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We are staying two nights at Wanosato (a ryokan near Takayama).  They have offered us a choice of sukiyaki or shabu shabu for our second night's meal (both with hida beef).

Which do you all think we should choose?  Leaving tomorrow and very excited.

We've also got a reservation at Shiba Tofuya Ukai in Tokyo- any recent reports?

I'd vote for sukiyaki. I don't think you can find proper sukiyaki in the states and it's a good experience, esp. if you have already tried any type of shabu shabu, imho...

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Generally though, I think Japanese restaurants are actually much more accommodating for kids than US restaurants. They may not all have high chairs or even booster seats, but more often, they would have special kids place settings, even in neighborhood style bars we went to close to the weekly apt rental we stayed in. While we didn't go to a lot of the famous restaurants, we did go to several nicer restaurants including multiple sushi places, high end yakitori, fried food place - tempura and panko breaded items, and on and on. As another mentions above, ryokan are great for a Japanese experience with family bathing and then dining. Since the meals are served privately in your room, kids can run around in the room while you eat, or they may be fascinated by the food that comes out as well. The lobster sashimi served on a huge wooden boat intrigued our daughter. She still talks about how hot the hot spring bath was as well.

With one exception in Osaka, this was spot-on.  Given that we tended to eat at non-peak hours or went to nicer restaurants during lunch or on slower nights, most restaurants seemed generally accommodating.  It also helped that our hotel concierges made advance reservations noting that a two year-old would be with us.

I wouldn't say that any one meal during the trip blew us away, but just about everything we had was at least very good.  With the dollar still super-strong against the yen, I really want to go back sooner rather than later because we left so many meals thinking how great of a deal they were.

Best meal overall in Tokyo was lunch at Hirosaku, a tiny one-star joint about a 5-minute walk from the Shinbashi station run by a warm and friendly elderly couple (wife is hostess/server, husband is chef).  The food is traditional seasonal kaiseki fare, and, at 2800 yen, a shocking bargain.  Our favorite courses were the soba and tiny shrimp on rice.  Another satisfying lunch was at the also Michelin-starred Nakajima, which is quite expensive at dinner but serves four different sardine set meals at lunch (e.g., stewed in dashi, raw, fried) for 800 or 900 (!!!) yen.  Needless to say, people line up well in advance and we were lucky to make the first seating by arriving 30 minutes before opening.  We also enjoyed the pasta courses at Massa, Iron Chef Kobe's Italian restaurant less than a mile from our hotel.  There was only one other party dining that night and we got to meet the Chef himself!

Our stay in Tokyo was for two nights only, so needless to say we barely scratched the city's surface.

We spent a couple of days in Kyoto while staying a hotel in Osaka for five nights, and ate only in the malls above Kyoto station, including twice at the ramen "street" on the 10th floor of Isetan.  Ordering through the vending machine was new to us and a fun experience.  The katsu at Katsukura was similarly satisfying with unlimited servings of salad (a very refreshing palate-cleanser for the pork) and rice.

Probably the best thing we ate during our trip was the chu-toro from the Kuromon Ichiba fish market in Osaka, six giant pieces of nigiri that you can buy to-go for 1600 yen!  So fatty and rich, I still think about it all the time.  Best overall meal in Osaka was lunch at the Michelin-starred Ajikitcho Bunbuan, a more upscale kaiseki experience and where we had a private room so our son had plenty of space to roam while we ate.  Also notable was the sea bream rice and perfectly fried tempura at Yotaro Honten, where we also had a private room.

On the downside, we didn't love takoyaki and were turned away at Ayamedo (a highly regarded soba restaurant), which apparently doesn't allow children under age 7.

Finally, on a day trip to Miyajima we enjoyed oysters cooked many different ways at Kaki-ya, though unfortunately they were out of raw by the time we showed up.

On our next trip to Japan, we'll try to eat more at the shopping mall depachikas, especially the cakes and pastries!

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We recently got back from two weeks in Japan.  It was overall amazing, as was the food.  We ate at so many wonderful places I can't even begin to write about them all but I wanted to specifically mention three:

Takayama

In Takayama we stayed at Wanosato an amazing ryokan about 15 minutes out of town.  Our room, which was traditional, was amazing, as was the 160 year old farmhouse setting, and the hosts.  But, of most interest to the group here would be the fact that I had two excellent meals there (three if you count the breakfasts).  The Kaiseki dinner we had (in a private laquered room) was probably one of the top three meals I have ever eaten in my life.  The service, presentation, and food were utterly divine.  We had so many courses, and so many little plates I can't list them but every dish was a highlight.  If you are in Japan go to the Alps, stay at Wanosato (in any room except the cheapest), and eat the kaiseki. The second night we had sukiyaki with Hida beef, which was also delicious, if not as special.  Each night after dinner we would sit around the communal fire/tea kettle and have warm sake with the owners, who would do magic tricks and talk to us (even though we speak no Japanese) about the history of the place.  Utterly charming. (http://www.ryokancollection.com/eng/wanosato/ryokan_story.htm?ryokan=wanosato)

Tokyo

Generally, I recommend getting the Louis Vuitton guide (I know, who knew they made guidebooks?  It was suggested by a friend before our trip) and looking at their restaurant suggestions. Almost uniformly every place we tried from the book was great.

One find from that book was Kanda Matsuya which is a traditional soba restaurant, which had the best soba we had during the whole trip (http://www.kanda-matsuya.jp/p01.htm)

Finally, a Japanese colleague recommended Kusiage Isa, his favorite kushiage restaurant.  It is not in a scenic part of town, but the restaurant is nice inside.  They probably never have Westerners eat there, but we loved it.  We had a progression of seasonal one bite fried skewers, including the best lamb, baby squid, and tofu we have ever eaten.  Highly recommended - make a reservation. (http://www.bunkyo-isa.com)

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One find from that book was Kanda Matsuya which is a traditional soba restaurant, which had the best soba we had during the whole trip (http://www.kanda-matsuya.jp/p01.htm)

your trip sounds lovely! last time i was in tokyo i stumbled on kanda matsuya and had a lovely soba lunch. it's been around since 1884 and is just as good as the very famous kanda yabu soba shop, in the same neighborhood..

it's not terribly far from jimbocho den where i apprenticed and will apprentice again for a month (!!) this summer. i hope if you ever go back to tokyo, you'll consider dining at DEN. (www.jimbochoden.com)

i'm going to look into kushiage isa!

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your trip sounds lovely! last time i was in tokyo i stumbled on kanda matsuya and had a lovely soba lunch. it's been around since 1884 and is just as good as the very famous kanda yabu soba shop, in the same neighborhood..

it's not terribly far from jimbocho den where i apprenticed and will apprentice again for a month (!!) this summer. i hope if you ever go back to tokyo, you'll consider dining at DEN. (www.jimbochoden.com)

i'm going to look into kushiage isa!

Den is one of our favorite places to eat in Tokyo! Those stuffed chicken wings and the fois gras cookies...

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I am taking my first trip to Japan in March of 2016 and plan on going to Den - are there any other restaurants that have the same spirit? From my research I've gathered that a lot of the high-end places are rather somber and serious and I'd like to avoid that if possible. I'll be going to Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto if that helps.

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I am feeling very overwhelmed, probably because I am at the beginning stages of research.  We promised a cousin of mine to take her on a trip for her graduation and she choose Japan- we will need to go between her graduation from high school (last week of May I believe) and starting college which will likely be the second week of August.  The trip will obviously center a great deal around things she would like to do.  I am sure we will spend time in Tokyo (she wants to see the Ghibli) and Kyoto.  But I need to figure out what a good itinerary in terms of overall sightseeing would be.  Does anyone have good suggestions for an overall itinerary on cities/rural areas that really need to be seen to experience Japan and just some basic travel advice.  I have been reading through a lot of guides and just don't know exactly where to start.  We can definitely fly into one city and fly out another.  

