Kathie

Thanks so much for taking us along on your trip. I've loved following you. We had planned a trip with a similar itinerary several years ago but had to cancel due to the illness of a family member. Somehow, we've not managed to reschedule it, but reading your report makes me think it's time to do so.

hawaiiantraveler

Kathie, yes its about time.

Thanks again ms_go, loved the report!

Aloha!

Mara

I'm in Ueno Tokyo now reading your enjoyable report - we went to a few of the same places - will look at your pix in a few days when I am back home. It's quite warm here in Tokyo now - probably 60 F. at least...thanks for sharing!

ms_go

Thanks, everyone!

Kathie, yes...you should plan a trip to Japan.

Mara, I hope you're having a great trip. After the beautiful weather at the end of the trip, we came home to some snow on the ground (gone now, fortunately).

<b>Eating</b>

We are not foodies or necessarily big eaters, and for the most part, we don’t prepare a list of restaurants in advance for our trips. Nevertheless, we do like Japanese food (although DD doesn’t like fish—cooked or raw). And, we are just adventurous enough to try places that have limited or no English.

In general, we ended up having a sit-down meal at lunch time and something lighter in the evening. On the second night, I introduced mr_go and DD to the concept of department store basement food halls (depachikas), and this was pretty much our evening go-to option for the rest of the trip. Not only did it help us keep our food expenditures in check; it allowed us to try a variety of things. We’re already missing our evening run for gyoza, sushi and assorted other goodies.

What better to start with than something we see little of at home: okonomi-yaki. I visited Okonomi-mura (the building full of little okonomi-yaki stalls) in Hiroshima during my last trip. I was sure the others would enjoy it as much as I did, and I wasn’t wrong.

From a recommendation here, we sought out Sakura-tei (http://www.sakuratei.co.jp/en/index.html ) in Harajuku for lunch on our first full day in Tokyo, and this turned out to be a lot of fun. This is one of those cook-it-yourself places. We tried three different things: okonomi-yaki (Hiroshima style), monja-yaki (Tokyo-style), and yaki-soba. We needed a little help with the monja, but the restaurant had some cards with drawings to assist us. There are various rooms; we were upstairs. A little of the beaten path, but the website has a great map that guided us right there. Thank you to Mary2Go for the recommendation. It was a big hit with all of us, particularly DD (the place tends to be frequented by the younger set).

At the end of our trip, we had dinner at Okonomi-mura in Hiroshima. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find it, but I did have a brochure (all in Japanese) from my last trip, and it was well marked on the included map. We basically walked in, walked upstairs, and picked one of the stalls with a few open seats. No English here—save for a sign on the wall with a few options written in English: regular, with soba, and with udon. We ordered one of each along with a round of beer, and enjoyed watching them being cooked.
http://www.okonomimura.jp/index.html
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p...7f41#h213c7f41

Two other restaurants we enjoyed…

Tatsumiya in Asakusa. We were tired and hungry and kind of stumbled in here because, unlike many of the nearby restaurants, there was no wait. We sat in the tatami section and pretty much went nuts with the menu (as I said, we were hungry): spring rolls, unagi, maguro zuke donburi, duck/leek nabe, and so forth. Roughly $70 with drinks; I think this was my favorite meal of the trip.
http://www.fodors.com/world/asia/jap...iew-38975.html
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p...28d7#h103928d7

Kyoto Gontaro. Again, we stumbled in here; we were having trouble finding a place open for lunch on the walk between Eikan-do and the Heian Shrine. We saw a few people waiting outside and decided to join them. It had both western and tatami seating; we were in the latter. A rough English menu and very little English spoken. We managed to order pretty well and enjoyed tempura, udon, oyako donburi, etc.
http://gontaro.co.jp/

Otherwise, we particularly enjoyed one little noodle shop on Komachi-dori in Kamakura and a small restaurant on Junishomae-dori (near the train station) in Himeji, although we couldn’t begin to tell you the name of either. The latter had no English menu and no English spoken. We pointed at some photos, still not sure what we were getting, and it was all very good. DD did learn here that when one orders yaki-tori, at least one of the skewers may in fact be liver (“…this one has a really odd texture”).
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p...87c52#h5287c52

Just a few other notes on food. The momiji manju, alone, were worth a return trip to Miyajima. I dragged mr_go and DD around the very crowded shopping area until I could find the place I bought them the last time (baked on premises); fortunately, these little cakes filled with various things (bean curd, custard, chocolate, etc.) lived up to the hype. Oh, and even though it was a little chilly, we enjoyed the green tea ice cream; can’t often find that at home.

