ikura-wa-ikura

[ikura-wa-ikura]

I write this last post from my couch in Portland. Today was our last day in Tokyo and this day lasted over 30 hours.

But first- our last night! We got back into Tokyo and headed to our hotel- the Godzilla hotel! There’s a giant Godzilla head on the 8th floor of the building and tons of themed merch all over. Very silly. We dropped our stuff, took a little breather and then headed out for a drink. We first went to a dive bar but they didn’t have any food options, so after a drink we went to an izakaya to snack. In Japan when you order an alcoholic beverage, they bring you a little snack. The snack isn’t free necessarily bc you often pay a “cover charge” when you drink at places (usually $2-3) and that covers the snack. Well this guy brought out a charcoal grill and a bunch of tiny fish right to our table and is like, grill up! So we did. And they were delicious! But the whole thing was so unexpected and silly. After a few bites we headed over to the Deaf owned izakaya. Inside we met the owner who is Deaf, another Deaf staff person, a HoH guy with his hearing sister who signs and a SODA. It was too fun communicating with everyone. We had learned a few signs in JSL to communicate, and with the help of Google translate and Fusao the owner (he knows a bit of ASL) we were able to learn more. It was a really fun experience and the food was delicious. Anytime I meet Deaf folks from other countries, it’s always way easier to figure out commutation than it is with hearing people. Love that!

Finally we headed to our last dinner, a sushi omakase in a different part of town. The dinner was fantastic and the chef and staff were so so friendly and kind. We planned to go out after but ate ourselves into a coma and called it a night.

This morning we packed up and left our bags at the lobby. Our flight wasn’t til 4p so we had time to explore. We checked out a neighborhood we hadn’t been to yet, popping into art galleries and vintage shops. We stopped by a bakery for a little treat and then accidentally went to a very traditional izakaya for lunch. We had meant to go somewhere else but got the place wrong and stayed anyway. We split a lunch special of grilled fish, sashimi, miso and rice and it was great! I wanted one last ramen before we left so that was lunch #2! It was incredible. The ramens here really are next level. Then we headed back, grabbed our bags and went to the airport. Our 9 hour flight went by quickly and we landed at Seattle at 9:45am. AM! Still today! We went back in time. So wild! Global entry was a breeze, we grabbed our rental and psyched ourselves out for the long drive home.

Now we’re back with loads of souvenirs and I’m eating Indian food surrounded by the animals and I’m tired but not tired and feel like a ghost. Travel is weird. Time travel is even more weird.

This was such an incredible trip. Everyday was so packed of fun and adventure and silly and delicious! I am immensely grateful to Thomas for planning such a great vacation and showing me the beauties of Japan. I can’t wait to go back and explore more!

Ichi-go ichi-e 🤟

[ikura-wa-ikura]

Full Day off In Kyoto

We started the day by walking over to our tour! Thomas thought it would take 20 minutes, but it was actually a 30 minute walk. We did it in 25. (Very proud of Meaghan and her still sore calves.)

We met the tour group outside of a FamilyMart at a train station nearby. There was an older Australian couple, a younger couple from LA (an Israeli guy and a Chinese woman) and then a young American-born Japanese kid from Mystic, Connecticut. We made a quick stop all together to have miso ice cream. It was good!

We hiked into the back of the temple and it was actually trickier than I would’ve expected. This is a theme with Japanese hikes I’m learning. I tried to hang back and help the older folks with the slick and steep parts. They’re 78 and it was definitely a little scary for them. The first stop was the old shrine. It was beautiful, moss-covered and full of fox statues. It is less visited because of the newer shrines at the top.

From there we visited a bamboo forest. It smelled of fish — apparently from the rotting of the new bamboo shoots. After that it was a hefty hike up to the gates themselves. We got to skip a lot of the tourists going this way! We saw shrines to many different Shinto deities and prayed at a few of them. The number of gates was insane. Most are donated by local companies as a thank you for the prosperity they’ve received. There are fox statues everywhere as they represent those specific gods. The foxes will hold specific things in their mouth- a scroll to represent wisdom and knowledge, a ball to bring your wishes to the gods, a key to bring benefits down from the gods to the people and a rice place to represent good harvest and business.

