Category: Japan

Our second day in Japan began with onigiri. Delicious, delicious onigiri.

We found an onigiri specialty shop in Shimbashi station (when facing the entrance to the JR lines, it’s in the far left corner) called Mai Mai.

(We went there so often, the woman who works there started bringing out the English menu whenever she saw us coming!)

(And what is it with Japanese women taking pictures of posters? Every single time we passed this huge poster in the train station, there was always a group of girls/women standing in front of it, taking photos – no matter what time of day or night. I’m not exaggerating – there literally was not a single time we went by where there wasn’t at least one female (usually quite a few more) taking a picture of it.)

So back to the onigiri. One thing we really loved about the onigiri at Mai Mai was that they used a mixed-grain rice for it.

It was delicious.

The first time we went, we got an onigiri filled with mayo mixed with salmon, and an onigiri filled with miso paste. (The onigiri there are 220 yen each – about $2.75.)

I couldn’t tell you which I liked more, because they were both fantastic. Although now that I think about it, I’m still dreaming about that miso onigiri…

There was a bakery in the train station that we passed by every day, called Kobeya Bakery.

Apparently they’re known for their mango hand pies, so of course we had to stop in and see how they were.

And while we were there, we could’t resist drooling over all the rest of their baked goods as well.

Once we made our purchases, we walked back to a nearby outdoor plaza that had plenty of seating.

It’s no wonder the mango hand pies are their specialty – they were fantastic! Not too sweet, and full of perfectly ripe mango.

All sorts of people can be seen sharing a bench there – like a businessman trying to catch a quick nap, next to some schoolgirls enjoying a snack.

But the thing I was really excited about was the tonkatsu sandwich we also purchased from the bakery.

Ever since Rachael and I recorded our Miso Hungry Podcast episode about tonkatsu, I’ve been wanting to try a katsu sando (tonkatsu sandwich).

Hooooly cow. (Perhaps “holy pig” would be more appropriate in this case.)

I’m kind of obsessed.

The katsu sando was made with perfectly fried tonkatsu and a tangy sauce between two soft pieces of white bread. So simple, yet so ridiculously freaking good.

(806 yen for the mango hand pie and katsu sando – about $10.40.)

Back through the station…

… and then we were off to our actual destination.

(Not this takoyaki stand, though there is takoyaki in our future!)

No, we were headed to the Tokyo Dome that day. Though not normally much of a baseball fan, Son wanted to find a gift shop because there was some Japanese baseball team jersey he wanted to see if he could buy.

But before wandering the Tokyo Dome, we found we were hungry again (something you’ll find to be a common theme of this trip) so we sat down to eat another onigiri that we had gone back to Mai Mai’s to get after we enjoyed the first two so much.

This time, the filling was grilled cod roe mixed with mayonnaise. Delicious.

And then we got slightly (understatement of the century) sidetracked by a manga store that was right next to the food court we had sat down in.

So… we’re kind of closet One Piece fans.

In the first few years we were going out, we spent a ton of time watching episodes of it together.

It’s unfortunately been a while since we’ve had time to watch, but I’ve been wanting to for a while.

Which meant it was pretty much impossibly not to buy the manga I was holding a few photos up… and a One Piece shaped ice tray. Heh.

I’m going to be the Pirate King!

Aaaaanyways… after that minor distraction, we were off wandering again, trying to find the baseball gift shop Son had found online.

We wandered around Tokyo Dome City, finding some very interesting menus.

And some very interesting bugs. (I nearly sat on that!)

Finally we found the gift shop, attached to the Tokyo Dome (a baseball stadium).

Unfortunately we didn’t find the jersey Son wanted, but it was definitely interesting to wander around.

Then we went to find more food. Of course.

Like I said earlier, takoyaki was to be had today!

Mmmm, takoyaki.

Such a guilty pleasure. Just look at those huge pieces of octopus! (450 yen for 6 pieces – about $5.75)

Son opted to get a salmon ochazuke. (750 yen – about $9.50)

Ochazuke is a dish where you pour a hot liquid (I’ve mostly seen it with green tea, but this one had dashi) over a rice bowl.