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I am feeling very overwhelmed, probably because I am at the beginning stages of research.  We promised a cousin of mine to take her on a trip for her graduation and she choose Japan- we will need to go between her graduation from high school (last week of May I believe) and starting college which will likely be the second week of August.  The trip will obviously center a great deal around things she would like to do.  I am sure we will spend time in Tokyo (she wants to see the Ghibli) and Kyoto.  But I need to figure out what a good itinerary in terms of overall sightseeing would be.  Does anyone have good suggestions for an overall itinerary on cities/rural areas that really need to be seen to experience Japan and just some basic travel advice.  I have been reading through a lot of guides and just don't know exactly where to start.  We can definitely fly into one city and fly out another.  

http://www.japan-guide.com/ was a very useful starting point when we were planning our trip this spring.  One thing I'd definitely recommend is buying a one-week or more Japan Rail pass with the first class (green) seats -- totally worth the extra price because it's much easier to snag reservations on the fly (i.e., things fill up much more quickly on the regular trains).

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Getting a Rail Pass is a great idea if you're going to be traveling by train a lot. Train is a wonderful way to see Japan. Plus, eki-ben (駅å¼, or station bento boxes) and the bento you can get on the high-speed trains are worth experiencing.

Does anyone in your party speak Japanese? I am not terribly familiar with the Kanto/Kansai (Tokyo/Kyoto-Osaka) regions because I lived in the far north, so I don't know whether there are rural areas in those regions. The greater Tokyo area is *huge*; I think it's at least an hour northeast of of Tokyo on the bullet train before you get to anything approximating rural. The part of Japan I lived in was quite rural and beautiful, but also very difficult to navigate if you don't speak Japanese. There were far fewer English speakers and less English signage than in Tokyo and, I would imagine, Kyoto and Osaka. We even had that experience when we traveled to Nagano a few years ago, and Nagano is a decent-sized city. I love rural Japan because it's so incredibly beautiful, and the people are amazing.

My experience of living in Japan is that much of the traditional culture has essentially disappeared from the cities and was dying out in the urban centers of the rural prefectures. For example, between the time we moved to Kitakami in 2007 and our return visit in 2012, the city either had or was going to combine all of the neighborhoods' dance festivals for Obon (August holiday) into one festival because of low participation rates. Places like Asakusa in Tokyo and Gion in Kyoto are more connected to the "old ways" than other neighborhoods in those cities are. To the extent you/your cousin is interested in the traditional culture, it will be easier to find in the rural areas.

Also, the food is amazing. I still cook things I cooked or ate in restaurants there that you can't find in restaurants here. And I would still give my eyeteeth to find McVitie's Mini Banana Black sandwich cookies!

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I am feeling very overwhelmed, probably because I am at the beginning stages of research.  We promised a cousin of mine to take her on a trip for her graduation and she choose Japan- we will need to go between her graduation from high school (last week of May I believe) and starting college which will likely be the second week of August.  The trip will obviously center a great deal around things she would like to do.  I am sure we will spend time in Tokyo (she wants to see the Ghibli) and Kyoto.  But I need to figure out what a good itinerary in terms of overall sightseeing would be.  Does anyone have good suggestions for an overall itinerary on cities/rural areas that really need to be seen to experience Japan and just some basic travel advice.  I have been reading through a lot of guides and just don't know exactly where to start.  We can definitely fly into one city and fly out another.  

We're actually in the beginning stages of planning a 2 week trip to Japan for next spring. Since my wife has never visited before will try to have a nice blend of the important sites to see with some more smaller uniquely Japanese experiences.

How long will your trip be? I think its much easier to plan once you know if you are going for example either 7 or 14 days. It is very easy to spend an entire week in Tokyo and the associated day trips. If you're looking for a more traditional experience of Japan definitely would recommend going to Kyoto.

For a week, 4 days in Tokyo (1 day in Kamakura) and 3 days in Kyoto (1 days in Nara) is a pretty good plan. Keep in mind if you're not use to traveling by subway and rail systems that a lot of time will get taken up in traveling.

Kamakura from Tokyo

Nara from Kyoto

Getting a JR rail pass works well if you plan to visit many cities in different prefectures. If you are planning on just staying in one or two cities it may not make financial sense.

Like I posted previously in this thread, Paul's Tokyo 7 day trip or his 15 Slow West-Central Trip are great references for culinary experiences in Japan.

Learning some basic Japanese would be good: Human Japanese is a great app and NHK has a good website. NHK also has good travel shows which would help with planning a trip.

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So we have our itinerary nailed down.  We will be in Kyoto from July 13-20 (16-20 in town, 13-16 in a hotel by the Byodoin Temple, and Tokyo July 20-26.  I have looked through the guides are marked some places down, although a lot of food choices we will likely play by ear, especially in Kyoto during the festival.  But if anyone has recent recs (hint, hint lion if you went) let us know.  I will likely plan 1-2 dinners in each city.

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Oh, it's fine. We will be fine.  Plus in Kyoto we are renting a VRBO from foodies and that will be fun as they said they might go to dinner with us.  But thanks!  I am sure we will find some weird and good food to satisfy me between everything.

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I owe a huge write-up but need to get over my jet-lag to do it.  Question, does anyone know the type of sweet potato that the japanese use in tempura?  It isn't the normal variety of sweet potato you find here, and may be a type of yam.  I really liked it over our normal sweet potatoes.

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7 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

I owe a huge write-up but need to get over my jet-lag to do it.  Question, does anyone know the type of sweet potato that the japanese use in tempura?  It isn't the normal variety of sweet potato you find here, and may be a type of yam.  I really liked it over our normal sweet potatoes.

Looking forward to your write-up; we depart on the 11th!  Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.  We have will have a pair of anime crazed 16 year-olds with us (one is mine, one is a friend whose parents were willing to pay her way) which means we need to strike some sort of balance between shopping spree, animal cafes, historic sites, and serious food ventures.  

 

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On 7/29/2016 at 3:53 PM, PollyG said:

Looking forward to your write-up; we depart on the 11th!  Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.  We have will have a pair of anime crazed 16 year-olds with us (one is mine, one is a friend whose parents were willing to pay her way) which means we need to strike some sort of balance between shopping spree, animal cafes, historic sites, and serious food ventures.  

Ok, I am going to write this in stages and come back and supplement this more later, adding in restaurants and more info, but going to post some of what I thought the most important things were:

1) Buy IC cards when you get there (I think you have to buy them with cash) they are like Smartrip cards, but will also work at convenience stores and vending machines, we used them in both Kyoto and Tokyo. BUT don't use your IC on the Karasuma train line, buy an all day pass if you do that, it is a better deal that way.

2) 7-11 ATMs always work, there is also an ATM in Kyoto Station that works with almost all American cards.  It definitely is a much more cash heavy society, but my husband and Sadie kept forgetting to ask if somewhere took a card, a lot more do, I would just always politely ask and found a lot more places did than I may have first suspected.  

3) In Kyoto, it is brutally muggy like it is here in DC, with all the walking I found sweat pouring down me most of the time, and for the most part we didn't eat out at fancy places which was good because we felt like steamed noodles quite often.  Now we were there on the verge of the rainy season, and I think it is more just hot there now.  Kyoto you really do get temple fatigue, but there are some truly cool temples I was glad that I saw, BUT I wish we had maybe booked a bus trip that would have taken us to the temples dropped us off right there and then back on the bus because there isn't great public transportation to see everything.  The Karasuma train line though up to the NW worked pretty well for that. We had a modern Kaiseki style meal at Giro Giro and that was fun, although Sadie didn't like all the dishes she liked that we sat at the counter and watched them work.  She was a pretty good sport though for a girl who grew up with very limited exposure to different foods.  

