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to live in Japan but hasn’t been in several decades, so while she was quite experienced her knowledge was also quite out-of-date and there were plenty of new developments for her too.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\- Airport: we explored Snow Miku Town (website is out of date, they no longer serve the Miku pancakes) which had Hokkaido-themed merch, a figure gallery, and a life-sized Miku figure.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 explored the little village after the sun set. We had dinner (Hokkaido wagyu steak) at the hotel restaurant and then reserved the private onsen (10pm). We preferred private onsens as we can’t really get used to being naked around people and wanted to do it as a family.
\- Hotel: as good as you’d expect. Worth noting it’s not only expensive, but difficult to book/always sells out in ski season. I personally thought it was overpriced but my mom had this as a bucket list item.
2/15 Niseko:
\- Japanese-style breakfast in our room (including my first natto, which was not for me). Unfortunately clouds set in
\- After checkout we explored the village more and took the cable car to the top. For a brief few minutes the clouds parted and Yotei revealed itself.
\- We took the last bus out of Niseko, checked in to Sapporo at 7:30pm. Since we needed a casual dinner anyway, we asked the front desk to make a reservation at Sushizen Honten\* for 8:15pm (most non-5-star hotels will not make reservations for you until you check in, FYI). We figured it’d be possible since Sushizen is a big restaurant (multiple counters). It was going to be either this or Ramen Alley again.
\- Dinner: Sushizen Honten\*, open since 1971 and famous among Sapporoans. We came here bc our favorite NYC sushi chef Masaki Saito (formerly Ginza Onodera NY\*\*, now namesake in Toronto) apprenticed here so we were curious. There were some echoes of his style, but otherwise the student had surpassed the master. It was a fun experience and good casual dinner, but 1-star sushi would not justify a trip to Japan for us.
\- Hotel: Cross Hotel Sapporo. A bit small but serviceable for a short stay and close-ish to the station. There’s a rooftop pool/onsen but we were too tired to check it out.
2/16 Kyoto/Osaka (hotel: Hotel Vischio by Granvia):
\- I know 2 days in Kyoto/Osaka is not enough, but it wasn’t even in our original plan. Once we had our restaurant reservation dates, we saw we would have over a week in Tokyo and decided to add even a tiny stop to Kyoto/Osaka. We knew I can’t see everything, so we would do it to get a small taste for a more Kansai-focused trip next time and take some photos at the most important spots. After all, you never know when another pandemic or war or disaster might get in the way for years again…
\- 8:30am Chitose airport (first airport train departs 6am so worked out) > 10:25am Osaka Itami, then 1h bus (bookable on the spot via machine next to the stop) to Kyoto station. My mom really wanted a Lawson egg sandwich so that was our breakfast
\- Dropped off luggage, lunch at Kyoto Station conveyer belt sushi (pretty good)
\- We went to Ninenzaka/Hokanji temple/Gion via taxi. It was super crowded, easily more crowded than anywhere I’ve been to in Europe (even including infamous places like Venice, Santorini, Dubrovnik (on a parade day!), Paris Trocadero, etc.), but not to the extent of “human conveyer belts” I heard on the internet. It was still possible to take somewhat decent (aka at least not “where’s Waldo”) photos, and my mom and my friends say the crowds were less bc February is the lowest season. Even the most touristy paths still took hours to explore. It’s very beautiful but felt a bit like a theme park, and the crowds did get in the way of the enjoyment. I hope Kyoto finds some solution to overtourism, even if it’s expensive.
\- We went to the tatami room/Ninenzaka Starbucks which only required like a 15m wait contrary to online horror reports. Benefit of February? Not the most authentic experience but my mom had it on her list.
\- At 6:30pm we took the train to Osaka. Make sure to get off at Osaka, not Shin-Osaka, and the normal train is only like 15m slower than the shinkansen but much cheaper. We went straight to Dotonbori and ate a bunch of street food. Some of the restaurants my mom went to 30-40 years ago (Kinryu standing ramen, Otakoya, Kani Doraku crab) were still open, although sadly not the massive drummer boy restaurant (Cui-daore) which is now a commemorative shop. The ramen in particular was very good, especially on a cold day.
\- Got lost for a long time getting out of the wrong side of Kyoto station. Pay attention to the exit signs!
