Alibi's trip report: tokyo-kyoto-siem reap-bkk-luang prabang-chiang mai-bkk
 

Trip Report: Tokyo-Kyoto-Siem Reap-Bangkok-Luang Prabang-Chiang Mai-Bangkok

My wife, C and I returned two weeks ago from a 29-day trip to Asia. It was our first time, and we loved it. The trip was a wedding present, enabling us to travel and eat in a way that would normally be outside our means. We are in our late thirties, living and working in Brooklyn. I am a poet/professor, and she is a graphic designer.

We spent 6 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in Kyoto, 4 nights in Siem Reap, 5 nights in Bangkok, 3 nights in Luang Prabang, 4 nights in Chiang Mai, and 2 final nights in Bangkok. Thank you everyone on Fodors for all your helpful tips and information. Here is the Tokyo installment.

Day 1, 12/15, Thursday, New York to Tokyo
Leave JFK on a noon flight, non-stop to Tokyo on Japan Airlines. The flight is uneventful. What stood out most was its length: 14 hours. We flew economy. The plane was crowded. The food was mediocre, though we enjoyed the green and roasted tea, and the miso consome. Luckily C. made some delicious sandwiches at home, which we ate about 3 hours into the journey. We did not get much sleep.

Day 2, 12/16, Friday, Tokyo
We arrived in Tokyo at 4:30 in the afternoon, caught the train into town, transferring to the JR Yamamonte Line, which took us to Ebisu, our home for the next 6 nights. We stayed at the Hotel Excellent Ebisu, a business-class hotel right across the street from Ebisu Station. The hotel itself is nothing to write home about, but we were completely happy with our choice, as the hotel is in the middle of a cool neighborhood, filled with cafes, restaurants, and shops, and has easy access to Daikanyama, Shibuya, Harajuku, Naka-Meguro.

We had dinner the first night with my wife’s friend Minori who lives in Tokyo and designs music videos. Minori was carrying her Chihuahua, Apple, and pushing her tiny bicycle, with wheels the size of Frisbees, that seems to be popular with people under-30 in Japan. Minori took us to a little French place along the Meguro River in Naka Meguro. I was resistant at first, because in Japan I really wanted to eat Japanese food exclusively, but the food was awesome, especially the eggplant dish. Sorry, I don’t know the name of the place; everything was in French and Japanese. We said bye to Minori and walked 15 minutes back to our hotel.

Day 3, 12/17, Saturday

Jet lag was not too bad for us; we forced ourselves to stay awake until midnight the night before, and we woke up fairly alert. We had breakfast at a little café down the block from our hotel, The Mermaid Café. We loved how tasty the pastries were, the simplicity of the café’s design, and the friendliness of the workers. We walked to Shubiya and took a train to Aoyama. We were hoping to go to the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, but sadly it was closed for the holidays. We wandered around, then took a train to Roppongi and had an excellent lunch (tempura, soba noodles, yakitori, gumball soda) at Gonpachi, a restaurant that inspired the setting for a scene in Tarantino’s Kill Bill.

After lunch, we went to the Mori Art Museum and saw a fashion exhibit by Vivienne Westwood. It was really cool to see all these punk rock outfits on mannequins in a super dark room, filled with well-dressed Japanese people. In a way the experience embodied how Tokyo fascinated us: both familiar, yet wholly new--similar from one angle, utterly distinct from another. In general, it was interesting in Tokyo to see how elements of punk rock fashion had been appropriated by Japanese youth—for instance, the outfits and make-up were borrowed, but not the hostility or tattoos.

Also at the Mori, we saw a photography exhibit by Hiroshi Sugimoto. We especially enjoyed his barren, meditative black and white nature photos that reminded us of Mark Rothko. We also admired the photos he snapped at the Museum of Natural History in New York—amazing how realistic they appear. The Mori Museum is very touristy, though not many Westerners. We had a great time; after looking at the art, we enjoyed a tea and hot chocolate on one of the posh sofas with a dynamite, bird’s eye view of the city far below.

We left the Mori Museum and looked for the Ota Fine Arts Complex that featured the work of young, local artists. We had the Time Out Tokyo Guide, and the map was not very helpful; there were several inaccuracies that were potentially frustrating, but since Tokyo is such a great walking city, and it was all so new to us, we rolled with the process for the most part. Eventually we found the small galleries clustered in two narrow buildings. The vibe in the galleries reminded us a little of Chelsea.

That night we went to dinner with Minori. She took us to one of her favorite sushi places, right near Naka-Meguro station. My wife and I were the only Westerners. The food was delicious. We sat on the floor and feasted, devouring many plates of super fresh sushi, and then had nabe, which involves you cooking your food in a communal, iron hot pot. We were at the restaurant for close to 4 hours. The atmosphere was fun and jovial. The total bill was actually quite reasonable: $50 a person, despite all the food we ate and drank.