4) Are you traveling with wi-fi?  We bought a skyroam device and used it throughout our trip and it was the best thing money could buy to make our trip easier- google maps worked phenomenally well, google translate worked when restaurant menus didn't have pics and no plastic food outside (although a lot of menus have pictures or they have one English version).  It also kept the teen happy all the time while we were on trains.  It really was a lifesaver in all ways.  I used an Xcom Global in Croatia and it didn't work near, as well, but also likely cell service in Croatia isn't as steady as Japan.  We were never data throttled in Japan with our Skyroam.  It was also great to pull up TripAdvisor, etc.  If you haven't gotten one and it isn't too late, I would do this.

5) We spent way more time in Tokyo than we needed but the absolute MUST dos are: Tokyo Edo Museum (very interactive and visual so fun for the teen and us), Samurai Museum (small, but really well curated it's in Shinjuku), Robot Restaurant (don't eat there just go to to show) this was our favorite part of Tokyo seriously, our absolute favorite, it was so fun, Tokyo Government Bldg with the great view; if you have girls a trip to Harajuku (on a Sunday if you can) to see the girls in all the cosplay outfits, if you have Studio Ghibli fans that museum was a lot of fun too; Tsukiji Market (don't worry that the inner market is moving, we didn't see the tuna sales, couldn't care less, we had a great time seeing and trying all the weird stuff.  I am still regretting not buying the curry flavored rice crackers that day and more knives.  

6) When you can take the bullet train, do, it's so much fun, and so fast you will feel like we live in the third world on the Accela Express afterwards.  We only had three people, but we had no problem traveling on the unreserved cars and finding seats by each other, but we also never travelled during rush hour.  The people that come around with the snack cart are fun too, but we LOVED the bentos we got in the stations once we got past the JR gates for the shinkansen.  

7) The owl cafe in Kyoto was totally worth the tiny amount of money it cost.  Sadie loved it, we enjoyed it.  I grew up on a farm, so my thoughts towards pets and domesticated animals may not be the same as everyone's but the owls seemed very well treated and very, very healthy, I didn't feel all animals rightsy about it.  And the sheer joy she had is not comparable.

8) The trip to see the monkey's in Monkey Park in Kyoto is a VERY long steep, uphill climb, we made it, and the view up there is amazing, but that was a hike and I am very in shape right now.  I had already seen wild monkeys so it was less worth it for me, but Sadie really enjoyed it.  The funny thing about the place is, the monkeys are wild, and when you feed them you are in the cage, not them, which I found very ironic and humorous.  

9) There are less cool things at the airport and way less food options than at most American airports past security.  I did finally find a baseball jersey for my SIL there, but if I wasn't backpacking and taking so much other stuff home, I would have bought my gifts for my office (I always bring them back something- cookies, etc) at Takashimya or somewhere really nice like that.

10) If you are backpacking, mailing a box back to yourself isn't the cheapest thing ever, but I already got the box I mailed to myself, the Japanese are on top of mail, everyone I sent postcards to has gotten them, as well.  That was a good option.  They have boxes right there at the post office, I didn't try DHL, we were at a very neighborhoody post office, they took a little while to process it all, but they got it done, probably a more central office would have been able to do it more quickly.

11) The Lawson egg salad sandwich is a pretty good version of an egg salad sandwich, a lot of yolk, very creamy, minimal chunks, crust cut off, very, very pillowy white bread.  It made for a pretty good breakfast sandwich to be honest.  

12) In Kyoto if you do a lot of temples you will be taking your shoes off everywhere, I told Hubby to pack slip on shoes, but lamented waiting for him to untie and tie his tennis shoes at every single temple stop.  They had some cool slip on tennis shoes by Addidas I saw there, I should have bought them for him.  I tried not to let it bother me, but I am writing this post so.... Also it is nice to have socks, especially the little really thin slip on low cut ones (the almost panty hose material ones, or the cotton ones) that if I wasn't wearing already I would put on because with all the walking and sweat I didn't want anyone smelling my feet.

13) You can buy bug spray at almost any grocery, convenience or drug store there, no need to bring it, but DEFINITELY buy it, those little buggars loved the rainy season and are fully thriving now, especially in Kyoto.

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18 minutes ago, ktmoomau said:

Ok, I am going to write this in stages and come back and supplement this more later, adding in restaurants and more info, but going to post some of what I thought the most important things were:

1) Buy IC cards when you get there (I think you have to buy them with cash) they are like Smartrip cards, but will also work at convenience stores and vending machines, we used them in both Kyoto and Tokyo. BUT don't use your IC on the Karasuma train line, buy an all day pass if you do that, it is a better deal that way.

2) 7-11 ATMs always work, there is also an ATM in Kyoto Station that works with almost all American cards.  It definitely is a much more cash heavy society, but my husband and Sadie kept forgetting to ask if somewhere took a card, a lot more do, I would just always politely ask and found a lot more places did than I may have first suspected.  

3) In Kyoto, it is brutally muggy like it is here in DC, with all the walking I found sweat pouring down me most of the time, and for the most part we didn't eat out at fancy places which was good because we felt like steamed noodles quite often.  Now we were there on the verge of the rainy season, and I think it is more just hot there now.  Kyoto you really do get temple fatigue, but there are some truly cool temples I was glad that I saw, BUT I wish we had maybe booked a bus trip that would have taken us to the temples dropped us off right there and then back on the bus because there isn't great public transportation to see everything.  The Karasuma train line though up to the NW worked pretty well for that. We had a modern Kaiseki style meal at Giro Giro and that was fun, although Sadie didn't like all the dishes she liked that we sat at the counter and watched them work.  She was a pretty good sport though for a girl who grew up with very limited exposure to different foods.  

4) Are you traveling with wi-fi?  We bought a skyroam device and used it throughout our trip and it was the best thing money could buy to make our trip easier- google maps worked phenomenally well, google translate worked when restaurant menus didn't have pics and no plastic food outside (although a lot of menus have pictures or they have one English version).  It also kept the teen happy all the time while we were on trains.  It really was a lifesaver in all ways.  I used an Xcom Global in Croatia and it didn't work near, as well, but also likely cell service in Croatia isn't as steady as Japan.  We were never data throttled in Japan with our Skyroam.  It was also great to pull up TripAdvisor, etc.  If you haven't gotten one and it isn't too late, I would do this.

5) We spent way more time in Tokyo than we needed but the absolute MUST dos are: Tokyo Edo Museum (very interactive and visual so fun for the teen and us), Samurai Museum (small, but really well curated it's in Shinjuku), Robot Restaurant (don't eat there just go to to show) this was our favorite part of Tokyo seriously, our absolute favorite, it was so fun, Tokyo Government Bldg with the great view; if you have girls a trip to Harajuku (on a Sunday if you can) to see the girls in all the cosplay outfits, if you have Studio Ghibli fans that museum was a lot of fun too; Tsukiji Market (don't worry that the inner market is moving, we didn't see the tuna sales, couldn't care less, we had a great time seeing and trying all the weird stuff.  I am still regretting not buying the curry flavored rice crackers that day and more knives.  

6) When you can take the bullet train, do, it's so much fun, and so fast you will feel like we live in the third world on the Accela Express afterwards.  We only had three people, but we had no problem traveling on the unreserved cars and finding seats by each other, but we also never travelled during rush hour.  The people that come around with the snack cart are fun too, but we LOVED the bentos we got in the stations once we got past the JR gates for the shinkansen.  

7) The owl cafe in Kyoto was totally worth the tiny amount of money it cost.  Sadie loved it, we enjoyed it.  I grew up on a farm, so my thoughts towards pets and domesticated animals may not be the same as everyone's but the owls seemed very well treated and very, very healthy, I didn't feel all animals rightsy about it.  And the sheer joy she had is not comparable.

8) The trip to see the monkey's in Monkey Park in Kyoto is a VERY long steep, uphill climb, we made it, and the view up there is amazing, but that was a hike and I am very in shape right now.  I had already seen wild monkeys so it was less worth it for me, but Sadie really enjoyed it.  The funny thing about the place is, the monkeys are wild, and when you feed them you are in the cage, not them, which I found very ironic and humorous.  