This is the first time I’ve seen it made with all these toppings, but it was fantastic!

Then it was back to the train station.

We love the train system in Japan.

Especially when there are little dessert shops right near the train tracks!

This one was in Akihabara station, which I believe was the station nearest the Tokyo Dome.

A quarter of a flan-like tart cost us about $4.70.

After that it was back to the hotel for a nap, then we wandered around the area for a bit.

There’s some really interesting architecture near the Shimbashi station.

By then it was late enough that we just wanted to find something to eat and get back to sleep. (Yep, still a bit jet-lagged.)

Son decided he wanted to go check out Ueno station and see what they had there.

Japanese train stations almost always have an excellent selection of pretty gosh darned good food, whether it be in restaurants or take-out.

Ecute is a little food mall in Ueno station that has a bunch of little stores selling a huge variety of both sweet and savory foods.

We looked around for a bit – there were so many options, it was hard to choose!

But we finally decided on a bento box (1000 yen – about $13).

After all the ramen and greasy foods (takoyaki and katsu sando aren’t exactly light foods!) of the past few days, I wanted something lighter, so I got a small salad as well.

Back at the hotel we got into the food… I just love the bento boxes in Japan! So many interesting foods, you can’t possibly get bored with all that variety (and Son is obsessed with all the different kinds of rice).

The fish was fantastic, all the different tsukemono and types of rice were delicious, and I especially loved the little meatball – tsukune – in the lower right corner.

Day 1. Our first full day in Japan. We woke up to find we had quite a lovely view of Hamarikyu Gardens from our hotel room.

Since we weren’t able to get our JR Passes the previous evening when we arrived in Japan, off we went to Shinagawa station, where there was a JR Exchange Office.

And back we went to our hotel room, because someone (we won’t name names, but it starts with “S” and ends with “on”) neglected to bring their passport, and we couldn’t exchange our JR passes without it. (They wouldn’t even take a photocopy! Boo.)

But we weren’t totally empty-handed – since the first time we were in Japan we stayed across the street from Shinagawa station, we became quite well acquainted with the curry pan from a bakery in the station. Obviously, we couldn’t walk by and not get one.

Do you have any idea how impossible it is to resist buying a cream puff when you can smell them, freshly baked, the scent wafting through the train station? It’s like going by Krispy Kreme when that “Freshly Baked” sign is blinking, or In N’ Out when you can smell french fries cooking from across the street. Or smelling bacon, anytime, ever. Instant cravings.

Yeah, so there’s a Beard Papa’s shop in Shimbashi station, right near the entrance to the JR station. And Son has a coworker who’s OBSESSED with Beard Papa’s (hi, Victor!), so of course we had to stop by and see how the ones in Japan compared to the ones in the US.

All in the name of research and being a good friend. Yup. That’s our excuse, and we’re sticking with it.

No comparison. None. At all. Even just the plain custard-filled cream puff blew our minds. (Which unfortunately is, I’m pretty sure, the only one we had there that you can actually get in the US. Come on, US Beard Papa’s! What’s your deal?!) Best. Cream puffs. Ever.

So, after a quick jaunt up to our hotel room to retrieve aforementioned someone’s passport, off we went to Tokyo Station to exchange our JR Passes. (Tokyo Station is in the opposite direction of Shinagawa Station, a little bit closer to Shimbashi Station so cost us less, and also has a JR Exchange Office.)

After attaining our JR Passes, we decided to walk around Tokyo a bit. (When I say Tokyo, I mean the area around Tokyo station.) By then our stomachs were starting to grumble (a curry bun and a cream puff, shared between the two of us, does not make for much of a breakfast.)

Mind you, neither of us read or speak Japanese, and we’re only somewhat familiar with certain parts of Tokyo. So when it comes to finding a good place to eat… we’re pretty much useless. After a bit of wandering, we ended up at a ramen place with a line out the door for lunch – always a good sign.

I got the tsukemen, which is similar to ramen, but the noodles are served on the side and the broth is thicker than normal ramen.