After dinner we wandered along the Meguro River for about 20 minutes to Higashiya, a dessert paradise in a refurbished old building. The architecture of the building was gorgeous. The downstairs is a sweets shop, and the upstairs is an upscale tea and desserts bar. The place was very dark and stylish. One neat thing about being in Japan was experiencing first-hand what many Japanese restaurants in America are trying to re-create. At Higashiya, we had an elaborate tea. It was definitely ritualistic, pouring the steaming water into a special pot, maneuvering the tea. At the end, after drinking several cups, each prepared in a slightly different way, our waiter fed us the tea—to eat. It didn’t taste great, but I am glad we tried it. I loved how my glass of water had one single, square ice cube. The place was not crowded; later Minori told us that the woman sitting across from us at a large rectangular, communal table was a Japanese pop star and that several well-known actors were at a table in the corner. Our deserts are hard to describe: a kind of red bean paste, with a jelly-like quality. The technical term may be anmitsu. I wouldn’t describe it as super tasty, but the overall experience of Higashiya—the ritual, the beauty of the presentation, the atmosphere—was a highlight of our trip. Note: there is no English menu, and the staff does not speak English; without Minori, we would have been totally lost. We left Higashiya at 2 a.m. and walked 25 minutes back to our hotel.

Day 4, 12/18, Sunday
We slept until almost noon and then met Minori and her Chihuahua Apple for lunch at an organic restaurant, Brown Rice, in Aoyama. The food was very healthy and fresh and presented beautifully. In general, we loved how much thought and care is devoted to the presentation of Japanese meals; eating becomes not just an aesthetically pleasing experience for your taste buds and nose, but also your eyes and mind. We wandered around the shops in Aoyama and Harajuku. It was a Sunday afternoon and the streets were packed. We were fascinated by Tokyo: the culture, the people, the art and architecture. We loved the wooden slats incorporated into buildings, how clean the city was, and the miniature trash trucks. We passed the goth kids hanging out in front of Yoyogi Park; it is like they have made themselves into cartoon characters. We visited the Meiji Shrine: a nice walk and good to be surrounded by trees. We then walked over to the Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art, a jewel-box of a museum with enchanting traditional Japanese prints.

After the print museum we split paths: Minori and C. went to drop off Apple, and then onto Shubiya for some shopping. I went to Shinjuku to attend a Japanese spoken word poetry reading at Ben’s Café. As soon as I got off the train in Shinjuku, I notice a very different vibe in the air; it felt edgier, less friendly. It took a while to find Ben’s Café and I felt truly lost: the lack of traditional addresses in Tokyo, my inability to speak Japanese. The reading was interesting to a degree, but without the language my mind wandered. I left at the intermission to meet Minori and C for dinner at a stylish, new restaurant in Daikanyama. I don’t remember the name; it’s an organic place, on the 2nd floor, and it specializes in shabu-shabu. The food was delicious. We especially enjoyed a beef carpaccio-like dish and the shabu-shabu, with the paper-thin slices of beef cooked in our own hot pot. At a table behind us we noticed the actress who played Go-Go in Kill Bill. Afterwards we hug Minori good-bye and thank her for her hospitality. In the morning, she starts a busy work week, and we will not be seeing her again on this trip.

Day 5, 12/19, Monday

We woke at 7 a.m. and took the subway to the fish market. Much of the action had finished by the time we arrived, so we wandered around the adjacent aisles, looking for a restaurant to have a sushi breakfast. We went to the place that had the longest line out front, figuring it must be good. The wait was forty-five minutes, but oh so worth it. When we got our place at the sushi bar, we were in heaven, as plate after plate of fresh off the boat fish was delivered to our mouths. Definitely a highlight of our trip

After our sushi breakfast, we went back to the hotel to crash for a while. We rose around 1 in the afternoon, and grabbed some caffeinated beverages at the Mermaid Café. C. decided she wanted to explore the consignment shops and independent clothing boutiques in the area. I took a subway to Asakusa and explored. The original lodging plan for Tokyo was to stay at Ryokan Shigestu in Asakusa. We are so glad that we decided to stay in Ebisu. Not that there is anything wrong with Asakusa; we just love the hip, independent vibe in Naka-Meguro/Ebisu area. The Hotel Excellent was just a place to crash; we didn’t even mind or complain about the strange smell in the bathroom. In hindsight though, we would have gotten the twin room, which is bigger than the double.

In Asakusa, I visit the Kannon Temple and then ducked into an onsen, where two 60 year-old local men and I relaxed in the steaming waters, an excellent respite.

C and I met up and went to a ramen shop, Ko-shu Ramen (the name does not appear in English on the sign), that Minori told us about in Meguro. She told us what major street it was on, what it was across from, what the name was in English and Japanese, and it was still not easy to find. But it was cheap and super delicious. Luckily, Minori wrote down for us in Japanese what we should order: shrimp ramen noodle in salt broth. What set this ramen apart from its American brethren was not just the tasty broth, no, it was the dumplings—they were so smooth and buttery, like they were made out of silk. In my experience, the dumpling wrapper is usually just a barrier, something that my teeth charge through to get to what is inside, but here the dumpling’s exterior added to the experience.