\- Hotel: Vischio by Granvia. Spacious enough, clean, right next to the station for convenience. Generally we choose a normal hotel for convenience either next to the station, or next to the major sights.
2/17 Kyoto:
\- We planned to go to Fushimi-inari at 7am but overslept. Oops! We went at 10am via taxi but while the base was crowded, further up the crowds weren’t too bad. There’s a part where it splits into 2 torii corridors, the right one is for people going up and crowded, but the left one for going back down was uncrowded and we even snagged a few photos with no one else in it surprisingly enough.
\- Next we took the train to Arashiyama. Our primary aim was not the bamboo forest, but the permanent Rilakkuma cafe. We waited an hour, passing the time in the adjoining store with plenty of photo spots and buying merch. The Rilakkuma-shaped food was super cute and well-presented, we ordered almost everything and the waiter expressed shock at the length of our receipt lol. Overall the highest-effort “themed” cafe on our trip.
\- We briefly went to the bamboo forest for a few minutes to snap some photos. Obviously there were people but not super crowded, even at the entrance. If your standard for serenity is “I want 0 people in the background” then go in the early morning, otherwise fine by tourist attraction standards. Then we explored the Arashiyama neighborhood/houses before heading back.
\- The most fun Don Quijote was in Kyoto. They had the penguin plushies and the theme song playing everywhere.
\- Dinner: 5:30pm dinner at Hyotei\*\*\* (Tabelog bronze), classic kaiseki in a 450-year-old teahouse. We had a private tatami room (shoes off), with washi screen doors you can open to see the garden/pond (we opened them for photos and shut them while eating given winter). The food was more innovative, and less plain/old/weird/acquired taste than I expected, but we considered the sea cucumber ovaries (a classic Japanese delicacy) to be “not weird” so your mileage may vary. No meme kaiseki courses to the degree of “a plain onion in a cup of water” here, even if the spirit of respect for fresh ingredients and light preparation behind that meme are there and well-executed. Kimono-clad service was warm and attentive but there are rigid rules in typical contrasting Japanese fashion – my mom took a bit long with one course and the next course arrived on schedule regardless (as each dish is best enjoyed in the exact moment). We sadly didn’t do a tea ceremony this trip, but the final course was ceremonial-grade matcha so at least we got a (literal) taste. An enjoyable authentic experience, price \~$350.
2/18 Tokyo (hotel: Four Seasons Otemachi)
\- Morning shinkansen with train bento, arrived in Tokyo noon.
\- Checked in with immediate room with Skytree view. We just enjoyed the room/bath and swimming pool until dinner. Note the swimming pool only allowed pictures when no one else was there (which thankfully happened at one point) when pools are usually Instagram spots elsewhere in the world.
\- Dinner: 8pm Ryugin\*\*\*. (Tabelog bronze). They were doing a special winter fugu menu which worked well for me as a tourist. Every course had various fugu parts in it, ranging from meat, skin, sperm (a delicacy, only in the winter), “rare parts” (only harvestable from the largest, most expensive fugu), to even the lips (which was a hit). Different preparations and seasonings yielded different flavors of fugu, ranging from chicken-like to squid-like to fish-like. My mom lauded chef Yamamoto as a culinary genius. We didn’t die. Interior was Japanese-style but with table seating, but some seats had a high-rise view. Price was expensive ($575 pp) but so are the ingredients and the special fugu license training, and the combination of modern-style kaiseki with fugu was unique (more than unique, time-limited too), not to mention so skillful, so we didn’t object. Their normal menu is closer to $350 pp I think.
\- Also the wine glass list was the best I’ve ever seen, with 1970s Cheval Blanc and Chateau d’Yquem by the glass. I’ve never seen this even in France except at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.
\- Hotel: amazing service as you’d expect from Four Seasons. Enormous and modern room (only opened in 2020). Their concierge team is amazingly skilled, one of the few 5-star hotels able to get Jiro. Pool and lobby with great views, as well as a balcony at Pigneto. I’d love to return. Otemachi is a multiline subway hub so extremely convenient too.
2/19 Tokyo:
\- Breakfast at the hotel restaurant with high-rise views of the Imperial Palace, Shinjuku, and Tokyo Tower/Minato
\- Afterwards we went to see the gates of the Imperial Palace, as well as some early sakura blossoms (due to global warming, I presume). Sakura without the crowds and prices!