We walked up and down the ridge line visiting the different god’s shrines, and then climbed back down into town and the main temple area. It was pretty packed by the time we were done. Me and Meag immediately jetted out of there in an Uber because we wanted to make it to the Nishki fish market. We got there and it was a long covered hallway setup, like a lot of neat places in Japan.

We were both hungry so we stopped at the first stall. Big ole plate of that fat assed toro. Fuck me up with a little octopus with a quail egg brain on a stick. What’s next? Mother fucking EEL baby. Little beers.

After that we kept swimming up stream. Our next step was a little food hall area. Tempura shrimp & eel, eel on skewers, and a little horse sushi. All good. All groovy.

Next we stopped in a little shop and bought a few condiments. One was a nice furikake mix, another was a spicy miso, and then a chili paste. While Meag did that, I went and bought us little rice cake donuts with apples and nuts.

We loved this, and did a bit more wandering in the alley before calling it for nap time. Back at the hotel Meag sawed logs and I logged time in our outdoor bathtub. A tight hour later we were good to go! But go where? Anywhere.

We strolled one way. Nothing. We strolled another way: shrines. Temples. Towers! Cheese filled pastries in the shape of 10 yen coins. They have it all here folks. I tried to snap a photo of some ceramic wall titties and was accosted by the titty owner, and had to pay 100 yen copyright fee.

Having wandered a lot of alleys, we dipped into a beautiful little cocktail bar for a drink. I had a Japanese whisky. Meag had a shisho gin and tonic. My next round was their matcha old fashioned, but Meag stopped the show with the parmagiano gin mare. It had little peppers, drops of olive oil and cheese shaved right into it. So tasty!

Sadly we had to take off for dinner at this point, but dinner was a stunner in what had been a series of stunner dinners. Our first round was a wonderful sashimi. Then a seared eel and bonito. He seared it directly on a charcoal! That was cool. After that we had some amazing wagyu served on a hot ass brick.

We also had a little crab salad (don’t eat the leaf, I ate the leaf.) We also had the most amazing skewer of eel over rice with a raw egg. Not to be defeated by the end of our omakase I ordered an uni sandwich. So much uni! It fell out and Meag and I had to scramble to put it back in.

The chef was incredible! He suggested his favorite sake. He shared a bottle of sparkling sake with us for our anniversary (always lie when booking reservations, you never know what you’ll get!). It was great. He was so kind and his food was so good. The center of his kitchen was a charcoal grill with three stations. To our left, a steamer. It steamed plates, rice and fish! To the center: a super hot grill. There’d he’d top off charcoal, or heat… bricks. Then to the right was his multi-level grill. He’d move items up and down depending on their done-ness.

All and all it was great. Then we went home and realized I left my camera so we want back, said hi again, and then left for real! It was a really great way to spend our last night in Kyoto.

This morning we packed, we ate tiny hotdogs and egg sandwiches and hopped on the bullet train back to Tokyo. Tonight we hope to check out the Deaf owned izakaya, do another omakase and check out a bar we’ve been wanting to see.

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First impressions of Kyoto- older, beautiful and definitely the most touristy place we’ve been so far. Like, so many tourists. Turns out it’s becoming quite a problem here. Kyoto is a smaller city — the ancient capital of Japan — and doesn’t have the same public trans infrastructure There are limited subways compared to Tokyo and Osaka, so even buses are very full.

Restaurants always require reservations and, in general, tourists are not respectful towards locals and the sanctity of shrines and temples. We’ve been reading a few articles about the over tourism Japan is facing and it will be interesting to see how they handle it and what policies they put in place to push the yen up and keep a high quality of living for Japanese folks.

After settling in to our Airbnb, we headed out for omerice — as I wasn’t satisfied with the first one I had. The place we went to was super cute and hipstery and served up an incredible curry omerice. It was seriously so good. Truly finger licking good — we both got the same dish! The chunks of pork were to die for.

