Photo Diary: Japan
Japan is a place I finally had the honor of crossing off my bucket list recently. The dorky cultural fascination with pastel cartoon characters, doll-like youthful fashions, and huge cultural points like respect, tea, cleanliness, and efficiency are details I’d read about and resonated with forever.
So to begin, if you’re looking for something offbeat- off the beaten path of European summer honeymooning anyways- you’ve come to the right country. To say that Japan isn’t romantic isn’t true. Take a step outside the bustling Tokyo-scape for a traditional Japanese Ryokan, with your own private onsen (hot spring), or go during transitional seasons of either Cherry Blossoms or Autumn. You’re going to tell me that a picnic in a cloud of cherry blossoms isn’t romantic? Or taking a hike through the mountainside during autumn foliage of the brightest red leaves doesn’t warm you from the inside out? OR taking a bath outside in your private Onsen together during a real typhoon as you overlook a flush forest on your room balcony isn’t a once in a lifetime experience? Sushi is also an aphrodisiac just saying. (I might have made that up don’t @ me).These seasons are highly celebrated festivities across the country, and although this itinerary is for off-season, I’ve made appropriate peak-season notes. I also had the best time taking pictures since wherever we went wasn’t as overbearingly crowded as I’d anticipated and read it’d be.
Notes on Food & Culture:
Our favorite restaurants of what we went to were
Bulgari— Tokyo (a splurge well worth it- just make sure to schedule this reservation for when you aren’t going to fall asleep in your pasta from jet lag! i.e. a few days into your trip)
Gonpachi — Tokyo (Kill Bill was famously filmed in this restaurant but that’s just a fun fact if you’ve got a love for Tarantino as I do- the food was so good that Maurice and I had reservations for lunch, and then promptly canceled our dinner reservations for our last night in Japan to come back)
Kyubey — Tokyo (We ate at this intimate 12-15 seat sushi counter restaurant and had the full omakase experience. This was our favorite because of its atmosphere. A lot of the other restaurants we went to for sushi omakase were a little more serious and fancy or too funky for our taste - picture crunchy sardine rice - and the energy was hopping the whole time we were there. We also ordered like 4 sake carafes but irrelevant details)
Sodoh Higashiyama — Kyoto in Gion (Italian… need I say more? No, but I will say that it’s also got a great atmosphere. It was a little hard to find among the hidden alleys of the Gion district in Kyoto, but the entrance is a driveway guarded by someone who will escort you to the front door up the drive, and nestled between a grove of trees and ponds. The restaurant has a cozy vibe with dark woods and wide windows so that you can see outside the trees and ponds. Food was great also, like I said good Italian)
La Vedutah — Osaka at the St. Regis (More italian! We stayed in the St. Regis in Osaka towards the end of our trip, and were pretty burnt out at that point from touring, walking, and drowning in raw fish. When consulting concierge about where to go- which is how we found the best local gems of our trip honestly- we were stubborn about locating a well made pasta. Concierge suggested trying the hotel restaurant (Although they tried first to recommend outside locales which couldn’t accommodate our kosher dietary restrictions of no meat or shellfish) At dinner, the chef personally came over to our table to wish us a happy honeymoon and let us know to feel free to let our server know whatever our hearts desired whether it was on the menu or not. Then he came back out at the end of our meal again and we spoke with him for a bit. It was such a nice easy experience and taste of home —mmm carbs— that we also went back here a second time.)
Atelier Morimoto XEX — Tokyo (At this sushi restaurant we decided to take a break from the Omakase and order our favorite pieces and apps at the counter. Our chef was super friendly, and the entire counter of three chefs joined in our conversation- one with great English too. Even though its an upscale spot, this restaurant felt comfortable. We were greeted at the door, and made comfortable ordering within our kosher means at the counter the entire time. Then when we finished and asked to see a dessert menu, our chef(s) told us that they had a surprise for us, and the hostess led us upstairs to a private lounge with a fireplace to order dessert and drinks. They brought out a surprise dessert cart for us before we’d seen a menu though. They took a picture of us with it, and before leaving they handed us an envelope with two printed copies of the photo they’d taken earlier in the evening. It was something truly special. To top it all off, they sent us to any destination we wanted after dinner in a company car.)
Ukaitei Omotesando — Tokyo (At this restaurant, we missed our reservations on the first stop in Tokyo, and they were accommodating enough to take us on the second half without charging us for the missed original resos. The fish is cooked right in front of you like hibachi style and so good. The staff was so nice about our food restrictions too which you don't encounter everywhere)
Some pleasant surprises and personal gripes…
The public transportation is not only clean, but also super efficient and easy to use. We thought that using our JR Passes would take some getting used to but after the necessary first day learning experience, we skilled transportation around the cities. That’s not to toot our own horn, that’s to toot the Japanese horn for making it so fool proof. When you buy a bullet train pass they assign you a car, and seat number. You think you’ll have to then go out of your way figuring out which car is what number like trying to find a friend on NJ Transit (disaster FYI), but the platform is labeled with which car stops where. Maybe this is just a coming face to face of my frustrations with the MTA as a New Yorker, but for any foreigner they’ve got the infrastructure for public transportation down pat in Japan.