9) There are less cool things at the airport and way less food options than at most American airports past security.  I did finally find a baseball jersey for my SIL there, but if I wasn't backpacking and taking so much other stuff home, I would have bought my gifts for my office (I always bring them back something- cookies, etc) at Takashimya or somewhere really nice like that.

10) If you are backpacking, mailing a box back to yourself isn't the cheapest thing ever, but I already got the box I mailed to myself, the Japanese are on top of mail, everyone I sent postcards to has gotten them, as well.  That was a good option.  They have boxes right there at the post office, I didn't try DHL, we were at a very neighborhoody post office, they took a little while to process it all, but they got it done, probably a more central office would have been able to do it more quickly.

11) The Lawson egg salad sandwich is a pretty good version of an egg salad sandwich, a lot of yolk, very creamy, minimal chunks, crust cut off, very, very pillowy white bread.  It made for a pretty good breakfast sandwich to be honest.  

12) In Kyoto if you do a lot of temples you will be taking your shoes off everywhere, I told Hubby to pack slip on shoes, but lamented waiting for him to untie and tie his tennis shoes at every single temple stop.  They had some cool slip on tennis shoes by Addidas I saw there, I should have bought them for him.  I tried not to let it bother me, but I am writing this post so.... Also it is nice to have socks, especially the little really thin slip on low cut ones (the almost panty hose material ones, or the cotton ones) that if I wasn't wearing already I would put on because with all the walking and sweat I didn't want anyone smelling my feet.

13) You can buy bug spray at almost any grocery, convenience or drug store there, no need to bring it, but DEFINITELY buy it, those little buggars loved the rainy season and are fully thriving now, especially in Kyoto.

[Wow, Katelin! I'm going to recommend bookmarking this thread to upcoming Japan travelers. I also want to advise people that, even though there are safeguards in place to prevent data loss, this is not completely bug-free forum software, and when there are long posts such as this, I urge people to save them every fifteen minutes or so, just in case there's a power outage, or the wrong button is clicked. Again, I don't want to worry anyone, because Invision has gone a *long* way towards auto-saving people's posts, but just do it anyway for my peace of mind. And *thank you* for entrusting your journal here - I will not let you down.] :)

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On August 1, 2016 at 0:03 PM, ktmoomau said:

11) The Lawson egg salad sandwich is a pretty good version of an egg salad sandwich, a lot of yolk, very creamy, minimal chunks, crust cut off, very, very pillowy white bread.  It made for a pretty good breakfast sandwich to be honest.  

Yeah that's one of the best things about convenience stores in Japan. Many nights after hard core drinking had the egg salad sandwiches! ;)

 

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18 hours ago, Xochitl10 said:

I only know them as satsuma-imo (さつま芋), but Googling convinces me that they are the Oriental varietal. Kotobuki appear to be browner in both flesh and skin.

Thank you.  I have written up part of my big write up, but I need some time to sit down and sort through pictures and business cards (which will happen this weekend).  It was my birthday yesterday AND my newest nephew was born so it's just been a very busy week of getting together with people and etc.

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Ok, going to try to start supplementing this...

We flew into Osaka Kansai Airport.  We landed really late at night and by then trains had stopped running so we had booked a hotel at the airport, literally you walked out of the airport, through the train station next to it and into the building.  It was Hotel Nikko and really nice when you are exhausted to be able to just land and plop into bed.  They also had an amazing array of toiletries and changed money at a good rate with no charge.  We ate the next morning at a noodle shop in the airport that I think was called U-DON, and we ate wait for it... udon noodles.  It was really good, just fast casual by our standards udon noodles, I had mine in broth with pork, Sadie got hers with an egg sauce that was really good and I think Hubby got the same thing as me.  It wasn't the best meal we ever ate, but considering how hungry we were it may have seemed close when we ate it.  The airport especially early in the morning is a good option for eateries, there are some in the building where our hotel was, but the options in the open part of the airport were better and open earlier.  We also stocked up on some drinks and snacks at the Lawson there for the train ride to Kyoto.  We made our first train error here- we bought reserved tickets but Matt didn't first buy our regular tickets (he thought he was buying an all in one thing).  The nice woman at the gate when it wouldn't let us in, took us to the JR help woman who spoke English who helped us.  I have found though if you don't have a JR Pass (it was cheaper for us not to have one) that if you don't want to use cash, you can buy tickets with a credit card in the station in the JR office.  Also note the IC card won't work for Shinkansen you have to buy a separate ticket (you could pay for it with a balance on an IC card though).  

We were staying in a suburb of Kyoto for a few days at a Ryokan in Uji.  The name was really long, Hanayashiki was in the name, it was neat because it had a traditional bath in the basement and on the top floor (one for men, one for women) and when we stayed there I would go and it would just be me in there at night, this was really good for a sore body and feet.  We got to Uji and then went to explore the Byodoin Temple there, which was BY FAR one of my favorite temples in Kyoto.  Byodoin is a really big temple with a very cool shrine inside that you can see, it has multiple little subparts, but is done in a more do-able way than some of the really large temples.  There are also shade areas where you can sit to wait to get inside the building, and their museum is worth a walk through for the painted version of some of what you see in the building and air conditioning.  Anyway, I thought it was probably the top temple we saw.  

We then went back down Ajirogi-no-michi and had lunch at a little place that was right on the river and overlooked the park on the other side of the canal, they had windows all on one side on the canal (it was beside the place with all the pictures for the Kormorant Show at the bridge.  I took a picture of the place, but I think Hubby deleted the picutre because it wasn't a pretty picture- story of my life.).  We had soba with tempura, and Hubby had a hot pot.  It was a really late lunch and we lucked out because it poured down the rain while we were in there, and it was really pretty to watch.  (The Uji area has an even higher density of mosquito due to the canal and river, but it is beautiful).  There is a really cute street that runs along the river that during the day (but not early in the morning, the Japanese keep somewhat limited shop hours) has all sorts of shops and restaurants and is fun to walk down after the temple, in fact the back exit of the temple will put you right on it.  We were so jet lagged we didn't make it to dinner that night.

The next day we took the bullet train to Himeji to see the castle.  Himeji is very built up and touristy (lots of shops and restaurants) there is a short big main road with large sidewalks from the station to Himeji Castle and it is a very pleasant walk.  I am noting this only because from their website and the pictures I didn't get the idea that it was right in the middle of the city.  We got bento boxes in Kyoto station that we ate on the train, we also indulged in some green tea ice cream in Himeji.  Himeji is a really large castle and they let you see a lot more of it than we would probably let one see in the US because there are a lot of old wooden stairs.  By a lot, I mean, really a lot of stairs, but it really is neat to see.  I wish they would restore some of the arms with replicas so you could get an idea of what it really would have looked like in the keep.  One of the baileys had a few tatami mats in the building, but I really wished they would put more replica or to the time not the place antique versions of some of the domestic goods they would have had in those rooms.  This was something you also don't see in the imperial palace.  We had a reservation at Giro Giro in Kyoto (it's in a cool section of town by the river in Kyoto) but before we went we had drinks at Kawa Cafe which is up the street which is a beautiful cafe overlooking the river that I recommend too for drinks) as it opens up literally on the river side so it is really quite pretty.  They have old photos of the area all around and it is just neat.  They have teas, coffee, beer, french wines, sake, sodas, etc.  They did have a food menu, but not sure what it was like.  Giro Giro was fun, the chef spoke English and it was a small and cool little place with really modern small courses.  The next day we switched to our VRBO in Kyoto, it was in a great location right off of Shiro Dori.  We had lunch at a small place on Shiro Dori called Tan Tan Noodles that was incredible- near the Omiya stop by Senbon Dori and Shijo Dori.  We loved the Tan Tan ramen that had roasted pork, bok choy, ground pork and onions in a really good broth.  It was delicious.  We loved it.  We then walked down along the festival route to see the floats and walked up past Gion to see some of the temples: Nazen-ji was worth seeing, the gate is huge and the building are very neat, they were working on some of this while we were there, it is interesting to see how they do restorations, basically they build a super large structure around the structure to protect it.  We then did the grouping of the Yasaka Shrine which was inundated with festival goers, but had neat festival stalls, Chion-In, Shorenin Temple this is compactly condensed with a lot of neat shrines and temples in a small area and was definitely worth exploring and is by far the easiest area to explore directly from Kyoto, as it is at the end of Shijo-dori and a very touristy, but scenic walk from Gion.  We then walked down an old street with lots of fun shops through the Gesshin-in Temple which is fairly small, (Can't remember if we did Kodai-ji (that tells you something), and we saw the big buddha at Ryozen Kannon- which is a lot more recently built and just wasn't really my thing, but Matt liked it.  I wish we would have spent more time shopping at the really old, cute shops in here, but we had some grumpy, tired persons by that point and a festival that night, so the crew wanted to go home and rest up, I should have stayed up without them.