Day 6, 12/20 Tuesday

After a quick bite at the Mermaid, we took the subway to Ueno to visit the Tokyo National Museum. We loved Utamaro’s prints, that depict 12 hours in the life of a courtesan, and the beautiful old scrolls, and intricately designed kimonos in the main building. We also enjoyed the architecture of the newest building, designed by the same architect who did the new MOMA in New York.

We had lunch in Asakusa at a place called Sometaro. We sat on the floor and cooked okonomiyaki on a grill built into our table. Okonomiyaki is like a giant pancake with whatever ingredients you work in. We also had fried noodles, yaki soba. The food was good, not great, but it was a fun experience overall.

We then took a $10 cab to the Edo Tokyo Museum. We really enjoyed this museum; it focuses on the history of Tokyo, its transformation from small backwater town to one of the greatest cities in the world. Highlights included watching a miniature kabuki theater display with a throng of Japanese schoolgirls pressed around me as the path of their tour intersected with me. The exhibit on Tokyo getting bombed during World War II felt especially awkward as I was surrounded by a handful of teenage Japanese boys and wondered if any of them lost relatives.

We took the subway home to Ebisu. C packed it in for the night as she was fighting off a cold, so I went out for sushi by myself, to the yummy place in Naka-Meguro that I ate at three nights earlier. It felt so different being alone, being the only Westerner, not knowing the language. I squeezed into a seat at the sushi bar. Even though the menu had pictures, I felt insecure ordering. I really missed Minori and her insights. I felt like the guy next to me didn’t like me. I’m not sure why. Probably because I was feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious. The funny thing is that when he left, he said warmly “enjoy the rest of your trip”, which was sweet and proved how unreliable perceptions can be sometimes. The food was good, but I can’t say I had a great time.

Afterwards I had the great treat of meeting Melea from the Fodors board. I had been impressed with the thoroughness and tone of her Laos report from months ago, and she had given me the thumbs up on the Hotel Excellent Ebisu. C thought it was a little strange that I was meeting someone from a web board, but I assured her it was perfectly normal, that it would make me a true Fodorita. Melea met me in Ebisu, and we walked to a really cool café that she likes in the direction of Shibuya. The place was packed with stylish Japanese people mostly in their 20’s. We had yummy hot chocolate, and Melea gave me some great tips for Kyoto, Cambodia, and Luang Prabang. She was very kind and sweet.

Day 7, 12/21, Wednesday

Our last day in Tokyo, before a bullet train to Kyoto in the late afternoon. The weather was great, over 50. We had a week full of sun in Tokyo. C went shopping from 11 to 4 hitting many little shops in Ebisu, Daikanyama, and Aoyama. She later raved about a store named Muji. I wandered around Naka-Meguro, snapping photos and enjoying an excellent lunch at a ramen place Minori had pointed out days earlier.

I went to the JR office in Ebisu Station to buy our train tickets. This turned out to be a major hassle as the guy (turns out he was more of a bozo) insisted that my credit card was not working, and that the problem was with my card. This set off an hour of confusion, with me trying to find an international pay phone that took coins. Eventually I got through to my credit card company; they assured me my card was fine. Later I returned to the JR office and bought my tickets with the exact same credit card, hassle-free.

C and I met. She was in a very good mood from all her shopping. We went to a French café, where she enjoyed a scrumptious pancake. We were again amazed at how aesthetically pleasing the restaurants in Tokyo are. On the blonde wooden table, there was a simple beige ceramic bowl with a single branch with cranberries in it. It was minimal, elegant, and classy. We really loved Tokyo. 6 nights was just enough to scratch the surface. We grabbed our bags from the lobby of Hotel Excellent Ebisu and walked to Ebisu station. The sun was setting, next stop Kyoto.

Great report! I really enjoyed it. It was so smooth for me (a Japanese)to read. Is it poet/prof's writing ;-) Ebisu is a area I'm not very familiar with. I've been there only a few times, a long time ago when I had to meet friends. I'm more on Western side of Tokyo (Shinjuku, etc) but your description of it interests me. Maybe I will go take a look next time I'm back in Tokyo tha'ts in 1 month.

An-mitsu was a very particular dessert, wasn't it? I can understand many Westerners don't really like it. I like An (red bean paste) but not much Mitsu (syrup - honey) and I don't like the jello in it.

It seems you ate mostly at hip restaurants (thanks to Minori?). I wonder if you found the food expensive there, except okonomi-yaki place(that's usually inexpensive) and the other you ate/drank a lot for 5000 yen.