\- Explored the famous streets of Ginza before dinner
\- Dinner: 7pm Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten\*\*\* (Tabelog bronze). Yes, that Jiro. The 98-year-old senior Jiro Ono was in that day and I felt ecstatic when I peeked him through a crack in the sliding door, although he was serving some Japanese regulars while his 1st son Yoshikazu served us. Jiro is out most days these days given his age according to some reviews, so I was happy he was there (supposedly you have more luck at dinner). Despite reports of overrated sushi and sour rice, his komezu rice was perfectly balanced between too plain and too sour (but he puts less vinegar in winter – I suspect many tourist reviews are written in the summer) and his sushi technique in cutting, “scattering” rice, and fish prep were top-tier. The “scattering” rice is packed as loose as possible so it explodes in your mouth and was the best version of this technique we had, but it also means a) it will collapse if left alone for longer than 10 seconds, as happened to my second piece of shrimp (and I suspect a reason for the photo ban), and b) it is difficult to pick up, so you should be experienced – remember, thumb and middle finger horizontally. Jiro is not overrated – he may have a sickening amount of hype from the movie, but he makes elite sushi. Technically difficult pieces like squid and gizzard shad succeeded, product quality pieces like toro and uni were stellar. I don’t like shrimp sushi generally but Jiro’s was by far the best with his technique of stuffing the guts. His shima-aji was so juicy I asked for another and I still daydream about it weeks after. Even if I described other highlight pieces it’d just repeat half the menu. We personally preferred Miyakawa, but top-tier sushi is all amazingly skilled. It is difficult to describe and gets down to subtle details like knifework, rice, and fish prep (can go into more detail if desired), but we feel that Michelin does do a reasonable job tiering sushi into 1, 2, and 3 stars for the most part even if it’s not perfect. What is true is you really do eat within 30 minutes, which was fine for me but fast for my mom, and there is not much talking. No food photos allowed, unusually, although Jiro will take a photo with you at the end (we asked Yoshikazu to join us too!). The interior is really old-fashioned and kind of cheap-looking tbh, with no hinoki counter, and it really is in a subway station and really doesn’t have an on-premise bathroom. Bill was a bargain compared to NYC at $370 pp.
\- I can’t believe I have to say this but while Jiro is excellent, do not make it your “first omakase ever” as I see some people online try to do. Jiro is unusual for an omakase in many ways, from the rush to the stern atmosphere to the cheap interior, and it will be difficult to appreciate why his sushi is so good/different without knowledge and reference/comparison points. I understand not everyone is blessed to live in NYC or go to Japan frequently, but please go to at least one other “normal” michelin-starred/Tabelog-awarded omakase before trying Jiro. You are going to taste his food, not have an enjoyable dinner.
\- As tourists, the 30m dinner was quite convenient as we had time to explore Shinjuku’s/Kabukicho’s lights at night. It’s quite difficult to get “the shot” of Kabukicho but we settled on 2x zoom from the road median.
2/20 Tokyo (Hotel: Prince Park Tower Tokyo):
\- We originally planned Tokyo differently/in a more paced manner, but it forecasted rain Wed-Sun so we changed plans and crammed every outdoor activity into today
\- Sakura blossoms in Shiba park with Tokyo Tower in the background
\- Suga Shrine stairs aka the stairs from the anime movie Your Name. There’s a line of fellow otakus waiting to take pictures but it’s an orderly affair and you will get your picture. Also it’s so far from Yotsuya station, how the heck did Mitsuha and Taki meet up here?
\- Lunch: Lycoris Recoil anime cafe in Shibuya with a Hawaii cafe theme (doubly appropriate given Chisato and Takina work in a cafe in the anime). Probably the highest-effort anime theme cafe, with intricate/aesthetic and tasty food. Reservations were impossible due to requiring a Japanese phone number, but there was plenty of empty space for walk-ins. The anime girls on the food are printed edible monaka crackers. It was really fun eating anime-themed food in an anime-themed space and lived up to the expectations I had, almost as fun as the michelin-starred restaurants lol.
\- Shopping in Shibuya (more Comme des Garcons), Shibuya scramble crossing (sadly the Starbucks is closed to reopen in April, so we took pics from the elevated walkway).