 That night we ate street food at the Gion Matsuri festival, which was literally wall to wall people everywhere.  We had chicken karage, takoyaki, edamame, grilled corn with miso and soy sauce, candied strawberries and other fruits on skewers that were delicious, imagawayaki, taiyaki and yakitoris.  This was a great time to get bites of different things.  But there were so many people it was very hot and sweaty with little room to eat, etc, it was just an epically huge crowd, but fun to see.  I would have stayed out and wandered more, but our teen was very overwhelmed by the thousands and thousands of people everywhere literally.  (I would estimate the night before the parade that at least 250,000 people come out, I can't find an estimate anywhere, but it is a lot.)

The next morning we grabbed coffee from Tully's to watch the parade.  After the parade we went to Owl Cafe, then we walked down to the arcade and ate at a sushi restaurant at Teramachi Dori and did a little shopping, we then walked across the bridge and up to some temples.  I can't remember the name of the sushi restaurant, they had food outside in the window, but no English menu, Kyoto was very crowded after the festival, so we were happy to get in and have a nice meal.  We also had green tea doughnuts from a stand on the street.  We then toured some temples:  Higashiyama- I am not really impressed by the rock displays, the pagoda was neat, it had a nice strolling garden, but not near as neat as some others, it had a nice display of scrolls, but this wasn't in my top five. (We skipped Honen-in, Kurodani, ) The Heian Shrine was neat, the gardens were really impressive and much less populated than the front of the shrine and definitely worth walking this was another top five.  Note getting there from the closest train stop is a long walk, it is worth the cab to and from the station or a bus.  Don't put that evil on yourself as seriously the temples are huge.  I love walking, but you have to choose your battles.  We then went way down on the train to Kiyomizu-dera which I thought was really neat and worth a stop.  And Fushimi Inari- which is really cool and I wish we would have saved more foot power for it, as I would have liked to explore the area more. 

That night we got caught in a rain store that pushed us into a Chinese Restaurant just off Shiro Dori by the Gion stop, in the alley right on the Kyoto city side (looking towards the temples you would turn right) of the bridge named Popular Chinese Restaurant.  It was very close to the really fancy chinese restaurant on Gion Dori we couldn't get into.  It was delicious and we loved it.  We had soup dumplings, mapo tofu, crab fried rice and something else... We really loved this place.  

The next day we ate fast food udon noodles at breakfast (I got curry and tonakatsu at about 10 am but it was so good in a bad for you way) and went to Arashiyama and went to a whole host of temples.  That I will detail more later, these were some of my favorite.  We ate soba by the Ninna-ji temple, it was fine but not notable, but it was food.  That night we had bbq by our house at Aniki Yakiniku which was tasty and we enjoyed that while doing some laundry (I packed enough clothes but we got soo sweaty we got through more clothes than expected.  The cool thing is Japanese laundromat we went to automatically added the soap, and the dryer was very fast).  

I would really consider a bus trip to see the temples, there are so many worth seeing, BUT it is so much walking just to see the gardens and etc.  I will come back tomorrow morning and post my favorites.The next day we toured the imperial palace, which was neat, but you never step inside any of the building, just FYI, you view everything from outside, and although not used you also don't get to see the living area for the queen or princesses.   It is very neat though and free to do if you can get tickets and the guides are really good, so I really highly rate this.  The rest of the garden area- not worth the walk, essentially just a public part and the other areas are closed off.  We ate at a little restaurant nearby and had stir fry that was fine, but not noteworthy so I don't have pictures or a name.  That night we went to Kyoto Tower and ate at the beer garden there, the food was buffet and the steamed dumplings were the best part, but it was really fun as it wasn't very touristy (with Caucasian people at least) and you could see Japanese families, friends, dates all around us just relaxing and having a nice time.  It was nice to see people letting loose a little and just having fun and laughing.  We drank beers and tried all sorts of stuff and just enjoyed the atmosphere and some shopping at the Yodobashi which was fun- Matt went to electronics, Sadie went to Hobbies, I went to housewares and clothes and we all had a great time.  Anyway, we have tickets to the ballgame, I will come back and add more.  If you are traveling with kids, having the VRBO was so nice, it was great to have a place with her own space for a few days.  We wanted to see Nijo Castle, but it was closed this day and after seeing Himeji we decided it was ok, knowing how many fewer things there were to see in Tokyo we should have had more days in Kyoto and seen more things at a respectable pace and seen Nijo.  

The next day we hit the bullet train to Tokyo.  If you are from DC, I am going to go out on a limb and say Kyoto will be more your style than Tokyo.  Kyoto is more DC (temples versus monuments), cute old scenic buildings and shops.  Tokyo is much more NYC with lots of new buildings (due to earthquakes, fires and the air raids) it has been rebuilt so often.  There are just many more historic things to see in Kyoto and we wished we did a Nara day trip.  So if you are planning a trip, just think about that.  There are day trips from Tokyo, but I think some of the ones from Kyoto would have really been neat.  We should have done 3 more days in Kyoto and three less in Tokyo (we did July 13 (really 14)-20 in Kyoto, 20-26 in Tokyo).

 

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Ok onto Tokyo-

We stayed at Citadines Shinjuku, which was a nice hotel, we booked online.  Shinjuku was a fun place to stay as there is so much there.  Shinjuku station itself is huge and has a large mall with cool shops (I would have liked to spend more time here shopping without Hubby or teen).  We had eaten bento on the train to Tokyo then once we got our backpacks off our back we wandered down to the Tokyo Government Building for the view.  Note that tower 2 is open way later than tower 1, so if you get there around 5:00 pm ish, don't worry the other tower is open. We walked back and ate sushi in the Golden Gai area at a conveyer belt place, it had a decent selection, but there is definitely better, so I didn't note it.  We then went to the Robot Restaurant which really is an amazing show that Las Vegas, Dubai and NYC are probably going to steal any minute.  There is good dancing, so many lights and lasers and robots.  The plot line is completely hookie, but it is a lot of fun and really worth it (but I wouldn't eat there).  

The next day we had a guided tour of Tokyo from Tours by Locals.  It was very history based, which was fine, but probably too much walking, especially in pouring rain, it is so easy to do a custom tour, I think next time around we would do a custom tour, but it was not my choice- Hubby chose the guide and tour.  We had an incredible zaru soba meal with tempura, http://kuzuryu-soba.com/oshinagaki/honten/lunch/ this was one of my favorite meals of the whole trip.  You ground your own wasabi, they made the soba noodles there in house, our guide said they had a good sake selection too.  This was an amazing restaurant.  Then we had traditional taiyaki nearby at Kurikoan, this was a neighborhood that would have been fun to explore more, not in pouring rain.  We also had sushi at an amazing place near Tsukiji our guide recommended that I will post a picture of because I don't know the name of, it wasn't in English.  We did get some snacks also at Mitsukoshi food hall, which was really fun and I HIGHLY recommend that too.