We found some cute alleys after that to wander, and saw some heron on the creek. Getting into a place to have a drink was tricky. We got turned away from a few places — whether full, or a members only restaurant. Eventually we popped into a wine bar where I tried a Japanese Merlot and Thomas tried a Kyoto brewed beer, both fantastic. We also got the raisin butter which is truly just raisins in butter on crackers but it used to be popular in Japan in the 70s and 80s so we had to try it.

Next we headed to our hamachi dinner where we tried hamachi in a bunch of different ways- raw, seared, deep fried, hamachi miso. All were amazing. In particular Thomas loved a hamachi miso served in a Kyoto specific type of wheat mochi. It was good so good!

Tomorrow we’re checking out shrines and seeing as much of the city as we can.

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We had a great time in Osaka! I write this on the train to Kyoto. (I, Thomas, edit this on the train from Kyoto back to Tokyo! In the luxe of first class. The highest class.)

Two days ago we did a hike with a guide and it was phenomenal. It was about an hour outside of Osaka and a place we never would have found on our own, literally, because the hike was completely unmarked. We hiked up a creek, scaling rocks, having to use ropes at some point. Very doable for us but the other couple with us was from Singapore which has very little nature, so this was all new and a bit nerve wracking for them. Our guide kept a chill pace and it was wonderful to be out of a city and in nature. So many old people were on this trail. Truly the whole bus there was full of old hikers. The top- all old people! We’re talking grandparents. Hiking is a huge cultural thing for older people here because they have the time and want to keep themselves active. So so impressive. We made it to the top which had a restaurant and shrine there! Lots of people picnicking and hanging out.

Thomas got a strawberry ice cream and enjoyed watching locals feed pigeons. He was not allowed to feed the pigeons. (Rude)

They have a stamp booth at the top of some mountains so you can keep track of how many times you’ve hiked there. On this mountain, you get your name on a wall after you’ve hiked it 200 times. Our guide has done it 160 times. The record holder hiked it 17,000 times! To head back, we took the main trail which was stairs. Over 3,000 stairs. Oh. My. God. It was like an unending hell that we are still paying for. 2 days later our calves are screaming and we’re walking silly. Old people do this! Again and again! My god.

Afterwards our guide took us to a rainbow trout fishing farm. You go, catch a fish and they cook it up for you! Catching these trout was super simple and we had ours grilled and fried. Both ways were superb. Thomas liked dipping the fried fish in vinegar.

Heading home we were on a packed bus of old hikers. Seriously so cool.

That night we had a food tour in a neighborhood 30 minutes from us. The food tours we’ve done have been awesome because they’re to places we never would have found on our own. The group was from all over and we had a nice time eating and drinking and hanging. We even snuck in some karaoke :)

Yesterday was our day to wander around Osaka and get lost. We ate the fluffiest pancakes I’ve ever had, had conveyer belt sushi, checked out the Pokémon store (Thomas watched a man stuff a suitcase fall of Pokemon cards), took a boat ride in the rain (we learned how to wave aggressively at Osakans until they waved back), ate okonomiyaki and omerice, went to a fish market and had fresh seafood grilled in front of us, and checked out a cocktail bar where they make drinks based on your vibe (my vibe was complex). It was a really beautiful day of exploring and eating.

Today we went to Osaka Castle! It was built in the 1500s and rebuilt a few more times and very beautiful. Then we ate more tonkatsu, grabbed our bags and here we are on the train. 2 days in Kyoto, then it’s back to Tokyo and heading home 😭

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Osaka Day 1

We took the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka. We had to wake up early and catch a cab to Tokyo station with all of our luggage.

The Shinkansen is a bullet train and they go about 200mi hour. We were only on the train for a little over two hours and normally that would be an 8 hour drive. We saw Mt Fuji!

When we arrived in Osaka we went and checked into our hotel — we got lucky and our room was ready so early! We had bought eel and tuna sushi so we ate that in the room before we headed out for lunch. We went to a little soba shop nearby and got soba and tempura.

Then we walked around the shopping district for a bit. There’s one HUGE street with a roof that’s like a many block long mall. It was neat but we got sleepy so we headed back to the hotel for a nap. I took the time to take a nice bath.

Refreshed we were prepared for the true purpose of our trip to Japan: the mini pig cafe.