\- Akihabara outside pics (we only went to 1 small figure shop, did our shopping next Monday)
\- Asakusa/Sensoji temple – this was somehow even more crowded than Kyoto, so we didn’t spend too much time here. We had originally planned a separate day for this with plans to go to Kappabashi, but sadly that didn’t happen in the abbreviated schedule
\- Dinner: 8:30pm Harutaka\*\*\* (Tabelog bronze). The only current 3-star sushi in Tokyo and a former Jiro apprentice. Tbh everything tasted kind of bland or weird, was a huge disappointment compared to every other meal we had in Tokyo. Rubbery abalone, strange sea urchin. Knifework so lazy (most uninspired sayori cutting ever) and so rough it’s like they cut the fish with a saw. The rice was both really sour and salty with lingering aftertastes and we ended up really thirsty, maybe this is what Jiro’s rice tastes like in the summer when people complain and Harutaka never learned the seasonal komezu modulation. Difficult pieces like rubbery squid (which didn’t even bother with the knife scoring to make it more tender) and super-fishy gizzard shad did not leave a positive impression. The company was quite obnoxious (Japanese and American instagrammers posing sushi, being loud, etc). Price was $450 pp, which is competitive with NYC, but given the enjoyment it was the only meal I felt was overpriced, a feeling I didn’t have even at Ryugin. Harutaka is beloved by Tabelog reviewers and fellow chefs so maybe Japanese palates are different from ours, but some of this is objective and we enjoyed other sushi in Japan so I don’t really know, I think Michelin made a mistake here. Jiro is great but he must be a lousy teacher, as we also had a bad experience at his other apprentice Nakazawa\* in NY. Also with most of the well-regarded/Tabelog award sushiyas being impossible to reserve and thus kicked out of Michelin (Saito, Jiro, Sugita, Amamoto, Sawada, Namba, Mitani, Arai, etc.), Michelin’s current Tokyo sushi recs are kind of a joke at this point – I generally include “historical” Michelin ratings together with current ones to compensate.
\- Hotel: Prince Park Tower Tokyo. Nice large hotel, if a bit dated and dusty. We had a corner view of Tokyo Tower and Zojoji temple from our room which was stunning. There’s a Lawson on-premises. Worst part was how far the subways were (almost 10m walk), which makes it unlikely we’ll stay here again.
2/21 Tokyo:
\- Rain so late start. We spent the day in Odaiba
\- Madoka Magica anime cafe to celebrate the upcoming movie. The cafe was pretty low effort in a coffee shop, but we adore Madoka so we made the effort to come. No line again, surprisingly, even for a popular series. It was less immersive than the other anime cafes, but we were happy to see one of our favorite series. This cafe let us choose the characters to put on the food and latte so we got Madoka, Mami, and Homura
\- Small World Museum. Tickets bought at the door. There were multiple exhibits for real-world destinations such as Zermatt and Dubrovnik (both of which we’ve been to), a space world, and an airport, but the main reason I went was the Evangelion mecha launch cages (with working launchers) and the model of Tokyo-3 from the Evangelion anime (complete with the retracting city). There were lots of tiny details/anime locations and it was fun looking for the main characters in the vast city. There’s also an Evangelion-themed vending machine. We chose this over Teamlabs as it felt more unique to Tokyo vs an instagram experience, we like anime, and we’ve already been to the original Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room when it toured in Las Vegas.
\- We saw the Odaiba Gundam and then went home, as it was so foggy you couldn’t even see the Rainbow Bridge. Fog is an extra risk of going in the winter months.
\- Dinner: 5pm Tempura Kondo\*\* with 77-year-old Fumio Kondo, most known for rejecting Obama’s reservation (so he ended up going to Jiro). The tempura was somehow even better than NYC Tempura Matsui\*, which itself is strong tempura. The combination of out-of-this-world ingredient quality and gossamer batter/cooking technique was unique. Full disclosure, I hate vegetables, but he did something magical to things like onions, asparagus, lotus root, etc. (there were seafood courses too, but those are easier to make tasty). The signature 40m-fried sweet potato is basically a dessert, but it has to be ordered separately at the start so they can dump it in the oil to slow-fry for basically your whole meal.
2/22 Tokyo:
\- Japanese breakfast in room with Tokyo Tower view
\- Lunch: at Nodaiwa\*, a 230-year-old 1-star unagi (eel) restaurant. We had a surprisingly affordable course menu ($100 for 2) which featured eel with and without sauce, as well as a shark fin chawanmushi and some other bits like eel jelly and eel liver. I’ve been to unagi specialty restaurants in NYC, but this was another level in the softness and creaminess, to the point you could cut it with chopsticks cleanly.