Very promising start ! Looking forward to Kyoto part.

Great report! I know I dished the Excellent Ebisu, but it seems to have served you well. Tokyo is really fun, isn't it!?

Looking forward to reading the rest!

Hi Kappa,

Some of the restaurants might be called hip, but we didn't feel a pressure to dress any special way. And I was surprised at how relatively cheap meals were. The sushi feast with nabe was $50 each. The sushi breakfast was $40 each; we went for the chef's choice. The shabu-shabu place was $35 each. The ramen meals were $10 each. What makes Tokyo dining more affordable is the absence of additional tax and tip, which adds 25% to a meal in New York. So an $80 sushi meal in Tokyo is equiavalent to $62 meal (pre-tip in New York: $6 for tax, $12 for tip.)

Hi Kim, and thanks for your help at various points in planning my trip to Japan. You answered various questions along the way that helped a lot. The Hotel Excellent Ebisu did work out, but you were right: the rooms were nothing special. And like I mentioned, one of the bathrooms had an odd smell. We probably should've complained, but we were so happy there somehow. We weren't in the room much, and we loved the location.

One thing we could've used was a map of Tokyo. We were amazed at how few maps there were. The Time Out map was not very guide and definitely not comprehensive; our neighborhood was discussed, but there was no map. That was a funny thing we noticed about our trip. In Chiang Mai there were maps everywhere. Kyoto was flush with free maps. But in Tokyo there were none, and in Luang Prabang you had to pay a dollar for a halfway decent map, (emphasis on the halfway); the map provided by our hotel there covered about a block and looked like it had been written in 7 seconds by a bored five-year old.

Yes, tips and tax are the killers in USA and maybe especially in NYC.

We leave for Thailand and Cambodia next week so I am looking forward to reading the rest of your report!

Thanks for posting!

Tamara

I forgot to say it's good to know you enjoyed sento-onsen. It's not for everybody and especially when you are a foreign visitor. Was that your adventurous side? Even in Asakusa, the most traditional area of Tokyo, not many of them exist, I think. How did you find it? Also was it a real onsen (natural thermal water bath) or sento (literally pay to bathe - a bath house) usually with artificially heated water?

alibi, excellent report. do you know the name of the sushi bar that you went to twice in naka-meguro? when in japan, i try to eat sushi at least once a day, sometimes twice. always looking for new places to try.

btw, mealea also gave me a great restaurant tip called ukai toriyama. its outside the city but it was great.

alibi:
Great report, don't you just love Tokyo? We'll be back there in a few weeks and just can't wait. Sounds like you had a good time. Looking forward to the rest of your report as we have almost the same itinerary as you.
When are you going back?
Aloha!

Great report, keep it coming!

I love the amount of details in your report. Loojking forward to Kyoto - that's where we are thinking of going.

wonderful report...look forward to more...and can't wait to see what you like about bkk.. if anything

alibi, I have been saying how we are in need of some fresh Japan reports on the board and here is one. I know how much time it takes to write the reports - thank you so much for taking the time.

It is so cool that you met up w/Mealea. Maybe we will get to do so also since my daughter and I are staying in Ebisu again at the Westin in April.

A Japanese chihuahua named Apple...I had a vision of that the entire time I read the report.

I am printing out your report to take w/me. Esp. appreciate the dining info.

I found that the best way to get around Tokyo for us was to have a good subway/train map of the entire city, then have maps or narrative access info printed from the web (when they are available) of where the place is in realation to the subway/train stops. Like you, we still had a hard time finding some places though.

Kappa, the place i went to in Asakusa may have been a senso and not an onsen. I'm not sure. I didn't ask if the water was naturally thermal or artificially heated. It cost like $7 to visit. It was the opposite of fancy. I read about it in Time Out.

Emd, Meeting up with Melea was great. She has so much travel wisdom and is very generous. I bet the Westin in Ebisu is great. I stopped into the one in Kyoto and was quite impressed.

Kuranosuke, I do not know the name of the place I ate sushi twice. It is along the river. It is a white building, with a blue awning. It is partially under a bridge, and has a blue and white Asahi sign. (I have a picture of the place.) To get there, we exited the metro station and crossed the street and went bac a block and turned to the right I think. It is within 30 seconds of the Naka-Meguro metro station. If you give your e-mail address, I'll try to send a photo of the place.

always looking a good sushi bar. [email protected]. domo.

Great initial report! Of all the trip reports I've read, yours comes the closest to mirroring what I would like to do (museums, temples/shrines, and eating being my priorities).

We went to the Ota Ukiyo-E museum last time and loved it! Apparently the installation changes every month so its very rare to see the same thing more than once. We're going back to Japan at the end of March and I'm hoping we can make it to the Edo Tokyo museum then, especially now after hearing your good words.

alibi13, thanks for the great report. I'm looking forward to the shinkansen trip and Kyoto.

alibi, take a sick day from work and give us some more of your post before you forget it. We need it.

ttt

I'm loving your report. It brought back wonderful memories of our trip to Japan 2 years ago. We ate sushi at least once per day and I was amazed at how fresh it was, much better than anything I've ever had here in NYC, and much cheaper. We ate for much less money than you did in Japan but I didn't write down any of the names of the restaurants we went to. I won't make that mistake again.

