One week trip to Japan - Page 3

saw some at daimaru today. was debating whether to cop.

i actually do not know any japanese besides some basic basic things i learned while doing kendo. also some stuff my friend and my cousin taught me before i got here (like migi, hidari, etc.)

Japanese people are sooooo much more helpful than Korean people. They actually make a genuine effort to help you if you are lost even if they struggle with English. They were incredibly accommodating, which makes my stay a lot more enjoyable. No matter who I'd ask, they were all willing to help. I really respect that part of Japanese culture.

I woke up later than expected today, so I just decided to go to Kurori Ramen for lunch. I wasn't expecting a vending machine menu, so that was a bit flustering. Someone helped explain the choices and I ended up getting the small miso ramen. It was... pretty rich and strong. The broth was thick, garlicky, miso-y, very earthy. I was disappointed there was no egg in the small ramen! The egg that my neighbor had looked so good. The yolk was only slightly cooked and still translucent. Perfectly cooked egg. I think the guy puts a bit of shichimi or something in there, because I saw a few red chili flakes in there and could taste a very subdued heat. I saw a lot of people getting the tsukemen as well, but the miso ramen was more than enough. It was heavy enough to satisfy me the entire day. I decided to skip out on the fugu dinner at Tsukiji because I was still full at 8 PM. I definitely want to make sure I have the capacity to fully enjoy the fugu. That will have to wait until tomorrow :d~ I went to Tokyo Station to visit Edo Castle, but I didn't know it was closed on Fridays, so I wasted a few hours there just walking around Daimaru in Yaesu. I think the Lotte Department Store in Jamsil, Seoul was modeled after Daimaru, because I swear the layout was practically the same (basement is food, men's floor is closer to the top, etc.). I was debating whether to get a Corneliani suit since the 44EU fit pretty well OTR (yay for vanity sized suits?), but I opted not to since they didn't have charcoal I then had a beer at this beer cafe next to the Tourist Information Center in Marunouchi. I tried the BelluVue Kriek because they had it on tap and it was the only beer I didn't have before on their relatively limited menu (they still had some of the more known belgians, which is better than anything you can get in Korea, despite being exorbitantly expensive -_-). Wasn't really a fan. Tasted a bit sour and very fruity... cherries, I think? I then walked around Shinjuku and Harajuku. I was hoping to find a store that sold Robert Geller in hopes of trying on some of his frames (and hopefully buying!), but I had no luck. I did find the Opening Ceremony and BAPE stores. They said they had Common Projects on their sign, so I got excited because I thought I'd finally be able to find some smaller sized CPs, but they didn't have any CPs in the store. The store offerings were relatively limited despite being 7 floors high. They did have BoO and NdG, but the NdG offerings were kind of boring and BoO was ridiculously priced. I did see wooyoungmi, which I wasn't expecting, though I'm surprised I didn't see Junya Watanabe or Juun J. I had a crepe at Harajuku because my friend kept insisting that I had to try it if I went to Japan. I was kind of disappointed, but I think my friend totally overhyped it. Perhaps if the strawberries were a bit fresher it would have been better.

Hi guys, just keeping you posted on my trip throughout Japan. Today I went to Sushi Bun for an early lunch. Surprisingly, Sushi Dai had fewer people but I decided to go to Sushi Bun instead. The wait was about 45 minutes and they gave some cold tea to drink as you waited. The highlight of the Set C omakase wasn't the ohtoro but the uni. Oh my god, it was so delicious. Sweet, creamy, rich, with that slight taste of the sea, this uni is unlike any of the uni I've had before. Even the uni I had straight from the shell wasn't as good as this. Also great was the anago. Literally just broke apart in my mouth and melted. The guy told me to eat it with my hands because it was too soft to eat with chopsticks. A wise man indeed. There was also something else that came with the uni, but I don't know what it was. It was a lot of cut up pieces of something that had yellow and orange parts. Kind of looked like sea squirt but it tasted different, so I don't know what it was. Anyway, I was almost in tears during the middle of the meal. The sushi rice, the wasabi, everything was superb. One person there recognized that I was Korean based on how I paid my bill, which was kind of interesting. An amazing lunch and I regret that I won't be able to have this again for a while.