Son had the miso ramen, and we shared an order of gyoza.

The tsukemen was ridiculously good. The weirdness of squishing into a table across from a couple of businessmen was worth it for that tsukemen.

Son’s ramen and the gyoza weren’t bad either, but we were both in agreement that my tsukemen was the winner of that meal. (The meal came out to 997 yen – about $12 – such a deal!)

After lunch, we walked around a bit, then headed back to Shimbashi station.

We couldn’t help but stop by Beard Papa’s again – more research, of course.

We also stopped by the Tully’s inbetween Shimbashi and Shiodome stations (on the way to our hotel).

Hoping for a taste of home, and unable to resist buying boba milk tea (me, an addict? Nah…), we stopped there for a second, and then sat down in the courtyard outside.

We were so, so sorely disappointed.

In the boba, I mean. The cruller-type pastry we bought from Beard Papa’s (filled with the same sort of pastry cream as the regular cream puffs) was fantastic! Quite possibly even better than the original cream puffs.

But that boba… ugh. Such a waste of 150 yen.

After a quick nap – jet lag had us utterly exhausted by that time – we took the train over to Harajuku.

We walked around Harajuku for a bit, then through Yoyogi park – one of our very favorite parks in Tokyo. This time it was too late to see the Rockabilly dancers or visit food stalls, but it was still nice, a moment of calm in the middle of a busy city.

We searched for the Sword Museum on the other side, but it ended up being closed by the time we got there.

So instead, since we were in the area, we took a train to Shindaita station and walked to Bassanova – the ramen shop where Keizo of Go Ramen works.

We got to meet Boom, another Japanese-American who began working at Bassanova after Keizo mentioned on his blog that they were looking for more employees.

Son got the Tom Yum Ramen, a spicy Thai-style ramen. It was fantastic. Seriously, we haven’t had anything here that wasn’t amazingly good.

But that wasn’t what I was here for.

I came to Bassanova looking to get my Green Curry Ramen Soba fix!

Ooooh, baby. That’s some freaking fantastic soba.

I’m still working on convincing Keizo to open a branch of Bassanova in LA, so I don’t have to travel all the way to Tokyo to get my fix!

I swear, it’s like a drug.

And 1800 yen (about $23) for 2 bowls of ramen makes it a very affordable drug.

After hanging out at Bassanova with Keizo for a bit, we took the train to Shibuya to walk off all that ramen.

Then back to the hotel to pass out. Day 1 was a ramen-filled success!

As some of you might know, in January of this year I started a podcast – Miso Hungry Podcast, all about Japanese food! – with Rachael Hutchings of La Fuji Mama. (And if you didn’t know, then you should definitely go listen to one of our 25 (plus 2 mini) episodes! Seriously, go. Now. This post can wait, promise. ^_^)

A couple of months into the podcast, Rachael mentioned that she was planning a trip to Japan with her husband in the summer, as she does every summer. (They lived in Japan for a while a few years back, and his job takes him back to Tokyo for a few weeks every year.)

Half-jokingly, one of us proposed that I should go too, as a “research trip” for the podcast. The more we talked about it, the more it sounded like an awesome idea… and when I mentioned it to Son, he was totally on board.

So what started as a wild, “that would be cool” sort of idea, ended up as a full-fledged trip to Japan. In the middle of June, solidly in typhoon season, six of us (on three different flights) headed off to Japan – Rachael, her husband, and their two daughters, and Son and I.

Son and I booked our flight on Singapore Air. It’s the same airline we flew the first time we went to Japan, and we highly recommend it. Even though we fly economy, they have great service, friendly flight attendants, and food that’s actually pretty good.

To say I’m a bit out of touch with what’s trendy/cool/”in” would be an understatement. Especially when it comes to anything having to do with any sort of alcohol.

The super-sweet flight attendant who took care of our part of the plane recommended that we get a Singapore Sling, on one of the instances when she came by with the drink cart. (I think she thought Son and I were on our honeymoon.)

So we got one to share, which she made super-weak (I’m pretty sure it was practically a virgin cocktail) because neither of us ever drink.

