Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe !!
Hello Philip Blog readers! It's been a hot minute because I have been so busy doing fun stuff in Japan. Out of all my travels, I have spent the most amount of time preparing for this trip. Booking restaurants, reviewing shitty instagram reels, understanding how to efficiently do activities like Tokyo Disney, and how to travel plan efficiently (places near each other or near subway lines). Not to mention intensive 2 months of Japanese study before my trip and daily lesson over zoom 2 weeks before.
So far execution has been. near flawless! You can clearly have a great time without planning anything, but given how much there is to do, and how expensive it is to stay, efficiency is key.
We started off in Tokyo, I arrived the day before where the weather was crappy but after that it's been really good! I surprised my group with oranges (Seinfeld reference but also super tasty). Lots of fruit in Japan is quite expensive but SO good. Team Planets was one of our activities which blew my mind, very "immersive" and takes at least an hour of non stop entertainment.
After team labs, the vegan Ramen was closed so we went to Toyosu market which was good, but seemed a bit overpriced. But the sushi here was amazing, pic in top right. Top left pic was the massive Gundam statue, I didn't watch this growing up but there is a ton dedicated to this in Japan. This guy moves every... hour? we didn't see this.
Top right pic is from Tsukiji market, it was super packed and although really good, I imagine super touristy and I'm not sure I would have done it again. Bottom left is Yoshinoya, beef bowl with rice, a SOLID meal in Japan and was one of my fav late night foods 15 years ago. We had a day trip to Mount Fuji, started off very cloudy and then cleared up, we had a buffet included which was solid with lots of Japanese foods.
The bottom left pic was from Flippers. I actually found it quite tricky to find breakfast places in Japan, or if they exist they open after 10 or 11 am! Flippers has these fluffy pancakes, they were SO DAMN GOOD, although quite sweet and ideally best to split amongst a group. The bottom right is a Japanese Kaiseki at Aoyama Jin. We had our own cute room and it was a lot of fun. This was booked because I could not book DEN :(
Bottom left is walking around Shinjuku, a ton of host and hostess bars, the advertisements were hilarious, I plan to go to one, see how the Japanese holds up. The bottom right was in shinjuku, i had a sushi craving at 11:10 pm, premium stuff for around 20 bucks - this could go for at least 60 bucks in Toronto.
Tokyo Disney Sea is represented by bottom 2 pics. Although quite fun, a bit stressful to Organize, you really need to pay to book many of the rides, we bypassed a 2 hour wait for Indiana Jones - 20 bucks each. Most rides were about 5-10 minutes but were incredible, so much attention to details, tons of robot monsters.
Bottom left is Halal Ramen. As I don't eat pork, "halal" ramen is the magic work to find this. Bottom right was my first Osaka snack.
Strawberries on the left was 38 Canadian, SO much better than the strawberries I have at home which seem diluted even though they are massive. This is Kakigori onthe right, shaved ice, matcha, iceroom, was yummy, but we split this with 4 people and I would have split it with 5.
Bottom right is view from Osaka castle, need to arrive 10 minutes before it opens, if you arrive in the afternoon there is a massive line. The history of castle was a bit intense for me, I just wanted to roam around.
Go karting in Tokyo or Osaka is a GREAT way to see the city and I think its a must. Note, we missed our appointment in Tokyo because we arrived at 1 pm - when our appointment is, but it is actually at 12:45!
Fancy donut in Kobe, although this was supposed to be black sesame... it was hardly black sesame. Bottom right- fried fish thingy with sakura jam inside... dissapointing.
Bottom left Maccha House Tiramasu, amazing, must try, but split with 3 others if you can, it's rich!
Bottom left was a place called Yakitori ichimatsu in Osaka, a very cool restaurant where they bring you different chicken skewers, I can't remember how many we had... but was a lot. We went for dessert next door, there are lots of these VERY high class dessert places.
My Japanese 101 had a lesson on someone going to a magic bar, there are lots of these in Japan, you pay to see some Magic. We did this in Osaka, was quite entertaining despite his limited English. Bottom right is some Kobe beef in Kobe. Below that is more Kobe treats. It was really cool to go back to Kobe where I was in Japan 16 years ago! Sadly, I couldn't remember the old hangouts we went to but then was reminded late after I messaged my home boys Andrew and Bobby... but it was too late, oh well!
Bottom left is Kobe beef sushi for 8 bucks... yes, you have to try this. A beautiful landscape of Kobe at night, I went to onsen there as well, was fantastic, such a cute city.
My Japanese has been going swell! I really feel confident to go into any restaurant an order, discuss, etc. occasionally will need google translate. I plan to stay in Tokyo for a week after to study Japanese (intensive) but there are so many schools and trying to find one is overwhelming! After... the plan is Taipei for 8 weeks Mandarin immersion, although I'm a little shook up as there was recently an Earthquake.
Finally, I find it is very hard to not eat ALOT. Having access to such good sushi all day... it's my typical late night snack. Granted I'm travelling with 3 others which is super useful to split things. I have been going to a gym everyday (anytime fitness), I paid 100 Canadian for 2 months which will be super useful when I go to Taipei.
Comments
Post a Comment