Quick one right here, I’d like to take a moment of appreciation for how clean their public transport is too. And actually not just the pubic transportation, but the streets in general too. When you go, just let me know your theory as to how- considering theres NO GARBAGE CANS ANYWHERE. I never realized how much garbage I run through daily until going to Japan. So when you walk around Tokyo and really take a look around, you’lll notice that not only are the streets impeccably clean (@gloriachattah and I joked you can eat off them- please no one actually take this too seriously, just wanted to make this point) but you’re going to carry around any empty bottles or wrappers for blocks until you find a waste bin.
Something that really made Japan an amazing cultural experience was the friendliness of EVERYONE. Here’s a story for you. One night in Kyoto, Maurice and I had the rare opportunity (because most of the best places need reservations) of exploring the streets of Gion spontaneously walking into places to find dinner. We saw a hopping place, that looked crowded with people- mostly locals- and stepped in. Now talking about restaurants with good atmosphere- this place was THAT. Literally bustling with action, music, and smelled so delicious it felt like we stepped into yet another country. We were led upstairs where everyones shoes were kicked off by the steps (one of the only messes we encountered) and everyone gathered around low tables by the floor around a small room like a squashed food hall at camp. We were so excited until we looked at the menu and on the cover said cash only, then further disappointed ourselves by realizing we could barely accommodate being kosher here. So we said we didn’t have enough yen on us, and we’d go find an atm then come back. Being Americans (or just assholes?) we didn’t plan on coming back and thought they’d be the wiser to figure that out. But a guy from the kitchen stepped out, slid on sandals over his socks by the stairs and started leading us down the street towards an ATM he knew. My anxiety was through the roof- how would we be able to get rid of him? Maurice tell him we’re not eating there!! Maurice tells the guy, “we’re actually not going to come back, thinking about it” I thought the guy would get annoyed and say something- he only kept walking with a smile on his face kindly still taking us to the ATM he knew nearby assuming we still needed it. Just so you know I choked back a tear. No chef in the city with a bustling restaurant with customers to tend to would even help us out to begin with, let alone help us out once we were no longer paying customers.
Small notes on food & culture:
Whenever speaking with locals, they were so excited to welcome us to Japan. They would always thank us for coming. Kawaii!!
Eating kosher isn’t easy and if you plan on keeping it, we highly suggest making reservations in advance (do that anyways because the best places get booked and it makes scheduling your day easier) so the chefs can accommodate. A lot of the restaurants offer only set menus and when creating their menu for the day they base it on available ingredients at local markets and take into consideration customers with reservations that have dietary restrictions.
Notes on activities & sightseeing:
My favorite temples and shrines were Senso-Ji Temple, Meiji Shrine, Hakone Shrine, Tenryu-ji Temple and Ninna-ji Temple.
I thought going to Fushimi Inari would be way cooler than it was, but its still a must see. I definitely recommend doing the hike halfway up, and earlier in the day. We got there a little closer to dark and one of the hike entrances was closed and with all the crowds, it was hard the navigate and getting buggy/dark out so we didn’t get the full experience we probably would have otherwise wanted.
My ideal day in Tokyo: (a very long day but possible)
Tsukiji fish market at 7 am, Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi Park & Meiji Shrine, Takeshita street, wander the streets of Harajuku for awesome shopping, Ukaitei Omotesando for lunch (during Harajuku shopping), Shibuya crossing at rush hour, Gonpachi dinner, Roppongi Hills bar district
Ideal day in Hakone: Lake Ashi (walk around and rent a boat), Hakone Shrine, lunch (make resos! We wandered and couldn’t find anything then gorged at dinner), relax at Ryokan
Ideal day in Kyoto: Arashiyama Bamboo Grove/ Tenryu-Ji Temple, Iwatayama Monkey Park, explore that lake area (get Matcha lattes or ice cream and lunch), Ninna-ji temple, Kinkaku-ji temple, to go back to that restaurant we stumbled into and got so drunk on Sake at and made friends with that Australian couple)
*day mostly in Arashiyama which I have to note is the most traditional area of Kyoto and really feels the most foreign of the cities we visited. I say foreign in the best way possible, most of our travels because it was in cities felt very similar to the bustling manhattan we live in, but Arashiyama was the perfect balance of slow paced, traditional, and still easy to navigate for my taste.
Ideal day in Osaka: Sleep in at the St. Regis (in the Royal Suite if you can arrange that) have hotel breakfast (get the avocado & truffle eggs benedict), Osaka Castle, Universal Studios at 3 PM (they have cheaper rates and also you can get the experience you want still if you stay until late) dinner at the hotel, explore Dotonburi for nightlife
I wish I could have gone to Hokkaido, and we should have pushed ourselves to have done the Hiroshima/Miyajima day trip with a stop at Himeji Castle either on the way there or back. It’s on our itinerary, but we slept in that morning and enjoyed a relaxing day wandering the area nearby. We made up for the chill day by doing Universal Studios Japan the next day- which should have been in the itinerary but wasn’t! I didn’t think we’d want to do something that we’ve both done multiple times back in the states, but it was still a unique experience. Our trip was mid October, and close to Halloween, so everyone was dressed in costume from early in the day and there was a fright fest situation at night with people walking around pulling fake chainsaws and scaring people (my favorite).
