Japan
Kyoto & Tokyo
From February 5 to February 15, 2023
KYOTO
Day 1
We flew in from Seoul in the morning and quickly took note of all the covid precautions Japan had underway. There was testing, labs, and quarantine areas inside the airport itself; which we had not seen in any other country.
We landed in Osaka, which seemed very industrial to us, but apparently Osaka has the most Michelin stars than any other city in Japan. We took a car from Osaka to Kyoto and in an hour we made it to our hotel, Ritz Carlton Kyoto.
After we checked in, we walked along the river out in front of the hotel and watched as people walked, exercised, sat, enjoyed a snack, and even played live music.
We turned in towards the city and stumbled upon Nishiki Market where we had a quick snack (travel days can make one ravenous!). We found our way into a speakeasy bar, Scotch & Branch, on a hipster street called Gokomachi-Dori. This street had unique shops, boutiques, vintage stores, and unique artisan type goods.
We went back to the hotel for dinner at Tempura Mizuku, which was located in the basement of the hotel. The food was incredible and the menu they gave us had the types of fish we were going to eat as well as an illustration of them also. Our favorite dish this night was the wagyu beef, as we had never had fried wagyu before. Yum. At the end of the night our sushi chef asked to take a picture with us.
Day 2
We woke up for our first full day in Kyoto for a tour of the city. The first stop was the crown tourist jewel of Kyoto, The Kinkaku-Ji zen buddhist temple, covered in gold leaf flakes and overlooking a beautiful pond and rock garden. This is an icon not just in Kyoto, but for all of Japan.
We walked through the temple and surrounding areas, got fortunes from a ‘vending’ machine, purchased snacks from local vendors and continued our tour through Kyoto.
We stopped at another famous temple, mostly for its rock garden called Ryoan-Ji Temple. This attraction wasn’t nearly as busy, but it was very beautiful and worth the visit. People sit for hours just to admire the small rock garden and contemplate its meaning.
The next stop was Sagano Bamboo Way that you had to walk through before reaching Tenryu-Ji Temple (Hailey’s favorite temple in Kyoto). The bamboo forest leading up to the temple was a very unique and beautiful way for discover the sacred place. If you’re looking for a smaller local place to stay outside of the center of Kyoto, this area might be a unique spot to try. Definitely give yourself time to walk around after seeing the bamboo forest and the temple. You can even hire a rowboat and take it out on the river.
The last temple we visited was very different from all the rest, as each member of its community created and donated 1,200 Rakan stone figurines about 3 feet tall each. The Otagi Nembutsu-ji Temple was very different from all the rest we had visited and was charming in its own way. Outside the temple there were 3 large bells you could ring. Of course we did.
After our city tour, we stopped for a margarita pizza back in Kyoto from Salvatore (fast casual type of place) and went back to the hotel to rest before heading out for the evening.
We went to Bar Rocking Chair to kick off the evening and quickly realized that this was a serious bar with not much talking inside. We also discovered that smoking inside bars in Japan is still legal. It was very quiet and serious. No cell phone usage was allowed.
We had toppan dinner at Mouriya Gion, the wagyu and the fried rice were out of this world.
We walked home along the river and called it a night.
Day 3
We went for a walk around Imperial Park before we walked to lunch. We hoped to see the Imperial Temple, but it was closed this day. Kyoto was originally the capital of Japan before it was moved to Tokyo, so the imperial attractions are historic and exciting ones.
We started with lunch at a Michelin starred Italian spot named Vena. This was a very buttoned up lunch, which was unique to have an Italian style, but French coursed meal, but in Japan. It was delicious and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
We took a cab to the Fushimi Inari Taisha area where we walked around the well recognized red gates to the temples and shrines inside. Without really having a plan, we found ourselves continually walking through all the red gates (there are thousands), admiring all the shrines (there are about 30,000), and we climbed our way all the way to the top of the sacred place. With each passing of the red gate, it means you are passing into a more and more sacred place, so we joked that we were climbing to enlightenment every time we wanted to quit and turn back around. The hike is 2.5 miles, but worth every step. Perhaps one of the most popular things to do in Kyoto.
After a laborious day, we worked up an appetite for our first traditional sushi dinner at Sushidokoro Man. This place felt VERY local, had incredibly fresh fish and was very relaxed. Other than us, there was a group of older men in the restaurant who seemed to be telling jokes, making fun of each other, and having a good ole boys night out. The sushi chef and everybody inside the restaurant was salt of the earth, and we’d love to go back and visit next time we’re there. They might even pretend to remember us.
