Tokyo…..Done!
As I type, we’re at the Shinkansen south gate waiting to catch the train back to Osaka, for our flight home tomorrow.
We covered a lot of the major sites and attractions in and around Tokyo, a place we feel everyone should visit. They are already gearing up to the 2020 summer Olympic Games and we’re hoping we may make it back for them 😊
The past two days were spent doing a lot of window shopping and enjoying some of the parks which are really nice to stroll through. We also visited the Tsukiji fish market of all things, which believe it or not is actually one of the must see attractions in Tokyo, why, because it’s the worlds biggest fish market. It was huge and a crazy selection of fish available, it was well worth a visit. There are also 100’s of other market stalls selling all sorts of foods and drinks.
After our amazing dining experience at the Molecular Tapas Bar, we opted for sushi the following evening. However this was sushi on a 21st century level. You order your food with a touchscreen menu, which makes it very easy as you can visually see what your ordering and you can go into the various categories. In front of you are three shelves, which are magnetic conveyor belts!
When you place your order and after only a minute or two, your prompted by your touchscreen to say your dish is on the way and which conveyor it’s on and sure enough, your food arrives to where your sitting, you take it off the little hover board thing, confirm on your touchscreen and the tray moves off again, back into the kitchen. All you have to do then, is tuck in and order as much more as you like, it’s pretty cool!
To finish, we’re going to do some last minute shopping in Osaka (I don’t think the credit card is maxed out yet 😉) and we’ll grab a bite to eat, more sushi perhaps!
Hope everyone enjoyed reading the blog, bye for now, see you all when we get home.
C&J
No1 Restaurant
As I mentioned before, there’s over 80,000 places to eat in Tokyo – and out of all of them, someone has to be rated number one, according to a well known ratings web site. Thankfully I was on top of things and a tad lucky as when I inquired three months ago, they were fully booked, but, a cancellation came up 😀. But more on that in a bit.
Yesterday we headed to the far outskirts of Tokyo to a place called Kamakura, a small seaside town. There are several small temples to visit and a giant Buddha, which is the main draw for visitors and at almost 12 meters high, it’s pretty big, you can also go inside it, which was interesting, sort of 😕.
It was an enjoyable day trip from Tokyo and the weather as it has been all along, was great.
On returning to Tokyo, we visited the Senso-ji shrine, it’s the biggest in central Tokyo and very impressive. We also walked around the many, many market streets, there’s pretty much nothing you can’t buy here.
For dinner, after our standard pre-dinner drink, we decided to try some Ramen, as we’d not had a chance to try it so far. Ramen is a big bowl of noodles, for the most part, cooked in various broths, depending what you’re going for. I opted for the duck and C went for the chicken. Ramen offers three things, it’s cheap, served piping hot and it’s filling – although we still went for a few Yakatori skewers to finish 😉
So today we spent most of the day visiting the enormous Tokyo Museum, you’d need just a day to visit the main building but there’s also over half a dozen other buildings to visit. We’d a very lite lunch, but did go for a speciality of Nagasaki – a steamed pork roll, it was tasty.
Now onto last night’s dining experience, did it live up to expectations, yes it certainly did, it was fantastic. It’s called the Molecular Tapas Bar, it’s on the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, yeah, plush would be putting it mildly, the views were amazing – and one more thing, it only seats eight! So it’s very exclusive.
Basically the way it works is, two chefs create all the dishes in front of you and also chat and entertain the diners. When I get around to uploading photos I’ll explain the dishes and experience better.
Today, we’re going to the Akihabara area of Tokyo – the entire area is dedicated to Tokyo’s Otaku (geek) culture, think Manga, Anima and everything pop culture, the place is meant to be a tad daft, so we should fit right in 😃.
C&J
Goodbye Fuji, Hello Tokyo!
Despite a lot of cloud cover hanging over Mt Fuji, we did manage to catch glimpses of it throughout the day as we wandered around the town. The town itself is very old and as it’s not climbing season, very quiet which is a nice change of pace.
However there are several bits and pieces of interest in the town, which we visited while walking around. Including climbing up 400 steps up a hillside to reach a viewing area, which offers the best views of the town and Mt Fuji.
