, we managed to order a great spread of yakitori before sampling their "local specialty." I think this isn't really a local specialty but rather a joke they play on tourists...

Fried crickets. Thankfully they didn't taste like much...

We woke up early on Friday to take the bus from Nagano up to some of the nearby mountains to explore the shrines of Togakushi. The ride took about an hour and we rode past many of the area's famous ski resorts. Guess we'll have to come back in the winter!

We got off the bus near Okusha, the uppermost of the shrines here, and began our walk down toward Kagami Ike Pond. Our final destination on the hike would be Chusha, the middle shrine, for lunch.

One of two fierce looking statues guarding the main entrance to Okusha.

Me and mom by the main gate up to Okusha.

Sarah walking among the redwoods that lined the path to Okusha.

The Okusha shrine.

Another smaller but more colorful shrine we passed en route to the Pond.

Kagami Ike Pond. There was a group of about 200 school children eating lunch here and they were more than happy to take our photo.

One more of the Pond and misty mountains.

We saw this cemetery nestled amongst the trees on our walk to Chusha.

The view on the Kagami Ike Pond to Chusha hike.

Nagano, in general, and Togakushi, in particular, are known for soba noodles. The buckwheat flavor is unique relative to most other Japanese noodles, though I think we all prefer the classicics: ramen and udon.

One benefit of soba noodles: they're (usually) served cold...which was very nice after a three-hour hike through the woods!

The Chusha shrine.

After eating lunch and briefly exploring the Chusha shrine, we headed back down to Nagano on the bus. Once we had a chance to clean up at our ryokan, we set out to see more of the city itself, beginning with the Zenko-ji Temple.

A pretty cloudy day, but we still enjoyed seeing all the Buddhas.

Exploring a corner of the Zenko-ji Temple.

There was a pond with huge lily pads...and also huge fish!

Blue skies starting to appear in the distance.

There was even a Buddha at the entrance to our ryokan.

After wandering around town for a few hours, we decided on an Italian restaurant for dinner (apparently there are two choices in Nagano: Japanese or Italian). We all just needed a break for one meal from Japanese food. Fortunately, Sarah found Komatsuya, the #1 ranked restaurant on TripAdvisor in Nagano. The food was great, and a welcome change.

Tomorrow we head to Kofu to see Mt. Fuji - hopefully we get a clear day for it!

Tokyo Round 2

Unfortunately, our flight to Tokyo was a little more eventful than we would have liked. Despite initial accommodations of Alex’s nut allergy during dinner, the flight attendants didn’t realize that the small chocolates served with coffee contained hazelnut. Alex spent the remaining 12 hour flight alternating between bouts of vomiting, sleep and delirium while I tried anything to make him slightly more comfortable. While ultimately no emergency actions were required, we both felt very scared to be at 36,000 feet during this incident and were more than a little relieved upon touching down at Narita.

We met Alex’s mom, Janet, at baggage claim and once she got over the shock of Alex’s swollen face we headed into downtown Tokyo. The Narita Express train actually takes an hour and a half to get into central Tokyo so it was already evening by the time we arrived. We stopped off at Shibuya and grabbed a coffee at the infamous Starbucks so Janet could experience the “Shibuya Scramble.” After making the journey to our hotel, we had a light dinner and headed to bed, hoping to sleep off our jetlag for as long as possible.

View from our hotel rooftop; we could see the Tokyo Tower off in the distance.

We woke up early on Tuesday morning, but given the jetlag I was happy we actually slept until 6am! I went for a run to regain some energy before the city heat took over and met up with Alex and Janet at the hotel for a day of Tokyo sightseeing. Our first stop was Yoyogi Park to explore the Meiji Shrine and nearby Omotesando area.

Outside one of the four gates leading to the Meiji Shrine.

Sake barrel offerings at the Meiji Shrine.

Clouds and crowds at the Meiji Shrine.

The weather was overcast and muggy – real feel of nearly 100 degrees! – so we realized we really needed to take it easy while walking around all over the city. In need of a break, we headed to a sushi restaurant Alex and I discovered last year and treated Janet to the novelty of conveyor belt sushi!

Lunch at Namazuko, our favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant (proudly displaying a TripAdvisor award!)

After lunch, we headed to Harajuku to show Janet the neighborhood famous for it's "cutesy" fashion and restaurants before returning our hotel to meet a former colleague and friend of Janet's, Michiru.

Harajuku.

After catching up with Michiru over iced tea, Alex and I retreated to our hotel room to rest while Janet joined Michiru for an afternoon of architectural sightseeing (their shared career / interest). After a brief nap, Alex and I decided it had cooled off – slightly – enough to venture out into a new neighborhood nearby, Ebisu. I had read that the area was somewhat trendy with locals, so we stopped into an outdoor bar for a drink and some people watching while the sun went down. For dinner, we headed to Udonyamacho and cooled off in the AC before ordering our first of many udon noodle soups. We called it an early night as we were set to wake up at 2:30am (!) to try and watch Tokyo’s famous tuna auction.

Waking up early turned out to be easier than we expected and we arrived to the Tsukiji Market in time to join the first  group allowed into the auction (only two groups of 60 people are allowed access each morning beginning at 5:30am so hopeful tourists – like us – begin gathering before 3am to try and get in). Watching the choreographed live auction was incredible – we’ve never seen anything like it – and we felt like we were witnessing an authentic Japanese tradition.

Sleepy tourists waiting for a glimpse of the tuna auction.

Buyers inspecting the enormous tuna.

We couldn't believe how huge the tuna were!

Alex even got a video of one auction!

After the auction was over, we walked through the bustling fish market and made our way toward the sushi restaurants located within the area. Bypassing the crawling lines for the famous Sushi Dai, we were actually able to recognize the amazing hole-in-the-wall spot we had found last year and enjoyed an incredible sushi breakfast alone at 6am!

Early morning at Tsukiji Market.

The best sushi in the world according to us: 6am sushi breakfast.

After breakfast, we walked to the nearby Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple and then tried to perk up with some coffee before heading north to the Senso-Ji, which we hoped would be a little less crowded at 8am! Luckily, the area was practically deserted and we enjoyed re-exploring the shrine without the masses of tourists we encountered last year.

The Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple is very uniquely designed when compared to all of the other Japanese shrines we have seen.

A very quiet moment at the entrance to  Senso-ji.

The few visitors we saw all tried to grab the hanging lantern for good luck so I gave it a try too.

Alex standing in front of the main shrine.

We ventured to Ueno Park where we met up with Janet and Michiru at 9am, feeling like we had already had a pretty full day! We spent the morning with Michiru as she guided us throughout the park and nearby architecture sights before parting ways for lunch and some sleep.

Looking up at Kiyomizu Kannon Temple.

Lanterns lined the entryway to Ueno Toshogu Shrine

Facing the shrine.

After a restorative nap (and wondering if we are carrying over the European “siesta” habit we picked up from Spain and Italy), we rejoined Janet and Michiru at Ginza Lion for pre-dinner drinks. We checked out a few other nearby buildings with Michiru and then Alex and I made our way to one of our favorite Japanese spots for dinner: Ichiran Ramen, which was as delicious as we remembered. Rumors suggest the Tonkotsu ramen chain is opening a NYC branch this year so fingers crossed!

Beautiful interior of the Ginza Lion beer hall.

Pretty alleyway near Tokyo Station.

We woke up to rain so we had a lazy morning of shopping and stopping for tea and coffee today before having lunch at another Tokyo spot we favor: Harajuku Gyozara. Luckily, Janet liked the five-item menu as much as we did! We are now en route on the train to Nagano, which is a new stop for me and Alex!