Day 4
We started our day off with lunch at Macedonia Yuki, an Italian spot ran by a Japanese man with a passion for Italian food and culture. He opened the restaurant just for us, and went through every single menu item with us on an iPad showing us pictures and describing what it tasted like. It seemed like we were in his living room while he cooked a complete meal of appetizers, pastas, and pizza for us. Such a unique experience and the food was incredible!
With bellies full, we had our next activity of a Maiko experience. At Gion Kyoto Miyagawacyo Guesthouse HANAKANZASHI we had a private performance by a Maiko and Gaiko. At first, the performance started with a traditional tea ceremony which was slow, clean and deliberate. Then both Maiko and Gaiko came in the room to perform songs with a traditional dance. The Gaiko was on a stringed instrument and singing while the Maiko danced. After the musical performance, the ladies came back into the room where we got to sit and have back and forth dialogue with them. We learned about their daily lives, their reason for choosing the Gaiko path, what they like to do in their spare time, and even told them a little bit about the western world. When it seemed like we were just about to wrap up the experience, the girls offered to play games and teach us some of their games. We played 2 separate games, one of hand and rhythm coordination, and the other similar to rock, paper, scissors (which was samurai, old lady (samurai’s mother), and the tiger). They convinced Max to play a tune on the foreign stringed instrument, and after that we wrapped up the experience. We headed to dinner at Moritaya Kiyamachi where we ate shabu shabu.
We polished off the evening with cocktails at bar Bees Knees.
Day 5
Our last day full in Koyoto started with shopping through the Nishiki Market and lunch at Napoli pizza place called Pizzeria Marita, walking distance from the market. The pizza was top notch!
We picked up some souvenirs for ourselves, and gifts for others at Aritsugu, specialty boutique Japanese knife and kitchen store.
We then headed about 40 minutes outside of Kyoto up to Suntory Yamazaki for a whisky tasting. You must have a reservation and the entry ticket we bought was a self-guided (and quick) tour. Perhaps a guided tour would have been a longer experience.
Our last dinner was at Kodaiji Wakuden, a traditional Reitan type of dinner.
We checked out a very unique bar after dinner that had a magic show with every cocktail that was presented, L’Escamoteur. It’s run by a French guy (also doubles as a magician) and has a very lively atmosphere about it.
TOKYO
Day 6
We woke up early to take the 11am bullet train from Kyoto. The ride was about 2 hours, 300 miles, and a lot of small-town scenery in between. We arrived in Tokyo and checked into the Aman Hotel. Hello beautiful!
We didn’t have much time to tour around the city before our dinner so we made a quick stop at Bar Landscape near our dinner spot. Bar Landscape was more on the serious side, but their cocktails were solid.
We briskly walked in some light rain to our dinner at Honten Yamashina at the top of a skyscraper overlooking the city and the Seiko tower. It was a fancy spot, and they cooked teppan style. Their mini hamburgers were incredible!
Day 7
We met our guide Mari Ohara at 11am for a tour around Tokyo. The first stop was at the Imperial Palace in the middle of the financial district. We watched a changing of the guard before carrying on through the Kokyo Gaien National Garden.
We hopped in the car and made our way to Asakusa through Kaminarimon Gate to check out a shinto and the markets leading up to it. This is a quintessential spot to feel like you’re in the heart of Tokyo with many vendors, locals, and tourists buzzing around. From here we walked through all other kinds of streets and neighborhoods that were also packed with people.
We made our way to another part of Tokyo called Chiyoda which is where you see much more of a younger digital lifestyle. There’s plenty of anime advertisements posted over buildings and billboards. It was in this neighborhood that we walked through a typical ‘convenient store’ type market, then went through an original ‘underground’ market/hallway that was one of the original black markets in Tokyo in the Chiyoda Akihabara area. Along these streets there is no shortness of dog petting cafes as well as vending machines for surprise anime trinkets.
Later that afternoon, in the early evening we stopped by Omoide Yokocho (near the Seibu Shinjuku stop) street to check out the local food spots all crammed together in a tight, but decorative hallway. No longer than a hundred feet, this alleyway/hallway is a great spot to see locals dining, having a beer, and having an entertaining dinner - street food style. A visit here is a must!