Of course I, the dork that I am, was sitting there thinking, “How cool, they have a cocktail named after their airline! And it’s not half bad, either… actually pretty good, for something with alcohol in it.”

(Remember the part where I said I don’t drink… and I’m waaay out of touch? Yeah…)

Dinner was buta kakuni (Japanese braised pork) with rice, which came with tamago and shrimp on the side, a rice cracker, a roll w/ butter, soba with dipping sauce, and chocolate brownie ice cream. For airplane food, it was damn good.

(Asian airlines always have the best food! I’m told food on the American airlines can’t even compare. Word to the wise – although both options offered by Singapore Air at each meal are pretty decent, the one with Asian food is almost always better.)

After a few hours of “sleeping” – aka Son watching various movies and me reading an entire Robert Jordan book on my Kindle, we got another light meal – this time chicken curry with rice, which came with a roll with butter, seafood salad, and a mocha cake. Again, delicious (although the cake kind of sucked.)

We landed at Narita Airport around 7pm Japan time… which unfortunately was juuust too late to exchange our JR Exchange Order for a JR Pass.

(PRO TIP: if you are going to be staying in one city, without traveling elsewhere much, then the JR Pass may not be worth it for you, since local trains usually aren’t too expensive. However, if you’re planning on using the Shinkansen a lot – we used it to go to Kyoto and Osaka – then it might be worth buying one before your trip to Japan.)

So, since we were too late to get our JR Passes, we ended up spending 2800 yen (about $35) for tickets on the Rapid train to get from the airport (which is about 1 hour away from Tokyo) to Shimbashi station (which is the closest big station to the hotel where we were staying.)

By the time we got to our hotel, we were 100% completely and totally exhausted. Also, kind of lost. (Park Hotel Tokyo, which is where we were staying, is kind of hard to find from the subway station level, and the lobby is on the 20-somthingth floor.)

And by that time, everything was closed. Luckily for us, there was a Family Mart convenience store (aka “combini”) on the subway level of the hotel building, which our bellboy was kind enough to point us to.

Thank goodness for Family Mart. Open 24-hours, always brightly lit, and always with plenty of food… it became our favorite place over the next two weeks. Every morning we would buy a bottle of water there, every night a tuna with mayo onigiri for the next morning’s breakfast… and any time we found ourselves still hungry when most restaurants were already closed (or we were too exhausted to go out), Family Mart was there with plenty of good food.

Seriously. I’m not kidding about it being really freaking good food (um, hello American convenience stores, get your act together please!)

For our first meal back in Japan, we ended up with inari sushi and futomaki, fruit jelly, and a cherry soda. (Sushi was good, Son ate the fruit jelly, and I’m generally not a fan of cherry-flavored things so I didn’t really like the soda, but Son says it was good.) All for about 800 yen (about $10). Only in Japan will I ever advocate getting convenience store sushi! ^_^

Okay, so our “first” day in Japan wasn’t so exciting… hence it being labeled “Day 0”. But the next day included ramen, cream puffs, and more ramen… so stay tuned for the next post!

If you’re looking for the Tour de France post, check it out on my other food blog, Fridgg! 😀

On our second to last day in Japan, we visited the Ghibli Museum. You know the Japanese animated films like Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service…? Well, Ghibli is the man who did all the art for those movies, and this museum is dedicated to him and his art.

You’re not allowed to take photos inside of the museum, but we did manage to sneak one picture of the robot statue on the roof…

That day was a rainy day, and a day mostly filled with shopping for souvenirs, gifts, and other goodies to bring home.

However, we still had one major thing left that we just had to do before we left Japan. So we trekked through the freezing, pouring rain, to go to…

Bassanova!!!

For those of you who don’t know, Bassanova is the ramen restaurant where Keizo of Go Ramen fame works.

Obviously, we had to try his ramen.

Lucky for us, Keizo was more than happy to help us order the ramen… since the ticket machine didn’t have any pictures. 😮

There are two kinds of ramen Bassanova is known for.

Their official special is the tonkotsu ramen.

