Ja-panda

2 weeks later, and I’m home and in my own bed again and getting back into routine of all of the house cleaning, chicken watching, snuggling, dog runs, and now snow blowing I guess??

Me in the hotel-provided onsen outfit (girl with hands in the air emoji)

Funny how all of the monotony that I desperately want to get away from are the things that I miss most when I travel - just normal, typical routine. My morning Peletons, whipping up a couple eggs for breakfast, Friday night date nights, an episode of trashy TV, dark chocolate chips - you know, the basic things. This “basic” longing last for about a week :)

But to give some context to how I spent my weeks in Japan, I wrote a quick summary and my favorite things in the places I spent most of my time! I did make some quick one-night trips for work things where my exploration opportunities were pretty limited. Overall, I feel like I put a lot of train miles (more than I would suggest) in the 2wks of my visit and even for a smaller country, left much to explore for another time.

Tokyo area: total of ~5 nights

First, let’s just agree that Tokyo is massive. I just googled something to reference - Los Angeles is about 60% the size of Tokyo. Of course there are “sections” and “areas” that have different names within Tokyo, but the city limits extend FAR and wide.

View from the Metro building observation deck

So now that we have that understood, the parts of Tokyo I stayed in and explored at some point: Shibuya (younger, hipster area - known as a “center for youth fashion”), Shinjuku (like a downtown NYC - shopping, loads of people, and more shopping), and Hachioji (a downtown-business sector feel? Near my work site).

I read some great tips on how to pick a place to stay and one of the best tips I confirmed is staying near the Yamanote line!!! HUGE if you are trying to get around other parts of the city - also easy to move between the Shinjuku and Shibuya areas which covered a lot of places I wanted to go. I was also extremely overwhelmed by the number of people and also the pace of the rail lines when I arrived in Tokyo, as expected. YOU GOT IT. After a few train rides, it all became much simpler and you get the hang of it. Trains wait for nobody though!!

Shopping (Gucci and Chanel bags everywhere) seems to be a glorious past time in this city. People are well dressed. There are many, many, many people moving around during the day. The city doesn’t wake up until like 8/9AM - even then, restaurants and stores don’t wake up until like 9-11AM depending where you are (even coffee shops!!). So if you are an early riser like myself, I highly recommend hitting up some parks in the AM hours or even roaming the streets. Totally different experience than you’ll get during the day!

Fan girls outside of Shinjuku station swooning over a local artist playing some heartfelt love music I’m sure

With this city being so large, I always liked to leave the hotel with some sort of plan - even just a direction you want to move in to give some boundary or starting point to your adventure! Stop and places that seem interesting on the way :) If you want to get lost, this is the place to do so!!! You will run into all of the odd Japan-things like full arcades specifically with neon glowing crane game only or Panda-themed stores.

Fav spots:

• Starbucks Reserve Roastery (Shibuya): I’m usually not a fan of going to Starbucks when I travel (except for getting my Aunt Luce travel mugs), BUT this was a different kind of experience with only FIVE locations in the world. It was a 3-floor Starbucks with their own roastery onsite - they also have totally different drinks you can only get at the roasteries. I got a barrel-aged cold brew - it tasted like whisky, but was N/A!

• Ramen Nagi (Shinjuku)- best ramen I had in my full trip! It was on a second story with electric pink lights leading the way up some skinny stairs. The entire place was maybe 6ft wide x 15ft long - a total of MAYBE 10 bar stools with an open “kitchen” on the other side. Wayne Gretzski had a signed poster on the wall!

• Metro Government Building (Shinjuku): I found this an odd recommendation, but it’s free access to the 45th floor observation area of the city. If you want to see the vastness of the city, check it out! Did I mention totally free?

• Conveyor belt sushi bar (Shinjuku) - sweet experience and honestly, the sushi was also really good & tasted very fresh! The chefs were making it in the center with visitors surrounding in a square. You could also request whatever you wanted to the chef that was maybe not coming around in the conveyor! Cool experience full of other tourists.

• National Garden (Shinjuku): the city-folk’s nearest nature escape.! If you are looking to get in a nice nature walk or have a picnic or run around and burn some energy, this is the place. There are also some impressive flower displays to see!

Starbucks Reserve Roastery

Hirasaki: quick stop for a night

Too quick of stop here! I would have LOVED to stay north for a longer period of time, as one evening was not enough and honestly, it’s a longggg ass travel day to get here. I hopped on the train for Hirasaki within 12hrs of landing in Japan (a 16hr travel time), so another 6-7hrs of travel was tough. It was also oh so tough to get this close to the mountains and just watch them from the bullet train #hearttug. But the northern parts of Japan (specifically Sapparo and Hakkaido regions) are definitely places I wish to go back to someday!

Fav spots:

• Hirasaki castle: really great fall color viewing spot! Apparently really great in the spring as well. I ran around this and the park attached to it - nice nature hide away.

• Ramen: little ma and pap ramen shop I stumbled upon - no idea what it was called, but I sat Japanese style and had to show a photo of some food to order my dinner. Really, just give me your special :)

Ma & Pa ramen shop

Yokohama: 1 night, quick stop

I stopped in Yokohama because it was at the end of the train line and right where I needed to catch the bullet train to Kyoto, so it was conveniently on my path. In a short 24hrs in this city, I really feel like I got a good look at it! I would definitely spend more time here in the future - it’s still definitely “city-feel”, but also a bit less chaotic and more peaceful than I found the Shinjuku/Shibuya areas.

