Japan Trips & Travel Tips

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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/diningbystarlight on 2024-03-10 22:35:00.

Summary: My mom and I spent 2 weeks in Japan in mid-February: 5 days in Hokkaido, 2 days in Kyoto+Osaka, 5+1.5 days in Tokyo, and 2.5 days in Ginzan, for a total of 16 days (+1 day of flying). This was my first time, while my mom used to live in Japan but hasn’t been in several decades, so while she was quite experienced her knowledge was also quite out-of-date and there were plenty of new developments for her too. This was my 9th international trip but my first in Asia.

Our trip focused on fine dining, anime, and shopping. For context we live in NY, with one of the most developed Japanese fine and normal dining scenes outside Japan, so we are both quite experienced and mainly focused on experiencing similar or better levels of excellence in Japan. We’ve been to multiple sushi omakase (e.g. Masa***, Noz**, Onodera**, Nakazawa*, etc.), as well as other Japanese cuisines like kappo Hirohisa*, Tempura Matsui*, Yakitori Torishin*, French fusion Kei***, etc. and my mom has cooking experience from her time in Japan. So we’re well familiar with the style, ingredients, techniques, and etiquette of high-end Japanese dining and have points of comparison at multiple levels of quality. If you do not have this prior context, you may have a different experience if you were to try to repeat our itinerary, particularly for sushi which is a very subtle and technical form. I don’t say this to be pretentious or discouraging, by all means go for the best and you’ll have a great time, but thought this was important to say to contextualize this post interpreted as a trip report or as advice.

Fwiw although I enjoy taking pictures for my own memories and sharing with friends at meetups, I don’t have an instagram or active social media, and I’m mainly writing this post so I can link my friends/colleagues for reference instead of rewriting individually.

Itinerary:

2/11 Sapporo (hotel: Solaria Nishitetsu Sapporo):

• ANA landed in Tokyo Haneda 5:25am, ANA landed in New Chitose airport 8:30am

• We got lucky and got the Pokemon plane, which had themed cups and free merch. We also got great views of Tokyo and Fuji when taking off for Sapporo.

• Airport: we explored Snow Miku Town (website is out of date, they no longer serve the Miku pancakes) which had Hokkaido-themed merch, a figure gallery, and a life-sized Miku figure. Hatsune Miku (virtual anime singer) is a local celebrity in Sapporo given her company is based there. The highest-Tabelog-rated Hokkaido milk ice cream was in the airport (?) so we tried that as well as a Letao Hokkaido cheesecake. The airport also has a huge shopping mall/food court.

• Took the train to Sapporo, dropped off our bags at the hotel. There is snow everywhere, in some places piled to the side as high as a person.

• Lunch: We had lunch at Michelin-starred Teuchisoba Kohashi* (walk-in only, surprisingly no line). This is a travel not a food subreddit, so I’ll save the intricacies of the food for my someday-future food blog and focus on the experience. The handmade soba noodles were unlike anything we had before, with unique tempura accompaniments. The room has a big window with a beautiful view of a snowy garden. Staff was warm and friendly, does not speak English but has an English menu. Foreign visitors seem uncommon despite the star, both among the clientele and staff’s reaction. It’s inside the family’s home in a residential neighborhood so you have to take off your shoes, and the unplowed snow in the neighborhood was so beautiful for pictures. Most expensive dish was $15

• Afterwards we went to the Sapporo Snow Festival in Odori Park/near the Sapporo TV tower. Warning that the trodden snow is quite slippery, we saw a few people fall! As a result we scaled back our ambitions and picked only a few of the most interesting blocks (aka the anime ones) using the online map and cancelled our plans to see the night illumination. We saw a bunch of anime snow sculptures (Re Zero, Lucky Star, Roshidere, JJK, Overlord, Haikyuu, Gundam, Snow Miku, Hello Kitty 50th anniversary) as well as Godzilla and the perennial massive Neuschwanstein Castle. They also had a Ram/Rem birthday exhibit set up in a shack with cutouts and a Lego sculpture. I was very happy we made it to this. It’s worth noting the Sapporo Snow Festival and the Otaru Light Festival are each about only 1.5 weeks, with the snow festival happening prior and a few days of overlap. While these are major tourist draws in Hokkaido, it’s quite hard to time your trip to see them.

• There’s an underground city in Sapporo (Pole Town and Aurora Town) with tons of shops and restaurants. We saw ads for Oshi no Ko and Spy x Family on a huge billboard.