The next day we went to Tsukiji and ate our way through the outer market and bought all sorts of goodies.  I bought a few knives, it was a good time.  I didn't care about seeing the tuna sales, I loved just seeing the market so we could go at a reasonable hour.  We ate so many good things, everyone loved going here.  Then we headed out to our Studio Ghibli tour, apparently we paid too much for our tickets- the guides at the museum weren't happy about it, but I wanted to make sure we got in.  It was a well done museum and wasn't as hard to get to as I thought it would be (train out then a short bus ride and the bus operator was really nice and made sure we got off at the right place and pointed us in the right direction).  It had some nice exhibits, but was definitely more kid based, but we had a good time too.  You could see some shorts that I hadn't seen.  When we came back we were hungry and ate a great ramen place near our hotel called Gachi ramen (it was in an apparent gay friendly neighborhood).  It had great pop music I had fried chicken atop my ramen, but their egg really stole the show.  We all liked this little place.  

The next day our teen really wanted to go to the Pokemon mega store, so we ventured to Sunshine City for some shopping overload, and shopping overload it was, we ate at a nice Chinese restaurant in Sunshine City.  I enjoyed wandering Tokyu Hands which was a cool store and got some clothes from stores that had things that fit my ginormous size 38 body (joking, I loved the Japanese fashion so I was glad I could wear a lot of things) we checked out Uniqlo, which I am happy about it's arrival to the US, but compared to the ultra feminine looks we saw elsewhere it was a bit austere in some ways, but I picked up some good basics and was happy to see a size large.  (I also found some stores that sell "plus" sizes online which I have been perusing because I did like their fashion so much, but shopping with a teen meant a lot of going to places I didn't care much for.  That night the teen got in a fight with her boyfriend so I took her out for steak and potatoes at the mall in Shinjuku station, we ate steak and potatoes with wasabi and soy sauce, that makes it better right??  I could tell that night she was a little homesick and just needed something familiar (we may have also had a few drinks there) what was hilarious again was not a caucasian in the place besides us, and the little Japanese girl on a date sitting next to us was knocking highballs back like nobody's business.  Anyway crisis with the bf discussed and some sleep later...

We went to Harajuku and Shibuya- we started in Shibuya having tonkatsu at Maizen, which was delicious and well loved by all.  The tokatsu here is delicious, but I would also highly recommend the crab salad.  This is a chain and there are multiple locations, but it is really well done and I think worth it, especially if your peeps have been great eating lots of Japanese food.  We did a little more shopping and checked out some cosplay dressed people in Harajuku, we got a little bored then and indecisive so we headed back to Shinjuku, this was a hard day because the girls wanted to shop but I think Hubby wanted to see stuff.  We ended up eating at a pretty expensive shabu shabu restaurant Seryna restaurant on top of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku, I was trying to find an inexpensive, highly rated yakitori shop, but the place had a beautiful view and it was a delicious meal.  I think Sadie would have preferred the teppenyaki they had that too, and it also has a great view, but we liked doing a very traditional hot pot meal and just enjoying ourselves.  http://www.seryna.co.jp/en/seryna/shinjuku/  I tried to get the gang to do karaoke at the Can Can (the place in Lost in Translation) or drinks at New York Grill but no one was up for that.  They both said they would the next night, but I knew it was a lie.

The next day so much was closed (Monday) so we went out to Odaiba and played some games, went to the trick art museum and etc.  I thought this was a bit of a waste and would have liked to have checked out an older more traditional neighborhood.  But it wasn't my idea and I was a bit tired of planning each one of our days.  The saving grace was that we went to the Takashimaya Dept store food hall and got all sorts of great dishes- salads, tempura, noodles, fruit sandwiches, etc that we took to the top floors (I think the 12F is the one with the nice outside garden area you can sit at).  I would also highly recommend this.  We came back later and went to the Sumurai Museum which I HIGHLY recommend and ate dinner very near the robot restaurant (I swear it was one block away) at a barbecue restaurant that had a nice selection of seafood, Isomaru Suisan.  Because a good restaurant near Robot Restaurant is important.  We had grilled fish, veggie skewers (were awesome), calamari, clam skewer, clam, fish cake skewer (was also amazing), pork belly, and some other stuff.  We loved this place, it was cute inside and they had a huge selection of clams and seafood on the menu and the inside looked so much cooler than it was outside.    

Anyway the next day was Lawson sandwiches the Edo museum then ramen at the airport. 

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On 8/6/2016 at 5:32 PM, ktmoomau said:

The next day we ate fast food udon noodles at breakfast (I got curry and tonakatsu at about 10 am but it was so good in a bad for you way) and went to Arashiyama and went to a whole host of temples.  That I will detail more later, these were some of my favorite.  We ate soba by the Ninna-ji temple, it was fine but not notable, but it was food.  That night we had bbq by our house at Aniki Yakiniku which was tasty and we enjoyed that while doing some laundry (I packed enough clothes but we got soo sweaty we got through more clothes than expected.  The cool thing is Japanese laundromat we went to automatically added the soap, and the dryer was very fast).  

I would really consider a bus trip to see the temples, there are so many worth seeing, BUT it is so much walking just to see the gardens and etc.  I will come back tomorrow morning and post my favorites.
 

Ok so temple favorites in Arashiyama: Kinkaku-Ji (The Golden Temple) this one you just have to see.  It will be superbly crowded, you will have a million people crammed in and taking pictures in scenic spots, you will get annoyed that the person in front of you just stops to take their picture in the middle of the path, or uses their cell phone camera to make sure they look good (clue it's 90 some degrees, you are hot and sweaty, it's fine just take the damn picture!) BUT you have to see it.  And it is worth seeing just for sheer beauty, do yourself a favor, get an ice cream and cool down after, it's crowded and we got really overheated there so we took a quick stop which was well worth it.

We didn't see Daitoku-ji (although it looked cool) and went next to Ryoan-Ji which is a huge complex and had a very historically important rock garden (again not really a rock garden person) this wasn't my favorite as it was too hot to really enjoy walking around, I would have subbed in something different, it is probably very pretty in Spring or Fall.  The Toji-In Temple had my absolute favorite garden, it is small and well worth a visit for the very small, but incredibly scenic garden.  I also really enjoyed the Ninna-ji Temple because I like the tall pagodas and I thought this was a large, but well done temple complex with a lot of interesting things to see in it.  

Arashiyama was a fun little stop too despite the incredibly steep long walk to the top of monkey park, when we got back down there were fun shops to explore and seeing the boaters was neat (was surprised not to see a swim area).  I should have booked the "romantic train" in advance, I didn't realize how popular it was and wanted to take it one-way.

One Thing we didn't do was the Kyoto Hieizan Ropeway, which I think we would have enjoyed too.

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Thanks Don for the yams, going to be adventurous this weekend or early next week and try to make tempura as I have the perfect veggies for it, my friend's birthday is today, but she is gone, but I would love to make her soba and tempura for her return birthday celebration.

I bought a lot of presents for people, but apparently I didn't buy enough presents for people, as everyone has loved so much of what we have gotten them, I might have to buy a few extra things for Christmas because people have loved things that I bought for myself and now want them.  Plus I have been doing some online perusing for recipes for things we liked (yakiniku sauce, for instance) and came across two great online ordering sites for anyone who gets addicted to a product, or etc, and is also addicted to online ordering, which I must say living a super busy life, I am and I will shamefully admit it.  The first is JShoppers http://www.jshoppers.com/index.asp  they have clothes (including "plus" sizes), traditional hand crafts, home items, kitchen goods, etc and I ordered stuff from there and it got to me very speedily and was packaged nicely for an international trip, not like gift packaging, which I am sure you could get, but nothing was broken and was well padded, etc.  For foods and crafts (the crafts are almost identical to JShoppers which leads me to believe the companies may be connected) http://www.japansquare.com/index.asp had a lot of options.  We looked some stuff up on Amazon, but had less luck finding stuff than we may have thought we would.  I should probably start a shopping thread in the appropriate forum for links to favorite online sites for various Japanese goods as I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg.  I will probably order a big box of snack foods and candy for my cousin once she gets to school for of her first year of dorm life with some of her favorites from our trip.  

