Jan/Feb Trip Report

Taken a little while, but figured I should write up a trip report. I was in Japan from 25/01 to 15/02. Fifth time there, but first since the pandemic. My main things on a trip at this stage are good food, good drinks, and interesting photos. On this trip I visited Tokyo, Osaka, Koya-san, Kanazawa, and Izu-Kogen.

Arrival was swift and painless. Landed around 1830 at Haneda, and it was almost empty. I was one of the first off the plane (ANA F class is amazing, btw), and it took me like 2 minutes to get through quarantine and immigration, with all my stuff filled out on VJW in advance. 10 minutes or so waiting at the baggage carousel, and then another 5 to get through customs. Got the monorail to Hamamatsucho and the Yamanote line up to Shin-Okubo, from which my hotel was less than a 10 minute walk.

In Tokyo I stayed at Hundred Stay Shinjuku. It’s about 15 minutes walk from the main sights of Shijuku, but very close to Okubo and Shin-Okubo stations. I liked the location – close enough to Shinjuku to walk to all the fun nightlife, far enough away to avoid the noise, and with decent transport links. Plus, on clear days my room on the 18th floor had unobstructed views of Fuji.

In Osaka I stayed at Randor Suites Namba, which was nice and spacious, and well located. The only down side was a weird complicated control system to make hot water happen. The instructions are not well translated, and I struggled to figure it out. Nice room, though.

Koya-san was amazing. Stayed at Eko-In temple, in a luxury suite with garden view. Lots of space, and one of the deepest bathtubs I’ve ever seen (I love soaking in a hot bath). Apparently it’s one of the more tourist temples, but it was still lovely. Staff were very helpful, the goma fire ceremony in the morning was good, and the vegan dinner was delicious.

The real splurge, accommodation wise, was Omuro no mori Gyoku, in Izu-Kogen. At around £550 a night it wasn’t cheap, but it was amazing. Private outdoor onsen, delicious dinner and breakfast, helpful staff, and a little room where you could sit with aromatic infusers and play assorted vinyl.

FOOD

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I won’t go through everything I ate, just a top 5 and bottom 1. In no particular order, the best things I ate were:

\- Udon Maruka. Near Jinbocho, they do Kagawa style udon. Udon is my favourite type of noodle, so this was right up my alley. I went there around 1230 and stood in line for maybe 10-15 minutes. They take your order in line, so as soon as you sit down your food is ready.

\- Kikanbo, Kanda – I love spicy food, and this place delivers. They have two spice scales, one for chilli, one for lip-tingling szechuan peppers. For each one you can choose none, low, mid, high, or Oni. Oni costs a couple hundred yen extra, the rest are all included. I had Oni chilli and mid szechuan, with double pork. This is not your usual thin slices of chashu, you get thick slabs of delicious pork.

\- Shogun Burger, Shinjuku – it’s a little pricy, but towards the end of the trip I really craved that combination of bread, meat and cheese. Finding a good burger in Japan is hard, but Shogun delivers. Double patty with a fried egg, and a portion of fries, is like £22. Probably a line to get in, but not too bad.

\-Random yakiniku place. Don’t recall the name, sorry. It’s in the Nowa building. I got the deluxe lunch course and felt like it was well worth the money. Like 6500 yen for 2 hours of all you can eat, with an assortment of wagyu cuts and other meats. I definitely feel like I got my money’s worth. I had about 25 plates of assorted meat and veg, and they were all delicious.

\-Omuro no mori Gyoku. The dinner here is full on. A substantial amuse bouche, sashimi course, a whole grilled red snapper, red snapper shabu shabu, miso soup, rice, palette cleanser, and dessert. All served in a private room with attentive staff.