• We had hambagu steak for dinner and then a Lawson run (the 1st of many Karaage-kun chicken bites), then slept around 10pm. Sapporo is a laidback city so good jetlag starting point.

• Hotel: Solaria Nishitetsu Sapporo - spacious rooms, view of the Sapporo Govt Building, clean, helpful front desk, close to the train station.

2/12 Sapporo:

• We woke up early due to jetlag and lazed around for a late start. We kept getting sidetracked on our way to Susukino, first with katsu sandos and karaage-kun at Lawson, then a bunch of Japanese breads, pastries, and taiyaki in a food court under Susukino station.

• We made it to Susukino, looked at the famous billboards intersection (a bunch of Japanese people were standing around waiting to record one, turned out to be a massive screen of Miku).

• We had lunch in Ramen Alley for famous Sapporo ramen, then did some fashion and anime shopping

• Otaru: We took the train to Otaru and arrived around 4pm. The fish market closes at 5pm and while some shops interpret this as “shut down by 5pm”, luckily there’s one in the middle that interprets it as “last entry 5pm” (always beware of this in Japan). We waited 1h15m (standing!) for famous Hokkaido uni donburi and ikura donburi but it was a worthwhile experience. The wait was also long enough for the sun to go down, so we went to the Otaru light festival afterwards. The snow+ice lanterns along the canal were pretty and an inspiring example of community action, but the canal was a bit of a plain letdown. I’d not recommend Otaru as a sightseeing stop outside the light festival to be honest even though it’s often treated as a “must see” online.

2/13 Sapporo:

• After another late start, we did some shopping at the Daimaru in the train station (the station is massive and has multiple malls). We got lunch from multiple stalls in the Daimaru food court, including kushiage, futomaki, more Hokkaido cheesecake and pudding from Letao, mochi, other sweets, etc. Then we explored Pole Town and did more fashion shopping (Comme des Garcons) and anime shopping. Weirdly I felt like the various Susukino anime shops (the Animate and Norbesa buildings) in Sapporo had more merch variety than Akihabara, both older series and high-demand stuff. We bought the only Suzume anime figure we saw on our trip, and picked up a ton of Kana Arima (Oshi no Ko) merch that was often sold out later in Akihabara (conspicuously so, compared to other characters, bc Kana is best girl obviously).

• Dinner: We had 5pm dinner at Sushi Miyakawa*** (Tabelog silver). Elite sushi mostly differs in style than skill, but who am I kidding, Miyakawa was overall the best we’ve ever had. His perfectly cooked appetizers paired with rich addictive sauces. His nigiri technique was flawless, with “scattering” loose rice and fish cut down to millimeter precision to drape over the rice. Akazu vinegar had a strong taste that complemented but did not overpower the fish, plus our personal preference for akazu over komezu. Nigiri is about taste but it was so beautiful as well. His preprocessing for difficult pieces like squid and gizzard shad showed 3-star levels of skill. Product quality-focused pieces like Aomori tuna and Nemuro sea urchin were the best. Poundcake-like tamago was the best. Miyakawa-san himself is characterized by attention to detail yet warmth and joviality, plus he speaks a little English, all rare qualities in a master sushi chef. We expected a stern, silent experience in faraway Sapporo, but we had more fun as an experience than even places in New York. Price was a steal for this quality at $250 per person (NYC 1-star sushi is often $400-500). We ordered the $50 takeout futomaki.

• All Japanese food is seasonal, but I personally prefer sushi in the winter (when the fish are at their fattest for warmth and spawning), which in addition to the snow motivated the timing for this trip.

• Note about photos: At most fine dining restaurants, food photos are generally ok if you ask first (“Gohan no shashin wa daijobu desu ka?”) (usually they’ll say yes), but photos of people are discouraged. Be considerate (e.g. fast, one take, with sound off, and do not put your phone on the counter) when taking food photos, especially as the food is best enjoyed in the moment. Famous counter-style chefs may take a photo with you after the meal if you ask.

2/14 Niseko (hotel: Higashiyama Niseko Village, Ritz Carlton Reserve):

• We took the Hokkaido Resort Liner bus from Sapporo to Niseko.

• The weather cooperated today so we had a perfect cloudless view of Mt Yotei from our room. We enjoyed our hotel room, taking baths, eating the Miyakawa futomaki, etc. We did some skiing in the afternoon with a view of Yotei (hotel has ski rental) then...

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