Evening rolled around and we asked our hostel manager to suggest a place for dinner, which she did and it was fantastic. It was a very old traditional Japanese restaurant, run by a mother and son, there’s all of 8 seats, or rather floor cushions as you sit on the floor, a few chairs at a small bar and the fun part, no menu 😄
So with our 20 or so words of Japanese between us and the son who had a little more English, we managed to order our meal. The way it works is simple, you ask what you would like to eat, pork, fish, sushi, whatever you would like, they cook it up and it’s served with a load of trimmings, pickled veg, rice – of course, miso soup and several strange items we’d no idea what they were 🤔. The son, who’s name I won’t even attempt to spell, would check in with us every so often and have a chat, a slow conversation mind you but we would usually find a connection, for example when we told him we were Irish, he related it to whiskey!
The next day it was time to leave, we grabbed breakfast and checked out of the hostel and went to the station. After three trains and just over three hours of travelling, we arrived into the capital – Tokyo baby! Not just a metropolis, a mega metropolis.
After we checked in to our hotel (yes we’ve moved up in the world 😉) – we had a lite snack from a fantastic little bakery right next door to our hotel, just to hold us over until dinner. We spent the evening walking around – checking out the area and went for a drink in one of the many, many sky lounges that abound, although this was actually a “craft beer” lounge, high above the Tokyo skyline.
The next challenge of course was to decide where and what to eat for dinner and with over 80,000 places to choose from, it was going to be difficult 😋.
C&J
Kyoto to Mt Fuji
We finished up in Kyoto by visiting the Nanjao-Ji temple, the biggest, one temple to rule them all so to speak. It was very impressive and very quiet not as many tourists which was nice.
After it was time to do some shopping. Well window shopping anyhow although we did buy one or two bits and pieces.
After the disappointing dinner from the previous night we made sure to go somewhere fantastic, and it was. We feasted on some delicious Tonkatsu which is pretty much anything coated in breadcrumbs and then fried, although pork is the main meat on offer. It’s also good fun, you have a pestle and mortar where you grind sesame seeds then add a selection of sauces. It’s served with very finely shredded cabbage. We were both impressed with how they manage to bind vegetables together and fry them perfectly. All washed down with some beer for myself and C’s new tipple of choice, plum liqueur.
As if that was not enough we headed to a Sky Bar in one of the luxury hotels for a glass of sparkles with great views of Kyoto at night 🍾.
Today as I type we’ve just arrived into Mt Fuji, after one bus and four trains to get here, well it is up in the mountains and as we travelled the speed of the trains got slower, with the last one travelling at a rattling rate of about 40mph. However things were not helped by an earthquake further north which caused a few delays 😄
Once we got settled, we headed out for a bite to eat and a drink. As it was dark when we arrived, Mt Fuji was not visible – so roll on tomorrow.
C&J
Where’s the beef – Kobe of course!
After finishing up yesterday at the bamboo grove we spent the remainder of the evening wandering around downtown Kyoto which is a maze of small streets and alleyways, very cool. We popped into one of the fancy hotels just before happy hour ended – champagne time! Afterwards, we opted for pizza of all things for dinner which was crazy expensive but tasty, back to local food from now on 😊
So today, lots more temples – weather has been perfect, a tasty average of 23C every day 😎
We also wandered around the Gion district of Kyoto which is the oldest part, lots of quaint buildings and shrines.
So dinner time rolls around……
If you told someone you were going to take a 50 mile train journey, for a burger, they’d probably think you’re a tad daft. But this of course is no normal burger, this is where Western meets Japanese food, fusion, don’t you know 😉
Kobe is famous throughout the world for its beef and Wanto burger, is apparently the best place for a burger made with Kobe beef, so it’s a no-brainer, we take the trip out for dinner. Of course the Shinkansen can do the journey in less than 20 minutes.
We arrived later than planned into Kobe so we pretty much headed straight for our burger.
The place was quiet and looks like an American diner, the service friendly and helpful – but that’s just normal for Japan. So how was the burger – ok – not worth the trip, but I’m sure I’ve had a worse burger, I just need time to think about it 😕 – the price, I’d rather not say 🤐
C&J
Kyoto – living up to expectations
There are few places in the world that get over 50 million visitors a year – Kyoto, is one of them and deservedly so.
There’s a great athmosphere about the place as the locals go about their business and the tourists wander around in awe at the amazing ancient sites coupled with a modern metropolis.
