japan
3 women, 10 days, 2 bullet trains and approximately 400 meals. Japan was good to us and we all walked away kinda obsessed. It’s a really popular destination for people living in HK and after my first short typhoon-impacted trip I thought it was cool … but didn’t really get what the fuss was all about. Now I get it.
We started our four days in Tokyo with one of my travel buddy’s birthdays. She’s severly allergic to fish and countless people told us we’d never be able to find anywhere good for her to eat in Japan, thankfully we proved them all wrong. For her birthday we started with a bang at a great 3-course Mexican lunch in the heart of Tokyo (Rubia). After some coffee and op-shopping we headed out for cocktails with a view on the 41st floor of the Park Hyatt at The Peak Lounge, and then for a 9 course vegan tasting menu at Tudore Tranqulity. As we arrived we realised the restaurant is actually inside the Chef’s House, it had just 4 small tables, a very OTT decor style full of gold and sparkles and very yummy, beautifully presented food. To finish off the birthday vibes we went out in the Golden Gai area, bar hopped to a few different spots then ended up doing Karaoke til 5am as if we were still in our 20’s. What a start to our Japan adventure!
Over the next few days in Tokyo we:
ate the fluffiest Japanese pancakes
grabbed Tacos at a salsa festival
beer tasted at a neighbourhood brewery
enjoyed self-cooked Okonomiyaki
visited the Studio Ghibli museum
had a fully buddhist meal at a temple in the Tokyo CBD
ate THE best pizza of my life (the Tuna one at Savoy Tomato and Cheese)
spent a day in kamakura with vegan sushi, temple hiking and an epic sunset
slurped Yuzu ramen (Afuri) - vegan and non-vegan versions available!
We then headed for Part 2, Kyoto. We got some yummy takeaway lunch at the train station took the bullet train (so cool to see how fast it goes and we got great Mt Fuji views!) and then transferred to a local train as we were spending our first night in a Ryokan out of the city. The Ryokan wasn’t quite the small charming place I’d imagined but we still had a great experience. Our room looked pretty traditional in many ways, paper walls, floor-sitting table, kimono-type robes waiting for us, but also had nice bathrooms and a lake view so no complaints from us! Ryokan’s often come with full board and this was no exception so we soon headed for dinner, we were in our own little room in the restaurant with an insane spread of dishes put on for us (and a lot of care taken to accomodate to my friends allergy), so many interesting things to taste and try. We then enjoyed the views from our room with some wine, before heading to the Onsen, we were the only ones using it and sitting outside under the stars in the hot pool, it was really lovely. The next morning another full spread was waiting for us for breakfast, it looked stunning, but was more challenging to eat the extra adventurous things first thing in the morning so we probably didn’t take proper advantage of this meal sadly.
We jumped on the train into Kyoto and found our extremely cute AirBnb then dropped our stuff and just started wandering. None of us had been to Kyoto before and we were all pretty blown away by just how pretty it was with the temples and shrines in every direction, how clean it was and all the interesting architecture. We spent the afternoon snacking (mochi balls, cookies, flame-seared beef sushi, okonomiyaki), shopping and soaking up the Koyoto magic. In the evening we queued to get into Bee’s Knees (an asia Top 50 bar) and loved the cocktails and vibe we found behind the yellow door. Dinner was a great Japanese BBQ spot and we ended the night in a totally random tiny bar where the DJ/Bar Tender played all our requests and we danced til our feet hurt and we’d had too many highballs. Welcome to Kyoto!
After a slow start and another great meal (Hawaiian style breakfast) we headed to the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine. As expected it was insanely crowded at the bottom but as we wound our way up the mountain through countless orange gates and into some rain clouds we got some space and time to enjoy it in peace. A soy-flour flavor soft serve rebooted us with the energy to walk back down in the drizzle. We headed back to Nishiki market for more beef sushi then home to warm up a bit. We later queued up for another Ramen spot (Tokkyu), a husband and wife team (both working with booze in hand), 12 seats at the counter, very relaxed vibe and vegan option available - winning!
Our last day in Kyoto started early as we headed out to the Bamboo Forest for a half day bike tour, was great to be there early but we still didn’t miss all the crowds! Having seen the forest we headed to a temple with some leaves starting to turn autumn then a shrine to the god of hair where we all made some wishes. We then rode out into the countryside a bit and got away from the crowds, we stopped at another temple which was really lovely and quiet, did some caligraphy and just enjoyed the calm. Then biked back into town, stopping at the very funky Kimono forest before grabbing some street food (curry bread yes please) and jumping back on the train. Vegan burgers and shopping took up our afternoon then we eventually headed out for more cocktails and Japanese BBQ and finally saw a Geisha!
Osaka was our final stop and we took the bullet train to get there in all of 15mins or so, felt like a blink. We dropped our bags at the hotel and immediately started eating street food - some sort of mini okonomiyaki type thing. We wandered to and through Dotonburi, marvelling at how extra everything is, huge billboards, oversized food decor, flashing lights and people everywhere, almost culture shock after quaint Kyoto! We tried the famous Omurice and finally found some crazy KitKat flavors to bring home (MilkTea, Apple, Matcha, Wasabi, Cheesecake). We took a 20min canal cruise with a hilariously energetic guide who had us all waving and shouting “Konnichi-wa” at everyone on the pavement. He was also supposedly going to tell us about the bridges… but the only part he translated to English was “this is a bridge” each time we went under one, which had us in fits of laughter by the 7th bridge. We spotted a quirky looking cafe when we got off the boat and popped our heads in, then couldn’t resist staying for a coffee. The place looked like a rainbow had exploded inside it, and we realised it was a Kawaii (japanese culture of cuteness) cafe and it was incredible. All the staff were fully kitted out, all the food was rainbow colored and you could even get a photo of yourself ‘printed’ onto the foam of your drink (which we had to do of course!). It was such a great vibe and you couldn’t help but smile the whole time you were in there, go visit if you are in Osaka! (Pink Kawaii)
We chilled with a wine by the canal while the sun was still out, then after a quick ear piercing for the girls, we went to queue for dinner. We’d been strongly recommended this place (OKO Fun) and it didn’t disappoint! We self-served (honesty box) drinks and grabbed free peanuts while we queued and then once inside we saw it was a one-woman show, extremely impressive setup. She’d come up with a system so that she could mainly just focus on cooking - you’d order, then self-serve drinks, go upstairs and find yourself a seat, then she’d announce over a microphone when your food was ready so you could go down and collect it. Each floor had condiments, cutlery, rubbish bins and cleaning supplies and she asked people to “leave it as they found it” and clean up after themselves then bring the trays back downstairs, so she could re-use them. Everyhing was served in cardboard so she doesn’t have to deal with dishes and considering how busy it was, everything ran amazingly smoothly without long wait times. She said she’d tried hiring staff but she couldn’t cook any faster so it didn’t help reduce the wait times so she just does it alone. The food was excellent, with vegan and non-vegan options meaning we finished our Japan food adventure with yet another great meal for our friend without having to worry about the fish allergy!
To cap off the day in Osaka we rode the Don Don Donki ride, kind of like a ferris wheel, with views down to the canal and across to a giant mechanical chef wielding a knife atop a building, it kind of epitomized Osaka.
Sadly all good things have to come to an end, my friends flew back to HK and I headed to Jeju in Korea for a couple of days to visit a NZ friend and meet her newborn bubba. We had a nice quiet few days before I was back to Hong Kong, my 3 months over, ready to start my new work adventure.