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On 8/7/2016 at 10:27 PM, ktmoomau said:

 Then we headed out to our Studio Ghibli tour, apparently we paid too much for our tickets- the guides at the museum weren't happy about it, but I wanted to make sure we got in.  It was a well done museum and wasn't as hard to get to as I thought it would be (train out then a short bus ride and the bus operator was really nice and made sure we got off at the right place and pointed us in the right direction).  It had some nice exhibits, but was definitely more kid based, but we had a good time too.  You could see some shorts that I hadn't seen.  

About the Studio Ghibli tour tickets, for anyone who is interested in this whimsical museum, there are no tickets sold at the door and you must purchase in advance.  There are 3 different price points available, low to high:  Purchase tickets via Lawsons (about $10 for adults, 7 for teens); purchase tickets via the overseas official ticket outlet ($16 for adults, $13 for teens); or go with one of the several local companies that offer "tours" at grossly inflated prices ranging up to $60, which may or may not include anything other than tickets.  The tickets via Lawsons are now available online in English, a recent innovation, and the entire month's tickets go on sale on the 10th of the prior month, minus the allocation for the overseas outlet.  You can get information about both Lawsons and the overseas outlet at http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ticket-information/.   The upside of using the overseas outlet is that they get their allocation earlier than Lawsons does, and their tickets are good for entry at any time on the selected day.  Lawsons tickets are good for a half hour entry window, 3 entries/day.  Once inside there is no time limit other than closing time.  

There is food within the museum; a full service cafe was sold out when we were there at noon but there is an ice cream/snack window as well.  But more importantly, practically across the street is Kotori Cafe, a bird cafe with a small selection of decent food that is not insanely overpriced.  They are pretty much limited to rice and mild vegetarian Japanese curry dishes (the rice is molded into a bird motif) and delicious bird shaped desserts served in a faux bird cage.   Staff are very friendly and for 300 yen you can get 10 minutes of supervised time with one of several birds.  We have pet birds; these were well cared for and they did a good job on the encounter.  You can see the curries behind the desserts.

Budgie dessert.jpg

Owl dessert.jpg

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On 7/8/2017 at 0:32 PM, astrid said:

I would be curious to hear how top tier sushi in Japan compares to what's available in North America.  The only Japanese sushi I've ever eaten was at sushi Kyotatsu in Narita.  It was quite good, probably in my top 10 sushi eating experience.  I know Kyotatsu is famously *good for airport* sushi, but it does make me wonder what's on offer in the rest of Japan.

The best places that I've been in Japan are just a different ballpark than what you can get here in the US. Even if a restaurant can get the same quality of fish sent to the US, a lot of the other ingredients are not the same quality. It has been a long time since my last visit so I may be romantizing a bit but the seasonality of individual parts of the Japanese cuisine is what is missing from the experience in the US and those textures and tastes can be quite compelling in their uniqueness.

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The best places that I've been in Japan are just a different ballpark than what you can get here in the US. Even if a restaurant can get the same quality of fish sent to the US, a lot of the other ingredients are not the same quality. It has been a long time since my last visit so I may be romantizing a bit but the seasonality of individual parts of the Japanese cuisine is what is missing from the experience in the US and those textures and tastes can be quite compelling in their uniqueness.

It's not even the best places in Japan.

Last time in Tokyo I ate here, a non-descript place that seemed like a local joint for bottom-rung office workers in Nihombashi to hit up before training home, or grandma and grandpa taking the grand kids out for dinner after a shopping trip to Takashimaya.

It was straight up amazing, and of a different kind than anything in DC.

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57 minutes ago, peasoup said:

It's not even the best places in Japan.

Last time in Tokyo I ate here, a non-descript place that seemed like a local joint for bottom-rung office workers in Nihombashi to hit up before training home, or grandma and grandpa taking the grand kids out for dinner after a shopping trip to Takashimaya.

It was straight up amazing, and of a different kind than anything in DC.

It's not just Japan; it's every country that I can think of.

I'm pretty sure I've told this story here before, but it's worth telling again: A long time ago, I had dinner at Marc Veyrat in Annecy, France (the prefecture of the Haute-Savoie department, just west of Switzerland). At the time, it was widely considered one of the greatest restaurants in the world.

When the cheese cart came around, it was the size of an upright piano. The Maître Fromager asked which cheeses I was interested in, and I said, 'Primarily cheese from this region' (since the cuisine there was so seasonal and regional). "Except for the Reblochon," I added, "because we can get Reblochon in the United States."

He looked at me with a unique blend of condescension and calm enthusiasm, and simply said, "Get the Reblochon."

I did, and it was like nothing I've had before or since - nothing else has even come close.

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Yeesh, now I want to book tickets for Tokyo.  Except that I also have a bunch of work related trips coming up, and 3-5 other fun trips coming up in the next 10 months.  Maybe fall 2018, before a shenjianbao filled jaunt to Shanghai...

How hard is it to get around as an independent traveler in Japan, if you don't speak the language?  I always hear that it's challenging, but between Google Translate, my ability to recognize Kanji (since I can read Chinese) and presumably universal English classes for everyone under 50, it doesn't seem like that big of a challenge.  

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33 minutes ago, astrid said:

How hard is it to get around as an independent traveler in Japan, if you don't speak the language?  I always hear that it's challenging, but between Google Translate, my ability to recognize Kanji (since I can read Chinese) and presumably universal English classes for everyone under 50, it doesn't seem like that big of a challenge.  

If you will have a wifi device with you, getting around the major cities of Japan with absolutely no context of kanji or Japanese is super easy (in the big cities there is a lot of free wifi, but it often isn't strong enough to do the job).  Google maps works exceedingly well with train tables, metro tables and directions, walking directions and etc- it is very good at finding places.  I used Google Maps and translate for quite a bit, and was very happy I had wifi with me the whole time.  The subway in Tokyo now has all English, they have English speaking staff in the metro and JR stations in fancy uniforms.  Many young people speak some English, and there are a lot of signs in English now (and probably even more-so in Tokyo from last year because they are gearing up for the Olympics).  Japan is very rule following, and most parts of Japan we were in we felt safe walking at any time.  I let my 18 year old cousin have lots of leeway because it was very safe.  Taxis tend to need some map or phone number to get you where you want to go as they don't have a formal address system like ours. If you read my threads in the Japan thread I have a lot of detail in there, but I would highly recommend it as actually being much easier to travel in than I expected.

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53 minutes ago, astrid said:

Yeesh, now I want to book tickets for Tokyo.  Except that I also have a bunch of work related trips coming up, and 3-5 other fun trips coming up in the next 10 months.  Maybe fall 2018, before a shenjianbao filled jaunt to Shanghai...

It's funny, I was going to use Shanghai as an example - I have a friend from there (who knows cuisine), and she says the seafood is *unbelievable*, and nothing from the U.S. bears any resemblance to what you can find in restaurants there.

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I would move to Tokyo tomorrow based on the sheer breadth and depth of unbelievable food I experienced when I was there for a week, from convenience stores to depachikas to izakayas to Michelin-level omakase.  We really have no idea over here in the U.S. how good it can be when your entire damn culinary culture is built around the importance of seasonality and quality ingredients, and when everyone takes such genuine joy in eating food made with passion and skill and care.  (See also: Spain, Singapore, so forth.) 

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7 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

If you will have a wifi device with you, getting around the major cities of Japan with absolutely no context of kanji or Japanese is super easy (in the big cities there is a lot of free wifi, but it often isn't strong enough to do the job).  Google maps works exceedingly well with train tables, metro tables and directions, walking directions and etc- it is very good at finding places.  I used Google Maps and translate for quite a bit, and was very happy I had wifi with me the whole time.  The subway in Tokyo now has all English, they have English speaking staff in the metro and JR stations in fancy uniforms.  Many young people speak some English, and there are a lot of signs in English now (and probably even more-so in Tokyo from last year because they are gearing up for the Olympics).  Japan is very rule following, and most parts of Japan we were in we felt safe walking at any time.  I let my 18 year old cousin have lots of leeway because it was very safe.  Taxis tend to need some map or phone number to get you where you want to go as they don't have a formal address system like ours. If you read my threads in the Japan thread I have a lot of detail in there, but I would highly recommend it as actually being much easier to travel in than I expected.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!  I did read your comments on Japan and they were really encouraging!