It was a rocky start. I got a baby pig immediately, Pigothy. Meaghan was pigless. There were girls with five, maybe six pigs. It felt unfair.

Twenty minutes into our thirty I still had Pigothy in my arms and Meaghan had nothing. The attendant asked us if we wanted to extend and we did! Suddenly Meaghan was flush with pig.

One pig. Four pig. Six pig! 10 pig! She was oink rich. She had a pig blanket. Pigothy was joined by the tiniest and screamiest pig on my lap. Slowly I gathered my herd. My pile was five pigs deep by the end. Meaghan was gone, buried beneath the pig tide.

Eventually we had to leave and it was my greatest heart break. Pigothy forever.

But we had things to do! We explored more and even caught a girl band playing outside live. We couldn’t watch for long because we had to go to the fish restaurant. It’s a restaurant where we fished our meal. At first, we struggled. The fish were scant. Skittish. Survival oriented. But we persisted. I hooked a bream but! Heart break. He escapes. Moments later, I hook him again because he is not a very smart fish and we bring him in. Deep fried and sashimi style — his death sentence. He tasted good.

Next we went over to the fishing corner where Meag foraged a horse mackerel, 2 turban shells and 2 clams. Delicious and so silly and unique! Also, a magician came by and blew our mind with tricks. Turns out he owns a magic bar that we could check out.

After we headed to a bar that was recommended- Bible Club. Hey, we have one of those in Portland too! Anddd don’t know you, turns out they are sister bars. Same turn of the century theme but everything but way more done up than the Portland bar. We had some tasty drinks and then skeedattled over to that magic bar. Omg. Best decision of the night. This man is so good at magic! We were blown away. There was us and a Japanese couple there all just screaming. Turns out you don’t need to know the language to be amazed with magic. At one point he had me and the other woman pull a card each. Then told us to pull up the wifi. The wifi name was the cards we picked!! Then he had all 4 of us roll a dice and asked what time it was. The dice we rolled were the exact time! He also had a wall of hats and glassed and headbands of different characters that we could dress up in. It was too fun! At one point he pulled a bird out of a scarf. Madness. Such a good time.

Osaka is a fun city! As soon as we got here I was digging the vibes. Excited to explore more!

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This day started with a trip to Shibuya to see the infamous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. It’s an intersection that sees loads of people walking through, so all the lights will turn red at once and people can cross any which way. We also took this time to do a bit of shopping and wandering and spending too much money 🤷‍♀️.

Lunch was my favorite meal so far- a place that specializes in tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is breaded and deep fried pork cutlets. I had the katsu curry and it was perfection. So crispy! Thomas had the pork belly and it was also incredible. Definitely a meal that made me sad when it was over. This place had a bathroom for midgets and that gave me a laugh.

We also tried their homemade pickles, and roasted eggplant. Both were great!

That night we had the robot samurai show and honestly we had no idea what to expect. It was wild. First off, that place is so tricked out. Gold plated walls, lights, so many colors and designs as you walk through. My jumpsuit matched the wall perfect! The show is definitely a tourist trap but so cooky and silly that it was definitely worth it. Performers come out on moving floats, sing, dance and tell a story that we couldn’t understand. One woman descended from the ceiling.

Our tickets included two small meals — both were quite bad. We made up for it by drinking sake and high balls. They worked hard to hype everyone up and we got free sake! The crowd was into it by the end, even if we had no idea what was happening.

After the show we tried our luck at some claw games, played a cool drum game and found bars to tuck into and hide from the rain. One bar had really cheap Bowmore whisky so we hung out there for a bit and chatted with the bartender who also loves 80s hair metal. He had seen so many bands — Guns n’ Roses even!

The next bar we went to, I used Google translate to chat with an old guy. I asked why he moved to Tokyo from Hiroshima and he said it was for a girl. But as he spoke girl, he also signed girl in Japanese sign language and that’s one of the few JSL signs I know. And I was like…. Do you know sign language? And turns out he knows a bit! He used to volunteer with Deaf folks back in the day. So random haha. There was also chatted with a great couple from Taiwan. Someone bought us takoyaki, and when I was 1k yen short of our bill the Taiwanese guy stood our drinks.