Looking forward to the rest of your report, I've been to all of the places and going back to Bangkok in May. It's always nice to read what other people think and get different perspectives.

thanks for a fabulous report. it sounds like everything i would love to do should i ever get there - as another member said, interesting museums and great food.

Day 7, Tokyo to Kyoto, 12/21 Wednesday

The train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was a breeze. C and I shared a soda, a bottle of green tea, and two hours or so later we were in Kyoto. Getting from Kyoto Station to our hotel was even easier, as we were staying in Hotel Granvia, which is built directly on top of the super-modern Kyoto Station. We booked our room through utell.com and got a decent rate, a little under $200 a night. The hotel is fairly luxurious and huge, almost 600 rooms. Normally C and I are more comfortable in smaller hotels, but we really enjoyed the Granvia. Our room was large, on the 10th floor or so, with a good view. The robes and slippers in the room were really cozy. The beds were hard, but super comfortable. The bathtub was big enough for two people. The toilet seat heated. The bathroom mirror had a face-sized section that must’ve been cooled or heated from within, as it remained steam-free even during hot showers.

By the time we got settled into our room and then ready to eat, it was after 9 pm. Most of the restaurants in the station were shutting down. So we walked outside the station, thinking we might find something halfway decent nearby. This was a mistake, as we later found out that the best restaurants in that part of town are actually in the series of malls connected to the station. Usually in the US it seems like it’s the other way around; you must escape the giant mall complex to find something authentic and good. We strolled around the streets surrounding the station and settled on a yakitori bar on a side street. C’s ramen noodles were pretty good, but my yakitori was really awful: bland, poor quality. Oh well.

Day 8, Thursday 12/22

We woke, looked out the window; lo and behold it was snowing. I went downstairs to the tourist office in the Kyoto Station complex and tried to get some maps. I experienced a wave of frustration; I felt like I had just begun to learn how to get around Tokyo and now I was in a totally new city, with a different public transportation system. Also we didn’t have a guidebook for Kyoto, just some printouts from the Fodors and Frommers website, so I really didn’t know what to see. I went upstairs, pulsating and confused. C calmly suggested we talk to the concierge in our hotel. I had never really used a concierge before, but I must admit the experience was wonderful. She was very sweet, took her time with us, gave us several maps, helped set-up an itinerary with clear transportation instructions. (She also gave us some restaurant tips that later turned out to be brilliant.) She told us that we should go to Kinkakuki, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion because it would be beautiful in the snow. So we took a subway and then waited about 5 minutes for a 15-minute, crowded bus ride. The bus was much less comfortable than the subway, but we kind of enjoyed being crammed in there, how everyone is pushed forward and together.

We got off the bus at the Golden Pavilion. All I can say is wow. It was so intoxicating to be there, amidst all the pine trees, with chunky snowflakes flurrying down. The contrast of the gold building, with the water and the pure white was enchanting. We strolled through the pathways of the Pavilion taking pictures. I was glad to have just read Mishima’s book in the voice of the deranged monk who destroyed the Golden Pavilion decades before.

We bussed it back to the metro station and then took the subway to Nijo Castle, built around 1600. We found it very interesting to compare a Japanese castle with ones we had visited in Europe; Nijo seemed familiar, yet different. Upon entering, we had to take off our shoes. Our feet were rather chilly, but luckily our socks were not super-wet, despite having tramped through the snow. We loved the squeaky sounds our feet made on the wooden “nightingale” floors; the floors were designed to squeak so as to expose any intruder, even a tiptoeing one. We loved how simple and toned down Nijo Castle was; in our minds, European castles suddenly seemed crowded with objects and garish. We noted the minimalist tatami rugs in each room. It was interesting to see paintings applied directly to walls and sliding panels; the wall and the painting became one and the same, whereas in Europe the painting is constructed separately and then hung on the wall. This touched on a broader observation: in Japan art and function seemed to be tightly intertwined, hence the elaborate presentation of food, the artistry of ceramic bowls, even the beauty of well-designed kimonos.

