Japan Trips & Travel Tips

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/bromanceftw on 2024-04-12 09:54:38.

Part 1 here

Edit: realized I left out Wednesday March 27 in the original post.

Wednesday, March 27 - Tokyo (1.9 miles) - Nihonbashi & Ginza:

• Shopping: Kuroeya - High-end lacquer-dealer, very beautiful stuff. Bought a nice set of chopsticks for cheap (relatively). On 2F.
• Food - Dessert: Usagiya (3.79 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 15 min wait @ 2:15pm) - Usagiya is a chain that invented the 'sandwich' shape of the dorayaki that's now commonly used. 1 min wait in the morning but the dorayaki had to be reserved in advance and picked up later that day. Pretty solid, sweet, and cheap dorayaki (¥240).
• Shopping: Nihonbashi Nagasakikan - The first of many antennae stores I visit. This is Nagasaki's, where I bought castella and a dorayaki with a cat print.
• Shopping: CocoShiga - Shiga's, where I bought Omui beef curry sauce mix.
• Shopping: Welcome to Yamaguchi - Yamaguchi's, where I bought a goldfish ceramic and orange marmalade.
• Shopping: Ginza Kumamoto Kan - Kumamoto's, though I didn't see anything I really wanted.
• Food - Lunch: Ginza Kushikatsu Bon (3.70 Tabelog, 5/5 rating) - Reservations recommended. On 3F. Tokyo branch of the Osaka one, which has a Michelin star. Kushikatsu is 'deep-fried', but not like American deep-frying. Yes there's a fired layer you can taste, but it's not particularly oily or overwhelming. I could just keep eating it and not feel sick. The whole course (Premium Course + Ultimate Katsu Sandwich) was wonderful, fried sushi, cheese, A5 wagyu, pork, prawn, shitake, cream croquette, fish eggs, takoyaki, and a wagyu sando. Holy shit everything was amazing, and again, like Tempura Shimomura, very cheap for everything you get. ¥6900 for all that, and a few others I didn't list. Honestly, also something I could see myself doing monthly. Definitely coming here the next Japan trip. Finished it in roughly 60 minutes, door-to-door.
• Shopping: Takumi - High-end folk crafts shop.
• Shopping: 8base: - Aomori's, got apple juice and apple pie.
• Shopping: Pokémon Center DX - got Pokemon stickers for the gf.
• Food - Dessert: Ginza Kimuraya (3.62 Tabelog, 4/5 rating, 15 min @ 3:20pm) - Famous for creating anpan. Also known for their 'Ginza cream melon', which sold around a few minutes before I arrived.
• Shopping: Itoya - Stationary paradise, picked up some ink for the gf. Lots of floors, for every occasion: greeting cards, letters, fountain pens, notebooks, travel, home, crafts. Also a hydroponics farm and cafe at the top floors.
• Food - Dinner: Ginza Yakitori Take-chan (3.65 Tabelog 4/5 rating, no wait @ 5:20pm - Yakitori, grilled right in front of you. Choose between 5 sticks for ¥3000 or 8 for ¥4000. You basically get all parts of the chicken: breast, liver, neck, thigh, wings, as well as duck and chicken meatballs.
• Shopping: Akita Furusato-kan - Akita's, got syruped fig and fig jelly.
• Shopping: 徳島・香川トモニ市場 - Tokushima/Kagawa's, got an awabancha drink.
• Shopping: Hakata Yurakucho - Fukuoka's, got Amaou strawberry tyrolean and yumecha.
• Shopping: Hokkaido Dosanko Plaza - Hokkaido's, got corn soup mix, and Hokkaido soft-serve ice cream. Very popular store.
• Shopping: Ginza Okinawan Washita shop - Okinawa's, got Okashigoten beni-imo tarts and a shikuwasa drink.

Thursday, March 28 - Tokyo (4.8 miles) - Mostly Akihabara & Nihonbashi-Muromachi:

