April 2017
There are few sounds sweeter than the symphony of slurping that can be heard from a ramen shop. Every time we walked past a Japanese restaurant or attempted a ramen or udon recipe at home, we heard it. It started as a faint song stuck in our heads, but as the allure of eating authentic hand-pulled noodles with rich, umami chashu broth grew, the symphony also grew into full fortissimo. There was only one thing left to do. We packed our bags and journeyed across the Pacific Ocean to Japan.
121 Hours Left…
As we touched down into Tokyo airport, the overture had begun and we couldn’t believe we had finally made it to a country we had both dreamed about visiting for so long. We landed late in the afternoon and as the sun began to set, we knew the infamous Tokyo nightlife was just getting started. If there was one thing we had learned from our Uncle Tony (Tony Bourdain, that is) it was that we couldn’t waste any time. We ran from the gate to exchange our vouchers and pick up our trusty Japan Rail (JR) passes which would allow us to ride the infamous Shinkansen, Japan’s intricate system of high-speed bullet trains.
Armed with our JR passes, we boarded the Narita Express to Shinjuku. An hour later, we arrived at the extravagant Hyatt Regency Tokyo. With chandeliers lining the halls and a staff fit to welcome a royal family, the Hyatt Regency was a dream. We were immediately struck by the unbelievable Japanese hospitality and attention to detail, which were truly a notch above the rest. Once we got our hotel room, we dropped our bags, took a quick shower and were ready to hit the city within 30 minutes.
What better way to spend our first night in Tokyo than late night reservations at Robot Restaurant. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Robot Restaurant, we recommend watching Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown episode, Tokyo After Dark. We arrived about an hour early to the show so we had enough time to pop into a local bar for drinks and food.
We were about to have our first meal in Japan! Shinjuku is filled with rowdy bars and small eateries so we stopped into one in Golden Gai. As the grocery store-style doors opened and closed at Kushikatsu Tanaka, the sounds of the restaurant would echo out onto the street. We approached the doors and it felt like the gates to heaven were opening. We made our way through the thick smoke-filled shop and claimed two seats at the corner of the bar. Our server came to drop off menus and before she even had a chance to turn around, we ordered two tall beers and a round of sake shots. The place was packed with locals ready to party and businessmen head-to-toe in black suits. For food, we glanced around to see what everyone was enjoying and then pointed to 6 pictures on the menu (written completely in Japanese). We ended up with a killer combination of fresh octopus, spicy chicken, noodles with pork, and a bowl of udon. Our stomachs were feeling good and we were ready for some robots!
Robot Restaurant is a veritable Japanese fun-house decorated with mirrors and neon lights filled with robots dancing, singing, and fighting all around you in a synchronized display of pure chaos. The best part is, they serve drinks and bento boxes throughout the entire show. This show was a perfect start to our first night in Tokyo.
After the show ended around midnight, we wandered through Piss Alley – a tiny alleyway in the middle of Shinjuku with hundreds of small yakitori shops on either side. Each shop only holds 4-5 people, so we found a spot with 2 stools and ordered some wagyu beef and chicken skewers, charred cherry tomatoes and mushrooms, and a bottle of hot sake. The alleyway is full of locals catching a bite to eat on their way home after a night of drinking, so it felt like we had another animated dinner show to entertain us.
107 Hours Left…
We started the next morning around 6am to take the train to the incredible Tsukiji Fish Market. From the station, we crossed the street and were immediately hit with the amazing smell of fresh fish. The market is closed off to visitors until around 10am, so we walked around the edges to get a glimpse of the famous Blue Fin Tuna fish auction. After working up an appetite, we settled into one of the many tiny shops for a plate of salmon and tuna nigiri and bowl of rice topped with the fresh catches of that morning – tuna, salmon, eel, uni, roe, iwashi, and kohada. Let’s also not forget the delicious pickled ginger, fresh wasabi, and soothing green tea that came on the side.
After that most satisfying meal, we wandered into the bustling fish market to have a look around at all the stalls and varieties of fish that were up for grabs that day.