The next morning we had our cooking class which ended up being so so great! It was with Masako, an older Japanese woman who is also a master calligrapher and her unnamed aide.

We learned how to make the rectangle tamago (harder than it looks!) and made udon noodles and tempura! Turns out, making these things is not so hard and I look forward to trying again at home. To make the udon we have to stomp on it with our feet at one point!

She also wrote our names out in kanji and phonetically in calligraphy for us to bring home. It was one of my favorite experiences so far. Meaghan’s name was “bud wish” in kanji, and mine was “ten boxes of sake.”

For our final night in Tokyo we wandered our neighborhood with the intent of going to the Deaf izakaya. Sadly it was unexpectedly closed 😭 We did find another great izakaya, called Koi Koi, though and had lots of amazing food- chicken sashimi (one of the only places in the world you can eat raw chicken because they are raised in a clean environment and don’t have salmonella), abalone, saba, oden with amazing eggs and sweet potato, and little squids! Then we checked out a vinyl listening bar called Stone’s Throw. A listening bar is basically where the bartender DJs and curates a vibe for you to hang in. That place was wonderful, playing lots of funk. Also they had an incredible chicken curry and I was so happy.

Lastly we checked out a cocktail bar that was recommended to us. It has two locations and luckily we could get into one of them as a walk in. It’s one of those no menu places where you tell the bartender what you like and what mood you’re in and they create something. I told them I wanted a mezcal drink and he was like, tomato okay? Ummmm I guess? I’ve never had a mezcal tomato drink but gotta trust the process. Turns out, one of the best cocktails I’ve ever had. They pureed the tomato and mezcal into a cold drink topped with black pepper. It was so refreshing and good.

Tokyo was a really lovely and interesting experience. It’s the biggest city in the world but it doesn’t feel like it. There are some areas with sky scrapers but lots of areas that are 4-5 floors so it doesn’t feel physically that big. It’s very quiet here, no one honks or is too loud. There are so many little alleys you can wander up and down with restaurants and bars to check out.

Now we’re on the bullet train heading to Osaka! We’ll spend a few days there, then a few days in Kyoto and finally back to Tokyo to fly out.

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Today was exciting because it’s animal day!

But first- Tsujuku Fish Market! This is the biggest fish market in the world and it was alleys and alleys of shops. We ate so much- oysters the size of your hand, squid, albacore, fancy strawberry mochis, unagi and wagyu that was honestly the best wagyu I’ve ever had. There were so many tasty treats and I wish we had more stomach space.

Then we caught the train to Harajuku and checking out the cafe where a monster hand gives you your drink through a hole in the wall. Absolutely adorable and the monster gave us little candies and stickers along with our drinks! Running a monster hand through a hole in the wall cafe might be my next business in Portland.

Then it was owl time! The owl cafe was amazing! They had about 12 owls there of all different sizes. We got to pet them and hold them and stare at them and wow I’ve never been so close to an owl before. They’re beautiful! And weird! And adorable! Also included with admission was a drink served in an owl mug and an owl shaped cake dessert.

To kill time before our Shiba Inu experience we found another capsule shop and spent more money on mystery toy balls. Honestly don’t want to know how much we’ve spent on capsules bc it’s an insane amount. But they’re so cute!

The Shiba Inu experience was interesting. I guess I’ve never really interacted with shiba’s before and they’re really weird. Like, they don’t know how to dog. You call them over or make noises and they stare at you weird. Thomas said they’re more like cats- they’ll come to you when they feel like it. He had to work hard to get one into his lap but he finally did and it was pretty adorable.

We had a bit of time before our yakitore omakase dinner so we checked out the Portland bar! It’s a bar run by a Japanese dude who was born in Tokyo but grew up in Portland. He worked at Nike for a bunch of years before moving back here and opened a bar dedicated to PDX. It sells all Portland made beers and is decked out with Portland merch- Timbers scarfs, Pickles scarfs, pictures, visiting Portland guide books. They even had a special Tokyo Timbers scarf which we had to buy. So fun!