• Sight: Tenno-ji (P4) - right next to Yanaka cemetry. Has a cast Buddha statue.
• Sight: Yanaka cemetery (P2 if blooming) - Japanese cemetery, several graves had fresh flowers, beverages. Fairly well-kept. Disappointing there was only one tree in bloom.
• Food - Dessert: (Kuriya) Kurogi (3.81 Tabelog, 5/5, 15 min @ 9:50am) - 2nd-highest-rated kakigori (shaved ice) in Tokyo. There's a few items he always has and a few seasonals. It was difficult to choose between, but I picked up a sakura one. It had sakura milk and sakura jelly, which had a saltiness that paired well against the sweet matcha, and bubu. I wish I had ordered more condensed milk to eat up the rest of the ice, which many of the others had done. There's adzuki inside the kakigori, the Japanese sure do love their red bean.
• Food - Lunch: Tokyo Noodle Works (3.80 Tabelog, 3.5/5, 25 min wait @ 11:45am) - After trying to go to two others first (Tokyo Style Hotate was closed, and Aoshima Ramen had an insane line), I found Tokyo Noodle Works to be pretty close to Akihabara and the line manageable. Very solid ramen with respectable-sized slices of both chicken and pork, made by a fairly young owner. Slightly higher price-point compared to others.
• Shopping: POP M Life - Adult department store. I for some reason thought it would have non-adult stuff but when I walked in the doors I knew it would be 100% adult stuff. Wasn't for me, and I had other things to see so I 180'ed.
• Shopping: Radio Kaikan - Mentioned on Reddit a couple times, lots of figurines and cards, def weeb paradise.
• Food - Dessert: McDonalds (5/5, no wait @ 1:50pm) - Wanted to see what sorts of special Japan stuff they had. They had a matcha mochi pie for ¥220. Got that. Damn this was one tasty pie. Matcha pastry with mochi and black sugar inside. Slightly over-fried, but for the price and at a McD? I like it a lot. Worth a try if you see it. Likely seasonal.
• Shopping: Mandarake Complex - Mostly bookstore for manga but has toys, figurines, DVDs, adult works. Sizable section of doujinshi/self-published manga. Was not expecting Yuji and Geto from JJK in a very close embrace when I was checking what was on the shelves. Bought a vol 1 of My Hero Academia. They sold out of vol 1 of JJK.
• Sight: Kanda Shrine (P4) - Lots of steps to get here as it's on top of a hill, at least coming from Akihabara. Picturesque shrine with the vermilion and gold.
• Shopping: Chabara - This is like a general regional specialty store. They carry products from all regions of Japan.
• Shopping: BOOKOFF - Used bookstore chain. I didn't plan it prior to the trip, but after Mandarake, I was set on finding a vol 1 of JJK. It was also sold out here.
• Sight: Vending Machines (P5) - Mentioned on Reddit. Popcorn machine, boxes wrapped in newspaper, toy beetles. Weird yes, but not particularly worth the detour imo.
• Shopping: MIDETTE - Fukushima's. Got some packaged moist cake.
• Shopping: Mie Terrace - Mie's. Got some katayaki, hard-baked senbei.
• Shopping: Ninben Nihonbashi Main Shop - Business that was founded in 1699 selling bonito and dashi. They have a dashi bar. An older employee there spoke English very well.
• Food - Dinner: Tempura Yamanoue Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store (3.69 Tabelog, 2/5, 5-10 min wait @ 5:45pm) - Got the special tempura bowl set. Tempura was tasty good but no where close to what I had at Shimomura. It was texture wasn't quite crispy, almost soggy. More golden yellow rather than a white gold look. Also pretty expensive (¥4500) seems to be priced for the rich people who need a bite or bento to take home. Note, this was a restaurant in the basement of Mitsukoshi.

Friday, March 29 - Tokyo (5.7 miles) - Mostly Shibuya:

• Sight: Chidorigafuchi (P1 if blooming) - Moat of the Imperial Palace. Was recommended by many friends. It was another rainy day, also no cherry blossoms in sight. You can see all the bare trees along the banks. Sad.
• Other: Tokyo Station - Got hella lost here. This station was ginormous. Google Maps did not help here, even the Live View function. I went in a gate, then out, then walked out of the station all together, walked around it, then eventually found the gate I was supposed to be at.
• Food - Lunch: Sushi Tsu (3.74 Tabelog, 5/5) - A highly rated sushi place under ¥20000 for lunch, was easy to book online, and had openings. Each piece came out fairly quick in the beginning then slowed down as other guests came in. Got 13 pieces of fish, including gizzard shard, squid, chotoro, Hokkaido uni, cooked anago, toru taku. Also miso soup, tamago, and ice cream. 12-person counter and 3 private rooms. Each piece had the perfect amount of nikiri, wasabi or other flavoring, never overpowered fish but enhanced it. They had beautiful ceramics. Apparently was ¥12000 not too long ago, but still worth the ¥16500, tax included, no tip needed. Easily a $200 meal in the US.
• Sight: Togo Shrine (P4) - Only went here because the gf saw they're the only shrine to offer Sanrio omamori (apparently there's a shrine in Kanagawa that also does so). Of course, it was sold out.
• Sight: Meiji Jingu (P1) - As others have mentioned, it feels so out of place in the middle of a big city like Tokyo, it does remind me of Kyoto. Lots of sights within the area. Was very wow-ed by the main Meiji Jingu area, the shrine is flanked by these giant camphor trees. Unfortunately the treasure museum was closed for renovations.
• Food - Dessert: I'm donut ? (3.60 Tabelog, 5/5, 30 min @ 3:50pm) - Long line, 95% Japanese women. By the time I got there, there were probably only 6 flavors left with none of their most popular flavors left. Very solid donuts, decent at room temperature, even better zapped in the microwave. They have that soft mochi-like texture with none of the oiliness. I wou...

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