But the one Keizo has made famous is their green curry ramen.

Of course, we had to try a bowl of each. 😀

The green curry ramen… AMAZING.

Oh, and the tonkotsu was pretty good too. 😀

But back to that green curry ramen… creamy, spicy… almost too spicy, but even as my entire mouth was burning I couldn’t stop eating because it was so freaking good… (okay, so I don’t have a high spice tolerance. Shush.)

My only regret was that we didn’t visit Bassanova earlier in the trip, so we could come back and eat that green curry ramen again!

One of these days I may have to kidnap Keizo and make him teach me how to make it. It’s that good. 😉

I swear, I’ve been craving another bowl of that ramen ever since we left Bassanova… thanks a lot, Keizo. 😀

The next morning was our last day in Japan! So sad. We wanted to stay longer.

Since it was our last morning, we wanted to revisit a restaurant we loved.

Unfortunately, Bassanova doesn’t open until late – after we had to be at the airport – so we couldn’t go back there.

Instead, CoCo Curry again!

Perfect. 😀

After our breakfast of curry, we noticed we were pretty close to the Tokyo Tower. So we headed off in that direction for some last-minute sightseeing.

But instead of at the Tokyo Tower, we found ourself in the middle of the gorgeous Zojoji Buddhist Temple!

We weren’t complaining. 😀

Photo courtesy of Francis Castillo

Close to the Tokyo Tower… but not quite there. 😉

It was there that we realized… during the entire Japan trip, we hadn’t gotten a single picture of our entire group!

Of course, we had to fix that.

After that, it was off to the airport.

Goodbye, Japan! Hope we can come back soon! 😀

This is the last post in the Japan series… and the last post you can comment on to enter to win a bamboo rolling mat and a package of nori from Japan! The contest closes 11:59PM PST Wednesday – any comments on any Japan post after that will not be counted. Winners will be contacted by email, and announced on Friday soon! 😀

P.S. Did you know you can also hang out with me on the Sushi Day page on Facebook?

P.P.S. Speaking of hanging out, you’re following me on Twitter, right? Feel free to say hi, ask questions, poke fun at me… I always love getting to know my readers better. 😀

Our sixth day in Japan started early, so we ate breakfast on the train… grilled mochi filled with adzuki beans that we had purchased the night before. Yum.

So where were we off to so early?

It was a two hour train ride, but this time we weren’t going to Kyoto…

We went to Nagano!

Yep, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics. 😀

We didn’t stay long though. We had just a few moments to step outside the Nagano train station and look outside, before we were back on a train again.

This time a much, much smaller express local train.

Which had an awesome view out the back.

So where we going?

Past small village streets, where the clanging of the train crossing bell could be heard before we got to every road.

Over a bridge…

… around a few curves…

… to grandmother’s house we go?

No, wait, that’s not right… both my grandmothers live in the US.

And I’m pretty sure (though not 100% certain) that the Japanese side of my family isn’t from Nagano.

Here we are! But where is here?

Look! A ninja! I knew we’d see one in Japan!

Oh wait.

That’s me.

Did I mention it’s really freaking cold where we were going? REALLY. FREAKING. COLD!

In fact, it was snowing. Can you see it? 🙂

Yeah, so… we’re still not there. We’re on a bus!

Now we’re there!

Well, almost.

We’re off the bus, anyways… and it’s snowing harder.

Now we walk. Uphill. In the gentle snowfall.

The snow might not seem all that significant, especially to those of you who live in or frequent snowy areas… but Son had never, ever been in snow before.

I had always promised him that someday, I would take him to see snow. And finally, he got to. 😀

Here’s where we were headed!

At least, this is the entrance.

More hiking before we’re actually there though…

Can you tell where we were going yet?

The higher up the mountain we got, the more the snow stuck.

It was a beautiful hike, but that’s not why we were there…

(And the point also wasn’t to get a bunch of silly pictures of me freezing my tush off… *stern look at Son*)

Only halfway there… but a nice little refuge if it’s snowing or raining too hard!