Considering our lack of language skills, we ate well on this trip—and generally quite reasonably.

hawaiiantraveler

ms_go, I can still smell those maple leaf shaped manju from Miyajima, ahhhhhh

I am starving after reading this part of the report. I am thinking of changing our dinner reservations we have tonight with our in laws to a Japanese restaurant, lol

Aloha!

speckles

Great photos!

ms_go

Thanks, speckles.

HT, I was just about ready to head for our favorite local sushi place after writing that. But, we ended up with something we like just as well: Thai.

More to come soon. I had that nagging feeling that there was something I should be doing...and then I looked at the calendar and realized April 15 is Wednesday. So the rest of the trip report may have to wait until the taxes are done.

ms_go

I haven’t forgotten about this. We’ve been a little busy, plus I decided it would be much more interesting to share what our 16-year-old daughter thought about all of this. So, she has written the next few installments. I’ll add a few comments now and then.


Stepping onto the flight there, I had some notion of what I would be seeing. It would be like the pictures from a manga book, in my mind. The people would be friendly, the cities would be clean, and the cherry blossoms would be beautiful. But, of course, it was so much more than that.

I knew that Japan was one of the technological leaders of the world. I also knew that it was one of the most traditional societies in the world. It walks that fine line with utmost care, never faltering completely to one side. Side by side (almost), I saw bullet trains and rickshaws. Arcades and tea houses. Geishas and cosplayers. It’s a magical place, some fairytale world straight from the imagination. Only, I’m not quite that imaginative.

ms_go

Gyoza. Okonomi-yaki. Yaki-tori. Donburi.

Before I went to Japan, I had no idea what these were. They could have been obscure bands, for all I knew. But during those days in Tokyo and Kyoto, these became staples, fallbacks when we weren’t sure what the menu was offering.

I knew that eating in Japan would be difficult for me. I am a strict no-seafood eater, which presents a problem in the sushi capital of the world. Could I be adventurous enough to survive? When it came down to it, on the first actual day of eating real Japanese cuisine, I surprised myself. I absolutely, completely, and utterly fell head-over-heels in love with it. Okonomi-yaki was the first item to be tried, during lunch in Harajuku. Even though our clothes ended up smelling like it for days and days to come, it was a huge hit. Lunch the next day was even better, with a duck and leek rice bowl and miso soup combination that was easily the best meal of the trip. In fact, it was only very rarely that we ever encountered bad food. Mostly, the way our meal schedules would work was that we would have lunch around 1-2, then head to the market for lots of nibbles of all varieties. Gyoza was purchased nearly every day, along with yaki-tori. The parentals enjoyed their sushi immensely.

Once the trip was over, once we were state-side again, and I was wandering the hallways of the high school, I found myself trying to describe to friends this incredible food. I mostly made it sound very unappetizing:

Me: Oh, Donburi is a rice bowl, with chicken or duck or something in it, and a raw egg on top…

Friend: Eww, raw egg?? Isn’t that not good for you? Like, full of disease and stuff?

Me: Well, they serve the rice really hot, and it cooks the egg, so you mix it around in the bowl…

Friend: Whatever.

When I tried describing my favorite Japanese soup, miso, as a bean paste soup, with strands of seaweed, cubes of tofu, and green onions in it, everyone around me turned a slight shade of green. I guess it’s something one only understands from experience.

ms_go

For lack of a better word, the <b>Ghibli Museum,</b> which celebrates all things Miyazaki in the world, is completely and utterly <i>kawaii.</i> If you know what the word “kawaii” means, congratulations. You are a 12-18 year old girl. For those souls who don’t know, it is a word that mostly American fangirls will use when they find something precious beyond words. In other words, it’s cute.