Yesterday, soon after we arrived, we went for a walk around. Kyoto is famous for ceramics so we checked out some of the shops and visited the train station, even the train station is worth visiting it’s over 20 stories high, has about 30 restaurants and a few department stores. There’s a viewing area on the roof which gives amazing views of the city.
Later we went to the Japanese equivalent of a dive bar, had some great Yakatori food and a few drinks.
Today after a late breakfast, we visited the Tenryu-ji temple, which is really cool and has amazing gardens, Japanese no less 😁
The famous bamboo groves are also there, very impressive. If you’ve seen the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, pretty much the same place.
C&J
Hiroshima to Kyoto
For our last full day in Hiroshima we decided to take a rip to the island of Miyajima. It’s a world heritage site and it has several shrines and temples, the most famous is the Itsukushima Shrine also known as the floating Shrine.
It’s very tourist heavy as it is a pilgrim site and it been a Sunday it was busy. Still it was a relaxing day wandering through the sites, shops and places to have a drink or a bite to eat. The weather remained pretty good until the ferry journey back to Hiroshima when it started to rain but otherwise a nice place to visit. There are also several walks that you can do but unfortunately we ran out of time.
We spent the remainder of the evening relaxing at the hostel as the weather had got pretty bad, but we still went for a pre-dinner drink in a place called cafe ratta which has a great selection of cocktails.
Normally for any of our meals we would try a different place and usually go for something different to eat from the previous day, however on this occasion- we just had to have another of the amazing Okonomiyaki pancakes 😊
So today after a little shopping we’re hopping on the Shinkansen again and heading to Kyoto, which we’re really looking forward to.
C&J
Hiroshima and Pancakes
So we’re in Hiroshima for a few days and as everyone knows, Hiroshima is known for the atomic bomb which decimated the city on that faithful day in August 1945. However, as we discovered last night, Hiroshima is also famous for a local speciality- a pancake! More about that in a bit.
On arrival yesterday and with some help from a local woman we found our hostel which is in a great location near the Peace Park with loads of places to eat and drink nearby. Actually you’re never stuck for a place to eat and have a drink, the choices are endless and the quality is very good and the staff are always so friendly and polite.
Once we got checked in and got ourselves sorted, we headed out and went for a walk to get our bearings. We visited a few parts of the Peace Park and the Victims Memorial Museum, it’s all a lot to take in when reading the stories and looking at the photographs and even now a lot of people are taken over by emotion and sadness.
The only surviving building is known as “the Dome” due to its dome shaped roof it was actually a bank, which believe it or not, despite all the carnage, reopened just two days after the bomb was dropped.
After the park, we went to the main shopping street, which is about a kilometre long and covered over it’s entire length there are 100’s of shops, it’s very impressive and the local baseball team were playing today so there is a fantastic atmosphere around – I think they won.
So onto this pancake which is called a “Okonomiyaki”. I won’t do it any justice but here’s what you get. It starts with a thin pancake, which is then piled high with noodles, followed by shredded cabbage then a raw egg is dropped into the centre of it. After a few minutes of cooking they then add two large handfuls of pork mince and a large handful of what looked like peanuts, but thankfully wasn’t – we’ve no idea what it was. Then it cooks a little more before turned over onto an egg and pancake base. Now the best part, it’s then coated in some sort of soy glaze, which is then topped with a big handful of spring onion, more glaze and loads of mayo. Finally, they take a blowtorch to the whole thing before its served to you at your table which is also a hot plate. It tastes AMAZING!
That’s it for now,
C&J
Konnichiwa from Japan
We’re in fantastic Osaka enjoying the night life, sites and food, lots of food 😋
Yesterday was our first day so we decided, well I decided to immerse ourselves straight into Japanese culture and took a trip to Universal Studios Japan 😃. The highlight had to be Harry Potter although the other attractions were also great fun.
For our evening meal we went to the Namba area of Osaka and to an amazing sushi place, they have a very simple system, different coloured plates determine the price and you can eat as much or as little as you like. Namba has 100’s of places to eat and Osaka has over 25000 places to eat and drink.
Tomorrow we leave Osaka for Hiroshima and C is really looking forward to travelling on the Shinkansen.
J
cjfoodandtravel 