Then, I went to Ginza because my friend told me to check it out. As soon as I walked out of the Ginza station, I was in front of the Dior store. It's like I was destined to go there from the start, hahahaha. Anyway, as soon as I went in, I started looking through the jean collection. I saw they had the private colognes that Hedi designed during his tenure (Amber Nuit, Cologne Blanche, Bois d'Argent, and I think the last one was Eau Noire?), but they were like 240 dollars a bottle. I passed, but I really enjoyed Amber Nuit. Anyway, the first pair of jeans I decided to look at was my "grail" item of the MIJ line, which was a size 28 silver selvedge 19cm. I thought I could fit into the 27, but they were a bit too tight. The 28 was a PERFECT fit off the rack (albeit a bit long for my 5'6" stature). They were ridiculously expensive, but the ecstasy from the sushi I had just an hour ago was lingering, and I totally went on the impulse buy. Do I regret it? My wallet does, but I don't. Perhaps once I start starving to make up for the purchase I will start regretting it.

I then revisited the Imperial Palace since I wasn't able to go inside last time. It's more like.....a large walking course since most of the buildings are gone now. Kind of meh. It was around 5 PM at this point, so I decided to head back to Tsukiji to try fugu. Upon arriving, I saw that they were having a matsuri at some Buddhist temple. I walked around, but I didn't want to ruin my appetite, so I opted not to eat anything. Tentake was relatively easy to find compared to Sushi Bun. I recognized the character for heaven, so it made finding it a bit easier Also they had a giant blowfish, but that's besides the point. I originally ordered the Tsukiji set, which is all blowfish dishes, but in a split moment of wanting to eat other things besides fugu (possibly a moment of stupidity on my part) and because of all the foods I haven't been able to eat in Japan yet, I decided to switch my order to the slightly more expensive set, which also had more of the fugu sashimi. The highlight of the full course was definitely the sashimi, but I don't think it was worth paying an extra 1500 yen for it (they replaced some of the blowfish dishes with yakitori and shrimp tempura. I think specifically it was the vinegared fugu and the fugu kare-age, was it? fugu tempura). The sashimi was tora fugu and it has...very little taste. It's very subtle, kind of similar to fluke, but it's much chewier and has a smoother texture. It came with a slight sour sauce that seemed to have a soy sauce base, which tasted pretty good. I think it would have been better if I had it during winter, which I read was fugu season. The yakitori was all right, but the shrimp tempura was absolutely perfect. Generally, in the US, shrimp tempura is overcooked and cooked for too long at a low temperature, so it gets really greasy and kind of soggy. This was perfectly cooked. The shrimp was large, yet extremely soft and tender, and the tempura batter did not taste greasy at all. The fugu sushi was.... really bad. The sushi rice just fell apart on the plate and the guy used too much rice vinegar, so you couldn't really appreciate the rice or the sushi. Also, the fugu was cooked, which I found to be a bit disappointing for sushi. Raw fugu is much much better than cooked fugu. Next, they came out with some sushi nabe. This was when everything started to go downhill. They sent their novice waitress who just dumped all the fugu in at once before even starting to cook the vegetables. Granted, it's because the head waitress told her something about foreigners not liking something (i heard gaijin and kirai so...), so I assume she thought I wouldn't eat it if the meat were undercooked. Really bad service on their part, IMO. The fugu was then overcooked because I couldn't possibly eat everything fast enough, and I didn't have enough space to put it on the tiny bowl they give you. I would have preferred to just eat each piece of fugu as if I were eating shabu shabu. Like fugu itself, the broth was similarly very light and could have used a bit of salt or something. Very disappointed in how they automatically assumed I wouldn't know how to eat fugu. But what's worse is that after the nabe, they make you porridge with the remaining broth. Jesus christ, the girl did not even know how to make porridge. She left way too much soup and cooked it at way too high of a temperature. She didn't even season it enough so it tasted literally like nothing. When she started serving me the porridge, it was more like soup and rice instead of porridge. I got kind of annoyed after the whole nabe incident so I just asked her to leave the fire on and I just cooked the porridge on my own. I also ordered some fugu tail sake, which is basically just a smoked fugu tail that they add flaming sake to. It was quite nice. Very smooth, nice nutty taste, and a slight smokiness. Total cost came out to 9480 yen (a large bottle of sapporo, fugu full course, and the fugu tail sake). I was kind of disappointed in the service, as I paid more than any of the other patrons there, but I received far less attention than the other customers did. The other people just ordered a single serving of the fugu nabe or something. I think they kind of looked down on me because I was a foreigner. Lame

