Way back when we were still living in Atlanta and the concept of moving out west was still a seed, one of the draws was that flights to Asia were a lot shorter with the marquee destination being Tokyo. We moved in 2018, took about a year to settle into Seattle, then started planning for a potential 2020 trip. Well we all know how that worked out 😢.

Life changed, along with our cultural influences. K-drama, K-pop, and tofu soup became bigger parts of our lives (and we went to Korea). We’re bigger fans of wine than we are of sake (still need to make that trip). Japan, though, is still a big draw and a giant influence on our lives.

Ramen and sushi are staples of our diet. Our daughter reads tons of manga. We all watch anime. Five of the seven cars we’ve owned are Japanese, I’m wearing a Japanese watch, I wrote my outline for this post with a Japanese pen, my day job involves programming in a language from Japan, and I’m currently sipping from a Zojirushi thermos. We want to visit the land of the creators of all these things.

Of course the next challenge is to figure out what exactly to see. Japan is huge, about 1,900 miles long. That’s about the same distance as Seattle to Nashville. Then there’s that Tokyo is a megacity of 23 wards and 33 million people. There’s too much to do in one city, then you add all the other cool places to visit.

We treated it like a sketch. What did we think were going to be the highlights, what were we okay not seeing? Tokyo is obviously a must. We really wanted to ride a bullet train and Kyoto looked pretty different so we picked that. Everywhere else got dropped since we already had too much to do.

In our soft clothes, settled in for the long flight. At least it's a direct from Seattle.

Leg 1: Tokyo; Toyosu Market, Ginza, Shibuya, Imperial Palace, and the Tokyo Giants

The rooftop garden at Toyosu Market. We were not expecting to find an urban meadow at the fish market and we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

Japanese websites are truly hard to figure out. I had dutifully filled out the QR code on VisitJapan, but totally missed the directions on how I needed to fill it out for every member of my family. Thankfully there was adequate signage and wifi, so we were able to quickly complete it while waiting in line. Immigration was slightly weird in that they split us up into different processing lanes, which also seemed to confuse the officer. But it all worked out and it didn’t take long before we were in the country and free to explore.

Another weirdness about Japan is that there’s a lot you can’t do until you are physically in the country. Loading your transit card or buying rail tickets were the two big ones. That also did not take long to figure out and we made it to our first hotel in Chiyoda City with minimal adventure.

Our goal for the first night was modest. Visit a 7-eleven, get beers and egg sandwiches, then fall asleep. This was accomplished so we ended up waking up really early the following day. We decided to take advantage of this and visit Toyosu Market, which is the modern fish market facility. However, we didn’t get there early enough and the auctions had finished. There was still plenty to see, along with a quiet garden on the roof with views of the bay.

Omurice and noodle. Needed to start checking off the list of must-have Japanese foods.

Adding a sake flight to our noodles.

After this we started working our way back towards city center. Just having figured out the trains, we now had to figure out the bus (also pretty easy). We went through the old fish market, Tsukiji, which is now street vendors and food stalls. We hit a few of our food goals with noodle soup and an omelette with ketchup rice, accompanied with a Sake flight. We dropped into Ginza, but it was still pretty early so many of the stores we wanted to visit weren’t open yet. This fact probably saved us $1,000s of dollars.

Our shopping binge were a few watches for all of us, with an assortment of titanium Citizen Eco-drives.

That night we had our first real “can’t figure this out” moment at a local ramen spot. You had to order on the vending machine in front, prior to going in. All actions had to be in a specific order and it was all in Japanese. Eventually we got our soup ordered and I think they spotted us an extra beer because they felt bad about how confused we were. The noodles were great.

We just missed cherry blossom season, but there were still a few out there.

The following day we were still pretty jet-lagged so we set out early to the Imperial Palace. Like most “historic” buildings in Asia, much of it has been rebuilt after destruction from war. Everything was rebuilt to historical spec though, so I kept hitting my head on things.

Viewing the Tokyo Giants at the Tokyo Dome stadium.

The highlight for this leg of the trip was supposed to be the Tokyo Giants, the most successful professional team in Japan. The Japanese treat baseball like much of the world treats soccer. There are bands, the fans chant while their team is batting, and each team has their own celebrations for runs. To go with the sporting fun, there’s excellent food options and the beer girls not only have beer on draft, but also whiskey sodas. It should be very easy to have a good time. However, on this particular day the visiting pitcher threw a perfect game through 7 1/3. The home crowd was pretty subdued. Great baseball, but not the atmosphere we were expecting.

That evening we checked two more items off our list. Conveyor belt sushi and Akihabara. Mira, who spent most of the day generally bored by the baseball, absolutely lit up when seeing the Yu-gi-oh poster.