\- More shopping in Ginza, buying dishware/cooking knives and Mikimoto jewelry
\- Fruit platter at Sembikiya flagship (190-year-old luxury fruit parlor), particularly their pricey musk melon and Queen/Tochiage strawberries. The strawberries, as well as the mind-blowing strawberry milkshake, lived up to their reputation. The melon was better than the one at Jiro’s, but not as surprising. The other fruits were nice too. The interior was luxury high ceiling modern, with plenty of instagram girls ordering fruit parfaits.
\- Dinner: Seryna Honten in Roppongi, opened in 1965, for Kobe beef sukiyaki, Kobe beef shabu shabu, and crab. My mom went here with here with her family many decades ago (in a time when people had no Michelin or Tabelog to guide them) and wanted to share it with me. The kegani crab was quite good, as was the deeply flavorful sukiyaki (the shabu shabu was a bit subtle for my tastes). The portions were quite small for a steep price, but I was happy to share in a family memory.
2/23 Ginzan Onsen (ryokan Ginzanso):
\- We took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Oishida, then our ryokan arranged a hotel bus from Oishida to the hotel. We had soba and squid tempura lunch at the Oishida train station which was more delicious than it had any right to be, given the random location. Ginzan is quite far from Tokyo – a 3h-3h30m train then 30m bus
\- We had a private onsen in our room’s balcony which we made good use of multiple times a day. We mostly either used the onsen, went to the town, or ate in our hotel. The hotel provided yukatas, snowcoats, and boots. We also stocked up on snacks from Lawson beforehand as there’s no konbini and not many restaurants in Ginzan
\- Dinner: kaiseki hotel dinner (with details like a label with our names for the shoe cubby and our private dining room – note it wasn’t in our hotel room). The food was high quality and better than we expected, with items like Yamagata wagyu, and traditional presentation.
\- We went to the town late at night after the day-tourists went home on the last bus. The snow-covered old-style town is so beautiful, like a storybook, moreso at night with the traditional gas lamps. This felt the most like the “old Japan” I was looking for. The smell of sulfur/rotten eggs from the onsen water river is in the air. The Notoya ryokan is reputed to be one of the inspirations for the bathhouse in Spirited Away, with a red bridge in front. Worth noting the gas lamps turn off at 10pm.
\- Hotel: Ginzanso was a nice traditional/Japanese-style ryokan with private and public onsens. Worth noting that accommodation of any sort in Ginzan is hard to book, selling out months in advance, so plan early if you want to stay the night.
2/24 Ginzan Onsen:
\- After an early breakfast (they start early! The offered times were 7 and 8am) we went to the town twice, once in the morning before the day-tourists and once around lunchtime. The morning outing we got lots of people-less day pics, and it also snowed a lot which looked nice. We also went to the small waterfall near the soba restaurant. All the restaurants/cafes were packed due to the holiday weekend so we gave up aside from the famous and delicious curry bread/red bean donut place.
\- I was surprised the hotel had a different menu for the 2nd dinner, although it wasn’t as imaginative as the first. We went out again at night, even later this time. We also tried the hotel’s public onsen briefly for experience’s sake (the anime kind with rocks outside, with a view of snow).
2/25 Ginzan Onsen/Tokyo (hotel: Dai-Ichi):
\- After breakfast and one more outing in the town, we took the bus and shinkansen back to Tokyo. In lieu of a bento we bought some more snacks and strawberries at Oishida station which were quite good.
\- We arrived 5pm in Tokyo. My mom wanted omurice+katsu, so we used Tabelog to find Rengatei, but neglected to check it was open on Sun. So went to Mitsukoshii’s food court and found both items. Dept store food courts are always a reliable option if you can’t find something.
\- Hotel: Dai-ichi is a bit dated and dusty but wonderful service, great old-style interior (hotel opened in 1938), and our room was big and had a wonderful view of Tokyo Tower. It was also conveniently next to subway lines.
2/26 Tokyo:
\- We went to Mori Tower in Roppongi in the morning and we got to see Fuji one more time. Sadly the inside deck was undergoing renovation and the outdoor deck was closed, I really wanted to see the latter to experience the famous scene from the anime movie Weathering with You.