We had reservations at Bar Benfiddich that evening, so we made a stop to have cocktails before dinner. Bar Benfiddich was one of the more unique bars we have been to, mostly everybody sitting up at the bar area, only 1 actual bartender, but all the other personnel there was supporting the head bartender making cocktails. They would line up the ingredients needed, while the head bartender crafted the cocktails. His long handle cocktail mixing spoon was not a long chrome silver one like you’re used to seeing, but an actual twig from the branch of a tree.
After drinking as many drinks as they would let us in our 2 hour window, we made our way to dinner at Imafuku Suki Yaki for some shabu shabu.
Day 8
We woke up this day knowing it would be one of our busiest in Tokyo. We started off with massages and facials in the morning at the spa, but had to wrap up quickly for an 11:30am departure to tour the rest of the city with our favorite guide, Mari!
We started the morning off in the bustling area of Shibuya at Shibuya Scramble Square. We went up top to the observatory where we could get a 360 view of the city and look down into any area we wanted. This large tower overlooks the famed Shibuya crossing, and we got to watch large groups of people passing through every few minutes. After getting the 360 view of the city, we then made our way back to the bottom to check out the crossing ourselves. This crossing is well known for the crowds of people but also because it was featured in Lost in Translation. It seems funny that we would want to go to a part of Tokyo just to cross the street, but we did, and many others do also.
We walked around Shibuya for a bit, trying some street food and running into the “BTS of Japan”, and trying out a Purikura (photo booth), and wandering through the Sanrio store on Takeshita Street. Walking down this street was a mini culture in its own, full of Purikuras, dog cafes, costume stores, and other things I don’t know how to explain. This street is more popular for girls in their pre-teen ages, which made Max anxious to pass through it quickly. Mari and Hailey could have spent more time at the photo booths and shopping for Sanrio treats, but Max was reaching the end of the tour of this part of the neighborhood.
After Shibuya, we went to see a modern shinto temple at Meiji Jingu. This temple was very beautiful and had a lot of space around it to walk around and enjoy the scenery (it could almost easily get confused for a park).
The last stop of our tour was to a hipster town near Shibuya called Sarugakucho. This neighborhood seemed to be the posh neighborhood for the post-college crowd, sprawling with upscale boutique shops, a modern coworking “library” called Tsutaya, and coffee shops on every corner.
We had reached the end of our tour this day and we got dropped off to have cocktails at Memento Mori, a bar near Minato Toranomon. Memento Mori served cocktails all made from cacao, so the drinks were, of course, delicious. The bartenders were young and eager.
We were very excited for our dinner at 3110NZ by LDH Kitchen. Set up by well-known Japanese art dealer Nanzuka, which is an art gallery during the day and a sushi restaurant at night. The restaurant is in partnership with Saito (hailed as the worlds best sushi restaurant). You could tell this chef was up and coming, had a young team, and wanted to be taken seriously. Max kept giving him shots of sake, which we think, out of courtesy, he drank every one. He must have been feeling pretty good by the end of the dinner.
We polished off the evening at one last bar, Bar TRENCH, in Shibuya. Bar Trench had a great vibe, with bottles of alcohol that lined from the ceiling to the floor.
Day 9
Our day began by tapping into our primal selves with with a samurai sword class at Mugai-Ryu Suimoukai Honbu Dojo. Technically, the activity was called Iaido-Katana Sword Techniques of Mugairyu Discipline located in Nihonbashi Dojo. It was a cool and rainy morning. We arrived slightly late as it was hard to find the exact place, but we finally spotted the program leader waiting outside the doorway and waving us in. We made our way upstairs where we watched a 5 minute video on the history of Iaido and what we would be learning that day. We changed into traditional Mugairyu clothing, strapped katanas (swords) to our belt, and learned 2 routines to go through (sword drawing, return practice, quick strike, etc). Once we practiced the routines, we were then judged on our technique and the “story” our routine told. Thankfully, we both passed the test and were presented with certificates at the end of the class. We also learned samurai etiquette (how to bow properly), and slicing of moist tatami sheet. The experience lasted 2 hours and the time flew by.
We then made our way to a sock-making company who had been in business for almost 300 years. The Nihonbashi Artisan Experience of Shoemaking at Oonoya Sohonten taught us all about the history of Kabukis, the special socks that are made, and the emperors family. It was a niche business, and interesting to see the handmade socks made for all types of people.