Mira's a big fan of Yi-Gi-Oh so she was excited to see this banner in Akihabara.

Shibuya crossing in the morning. It wasn't that busy, actually.

The famous Hachiko statue. Huge line in front, but not so much for his wonderful side profile.

We were still in early-riser mode on our last day of the leg when we visited Shibuya crossing. It was pretty tame and we even managed to snag a picture with Hachiko. We got extremely lost trying to find the ramen place we wanted to go to, but then ended up eating some of the best noodle’s I’ve ever had.

Possibly one of the best meals. A black sesame spicy udon bowl.

Entrance of the Meiji Jinju Shrine.

Enjoying a German-style lager at the Tokyo Beer Lab. I appreciate that they had the appropriate glass.

Also sampled the West Coast IPA. Not as good relative to the lager.

By this point the ladies were tired of 20k+ step days and decided to head back to the hotel for a rest. I continued on to the Meiji Shrine, which ended up making me pretty thirsty. I found the Tokyo Beer Lab (find being the operative word because these store fronts are tiny) and had a few pints while chatting with fellow Pacific Northwesterners. Apparently the craft beer is for tourists. This was also in the vintage and denim district. However since I found the beer before the clothes, I didn’t feel like trying anything on, further extending the cost savings.

Our hotel had a little garden on the rooftop. You can see the Tokyo Dome amusement park on the left.

Enjoying some vending machine highballs on the rooftop bamboo garden.

Leg 2: Kyoto; Bullet trains, Monkey Park, bamboo forest, street food, nature

After four days of Tokyo we didn’t want to leave. There were so many cool things that we only caught a glimpse of, so many neat restaurants that we had to walk by. We would have been happy spending the rest of trip there. Kyoto might feel like a letdown after this.

On the Shinkansen with our Bentos prepped for the journey.

Enjoying the rooftop bar at our hotel in Kyoto.

One item that did not make the cut was an up close visit to Mount Fuji, so when booking the Shinkansen I made sure to get seats on side that would give us a view. Sadly the mountain was not out (do the Japanese use that phrase? I was never able to confirm). The ride was fun and we went all out getting Bentos and Highballs. We try not to pack too much on travel days. Our excursion for the night was hitting up the rooftop bar then getting incredibly rich and very tasty waygu burgers in the nearby market.

Our first Kyoto meal was this amazing rich Waygu burger.

Kyoto is full of these shopping streets, where one can enjoy the street market experience while staying dry.

Case in point. Staying dry while in search of dinner.

Here’s where we have to admit that we’ve been a little obsessed with Punch the monkey. We thought about going to see him, but the zoo was 2 hours by train, the lines were crazy long, and you’d have to fight through a crowd to see the animals. However, in Kyoto, there is a literal monkey park were you can walk amongst them. This did not disappoint. They were cute, they were fun, they didn’t act like jerks. The juveniles were beyond adorable. There had been some chatter about doing the deer sanctuary in Nara instead, but this ended up being one of the top 2 highlights. These animals were so much fun to be around.

This monkey is just contemplating the world.

A bunch of the monkeys loved hanging out on the rooftops.

I don't think bananas are native to Japan and part of the macaque diet.

Shortly after this our weather luck ran out and it started raining. We fortified ourselves with noodles then had a very damp walk through a still crowded bamboo forest. On paper, this was a good plan since there was a train station on the other end of the walk. However, this was a Wednesday and the train station was closed on Wednesdays. A very wet walk finally got us to a bus station that we could take back into town. Much of that evening was spent in using a hair dryer to try and get our shoes into some semblance of wearable.

It got a little chilly and very wet. Fortifying with some noodles.

It's like a cathedral of Bamboo.

The weather thankfully cleared for the next day where we had an organized tour to north Kyoto highlights. On the tour was the Miho Museum, Rurikoin Temple, and Shirahinge Shrine. The architecture of the Miho Museum outshone the exhibits, especially the bell tower at Misono which looked like something out of Star Wars. The lacquer table at the Ruikoin temple was neat and the floating shrine was cool to view as well, though it is across a busy road.

At the entrance of the I.M. Pei designed MIHO museum.

Misono and it's Bell Tower. It looks like something out of Star Wars.

The tunnel through the mountain leading to the MIHO museum.

The famous black lacquer table at the Rurikoin temple acts as a mirror.

We have to see at least one submerged shrine.

That evening I did a solo explore and found a Japanese Whiskey bar after walking through the main shrines. One of the challenges with navigating in Japan is that one does have to think three dimensionally. I had passed by it twice since I failed to notice that it was in the corner of the basement. Unlike most bars, there wasn’t a cover as the proprietor just wanted to share the craftsmanship of the local Japanese distillers.

Along the canal in Gion.

