As I stated just above Tokyo is vast. So vast in fact after our first day of wondering around in this neon wonderland I learned it was best to think of it as a constellation of cites grown together rather than a single city. With this perspective we spent our days exploring through each district and learned how each of them vary wildly by character, from the electronic blare of Akihabara to the Meji Shrines hidden peacefully in the teenybopper haven of Shibuya. So if you don’t happen to enjoy where you are just hop on the train because in only a metro stop or two you will find yourself in the midst of something entirely different.

We stayed in Shibuya, aka the hyperactive youth culture mecca. Other than the crazy cross walk I told you about in the first Japan blog post, this neon lit wonderland is full of young teenyboppers in some of the craziest outfits I’ve ever seen. This is one of those districts they tell you to spend a day in wondering around and people watching, and I can definitely say Shibuya was one of the highlights of our trip. Only a few blocks away from here was a trendy sub area by the name of Harajuku, which quickly became our favorite place in all of Tokyo. The little shops and funky vibe took me straight back to Soho New York. We also found the most amazing sushi restaurant here, Midori Sushi. Thank goodness we were close to this place because even though there is a huge line every night and no reservations we found it to be our favorite sushi in the city!

Just beside Harajuku lies a relaxing getaway in the mist of the chaos, the Meji Shine and Yoyogi Park. Meiji Jingū Built in commemoration of Emperor Meiji in 1920, is Tokyo’s grandest shrine. Like all of Japan’s major shrines, it’s large in scale but simple in structure, entered via a winding path and through a giant torii gate. A short walk through the gardens of the Shine and you find the popular Yoyogi Park. Sunday’s are the best day to visit this park while it is used as a meeting ace for local musicians and martial arts practice.

Another one of our favorite areas was the Ginza district. Ginza literally “Silver Mint”, is in the Chuo ward. It is considered the high fashion center of the city and contains many upscale shops and har beautiful Christmas decorated department store fronts while we were there. At night the streets are lit with Christmas lights and a tree sits outside the Mikimoto store to celebrate the Holidays. Just north of this district is Tokyo’s famous electronic city, Akihabara. With Tyler being an electronics fanatic he was in paradise. We spent the day wondering around discovering all their crazy gadgets, trying to figure out the Japanese obsession with gaming and comic books, and browsing through the mass amounts of Hello Kitty accessories. It was quite the experience!

Another part of this district and one of our very favorite stops was the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. This market is the largest fish market in the world handling two thousand tons of fish daily. This place was worth the visit just to explore through the 1600 stalls of bizarre sea creatures, including large blue fin tuna, live shell fish, deep sea crabs, eels and salmon. They market holds the infamous early morning tuna auctions which behind around 4:30 in the morning and are supposed to be amazing to see, however they shut down visitors views this time of year so unfortunately we weren’t able to watch this, but we did get to see the vendors rush back to their stalls and begin preparing their freshly bought high quality tuna from the auction. I swear I had never seen tuna the size of this in my life, it was fascinating.

Roppongi was another district we loved spending a day. It is home to the beautiful area of Roppongi Hills where you can go to the top of the Mori Tower with the breathtaking 360 degree view of Tokyo. The enclosed 360 degree view has a heart snapped ice skating area where you skate with a view of the infamous Tokyo Tower. However, a few visitors at a time can also go to the rooftop helipad to see the view with no windows. We of course had to visit the rooftop, and it really was incredible to stand on top and look over and out onto this enormous city and all of its structures. We also found one of our favorite Parisian chefs, Joel Robuchon, had a restaurant and bakery here, then went on to discover this was the first international location he ever opened. They surprisingly has two seats open and we were lucky enough to tr some of his Japanese speciality dishes only served at that location. We spent the entire afternoon in this area and when night fell we saw that the popular shopping street outside lit up with beautiful lights and a view of the brightly lit Tokyo Tower peaking through the end of the street.

Another district i cant go without mentioning is the Shinjuku district which is home to luxury hotels, futuristic skyscraper, and Tokyo’s crazy nightlife and red light district. This is the district that never sleeps, and I would definitely say a visit to Tokyo is not complete without at least one night in Shinjuku… Talk about mass amounts of neon!

Tokyo is an unforgettable city. I have honestly never been to a place quite like it. The sheer size is an experience in itself and when mixed with a time square effect on every big corner it brings a whole new meaning to what I always called a big city life. Japan makes my top five countries to see in the world list without doubt and I will never forget all of the incredible and unique experiences we had.