Dinner that evening was at a well-known tempura restaurant called Tempura Kondo in Ginza. We were seated at the bar around the tempura frying station and picked our coursed/recommended meal from the menu. The chefs in front of us got to work, frying all kinds of things from fish, to vegetables, to potatoes and more. The main chef cooking was a force to be reckoned with and you could tell that he had been in that same position cooking for many years. He was even handling the fried food directly from the frying pan, which would have absolutely scorched anybody else’s hands without many years of practice and scars.
Day 10
Valentine’s Day in Japan is not necessarily celebrated, but we did our best to enjoy the day by getting 90 minute massages in the morning. Hailey got a Shatisu massage by a 30-year veteran Shiatsu master.
After massages we made our way to an art exhibit at teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM near Koto in Toyosu (on the east side of Tokyo). The best way to describe this is that it was a warehouse of art exhibits that take up the side of the whole room. You had to take your shoes and socks off to walk through some of the art exhibits, which had you walking through water alongside a few hundred other art seekers. It was a mix of digital art, VR, instagrammable photo opportunities, beautiful flower assemblies, and incredible light shows. The LED ceiling-to-floor light show was the best.
After the art show, we went for more culture at the Cotton Club near the hotel in Marunouchi. At the cotton club, it was an afternoon jazz show where we watched a trio of piano, violin & bass play some classical music. The violinist (Junko Makiyama) was the attraction of the show and she did not disappoint. The club was filled with an older crowd - as it was an afternoon mid-week show.
We finally made our way into Bar High Five where we had multiple cocktails each. This bar was not the liveliest, and there were seemingly a lot of rules, but the cocktails were some of the best we had in Japan.
From the bar, we walked to our dinner spot at Sushi Kanesaka. This was the best sushi, restaurant, and chef experience we had while in Japan. At our reservation time, we were seated at the sushi bar where the chef was going to prepare our meal for us one by one. The chef was very inviting, smiled, spoke English to us, and had a fun and lively energy about him. The fish was fresh and tasted delicious. There were others at the sushi bar who also were having a good time and overall the environment felt inviting and fun. There were 6 people total in the restaurant, and we met a Chinese couple who lived in Newport Coast for almost 10 years. We took many turns toasting each other with our sake glasses.
Day 11
We started our day with an exciting prep for lunch at Sukiyabashi Jiro. Although the walk from the hotel to Jiro was only 10 minutes, the hotel arranged a driver and escort to ensure we made it to Jiro on time and without any confusion on its whereabouts. We assume that since the hotel made the reservation, their name was tied to the reservation and they wanted to ensure no complications. We arrived about 20 minutes early to a subway station and made our way downstairs. There were 2 other groups already waiting. There was a sign at the front letting you know that pictures are prohibited inside. The wait was quiet and serious. Somebody from the Jiro team came outside to check out names with the reservation (and confirmed which hotel we were staying at). Once everybody waiting outside was checked, we were ushered into the restaurant right on time. There were 9 people total, all seated at the sushi bar. We had the second best seat in the house (closest to where the chef is preparing the meal), and the gentleman with the best spot was clearly a local that had been coming to Jiro for many years.
Our meal was a symphony of sushi. Everything was made one-by-one, and plated quickly after it was made. You are expected to pick up and eat your sushi within 20 seconds of it landing on your plate (to keep the rice in tact, etc). Once the first round of sushi made it to all 9 people, they went through the assembly line again to prepare the next round of sushi. Only 1 person was served at a time, and there were 19 sushi courses served total. It took about 20 minutes for Jiro to serve each of us, one-by-one, 19 courses of sushi. After we were served all the sushi, we were then allowed to ask for additional pieces. Max’s favorite was the semi-fatty tuna. Hailey’s most surprised was the Mackerel (Saba) served with ginger paste. After the meal we were served with a melon that Japan is known for; being incredibly juicy… and expensive.
We walked back to the Aman after our lunch, packed up our bags, and made our way to the airport to catch a ride from Tokyo to LAX on Singapore Air.
Next time we visit, we plan to check out:
Sushi Saito
Osaka
Cherry blossoms blooming (in April)
Leaves changing (in September)
Stay in a Ryokan (traditional Japanese housing)
Visit Aokigahara (forest)
Skiing