Finally it was time for dinner. Thomas got us reservations at this yakitore place and we were stoked. Yakitore is grilled chicken on a stick. This place was fancyyyy and they brought us out like 10 plates. Chicken breast, liver, shoulder, thigh, wing, plus vegetable sides. Such a tasty meal!

[ikura-wa-ikura]

Disney day!

We got to Disney a little after open and wow it was packed! Absolute madness. Japanese at Disney go hard!! Everyone was decked out in full gear, buying so much shit. We’re talking hats, shirts, toys, pins, towels. People dropped cash 🤑🤑 so naturally we had to as well. We purchased our first hats of the day, me- dark blue velvet ears, Thomas- a Baymax plushy head. Excellent choices. Tokyo Disney had a great app that shows ride waits in real time. You can also book shows, restaurant reservations and more on there.

The park is centered around a giant lake which the different sections branching off of that. A massive volcano sits atop the lake which goes off intermittently. The park is broken into an Italian section, the American waterfront, the little mermaids grotto, Agrabah, and the volcano area which also houses 20,000 leagues under the sea in it so has a cool old steampunk look to it.

Instead of doing an all day fast pass you can now pay individually for specific rides. The priority pass would range from $6-$13 depending on the ride. We didn’t mind paying bc entry into the park was only $54, wayyyy cheaper than American so a few more bucks to cut the line wasn’t a big deal. I heard lines can get crazy long so we jumped on that and booked a priority pass for Toy Story. While we waited for it to start, we explored the Venetian side of the park. It was gorgeous, truly made you feel like you are in Italy. We took a gondola ride and now I’ve ridden a gondola in Las Vegas and Japan lol! Disney is fun because vendors sell items or food that are only at that stand. So if you see something, buy it! Which we did with all the food we saw. Everything was seriously top notch. We kept seeing people eating popcorn out of speciality buckets- a Pooh Bear honey pot, a monsters inc one. And hella lines for the popcorn. Turns out they all sell different flavors of popcorn and sell different novelty buckets. We did pass on this, too much other food to snack on. We headed to the American waterfront where Toy Story is housed and cut the line with our priority pass. You are instantly transported to Andy’s room, where everything is gigantic. The ride is a 3D shooting ride where you compete against your partner to hit the most targets on the room. Thomas smoked me.

Next up was Tower of Terror which Thomas was not thrilled for but I was stoked! Again we got a priority pass and cut the line (so worth it) and it was a thrill. The waiting areas for all these rides are so detailed and done up. Really adds to the experience.

Next we wandered over to the volcano area and explored the fortress that was there. Lots of nooks and crannies with different things hidden inside of them. Thomas ate his first turkey leg! The cannons were pop guns where you pulled a cord to fire and smoke came out. Then we went over to do the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride. This area was amazing! All steam punk and brass. We ate an incredible long gyoza dumpling and the ride was super fun.

They had a shop full of Baymax stuff. Next we cross over to 10k leagues under the sea. You ride on a “submarine” and it was neat. After we walked over through the Mermaid side of the park which honestly might have been my favorite. It was for little kids but the most intricate and beautiful. There were so many little details to look at and take in. After that we wandered to Discovery Park which is a futuristic science park. We got shrunk down to Nemo’s size in a fish boat and then also rode a bumper boat trip of ride that was very fun.

After we had a tasty sushi roll with chicken and shrimp and took the train back to American Bay and had lunch at Sakura. It was a traditional Japanese box with fish and rice and cold udon. After we went over to the giant cruise ship which had a Teddy Roosevelt bar. I (Thomas) stayed there and had a few drinks in the wood paneled bar while Meag went and watched a show. The show was the midday parade, but at this park it’s done on boats on the big lake. Very funny to hear Japanese Minnie and Mickey. Then we met up and rode a little roller coaster ride. It had a loop! I’ve never been upside down.

After that we got tiny alien dumplings and queued up as single riders for Indiana Jones ride which was also amazing. We wandered back to the main area after that for a little snack and to watch the light show. Meag got spaghetti and meatballs and the light show was great. They come out on so many boats. A lot of the signing was Japanese and they circled an enormous light tower. They even projected things onto the volcano! It was great. When that finished we heard they cancelled the firework show 😭so we headed home tired and happy.

