The smell of hot Ramen and Asian pastries along with furry boots walking on every corner was a clear sign that Japan was going to be one of our favorite countries. We arrived in Tokyo and were lucky enough to stay with one of Jason’s friends that he played hockey with at home, awesome Paul and his awesome wife Kresta. They immediately made us feel welcome with greeting us many Konnichiwa's and hugs and in their quaint, but economy size by Japanese standards, apartment complete with a toilet that will sing to you and heat your rear side as you take care of your business. Ahh we must have reached heaven! Oh and I should mention that our taxi driver on arrival even got out of his taxi to make sure he had brought us to the right destination, being careful not to get his white gloves dirty (all the taxi drivers wear white gloves and have what looks like doilies lining their seats). I’m sure I have never received such hospitality in all my life.
Our first day we set off exploring the city, Hachiko Statue, Shibuya, Harajuku Street (our favorite!) and soaking up as much atmosphere and food (even when some of the menus were not English) as we possibly could:
This is the busiest intersection in the world!
Red bean fishy, enjoyed every morning on our way to the train station
Japanese take out and a their tiny version of our new gourmet trucks
These wooden flops are out and the furry boots are way in
We ordered from this menu, it was pretty much a craps shoot!
One of the highlights of our trip was taking the train North to Nikko and staying in a traditional Ryokan (Japanese hotel room with floor tables and fold out mats for sleeping) with our very own Onsen (Japanese hot bath). I wanted to explore the public onsen but we ran out of time – you know how it goes, just too busy enjoying our own private one and lounging around in our Kimonos. We were served tea and a delicious meal with every detail covered from leaves under our appetizers to our sashimi presented in a sculpted ice bowl. I could have stayed a week here! We managed to pack it all in a day with seeing all the temples in town, a nature walk and finishing the evening back in Tokyo with another sushi meal (the sashimi the previous night was just a tease with the amount given to us – apparently they didn’t get the memo that we were insatiable American sushi fanatics).
Our cute littl' tub
Classic Japanese style
We think all these little hats were hand knitted for the statues in the winter months
Back in Tokyo – we just couldn't get enough of this city! More exploring and oh did I mention more eating! If there wasn’t so much plastic food enticing you at every doorway maybe we would have eaten less…and maybe if we could read Japanese restaurant signs we would have eaten more. It seems to be a staple – if you open a restaurant there is a “must have” list – food, drinks, a staff, a quick turn around and plastic food at your entrance, along with your welcome sign in Japanese, and maybe a soft serve place next door or nearby. Best soft serve flavor yet: Sweet Potato! Must get that ice-cream maker at home to start experimenting how I can re-create this masterpiece. Maybe I’ll have it down by next Thanksgiving . And I think my most favorite thing about Japan was when you entered a restaurant all the servers would greet you loudly in Japanese and one would rush over to you to help you remove your shoes and then when you leave someone sees you out to the street and bows to you thanking you multiple times for visiting their restaurant and wishing you well in your life. It is just so over the top it’s incredible but lovely all at the same time. It really sends you off with a fuzzy happy feeling all over.
Plastic food
These kids were doing a school project, "talk to the tourists in English"
Okonomiyaki. This is a traditional Japanese pancake with lots of good grubbens in it.
How cute is this!
Day trip to Kamakura to see the Big Buddha
Another small venture we took outside of Tokyo was to Hakone. That was the day of multiple transportation: Shinkansen train to Odawara, small city train to another destination that weaved forward and backward to get up the mountain, then a trip in a gondola to Gora followed by on foot to snap a quick photo of Mt. Fuji before we either froze to death or were overcome by the fumes of sulfur coming off the mountain. At the top you are suppose to enjoy their black hard boiled eggs which other then the color, due to the sulfur they are cooked in, taste just like regular hard boiled eggs. Massive lines for these warm black eggs, I could have used some salt personally to fully enjoy this delicacy. However the view from the top was clear and beautiful – we were lucky to have such a clear day to see the mountain. Some people believe Mt. Fuji is just a myth because it is so rare to see!
That's Mt. Fuji in the back - don't we look warm?
Black eggs cooked in sulfur
Mt. Fuji!
Our favorite drink there!
Another trip to get sushi before heading to Kyoto – who cares if its 9 am in the morning! We went to the Tsukiji Fish Market, one of the largest fish markets in the world and funny thing, it is so large we almost didn’t see it. We heard you are suppose to get there really early to see the fish being sold so we were hoping 9am wasn’t too late. Before you enter the market there is a distribution area and we thought it was the actual market and everyone had already packed up and left – so we trudged off to find a sushi place to savor one more piece of salmon before our train to Kyoto in the afternoon. After leaving the restaurant but before fully leaving the area I noticed a map and the section behind the distribution area that said in large bold letters – Fish Market. I turned to Jason and said, “do you think it is possible that we missed the fish market because we weren’t actually in the fish market area?” So we went back to the distribution area and went further back and low and behold the largest fish market in the world stood before us! Can’t believe we almost missed the whole thing due to it being too large! Millions of fish and though I am a big fan of eating fish the more and more we saw the more and more something set in with me that made me really sad. Every morning all these millions and millions of fish are being pulled out of our sea – it made me think that we will run out of our resources at this rate and over fishing is not just a myth.
Some kids partaking in the fun of fall colors
Ok it looked so fun we had to try it out for ourselves...
A pretty bride we saw on our tour
This looks like the temple is covered in snow but it is just bad wishes tied to the trees. We had two that went there promptly after we got them! Our bike tour guide said it was very rare to get two - oh what luck for us! And on both of the bad fortunes it told us not to travel - I don't think we will be pulling any more fortunes anytime soon.
A commercial was being filmed
We went to the bamboo forest a little North of Kyoto, a beautiful bamboo grove comes out of nowhere. And it would have been even more beautiful if we were the only ones there but the Japanese tour buses even come in Japan!
Further along the path a bride getting her photos done
More Fall colors
Had to take a break with some more Udon :) Yum!
The Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine - a maze of orange for miles and miles
These two girls got made to look like Geisha's, they aren't the real ones obviously since they still like to have their photo taken. The real ones run or do the Asian hurried shuffle as fast as they can away from your camera. We saw a lot of shuffling in the night when we went Geisha hunting
Cutest street in all of Kyoto in my opinion!
Jason even liked it too cause it had mochi!
Caught an amazing sunset right before we headed to Geisha town, below these are the real girls. Most of the photos you can tell they are in a hurry to get away from you as quick as possible. I felt like paparazzi!
Arigato gonzimas Japan, we had an amazing time and we know we will be back again some day for sure! We can't stay away from the mouth watering sushi for too long.