We took the audio tour of Nijo, which we both found worthwhile, and then explored the extensive gardens. Then we took the subway back home. We were very happy to be back in our nice, clean, spacious room. C took a bath and a nap; I went down to the hotel pool. They charged me $10 to use the facilities, which I guess is the tendency in Japanese hotels. The pool and sauna were so nice though that I hardly minded the expense. I was a little taken aback by a sign at the pool entry desk though that stated: “no alcohol, no people who have been drinking alcohol, and no people with tattoos”; (I have two small ones.) Swimming laps in the pool was hugely relaxing, and after a steam room, I was feeling fresh and ripe for dinner; in our daytime explorations we had neglected to eat lunch. We decided to follow the concierge’s advice and eat within the station/mall complex; there must be over a 100 options in there. She circled three of them in particular. We went to the 11th floor of an adjacent mall complex. There are other floors with restaurants in that particular building, but the 11th floor is the one with the high-class options: over a dozen. Part of me didn’t trust this eating in a mall concept, but we were tired, and it was cold out. We went into a place the concierge recommended, Wakudan (not sure about the exact spelling). Can you say heaven? The two choices are the $50 set menu (per person) and the $80 set menu. We went with the $50 meal, and it was one of the best meals we’ve ever had. It was an 8-course kaiseki meal, meaning an array of small, unique dishes presented one after the other. The food was all exquisitely prepared. Often we had no idea what we were eating, but we didn’t mind, and the staff was so friendly—showing us pictures of the fish they were serving. One dish was called a “sea breeze” I think. There was also a frothy miso broth with clams in it. There was some sashimi and other delicious concoctions, all finished off with slices off a giant apple that appeared to be the size of a small bowling ball. The extremely pleasant staff kept our cups of roasted tea filled throughout the night. We later found out that the Wakudan restaurant in the mall was a low-cost alternative to their main restaurant, which charges $350 per person for dinner. We took the elevator down from the 12th floor of the mall, walked thirty feet across the train station and entered our hotel.

Thinking about it now, the Hotel Granvia and all the restaurants in Kyoto Station kind of remind me of the new Time Warner Center in New York. Maybe also a little like Siam Paragon in Bangkok. All new malls with really fancy stores and super-fancy restaurants. Malls that don’t fit into the narrow connotations of the word “mall”. Malls that destroy assumptions and re-define the term.

Day 9, Friday 12/23

It wasn’t snowing anymore, but there was still some white stuff on the ground. We started our day with pastries and yummy plain Belgian waffles from a shop in the ground floor of the train station, then took a bus to Ginkakuji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion. This part of Kyoto, the Northeast, is especially charming. We felt like we were in an upscale mountain town somewhere in Colorado. The Silver Temple was impressive, and the manicured grounds looked great covered in snow. We especially loved the contrast of red leaves on the branches of several bushes and the hyper-whiteness of the snowy branches being hit by the sun. It was a very pleasant experience, just strolling through the grounds. For some reason, I thought going to a temple would be: enter, look, leave. But it’s much more about the approach, and walking along curved paths, and seeing the temple from various angles, and being in this aesthetically reassuring environment: bamboo railings on the stone staircase, well-situated ponds, carefully trimmed trees.

We then walked down the philosopher’s path along the narrow waterway. C loved the sound of the snow crunching under her feet. It was a very charming endeavor with many little bridges and temples sprinkled along the way. We then caught a bus to make our 2 pm reservation at Moritaya, a restaurant that specializes in sukiyaki. Again, all I can say is heaven. We had our own private room, with a sliding glass door facing a rock garden. We sat on tatami mats. A traditionally-dressed waitress brought in a mini-stove and proceeded to make our sukiyaki meal. It was about $45 each for fairly high-quality beef. The place had a higher level of beef that was $80 a person that is supposedly on par with Kobe beef, but our concierge told us that for sukiyaki it is almost a waste to get such high-grade beef as there is so much sauce etc. The thin-slices of beef that we had in our sukiyaki was so far above anything we had ever had in the US. That is one problem with going to Japan: it may ruin Japanese food in the US for you. (We went for sushi last night in New York to a place we used to like, and it was suddenly very unimpressive.)

Our all-purpose waitress/cook mixed in a chunk of fat to grease and flavor the bottom of the pot, then she sprinkled sugar on. We didn’t know that sugar was an ingredient, but it makes perfect sense as sukiyaki is so sweet. She then threw in slices of chopped beef and poured in a pre-mixed broth of some sort. She offered us each raw eggs; C declined, I accepted. You crack open the raw egg and stir it around, and then you dip the food from the hot pot into the raw egg before feeding it into your mouth. I guess the raw egg serves two purposes: taste obviously, but maybe also to cool the food down. I’m just guessing. It may sound strange, but it is delicious. She then mixed in onions, tofu, some green vegetables that I don’t know the name for, and more razor-thin slices of beef. Our meal was punctuated by several small dishes, including a soup, some raw fish, and something pickled. Needless to say, by the end I was so full and content that when the waitress left the room, I let myself roll over to my side and recline. I could’ve slept in there for an hour. About fifteen minutes later, a new waitress walked in; I think she was taken aback by me lack of decorum, but I digress.