The Yasaka Shrine at night.

I tried to be artsy with a lantern shot.

I enjoyed this Japanese whiskey sampler. Their siblings from the duty free shop may have been consumed while writing this post.

The grounds of the Nijo Castle. This is one of the few sites spared bombing.

On the last morning it was a quick tour of the Nijo-jo castle then back on the Shinkansen to Tokyo. This time we were graced by the mountain being out (never did talk to a Japanese person if that’s a phrase they use). We also realized with 30 seconds to spare that we could get off the Shinkansen a stop early and walk directly to our hotel, saving a bunch of time.

Even in Japan, one can't escape Georgia.

Photo of someone taking a video of the Shinkansen arriving.

I found this Solar Arc super interesting. Unfortunately it is no longer in service.

Leg 3: Back to Tokyo; Modern art, ramen, Gran Turismo

The courtyard of the Prince Sakura Tower.

More from the courtyard at the Prince Sakura.

This time we stayed near Shinagawa which felt like the second-most massive train station. Unlike our earlier location, this one ended up being a more commercial district so was actually a little harder to get around with fewer amenities. Our belief was that being near a massive station would make it easier to get around, but we discounted the challenges of navigating the station.

Easily one of the tastiest ma-po tofu's I've had.

The anchor for this part of the trip was teamLab: Borderless. teamLab: Borderless is a highly Instgrammed digital art installation. We first heard about it through James May’s TV show, so it’s definitely on the well trodden path and highly likely to be overrated. Happy to report that it was amazing in person, with even the cafe being a must-do experience. Easily one of the top highlights of the trip.

The main room waterfall at TeamLabs: Borderless

The pictures don't really capture the dynamism of the main Borderless room.

The mirrored light display was trippy. It felt like entering an alternate universe.

Even the tea was an exhibit.

Each spot was slightly different

Lighted globes.

We had some time, so I decided to pop out and walk the front-straight of Tokyo r246, a fictional race track modeled after real city streets. The iconic Honda building no longer exists, but it’s always fun to find the answer to “what does happen if you keep going straight?” on a road circuit.

Right before the start of the main straightaway on Tokyo Route 246.

This sounded really cool, but it was all chicken based Ramen, which isn't out fave.

Pork katsu meal. Another checkbox down.

After dinner, Sonali and I went out for a Japanese bar experience. Small setting, classic jazz, sole proprietor, and small batch infused liquor. We did not try the one with the pit-viper.

Our infused cocktails. Not pictured is the pit viper version.

Making our own Ramen!

Our finished Ramen bowls.

The Tokyo tower.

Our next, and last day, featured a Ramen class, where we made our own noodles and seasoned our own broth. Afterwards Sonali and I wanted to revisit Shibuya when it was busier and Mira wanted to be cranky and go back to the hotel to experience Japanese culture through cartoons on the iPad. By this point we were all comfortable enough with the train systems to get around on our own.

Pulled of the streets of Shibuya for a few old ones at Tower Records.

Okay, this is the real Shibuya experience. We just had to wait till the afternoon.

A slice of home. Our mountain and coffee.

We got our Shibuya pics and found ourselves in that awkward time between lunch and dinner where we wanted refreshment, but not really any food. One of the downsides of how Japanese culture is that popping into a place for a quick afternoon beer doesn’t really seem to be a thing. Most places require a food purchase or a cover, and the latter doesn’t typically open till later in the evening. We remembered that there was a bar on the 7th floor of the Tower Records and got a few cold ones. It did not escape our attention that we flew halfway around the world to get the same experience as we could a few blocks away from home at Easy Street Records.

In our final night Sonali went for a massage while Mira and I went out for dumplings.

I have a Pokemon in my beer!

This cold tofu dish was surprisingly one of the best things that I ate. So refreshing, light, and tasty.

These dumplings were great too.

Our final Japanese meal at the airport. It took the entire trip before we had a curry.

Final thoughts

We did a lot and there was still a lot that we didn’t. There are so many options and if you take a completionist attitude, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. There are so many different trips to be had and each of them fun in their own unique ways.

I would say I preferred Tokyo to Kyoto. That seems to be a hot take based on social media (which also seems to suggest skipping Tokyo for Osaka). Tokyo had so many more things to do, it was a lot easier to get around, most of it felt far less crowded.

The step count is real. We averaged 20k+ a day. A couple pairs of shoes to rotate through is a must.

Osen culture felt overwhelming and we never went to one, although this initially a “must” for Kyoto. We’re probably overthinking it, but also with a teenage daughter, boredom prevention is an important factor. Sitting patiently isn’t part of normal day-to-day.

We would definitely go back and try to see different areas. It is a large country and there’s different vibes throughout. The touristy stuff was almost always worth it.