\- Lunch: Love Live Hasunosora cafe at Akihabara. The cafe was decently high effort in both the interior (decked out with all the characters, autographs, etc.) and the creative presentation of the food (a bunny-shaped omurice and a “starry night” pasta with the characters stuck on them), but the food tasted pretty bad.
\- Akihabara shopping. Maybe I went to the wrong stores (Animate, Mandarake, some smaller ones) but the inventory wasn’t as wide as I thought it would be, and mostly focused on recent series (good opportunity to load up on Kana merch, what wasn’t sold out anyway).
\- 2nd lunch at a conveyer belt sushi. This one was much more mediocre than the Kyoto one.
\- We went to Oshiage (Skytree) to pick up takeout from our last Michelin star, Yakitori Omino\* (Tabelog bronze), which worked well with our schedule. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to actually go up the Skytree, or find the Rilakkuma store supposedly here. The yakitori was just ok, I preferred NYC’s actually, but it was takeout so unfair to judge.
\- More last-minute shopping at Daimaru
\- As we rolled our bags to take the subway to Haneda, we stumbled on a taiyaki shop doing an anime vtuber collab for our last food in Tokyo.
\- We bought our gifts/omiyage/take home snacks at the airport duty free, then boarded our flight home at 11pm.
Logistical notes:
\- Carrier international phone plan ($50 for a month on TMobile) on my mom’s phone.
\- 2 backpacks+2 checked suitcases+a cheap Don Quijote suitcase for souvenirs. Didn’t use luggage fwding bc we weren’t familiar with it but wish we had, we’ll research it more next time. Checked bags fit in front of your seat on the shinkansen if you squeeze in, they’ll also fit on the overhead racks if you’re strong enough to lift it (mixed results for me).
\- Book any domestic flights on the same booking/ticket as your international so you keep the international weight/size allowance which is larger than domestic (we did this). Also the automatic bag checkin machines may reject your bag’s weight for a domestic flight (just go to a counter and they will handle it)
\- I used my fee-free credit card wherever I could, but still ended up going through about 100k JPY in cash mainly on IC card, rural areas, small shops/street food in larger cities. We used 711 ATM.
\- Due to Tokyo Suica/Pasmo IC shortage and given we started in Sapporo, we got Hokkaido’s Kitaca IC card (usable nationwide). Annoyingly you can only seem to reload it with cash, but the convenience was worth that downside. We didn’t use the phone IC, which accepts credit cards, bc we wanted to save battery.
\- No JR pass (mainly bc our trains were spaced more than a week apart).
\- Local trains accept IC, prebooking not required. Shinkansen can be booked on arrival at the station (website kept rejecting our card). However the train to Ginzan (Yamagata line) on the holiday was almost fully booked so beware of holidays and book shinkansen as early on your trip as possible. The station helper did tell us shinkansen never “run out of room” as they have standing room if you must get from A to B at a certain time. He also told us if you miss a shinkansen, you can take standing room on a subsequent one same day. The different JR companies can book each other (e.g. JR Central office in Kyoto could book JR East tickets).
\- Google maps has the subway exits (e.g. A8, B2, etc.) labelled.
\- We had a fairly detailed pre-planned itinerary (necessary due to all the reservations), but also left gaps for free time and had “modules” we could move around as needed for weather.
\- Flights, hotels, and luxury activities aside, “normal” expenses were quite cheap, although this could be a result of the low exchange rate. Just to give an idea, we had a $7 lunch for 2 at a conveyer belt sushi in Tokyo.
Overall: Nothing compares to the real deal for food in Japan, although we gained appreciation for how strong NY’s Japanese scene is. This trip we focused on the Michelin guide/3-stars to calibrate their global standards, but next time we’d like to explore Tabelog gold restaurants to compare (local gourmands use Tabelog). Next trip we’d also like to focus on the south in more depth, either Kansai or Kyushu. We liked mixing popular Golden Route destinations with slightly less common ones like Hokkaido and Ginzan which gave us a different (and less crowded) perspective of Japan, Going in the winter was a good idea from a scenic, food, and crowd point of view. The whole country is like an anime-themed Disneyworld (complete with ads, cosplayers, themed food, and merch) which was obviously a dream for us.
by diningbystarlight