Fav spots:

• Chinatown: such a fun spot to walk around and wander! It’s very large with many, many random shops - good place to get souvies and also try a bunch of different foods. One of my favorites was these lovely fried balls of something? Kinda of like a gyozo but a different shape. Oh, and a panda face steamed bun! :P

• Spa EAS: I am a big fan of saunas and natural springs, so when I started learning about onsens in Japan, I was determined to get a taste. My coworker told me about this spa in Yokohama and it did not disappoint. I think I paid around $17 for a 3hr pass - and it gets you access to at least 5 different hot mineral spring baths, a steam room, a sauna, lots of meditation space, showers, etc. I could have spent way longer here, but needed to get moving!

• RAMEN Museum: sounds ridiculous, but this is not just any museum. It’s a museum with amazing ramen vendors on the basement floors. Like really, really tasty best of the best ramen vendors!!! Highly recommend stopping by! It does get very busy during lunch times.

• The Nissan stadium area: so many great trails right along the river-system. Definitely want to hit up a game in the future! I have heard baseball games are the most entertaining, but this stadium is soccer, so I learned :P

Ramen museum mini city

Kyoto: total of 4 nights - mostly play!

Gion streets

Kyoto was definitely my favorite place I visited in Japan. Although still a “city feel” in most areas, it’s much less crazy but packed with fun things to do! Per recommendations from the web, I stayed in Gion - a cute, historic, central part of Kyoto. One downfall of Kyoto is the public transportation system. Buses are the best way to get around here if you aren’t willing to bike or walk (LOADS of bikers and great bike lanes!), but I highly recommend biking and walking - get those steps bb! :) The JR Pass also doesn’t work in most systems here - Seica card FTW! It’s actually extremely easy to load once you have a card and works in so many places.

But a lot of the to-dos you’ll find in Kyoto are around temples as there are endlesssss numbers of temples here. I made my way to some of the more popular temples, but let’s be honest, I can only visit so many temples in a day or a week before I just am templed-outta-town. My main “temple day” I rented a bike (~$6 for a day) and put on some kilos - Yasaka temple, Golden template, Ryanji temple, Imperial Palace, with some pitstops at Nishiki market to fuel up and keep me going. I also biked along the river for a while this day which is really beautiful (mountain views) and a great place to add some kilos.

It did rain one of my days in Kyoto which was a little bummy. I did a traditional tea ceremony this AM; I like learning about culture, but it was kind of lame for $17. I also made my way to Arashiyama for a night and learned that the city shuts down by 5pm. I literally could not find a place aside from this little fast food joint or Family Mart to eat at 6pm which was a sad end to a rainy day for me #travelfatigue I also think the bamboo forest which is a huge attraction to this town was pretty lame. It’s also a place photographers post up which I find annoying and hard to relax when you feel like you have to speed walk out of frames.

Back in more downtown Kyoto, I did make sure I got to one of the most famous temples called Fushima Inari which I really, really recommend to all (even if you aren’t a temple lover!). This temple exceeded expectations for sure! Be sure to do the entire loop. Overall, Kyoto was a really welcoming city with a lot going on, but also areas you could find more peace and stillness. I really like where I stayed here as well as it was near a busy area, but on a quiet street and the room was way bigger than most in Japan (Rinn Gion).

Fav spots:

• Teppan Tavern restaurant (Gion): this is where I had my wagyu experience; AMAZING. And the cutest couple run this restaurant. It’s a small basement restaurant with a great menu for 2!

• Fushima Inari temple (near Kyoto station): I nearly skipped this stop as it was not very conveniently located for my plans (I had to use locker storage at Kyoto Station), but I’m very happy I made it. I HIGHLY recommend doing the entire ~3mile loop as that’s the most impressive part & you get some of the tunnels to yourself! The Insta-ready girls definitely turn around before mile 1.

• Biking: along the river - let FREEDOM ring! When you’re only taking public transport, honestly having a bike felt like the ultimate freedom.

• Nishiki Market: MUST GO! MUST EAT! Massive market with huge shopping areas and also really tasty street food kinda vibes. Try it all!

• Kurama-Kibune temple hike: if you are craving some nature, I highly recommend doing this hike! It’s about a 30min train ride out of the city, but really peaceful. I also recommend starting in the morning as I only saw a handful of people on the trail. Downside of starting early is the restaurants in Kibune are not open until 12?

• Monkey Park: in Arashiyama; honestly not a monkey lover normally, but this place was cool. Monkeys are running around all over the top of the mountain and you can just hang out, feed them, watch them act all human-y and weird. They don’t attack you here!

Japan Summary:

Can’t walk by one and not go inside

Kyoto is the best. I vote Ramen for president. If you want to fully stand out in Japan, wear athleisure. If you don’t, wear black slacks and a long tan trench coat. Japan left me longing to go into the mountains. The food was bomb, but restaurant open hours were really confusing to figure out (do not rely on Google!!). Public transportation is really convenient - do not rent a car. People are very polite, but also very private. If you are looking for social interaction, you may want to consider learning Japanese or going to a different country. Soooo many temples. Sooo many trails. October is colder than you think - pack accordingly. I highly recommend the visit! :D

Peace, love, and keep being the boss that you are,

yo’ girl Jen