Thank You For Reading,

T+C

We arrived to our ryokan just in time to take our baths and have our dinner as the sweet couple who ran the ryokan told us. These are the communal baths I was talking about in my Miyajima Island post that I said I would try here but really didn’t expect to follow through with all of that… Well looks like I had no choice, and they were actually quite relaxing. See this is a bath house town filled with natural hot springs, so the hot spring baths are one of their biggest local attractions besides the snow monkeys of course. After our baths we dressed in the traditional Japanese style robes provided and were shown to our tatami matted dinning room where we sat on the floor and enjoyed the incredible Japanese meal prepared before us. I must say it was one of the most relaxing nights we had in a long time, eating dinner freshly bathed in a robe was like being at home for second – minus sitting on the floor around the table and the sleeping on a mat part. However, after being in Japan for two weeks now the traditional customs of wearing a robe and no shoes everywhere has definitely grown on us.

The next morning Tyler and I woke up early excited to hike up the mountain to see the snow monkeys in the Jigokudani Yaenkoen Park. The monkeys actually don’t live in this park, but only come down from the mountain tops to visit it’s hot springs during the day. The Japanese Macaque (Snow Monkeys) is a monkey species native to northern Japan, and is the most northern living non-human primate surviving the winter temperatures. During the day the monkey’s come to visit the area of the Park called Jihokidani, literally meaning Hell’s Valley due to the steep cliffs and hot water steaming out from the earth’s surface. It’s a harshly cold environment to visit for humans, but the monkey’s love to play here and bathe in the warm hot springs.

These adorable creatures were just amazing to watch interact. They ignore the human presence and play or bathe as if there were no one else around. The little ones could be a little shy if gotten close to, but the older monkeys hardly moved an inch if at all. We stayed out there for as many hours as we could and Tyler got some amazing photos of the Snow Monkey’s in action.

After hiking back down the mountain and warming up over some hot soba noodles and soup we decided to visit the sake brewery in town. The brewery was built with a viewing room where you could see the vats where the sake was kept to ferment, and then they provided tasting glasses with a bottle of every kind of Sake they prodouced so we were able to try each one. Being a local producer, they even had a little bottle of special Snow Monkey Sake, which was the perfect drink to end our wonderful day.

See you in Tokyo,

Soon after arriving we found a city fit to burst with incredible places to eat, from the dazzling depichika basement food halls (the greatest food shows on earth), to the exuberant restaurant quarter of Dotonbori, to the top end places like Kahala. Osakans even have a word for their insatiable gluttony, they call it “kuidaore” literally meaning “eating until you bust”, and with a single trip to Hanshin’s depichika filled with food stalls from one end to another I completely understood why this Osakan word is so frequently used.

Tyler and I decided to spend what we called Sunday Funday trying a bite of everything on the list of Osakan favorites from the okonomiyaki (thick, filled pancakes, made with yam flour batter, seafood, pork and kimchi), tako yaki (octopus doughnuts), and kushikatsu (deep fried, breaded skewers each slathered in a sweet, savoury, mahogany-coloured sauce). When western countries decided to open up Japanese restaurants offering a menu consisting primarily of sushi rolls I wonder if they realized how much they were leaving us in the dark? However, there isn’t much I love more than fresh sushi and with the help of Anthony Bouurdain’s No Reservations show in Osaka we had the best sushi of our lives at Koyoshi. This tiny rice paper door hole in the wall restaurant had maybe 10 bar stools with no standing room in the least was surpassingly packed with locals, we were the only tourists to be found. The adorable couple has been serving up the best toro, eel, tuna, and fish I’ve never heard of since who knowns when, and they quickly prepare and serve each flavorful piece of sushi with a smile.

And before I conclude all this food talk I mustn’t forget to mention it was in Osaka that kaiten sushi and instant ramen noodles were both invented in the city in the same epochal year, 1958. However, the sushi conveyor belt inventor Yoshiaki Shiraishi lost most of his fortune after trying to replace the few staff he had with robots, Momofuku Ando, inventor of the instant noodles in his garden shed went on to become a national hero in Japan. He died in 2007, but the artsy Momofuku Ando Instant Raman Museum was built dedicated to his life and work. After learning about this well respected Japanese man, I now see where David Chang got the name of his Momofuku Noodle Bar restaurant I love to visit in New York City. Tyler and I had a great time visiting the museum and participating in designing our own cup of noodles in the museum’s personalized noodle cup factory.

Other than all of our foodie exploring in Osaka, we took a day trip to the mystical Mount Koya. Mount Koya is located in a 800m-high valley amid the eight peaks of the mountain. We decided to visit this beautiful mountain and its scenery to see Okunoin, the thousand lit lantern mausoleum of Kobo Dashi. The mile long path leading to the mausoleum is swathed in a respectful darkness of giant cypress trees forming a canopy overhead for all of the 200,000 monuments and tombs that lie aside the path. At the end of the pathway you cross over a bridge and enter into the lantern hall where around 21,000 donated lanterns are lit throughout and in the center a monk kneels respectfully chanting as the day passes by.

What a great few days spent discovering the food of Osaka and visiting the picturesque Mount Koya. I can’t believe were halfway through our trip to Japan, it has flown by. Next stop, Yudanaka.

See You There,

T+C