Then we walked through Ginza market for some smooth strawberry mochi.
We stopped for a hot second inside the Ginza station to peer into Jiro’s restaurant but it was unfortunately closed that day. We stood there admiring the simplicity of his storefront and could just imagine him walking around and getting ready for his dinner service.
We were so lucky to visit Japan during the cherry blossom or “Sakura” season, so we wanted to take full advantage of that. We had our Nikes and special edition pre-release Electric Family Kazoku bracelets on and started trekking around the entire Imperial Palace to the Chidorigafuchi gardens.
This is how we Hanami.
We then walked to the nearest train station and made our way to Roppongi to get this killer view of Tokyo from the Grand Hyatt.
After the 15 something miles we had just walked, we were starving. We enjoyed an amazing shabu-shabu lunch at Hyoki where we took our shoes off and were escorted into a private dining area with a table and tatami mats to sit on. We feasted for what felt like hours on thinly sliced beef and pork, noodles, and vegetables cooked in simple broth. The udon served at the end was a special bowl of heaven that we often dream about to this day.
After our meal, we took the train to Shibuya to witness the magic of Shibuya Crossing – an intersection where you can cross in every direction for about 90 seconds until the cars have right of way. This pattern repeats all day and night, but the best time to go is mid-afternoon when everyone is getting off of work and pouring out into the streets.
We walked through Shibuya picking up a few more beef skewers at a street cart and made our way to Harajuku district.
Still hungry, we devoured a Nutella, strawberry, and banana rolled crepe from one of the dozen crepe carts along the street. We peeked into the Nike store and then walked to Takeshita street to enjoy all the action. We marveled at the youngsters decked out in the most jaw-dropping fashion and even picked up some trinkets and stickers to bring home with us.
As it got dark, we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim, shower and a wardrobe change before hitting the streets of Roppongi for dinner.
In the evening, we were craving yakitori again so we wandered through the crowded streets of Roppongi for a place we could eat. We were walking on the main road when suddenly we had the urge to turn down a small, curious street. The street-level restaurant to our left seemed posh and quiet, but as soon as we looked up to the first floor, we heard raucous laughter, bottles breaking, beer glasses clinking, and fires crackling. We knew that was the place to be, so we climbed up a narrow flight of stairs to Osaka Yakiniku Futago. No one spoke English, so we gestured for a table for 2 and settled into a wooden booth in the center of action. The waiter came over, and we pointed to a few things on the menu that looked familiar and then to a few that looked totally unfamiliar, hoping we would end up with an amazing meal. We also ordered 2 large pints of Sapporo to wash it down. We cooked the night away on the small grill at our table and even participated in the shouting, yelling, clapping, cheers-ing, and table pounding that the rest of the groups would do every so often. We even did a celebratory shot at the end with all the friends we made 🙂
83 Hours Left…
We were up bright and early to get packing and make our way to Kyoto. First stop was Tokyo Station where we needed to catch the bullet train. After hearing stories about an underground “Ramen Street,” we descended into the basement to find a row of shops. We stood in line until the shops opened at 10:30am and then ordered our ramen and beer off of the vending machine. The shops work really fast and we had our bowls of delicious chashu ramen within a few minutes.
We slurped through our bowls and then ran to the platform to catch our train. We had secured seats on the “Fuji-san side” so we could catch a glimpse of the majestic Mount Fuji on our way to Kyoto.
We hopped off the Shinkansen at Kyoto Station and then took a local train to Kamasura Station where we stuffed our backpacks into the lockers located toward the exit (since we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until later that day). With not a minute to spare, we headed over to Nishiki Market – the largest outdoor food market in Kyoto. We enjoyed flame-grilled squid, mochi, candied sweet potatoes, salmon and tuna sashimi skewers, and seaweed seasoned jasmine rice.
Then we went to Tsujiri for matcha ice cream which literally made our hearts skip a beat.
After filling up on street snacks, we checked into our Airbnb, dropped our bags, and then took a bus to Kiyomizu-dera to roam around the Buddhist temple complex and see an amazing view of Kyoto. It started raining quite a bit but we forged through and got some incredible views of the rain clouds over the city.