The Ghibli museum embodies the essence of cuteness. Everywhere you look, there are plushies of your favorite Miyazaki characters with bright, happy faces. The walls are painted in sunshiny colors, and birdcage spiral staircases lead to the ivy-covered roof area, which has a life-size statue of the robot from <i>Castle in the Sky.</i> This is very obviously a children's museum, since almost everything is built so that tiny kids can reach them. There are tunnels that lead to nowhere and a giant Cat Bus to climb around on. But what were fascinating were the explanations of how the films are made.

I’m a big fan of Miyazaki, and have watched many of his films, such as the very popular <i>Spirited Away.</i> So, being in a place dedicated to his work is a thrill in itself. But actually witnessing the process of putting together the character sheets, to sketching the story boards, to inking and coloring and animating...that was an unexpected treat. I got to see how Kiki from <i>Kiki’s Delivery Service</i> evolved in her design, and how they would animate characters over a background. In a dark room on the first floor, there’s even a brief introduction to the history of animation, and how it is done.

Though we got there as early as we did, the museum was still jam-packed. The crowd in the gift shop was actually sort of frightening. I later realized that several field trips of grade-school classes were there, which made walking about slightly dangerous. But we braved these throngs, and made our way to the screening room, to watch a 20-minute short film. I have no idea what it was called. I have no idea what it was about. I have no idea what they were even saying, since it was all in Japanese. But I loved it, just as I loved being able to spend even just a few hours in Miyazaki’s world.

<i>My notes:</i> Ordering tickets before leaving home is essential. I did so a few weeks in advance through the JTB office at Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights and tucked the voucher into my travel file. So, Monday morning found us happily seated on the Chuo line headed out to Mitaka for our morning at the museum. One or two stops into the ride, I had this sudden, sinking feeling: I’d left the voucher in the hotel room. Knowing we’d have no chance of getting in without it, we jumped off the train at the next stop, crossed the platform, and hopped onto a train returning to Shinjuku station. We decided that mr_go and DD would wait inside the JR station while I ran back for the passes. Not thinking, I ran toward the exit, placed my Suica card on the reader...and the red light went off and the gates closed. I never thought about the implications of entering and exiting the same station simultaneously. Not allowed. I made my way to the manned station where, unfortunately, any Japanese I learned in advance was useless for explaining that I left something important in my hotel room and was trying to return to retrieve it. I’m pretty sure the agent understood nothing I said, but eventually he took my card and “reset” it. Fifteen minutes later, I was back in the station (gingerly placing my card on the entrance reader, wondering what would happen) and we were back on the way to Mitaka—only about 35 minutes behind our original schedule.

Potential problem number two happened as we arrived at the museum. Apparently, the JTB agent who issued our voucher made a mistake in entering our visit date and then used whiteout to change it, leaving a fairly obvious correction on the voucher. The first employee we encountered instantly zeroed in on the whiteout, leading to several conferences while we stood in the front yard, not sure we’d be granted entrance after all our efforts to get there (after the train episode, we walked over a mile from the Mitaka station to the museum). Finally, they waved us in, and we proceeded to enjoy the museum for the next couple of hours. And, I might add that it was nice to get out of the city and see a bit of “suburbs.”

ms_go

Back to DD's report:

I was actually a little disappointed by <b>Harajuku,</b> I’m sorry to say. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a really cool place, very lively and charming. But I was there on a mission to see some cosplayers.

Sure, there were cosplayers about. Some were milling about near the station, strutting around in their homemade costumes. There was even a long line of girls dressed in frilly lolita, stretched as far as the eye could see (apparently for some audition). But there didn’t seem to be a set place where they were all hanging around, as I’d hoped <i>(mom's note: I think we were maybe a little early in the day, as we finished up in Harajuku by about 1:30pm).</i> And the few good cosplays we did see really surprised me. The youngest could have been around 12 or 13, but by far the oldest cosplayer was, indeed, old. Her hair may have been gray and frizzled, but her black Lolita get-up was as good as any of those around her.

You can always tell when someone has put in a lot of effort on their costume. It’s obvious. Some that we saw that day by the train station were so good, they could have stepped right off an anime poster. The few guys who were cosplaying had their hair perfectly spiked, and dyed several varieties of unnatural hues. I even recognized a few characters.

Overall, Harajuku was an enjoyable excursion. The food we had was great, the little shops and alleyways made for good picture taking, and it was great to see that side of Tokyo.

More later...

262runr

bookmarking this site!