Almost there…

LOOK! A MONKEY!

We’re here! For real! Finally!

I’m sure you’re wondering by now… where exactly is “here”?

This is the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park in Nagano, Japan.

A large family of snow monkeys comes down from the surrounding mountains to hang out here during the day, and then go back up to their home in the mountains at night.

Although us visitors are not allowed to feed the monkeys, workers here will give the monkeys a few apples as treats every day. They don’t mean to provide the monkeys with their full diet, but instead give them incentive to keep coming down to the snow monkey park in the valley every day.

The monkeys enjoy frequenting the hot springs – not surprising, because it gets really cold there! (And we were there in spring… imagine how cold it would be in the dead of winter!)

There are no cages, nor even any barriers separating you from the monkeys… as you can see, you could reach out and touch one as they run right past one! (Not that I recommend that. The monkeys tend to not care one bit about the humans taking pictures of them, but the Snow Monkey Park says not to touch or feed the monkeys, and with good reason! You wouldn’t want a monkey to turn on you, or not return to the park because humans spooked/drove them off.)

You could spend hours watching the monkeys play and eat and all that monkeys do.

We did.

You can too! There’s supposedly a live webcam that lets you watch the monkeys all the time. (I say supposedly, because I see it frozen on a picture from earlier today, but haven’t seen any updates to it since then.)

We probably would have stayed out there longer, if we hadn’t needed to catch the bus back to the train station.

If we did this again, we probably would make it a two-day trip, and stay at one of the little hotels on the mountain, so we could spend more time with the monkeys.

And definitely would go in either winter or summer, when the colors are more vibrant and everything’s not just brown.

After a while of watching them, you started to learn each monkey’s distinct personality.

The above picture is one I took on Son’s iPhone, of him taking the below picture. See how close they could get? One even ran up and grabbed onto Son’s leg as it was playing with another monkey!

We were up there for two hours (not including the half-hour walk up to the monkey park) before I got too cold… I went and hung out in the little hut that doubles as a souvenir shop, that has a tiny heater so I could thaw out my fingers and legs.

While I warmed up, Son went back out again, for another hour!

He loved taking pictures of all the different monkeys…

… can you blame him?

Back down the mountain we went…

… and caught the little local train back to Nagano

Looks like we were just in time to share the train with masses of uniformed local school children, who all took the train home after they were finished with their school day.

By the time we got back to Nagano, we were starving. So of course, we went in search of good food.

Every department store in Japan has a big food area in the basement. They’re worth checking out!

We stopped by a food stall that had steamed pork belly buns… ohmygod SO good.

Then we got an egg tart…

… and a banana-chocolate ice cream-filled waffle.

After taking an elevator up to the top floor to see if there was any other good food up there (there were restaurants, but nothing that really appealed to us.) we decided to walk to the Zenkouji Temple.

On our way there, we passed a Mos Burger. We had been wanting to try this Japanese burger chain, so we stopped in and shared a burger. Very good… much lighter and tastier than most burgers you can find here in the US!

Then we kept walking.

Until we found a little shop with free wifi… and discovered that the Temple had already closed a couple of hours ago.

Oops. Good thing we checked!

Back to the train station we went, to go reserve our ticket (free with the JR pass) to take the Shinkensen back to Tokyo.

We had some time before the train left, so we went off to find some more food.

Because Son really wanted to try some soba while we were in Nagano (it’s the specialty there).

What? We’re food bloggers. We never really stop eating. 😉

Son loved the soba…

I loved the tempura…

… and we had just enough time after our meal to stop and watch this man paint huge pictures with water, before we had to dart to the platform to catch our train.

What a long day! Such a tiring day, in fact, that Son and I fell asleep on the way back to Tokyo, my head on his shoulder, his head resting on mine.

It’s a good thing Tokyo was the last stop… the conductors had to come wake us up after all the other passengers had left!

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Don’t forget, just a couple of Japan posts left! Leave a comment on any of my posts about Japan, and you’ll be entered to win one of two bamboo rolling mats and packages of nori from the Tsukiji Fish Market. One comment per post, please!