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Other food thoughts: I visited a lot of yokocho on this trip. Went to Omoide, Harmonica, Kankoku, Niku, Nonbei, and Ebisu (and Golden Gai, though I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a yokocho). Harmonica was definitely my favourite of them, and Nonbei the least favourite. Omoide is overcrowded and some of the places there are definitely racist – I can speak reasonable Japanese but found myself getting turned away from places which clearly had openings, presumably just because I was a lone gaijin.

The worst place I ate was MOS. Utter sloppy garbage burgers. I need to remember that Japan just isn’t good at burgers 90% of the time, no matter how much I might crave one.

Had a lot of ramen, too, Kikanbo, as noted above, was excellent. Ichiran was fine, but they’re definitely a big chain and you can tell the noodles aren’t freshly made on site. There was a random place near Kita Senju I unfortunately can’t recall the name of which was very nice. Ramen Nagi in Golden Gai has a fun vibe, and is definitely good for some 3am food, but I wouldn’t line up when it’s busy at lunch time.

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MUSEUMS

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Having been a fair few times before, I spent a lot of this trip at more niche museums. Some thoughts.

The Japanese Sword Museum is very boring. It’s basically one big room with blades around the edges and handles and sheathes in the middle, each with a short explanatory sign. Even if you can read the signs its still not worth the money, and if you only speak English it’s even less good.

Meiji university museum – It’s small, and mostly in Japanese, but kind of interesting. And you can’t argue with free. The section on crime and punishment is very cool. If you don’t speak Japanese, Google Lens will get you through most of the signs.

Cat Museum – It’s very out of the way, in Izu Kogen, but I loved it. Ground floor is all taxidermy, some good, some terrible. Upstairs is a petting room for some of the resident cats, including a very friendly, very fluffy, Norwegian Forest cat, and also a collection of cat themed merch.

Teddy Bear Museum – Also in Izu Kogen – a decent collection, if you have an interest in the history of bears.

Parasitological Musuem – Meguro, Tokyo. Very small, but quite interesting. You can feel a length of rope the same length as a record tape worm, to get a sense of just how big the damn thing was.

Intermediatheque – Marunouchi, Tokyo. A fun collection of eclectic weirdness.

Folk Craft Museum – Shimokita – interesting, but very small and crowded.

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MISC

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Bar Cocktail Book does some great cocktails, and the owner is charming. He speaks decent English and will chat with you to make your drinks – there’s no menu, you just talk about types of spirit or flavours you like and he makes things. Reasonably priced too, around 1300 yen per drink.

Bar Trench – Good cocktails, but kind of overpriced, and the vibe is a bit cold.

SG Club – I can see why this place got a spot in the world’s top 50 bars. The upstairs bar is more accessible, the downstairs bar is pricier and a bit more refined. Both are very good, with delicious drinks and good service. 1200 to 2500 yen a drink, leaning cheaper upstairs, pricier downstairs.

Merch – I really like Chainsaw Man, and got a lot of fun merch. Picked up a Pochita fountain pen and some stickers at a pop up shop near Shibuya, and a plush Pochita and a Power t-shirt at Nakano Broadway. There was a pop up cafe I wanted to go to, but I couldn’t get a reservation.

Bikes – Cycling on the pavement is apparently super common in Tokyo, which I found weird. It’s not allowed in London – bikes go on the road here, not the pavement, so I was surprised by how many people were cycling through crowds of pedestrians. And cyclists never use their bells, they just appear silently behind you, and you’d best get out of the way.

Koya – Koya-san was utterly gorgeous. It was knee-deep snow in some places, so quiet, with hardly anyone around most of the time. I have never tasted air so fresh, and just all round it was beautiful and I recommend going there if you can.

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I’m sure there are a million things I have forgotten to say, but this post is already pretty long,

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Edit to Add: I forgot to mention Bar Cherry Bomb. It’s a rock bar in Osaka, which has taco Tuesdays. I’ve made point of stopping in on every trip, and it never disappoints. Tiny venue, talkative crowd, decent range of craft beers. If you want some English language chat the owner and most of the staff are American.