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8 hours ago, astrid said:

Yeesh, now I want to book tickets for Tokyo.  Except that I also have a bunch of work related trips coming up, and 3-5 other fun trips coming up in the next 10 months.  Maybe fall 2018, before a shenjianbao filled jaunt to Shanghai...

How hard is it to get around as an independent traveler in Japan, if you don't speak the language?  I always hear that it's challenging, but between Google Translate, my ability to recognize Kanji (since I can read Chinese) and presumably universal English classes for everyone under 50, it doesn't seem like that big of a challenge.  

it's totally challenging without electronic devices, but fine as long as you have google maps! we rented a SIM (had it sent to the hotel, as I recall, because you can't just buy a temporary SIM like in hong kong); did not try wifi. And while my experience was likely tempered by when we went-- it was a couple months after fukushima, and tourists/americans were in short supply-- everyone seemed perfectly happy to cope with non-japanese speakers. We'd point, or pantomime, or try google translate, or they'd dig up a busboy that had a smattering of english, and somehow it all always worked out deliciously. And oh, god, the department stores. Apparently the way to get me into a department store is to put 20,000 sf of food on the ground floor. I mean, I don't usually leave the ground floor, but still.

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Tsukiji Fish Market

I've been at a meeting across the street from the fish market this week, and so have had more time to roam around than I have on previous visits to Tokyo. My preferred sushi shop in the market (I hesitate to say favorite, since my experience is too narrow, and I always seem to come back to here because it is hard to see how I could get better sushi than I do here) is Tsukiji Tsunao, at 4-14-17 Tsukiji. It's right across the street from the Aritsugu cutlery shop. Tsunao is small, but has upstairs seating. For me, the play here is to sit at the counter--you won't see much as the chef's counter is pretty low, but it is very nice to watch the dishes coming out to other diners. The sushi here is splendid, and an assorted nigiri plate is a great way to dive in. I also find the hand rolls here to be pretty close to perfect. I know that Sushi Dai and others are considered first in class at Tsukiji, but I love this little restaurant.

I also had breakfast a few mornings at Uogashi Senryo, and had their famous Ganso Kaisen Hitsumabushi. It was as good as I'd read--a three course meal that starts in one bowl, involves a lot of mixing by the staff, and if I lived here would be on my weekly to-do list. I don't know enough about Japanese cuisine (other than to eat as much of it as I can), but I believe that this is a unique style of bara-chirashi that begins exactly like that, and then is morphed into a mixed rice bowl, and then finishes as a dashi rice soup. This, for me, is a must-try.

I also had lunch one morning at a small curry shop in the inner market, but don't have the name, unfortunately. It was good, filling curry for a cooler day.

I've been at the tuna auction a few times, and don't find it so exciting. But I could spend hours wandering through the market, eating and browsing.

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Trying to do research for Japan trip and I'm getting really overwhelmed. Any good way to break it down and figure out must-eats or a focus? We want 1) amazing sushi 2) amazing ramen/noodle soups 3) weird stuff.

We have 3-4 days in Niseko when we are skiing, and my friend has gone and has places in mind, so I think we are fine there.

Then 1 dinner in Sapporo on the way to Asahikawa. Any great ideas for the one meal here? Seafood/sushi seem to be specialties. 

Then 2 days in Asahikawa.

Then 3 days in Tokyo. That's the main spot. I want to go to a nicer (but not the top dollar, would like it to be $200-250, rather than $300-350) sushi omekase, lunch at Tsukiji, various ramen/noodle shops, the Robot show, and other weird stuff. Is it worthwhile to do a food tour? They work out well in most other Asian countries I've been to, so thinking one day for that. Also, yakitori. And tonkatsu. And maybe a legit izakaya. Any recs? I know a lot of people say that if you walk around in the neighborhood and follow the lines, you'll inevitably get good food, but this is how that makes me feel.  

If someone could make a fairly idiot proof itinerary for 3 days in Tokyo, I would be forever indebted to you and give cancer treatment advice to you for free forever. Eh. I'd probably do that any way. But, still. 

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Having been there once (and for only two days), my sense is that the best way to experience Tokyo is to keep your ambitions modest because it's such a huge city and so easy to get lost with the relative lack of English signage that a ton of buffer time is necessary.  Where are you staying?  My advice would be not to venture too far or frequently outside a certain radius -- it's such a cool city that you'll presumably want to return several times in the future, so may as well get to know a certain neighborhood or two better on any given visit rather than spreading yourself too thin.  We stuck with Shinjuku and Shibuya for the most part, FWIW.  Didn't bother with Roppongi, Ginza, Tsukiji, etc. and will hope to explore those on future trips.

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10 hours ago, Simul Parikh said:

Trying to do research for Japan trip and I'm getting really overwhelmed. Any good way to break it down and figure out must-eats or a focus? We want 1) amazing sushi 2) amazing ramen/noodle soups 3) weird stuff.

Then 3 days in Tokyo. That's the main spot. I want to go to a nicer (but not the top dollar, would like it to be $200-250, rather than $300-350) sushi omekase, lunch at Tsukiji, various ramen/noodle shops, the Robot show, and other weird stuff. Is it worthwhile to do a food tour? They work out well in most other Asian countries I've been to, so thinking one day for that. Also, yakitori. And tonkatsu. And maybe a legit izakaya. Any recs? I know a lot of people say that if you walk around in the neighborhood and follow the lines, you'll inevitably get good food, but this is how that makes me feel.  

If someone could make a fairly idiot proof itinerary for 3 days in Tokyo, I would be forever indebted to you and give cancer treatment advice to you for free forever. Eh. I'd probably do that any way. But, still. 

Skip the food tour as many places nearby where you are staying and whatever attraction you are visiting will have fairly decent and good quality restaurants. Most people are correctly saying that if you do some basic research in the neighborhoods, a plethora of memorable meals can be had.

A recent discovery for me, tabelog.com, is an incredibly powerful resource, but since I haven't read this thread in it's entirety in a while someone else may have mentioned already. Non Japanese friends who live in Tokyo and a visiting back home Japanese friend recommend it for good reviews and current availability. Additionally you can search by neighborhood which is incredible to me as I use to cross check, 3-4 travel books on my original visits to Japan. You can also search by cuisine which should help to choose where to go. 

Recently a friend recommended Harutaka since one of Giro's apprentices is the chef, it is in neighborhood of $300 per person. Another popular one with chefs is Sushi Sho

Something to consider with the Japanese cuisines, sometime the lunch meal will be as incredible as dinner but at 1/3 of the cost and getting box meals in department stores. 

I would suggest getting a Tokyo Subway card for three days and if you are using a JR rail pass that should cover majority of your travel cost in the Tokyo area unless you are using a private rail way line. It's pretty easy to get around Tokyo easier than DC or NYC since the rail systems are models of efficiency and since all signs are in English. 

Plan visiting 2-3 attractions a day as Tokyo is a quite a large city and you can have a lot of fun and be overwhelmed by just walking around the neighborhoods.

Recently, on the way to NYC, I stopped with my wife and son at Mitsuwa Market Place in Edgewater, NJ. For my wife it was the first experience in a Japanese market area. We just walked into the nearby Kinokuniya and in just ten minutes bought over $100 of stuff! She easily could have spent a couple of hours there. I told her that Tokyo Hands in Shinjuku has entire floors devoted to pens and stationary. 

My point is that visit some of both of yours favorite kinds of things places in Japan. The Japanese people have such an interesting view on things that it may help to personalize the trip and make it more unique than just visiting the normal attractions such as temples, etc...but you can't go wrong, there is a lot to do and see. 

 

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