It was such a cool cool day. Very happy we checked it out!

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Day 4!

Last night was so fun and this morning was so rough haha. We slept as late as we could and it still didn’t amount to much. But we grabbed some 7-11 onigiris, pulled ourselves together and headed for TeamLab Planet! It was just as cool as we were hoping. It’s an interactive art exhibit best known for taking awesome Instagram photos in. They had everyone walk through it barefoot and had us walk up a river to clean our feet off. The light room was just as cool as I was hoping. There was another room where we laid down and it looked like flowers were falling all around us. The displays were very beautiful and we had a great time. There was a room that was a pool up to our knees with koi projected on it. Another with giant white balls.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch there, vegan ramen and holy crap, another one of the best ramens I’ve ever had. Wasn’t expecting the art exhibit cafe to go that hard. The room was entirely reflective and dark with changing projections like we were floating. We finished with a little rhubarb ice cream.

We headed over to Small Worlds after which is a museum of miniatures! Like whole scenes and cities made really small! It was awesome. You could spend hours in there taking in all the little details. The mascot for the museum is this little hotdog guy that they hid in all the scenes.

They had a giant airport, a space port, a magical world with dinosaurs and people. There was even an Evagenlion display. It was cool.

At the end, you can make yourself into a miniature! They took a 360 photo of us and in 2 months they’ll mail it to the house! We also painted our own little miniature hotdog guys and they’re so cute.

We got 4 coupons for free hot dogs — so after painting ours we of course had to go and try them at the cafeteria.

At this point we were pretty wiped so we headed back to the Airbnb for a nap and then out for sushi dinner. We explored a new part of Shinjuku and ate really tasty fish. Then came back and hit the hay early to have strength because tomorrow is DISNEY DAY!!

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Day 3! We did so much! Also this is a combo write from both of us so apologies if that gets confusing.

We started the day by hitting up 7-11 and I tried the curry bread and I will never be the same. I will dream off this treat til my dying day. Then we wandered around the imperial palace grounds, checking out the gardens and old buildings from the Edo era.

There we saw the ruins of a Edo era castle, and walked through the imperial gardens. They even moved a classical tea house to the grounds. I especially liked seeing the koi fish.

We made our way over to a mall where a really good conveyer belt sushi place had just opened. Well, everyone was there and we grabbed a ticket and were number 89. So we killed some time by getting cold dipping soba noodles and they were so so good my god. We wandered stores and listened to people play the harp and flute. Then it was 3 hours later and there were still 50 people in front of us for sushi. So we gave up and went to another sushi place and it was delicious. We got to eat in a private room! Meaghan got to try a whole large shrimp for the first time. (You gotta suck the insides out of the head.)

Our number didn’t get called til like 5:30p LOL

After that we headed Akhibara and walked through the electric district. We went into anime model stores and game shops. Eventually we found our way to a capsule store and spent too much money on little toys. Then we went to a great arcade and saw so many amazing games.

Dancing games. DJ games. Piano games. We played a typing game against Zombies! (Meaghan’s favorite) It was great. We spent a bunch of time there and played games together. Meaghan beat me at the alligator slapping game.

When we finished up there we headed over to Ueno for our walking tour. But before we did that Meaghan wanted to checkout another capsule store. It was tough to find so we weaved in and out of the giant station until we found it. On the way though we saw an amazing food court with the cutest desserts. We tried a toasted cheese cake!

After we gathered with our group for the tour. There were a bunch of Australians, a couple from Hong Kong, four Americans and an Austrian guy. The tour was through this amazing alley under the Ueno train tracks filled with good food. Our first stop had so much! Sashimi. Tempura. Fried tuna and more. We even tried natto and ume boshi. After that we had a drinking stop where we pounded whisky and sake! Then off to the final stop — ramen.

It was a chicken ramen and amazing! We hit it off with James and Sylvia from HK. After the tour we snuck off with them and Yumi, one of the tour guides and caught a train to an amazing mezcal bar. We met two Brits there and drank until like 2am. It was great. The owner was a Persian man who moved here like twenty years ago. It was a really fun night!