Once the temple closed, we walked through the narrow streets to Hisago for amazing udon and donburi. The shop was completely pin-drop silent, except for the sounds of slurping coming from each table – it was music to our ears! The food was delicious and exactly what we needed after a rainy day in Kyoto.
As the sun set, we walked around Gion district, or the Geisha district. Gion is especially dazzling in the evening as the lanterns in front of each building start to light up and the geishas begin filling the streets as they move swiftly to their evening appointments.
Next, we walked down a narrow cherry blossom-lined street that ran parallel to the massive Kamo River. This street was full of tiny bars and coffee shops that still had their doors open for the occasional passerby to wander in to. We were drawn to Kissa Agaru, a tiny cafe with seats for only 4 people. We walked in, took off our shoes, and sat next to the window overlooking the rushing waters. We ordered one cafe au lait and one hot Amaretto milk and relaxed with a blanket as we watched the gusty wind blow cherry blossom petals across the smaller Takase River.
After getting a second wind, we walked down the street to Cafe Len – a super modern bar where we enjoyed a cold pint of Asahi.
59 Hours Left…
We woke up early thinking we would get a head start as we were going to hit a couple of very well known tourist spots. Unfortunately, Maya sliced the back of her ankle and almost severed her achilles tendon so we had to do some emergency first aid (we will spare you the gory pictures). Once we sorted that out and Maya was bandaged up, we set off on the bus toward Arashiyama where we walked around the bamboo grove, grabbed a lychee jelly drink from a vending machine, ate macha and yuba ice cream paired with a doughnut, and roamed around Arashiyama park.
We devoured a full kaiseki lunch at Tsujiri, a meal that consists of 10 small dishes brought out in order to your table. It was delicious and quite a unique experience!
We took the bus to Kinkakuji Temple or Golden Pavilion to witness the stunning Zen Buddhist temple which boasts walls covered in gold leaf.
On our way back to our Airbnb, we stopped at a 100 yen shop near Nijo Castle to pick up our favorite Japanese candies <3 We also wandered into a beautiful shrine and enjoyed a brief stroll around the serene grounds.
We had to take it easy in the evening since Maya’s cut wouldn’t stop bleeding. So we ordered take out from a nearby restaurant and spent the evening relaxing and elevating Maya’s foot on three pillows.
35 Hours Left…
The next morning we strapped on our trusty Nikes again and left for Fushimi-Inari Taisha, the shrine of the god Inari with hundreds of orange torii (gates) lining the mountain. We made sure to get there early so that we could take pictures without tons of people crowding around.
As we were leaving, our ears honed in on two familiar sounds – sizzling meat on a grill and hits from Swedish sensation ABBA. It turns out this chef is quite the ABBA fan.
We took the train back toward the city center, grabbed some shrimp tempura from 7-Eleven and stopped off at Heian Shrine.
After snacking all day, we decided to have a proper meal at Hatoyashokudou, a tiny shop in Higayashima serving up fresh beef udon.
The rain picked up so we waited it out in a dessert shop.
Then we took the bus to Honen-in Temple, which is a stunning and peaceful moss-covered temple and one that turned out to be our favorite of the entire trip.
Nearby, we stopped at Green Terrace cafe for matcha cake and green tea.
The storm was getting worse, so we hurried home to dry off and get ready before dinner. We had made reservations at Gyuurakutei, a nearby yakiniku restaurant, where we devoured one last incredible meal.
11 Hours Left…
Our flight was at 5pm out of Narita Airport so we had a quick breakfast consisting of matcha pancakes from 7-Eleven and then set off for Kyoto Station. We took the Shinkansen from Kyoto Station to Kawasaki Station and then all the way to Tokyo Station where we spent an hour or so shopping for snacks and bento boxes for our journey onward. We jumped on the Narita Express to the airport and next thing we knew, we were ready to head back home.
As our plane readied for take off, the sun was setting on our glorious adventure and the closing notes of the symphony’s finale were playing. We would undoubtedly be back to Japan for the reprise in the years to come…