After our feast at Mortiya, we limped into Gion and visited one of the arts and craft complexes. We really, really liked a set of ceramic tea cups, but were worried about lugging them around for three weeks without damaging them, and we also worried about the weight of our suitcases. In hindsight, I wish we would’ve bought them. They were lovely. I guess I thought (wrongly) that I might find something similar in Thailand. We wandered around Gion for a few hours, enjoying it mostly, and stumbled upon some geishas right around sunset. That was exciting for us. We also noticed what appeared to be geisha paparazzi staked out with huge cameras, waiting to capture the geishas on film.

We took a bus home and relaxed. After our huge, delicious lunch, a bag of chips and a bath was fine for dinner.

Day 10, 12/24, Saturday
We took a bus to the Nanzenji Temple, the shrine right by the Westin Hotel. This complex was interesting enough, and we enjoyed our hour there, but it was not nearly as stunning as the Silver or Golden Pavilion. (How quick we get jaded.) We especially like the groups of well-dressed Japanese schoolboys in the vicinity; they were very dashing in their scarves, gray suits, and youthful exuberance.

Walking towards Higashiyama, we ducked into a non-descript café on the outskirts of Gion for a surprisingly delicious, inexpensive lunch. I had a bento box with fried chicken, a shrimp salad, some cold noodles, and miso, all for under 10 bucks. We then entered Maruyama Park and took a delightful walk through Higashiyama, the walk suggested by Frommers. We loved the narrow corridors and all the people watching, and the curves and hills of the street. There were lots of cute shops to duck into, and it was very pleasant to be outdoors, wandering around. The path eventually lead us to Kiyomizu Temple, which was jaw-dropping. It’s view of the city is magnificent, and the old wooden beams supporting the building’s weight are fascinating. Kiyomizu was crowded, but not in a way that was uncomfortable. We loved how there were so many young Japanese people there, and how festive it felt, as if we were at a carnival, not a temple.

We took a bus back to Granvia and got ready for a big kaiseki dinner that night at a place in Gion, Yogunburri, that I had read about in Frommers. I had huge expectations; Frommers had raved about it, and the kaiski meal we had two nights before was dynamite. All I can say is Yogunburri was a mega-disappointment. In hindsight, I should’ve asked the concierge if there was someplace better, should've included her more in the decision-making process. Yogunburri's best days seemed to be in the past. There was a has-been feeling in the air. The cooking was uninspired. The atmosphere bland. The people who worked there seemed bored. It wasn’t crowded. To be fair, some of the dishes were good, but overall it got a big thumbs down. (To make matters worse, the next day we asked the concierge where we should’ve gone, and she named a place not too far from where we ate, a place off the beaten path and very authentic.) After our mediocre meal, (the most expensive one of our whole trip: $80 each for 10 courses), we strolled through Gion. I began to despise the whole area, began to see it as a cousin of Reno, Nevada, a place whose heyday had come and gone. Obviously I was a little bitter as I had a pleasant reaction to Gion only a day before. Just goes to show what a bad meal can do to a tender traveler's psyche.

Day 11, 12/25, Kyoto

We got up early, went downstairs and boarded the train to Kansai Airport. We were there in 45 minutes. The airport was a little bit of a madhouse, but we checked in without too much of a wait, and boarded the plane for Bangkok (Thai Air), where we would then catch a connecting flight for Siem Reap (Bangkok Air). It seemed like we saw more Westerners on the 6-hour plane to Bangkok than we had during our whole 10 nights in Japan.

Wonderful report of Kyoto. I can't wait to return. One of the interesting things about Japan for me was that it is actually much less touristy and "western" than many of the places we think of as more exotic.

Hi Gloria,

Hope you had a great trip. I noticed on another thread that you mentioned you may have been in a cooking class with my wife. Could the world really be so small?

alibi:

Great report on Kyoto....one of the most comprehensive I've seen. You've just bolstered our confidence in our picking of the Granvia to stay in Kyoto.

That is the second positive report I've seen on Wakudan and will definitley put it on our must do list. Thanks for the wonderful report!

We leave in two weeks and I'm almost done packing :)

Aloha!

alibi-- I guess the fodor world is indeed very small. Not only was I in a class with your wife but we cooked our last dish together. :-)

Hawaiian Traveler,

Have fun at the Granvia. It's all very futuristic, and we enjoyed. Definitely talk to the conceirge for restaurant ideas. Wakudan was out of this world for us. Hope you like it. The sukiyaki place, Moritaya, also has a branch on the 11th floor of the attached mall.

A slight correction if you allow me. That's WakudEn with an E.

http://www.digistyle-kyoto.com/kikaku/kitasan/wakuden/

Above should remind you of the restaurant and the dinner you had. I see there is a view of Kyoto city from this restaurant located on the 11th floor of JR Kyoto - Isetan Dept.Store. Ok, I will try to eat one evening here at the end of this month.