[ikura-wa-ikura]

Yesterday after another trip to 7-11, we headed out for the Edo Open Air Museum. The museum is located in a big beautiful park, and houses about 20 structures to tour. The buildings are original buildings dating back from the 1400s to post WW2 that were deconstructed and then put back together to preserve the history and architecture of that time. It was incredibly neat. We toured giant mansions, old homes with thatch roofs and businesses from turn of the century. The setup and design are so different from western styles. It was interesting to see the evolution through time and the influence of western design later on. I really appreciated the attention to detail and thoughtful additions.

We randomly met two Deaf folks, an older couple. And learned how to sign nice to meet you in Japanese sign language!

We got to walk through the park on our way to lunch and everyone was out enjoying the nice weather. There are lots of bicyclists here and it’s been fun to check out the different styles. Lunch was a soba place where we ordered from a machine. Thank god for Google translate bc we would have just been pushing random buttons. The soba was massive and tasty and I only wish I had more stomach space.

We headed back for a nap after this as jet lag was still kicking our butts. 16 hour time difference will do that. Then it was time for our omakase! It was a 12 course tasting and so good and dear god we were so full by the end of it I didn’t know if we were gonna make it home. We had incredible mackerel, hand rolls with tuna and onions, tasty toro. At one point the chef had us describe how much rice we wanted for our last piece. Because we were so full we ended up with a pinky sized nigiri.

We powered through our fullness to meet up with Nick and Nicole for a drink and karaoke. When in Tokyo! Meaghan sang, we met a Mafia guy with coins in his ears, and then we had to sleep. We both passed out and hopefully have adjusted to the time change🤞

[ikura-wa-ikura]

We made it to Japan! And it wasn’t that bad for 10 hours! I got butter chicken dinner on the plane (😍), made a decent dent in my book, Thomas worked and before we knew it we had landed.

[Thomas note: we had a whole four seat row to our self. The plane was nearly empty. Meaghan could even fully lay down.]

I had the pleasure of figuring out a robot toilet at the airport and it was too cool. Love me a heated seat and cool breeze.

Customs was snappy and we caught a cab to our Airbnb. It was a nice cheat after all of our travel. We drove through a tunnel that is 11.3 miles long! There are lots of cool cars here. So many compacts and little trucks, all driving on the wrong side of the road! Also you can’t go more than a block without seeing a vending machine selling drinks. We stopped by 7-11 for some after flights snacks. If you didn’t know, Japan is famous for their 7-11s with fantastic food. I got an egg sandwich and Thomas grabbed a bunch of onigiris and everything was fantastic.

Japan has some cool features for blind folks. All the sidewalks and crosswalks are equipped with tactile tenji blocks, which are raised parts of the sidewalk that help folks using white canes follow the sidewalk safely. Neat! See below-

Our Airbnb is small and cute and we’re sleeping on traditional tatami mats. After we cleaned ourselves up and rested a bit, it was time to hit the town!

We went to the Golden Gai district, an area known for its winding alleys and 4 seater bars. After meandering a bit, we settled into a whiskey bar and made friends with the couple next to us- Nick and Nicole. They’re on their honeymoon and from Seattle :) we ended up hanging with them the rest of the night. This place was super pricey- Toki was double the cost it is at home, so after a drink we skedaddled.

Next we went to Psy Bar — a metal bar. Meaghan learned that people can smoke inside here. It was great! Then we tried to go to Deathmatch In Hell but it was packed. Instead we found a second floor bar and took up nearly every seat. It was cute and way more affordable than the previous place.

Finally everyone was hungry and we had missed our dinner reservations so we found a little KBBQ-esce place nearby. It turned out to be amazing. We were grilling wagyu as fast as we could eat it. Eventually we had to call it and we walked our way back to the BNB and slept.

Jet lag is a bitch so we were both up at 4am 🙄 but Thomas did get us onigiris from 7-11 so any hangover I could have had has vanished. Today we’re gonna check out a museum and hopefully pet some capybaras!

Sayonara ✌️