As for the final leg of my night, I decided to head to Asakusa to see the Sennoji Temple, even though it was closed. I was also hoping there would be another matsuri around the area. Sennoji was nice, but I think it would have been much better if I had visited during the day. I think traditional Asian buildings were made to look nice in the sunlight, unlike most modern buildings. Regardless, it was a nice walk. There was indeed a matsuri going around here too, but it was much smaller than the one at Tsukiji. It was kind of getting late so I decided to head to Roppongi Hill to see what it was all about. Roppongi... is boring unless you have friends here. I didn't want to drink by myself so I just back to my hotel room.

I'm debating whether I should check out Tokyo Tower before I head to Hakone tomorrow. Is it worth it, or is it only nice at night? I was originally just planning on going to Hakone after I checked out from my hotel. I was thinking of checking out Mt. Fuji from around there and maybe chilling for a bit at an onsen. I don't really know much about Hakone or how to even get to Mt. Fuji from the Hakone station, so I should probably look that up before I head out tomorrow.

I don't have the physical strength to climb Mt. Fuji I'm dying from walking around Tokyo every day for like 11 hours as is. Also, I have to get to Kyoto tonight or else my hotel reservation will be canceled. I'll probably just stay at an onsen in Hakone and go to Kyoto from there.

Ah, yeah that was what I had! Thanks

No worries! It was still a really fun experience. I had a lot of fun at Tsukiji regardless

I just arrived at Kyoto about two hours ago after stopping by Hakone around noon. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to Mt. Fuji directly since I didn't have enough time I was originally planning on going to Lake Ashi to see it, since it's only 40 minutes from the Hakone-Yumoto station, but it was too cloudy today. I did stay at an onsen for a little bit. It was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep in the outdoor bath. Much cleaner than the saunas/spas in Korea. Since I couldn't go to Mt. Fuji, I decided to walk around and ended up at Senso-ji. It was nice walking around there, but I think I could have spent my time a bit better if I had gone to Hakone Shrine instead. If only I didn't spend so much time walking around and eating manju .

Since the Shinkansen to Kyoto was connected to Odawara, I decided to go to Odawara Castle. I only had about an hour to walk around, so I just looked at the castle from outside and walked around the temple near there. It was very annoying because all the coin lockers were full, so I had to carry around my luggage for the hour I walked around.

The Shinkansen was very nice, but I wish they had an electric outlet like they do on the NEX. They were out of reserved seats, so I got a seat on the green car because I thought you had to stand if you got a non-reserved pass. I definitely did not want to stand for the entire two hour+ ride. I got one of those bento boxes at a store in the terminal to eat on the Shinkansen. As expected, it wasn't that great, but it was enough to satisfy my empty stomach.

My hotel in Kyoto was very easy to find, so I'm just relaxing tonight. Probably going to catch up on the sleep I missed earlier tonight. I don't really know what to do in Kyoto besides visiting the Ginkaku and Kinkaku Shrines. I don't think I have the time or the money to enjoy kaiseki-ryori in Kyoto, so what are some other options that would be worth indulging in during my last few days in Japan? Thanks for all the suggestions

Thanks for the suggestion on the kaiseki-ryori! It was a really nice place.

Also just wanted to say that I saw like three people wearing that ugly leopard print shirt that Uncontrol wore in Tokyo. I can't believe people wear that shit.