The following is the site for their main restaurants.
http://www.wakuden.jp/

alibi, I loved your Kyoto report. A good concierge is worth their weight in gold, especially on a first trip to an area. Our concierge at the Westin Miyako helped us set up a fabric carft experience (I had the info but she made the call and they only spoke Japanese), then walked us through how to get there by cell phone when we got couldn;t find it, and asked them to stay open late for us while we found it. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our Tokyo trip, and I could not have done it without her. I plan to use the services of the concierge at the Okura hotel this time.

I went back and forth between the GRanvia and the Okura. I hope our experience at the Okura is as good as yours at the Granvia. The choices of restaurants in the mall at the Granvia is a big plus, but my daughter is vegetarian so we would likely need to take cabs/buses to dinner anyway. Rooms and service mean a lot to me and have a definite impact on my trip.

I did not make it to either the Golden or Silver Pavillions last time, will make sure to get to those. ANd although I was staying at the Miyako, we never made it to Nanzenji. So many things left to do in Kyoto.

I love your writing style also. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this posting.

Kappa,

Thank you for the correct spelling, and that is the view. We sat at the bar, looking right out that window. Hope you enjoy it.

*

Emd,

The Granvia may not be for everyone. There are certainly more charming areas of Kyoto. But we found something fun and futuristic about Granvia.

Wakuden looks very nice. Kappa, can you tell from their menu online if Wakuden (station location) would have selections for my daughter who is vegetarian (she'll eat fish broth for sake of this trip, but no meat or seafood)?

alibi, was there an English menu is sight there?

glorialf, how did you realize it was alibi's wife you were cooking with? That realization must have blown you away.

emd,

there was no english menu in sight, and i think the menu is fairly fish heavy, as the sweet guy behind the bar kept opening up a book and showing us different pictures of fish and then pointing at what we were eating.

emd-- I didn't realise it when I was in the class. The next day I read a post by alibi saying where he was staying and about LP and also saying that his wife had taken a cooking class the day before at the same place I had. Since I had spoken to his wife I knew where she was from, knew they had loved LP, knew her husband had not taken the class and knew where they were staying. So I made the connection.

Wow, that is almost freaky. That needs to go down in the fodors.com archives of strange and unplanned fodorite meetings. It might rank very high on the list.

emd, unfortunately the web site doesn't have the menu details. The only ones I have found there are the specials of the seasons : from Spring
"Bitterness of Spring" (some wild vegetables of spring time. )
"Hamo cha-zuke" (a bowl of rice in tea with hamo fish)
- Bamboo picked in the morning
- Yokan "Cherry blossom of the night" (red bean paste based dessert with glassed cherry blossom).

Above must be the dishes added to the regular menu for the spring time. The site does not say how each are prepared nor the prices of each although there are photos of them. Vegetable and bamboo ones look nice and they are probably cooked in fish or seaweed based broth. As alibi said, most of their main dishes are likely to contain fish/sea food flesh but there should be many vegetable side dishes as these vege/bamboo ones. And if you reserve the place through your hotel I suppose your concierge can request a vegetbale only menu for your daughter. The restaurant can do it if you request in advance.

Alibi, I'm looking forward to Thailand part. Interested to hear your impressisons on the country, contrasts and if ever similarities from your take on Japan.

kappa-san, i thought hamo was fresh water eel?

Am enjoying the Kyoto report and not finished with it.

Perhaps the "sea breeze" that you had was a fish called sea bream, or tai in Japanese. The tai sushi that you get in the USA is really red snapper, not sea bream.

The story on sea bream is that a fisherman was catching a lot of tai but it was not selling well. He created a jingle &quot;... tai, tai, tai, ...&quot; and an add campaign to promote the fish and it caught on. When I was at a ryokan in Miyajima the lady who served my dinner explained that the one item was sea bream. I said, &quot;oh tai, tai, tai&quot; and she replied &quot;so desu, tai tai tai, <i>happyfish</i>&quot;. :)

But, if what you were referring to was a drink then it could very well have been a sea breeze!

Nijo castle is unique among Japanese castles as well as being quite different from European castles. That is a great insight on Japanese art, that it reflects a desire to bring beauty into daily life.

Ooishi-san, since I don't eat eel/unagi nor hamo, I have never really paid attention to them and I did not bother looking for exact translation when I posted above, hence, I chose an easy/lazy way to put it - Hamo fish. Bus since you asked, I got interested and looked into several sites and my Japanese dictionary. Does fresh water mean like river/lake/non-salty water ? Then it seems contrary. Everywhere I saw hamo was defined as sea fish (resembling eel but with sharp teeth - in kansai area, they make kabayaki with hamo like they do with unagi). Unagi/eel cultivation at Lake Hamana is famous so it can be fresh water fish but I have not heard of hamo cultivation. So as far as I can tell, hamo is sea fish.

By the way, my dictionary translates it to &quot;conger pike&quot;. Does it mean anything to you?

kappa, ken, please see:
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guideb...h/text/124.htm