Our Japanese Food & Culture Tour… Brought to You by the Japan Rail Pass
We spent three weeks in Japan exploring the major cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka along with a number of day trips to explore some of the smaller cities and towns. Japan was amazing. The mix between the hustle and bustle of the cities, the peaceful serenity of the temples and shrines, and the simple yet striking architecture made for a well-rounded, memorable trip.
Our days were filled with exploring different neighborhoods, watching gamers at the countless arcades, eating noodles and sushi, and fulfilling any excuse to use our unlimited Japan Rail Pass to ride the trains. We could dedicate an entire blog to the trains in Japan. They were clean, comfortable, and on time… every time. Unlike pretty much every other public transit system we’ve ever taken, trains in Japan were extremely efficient and organized. Everyone politely lined up in an orderly fashion to board and there were designated exit paths to ensure efficient transitions. Trains ran like clockwork and were the preferred mode of transportation for most people. The number of cars on the city streets looked like those of less populated suburbs!
And lastly, the food! Japan is where food dreams come true. Ramen, sushi, yakitori, okonomiyaki, mochi, matcha, tonkatsu… the list goes on. We also loved the convenience store (“konbini”) food. Yes… you read that correctly! Konbinis are a big part of Japanese culture and day-to-day life. There are three major chains — FamilyMart, Lawson, and 7-Eleven — and each of them have surprisingly delicious food selections. Some of our favorites included Famichiki, all of the prepared sandwiches, ice cream, onigiri, and iced orange tea. We were in food heaven throughout Japan… to say the least.
TOKYO
We kicked off Tokyo with a bang! We happened to overlap with our friends Kayla and C and had the chance to spend an entire day together. It was just what we needed after being on the road for a few months. Spending the day with them was a nice little touch of home! If only we could convince more people to meet us along our adventure 😉🧐… it’s an open invite!
Cherry blossoms were in full bloom when we arrived and they covered every surface of the city. It was apparent that the tourists loved the blossoms, but it was really fun to see all the locals enjoying the season as well. We saw people enjoying picnics under the trees, taking leisurely strolls through parks, and indulging in all of the sakura (cherry blossom) flavored treats.
Another highlight from our time in Tokyo was going to a baseball game at Yokohama Stadium to watch the DeNA BayStars! We are big baseball fans back home (Go Cubs!) and loved seeing another team’s rituals and traditions, which included relief pitchers being delivered to the field in a car, cheerleaders (yes, at a baseball game!), and our favorite… the bands! Each team had their own band that played unique songs for each batter while the crowd chanted and cheered in synchronized motions.
In addition to the bands, a conductor led cheers, energetically waving his arms and directing the crowd in coordinated chants. We also met up with Justin’s old coworker, Christina, and her sister, CeCe, at the game. They happened to be visiting family in a neighboring town! We were so glad our schedules overlapped and that we were able to connect over baseball and juice box shochu.
Last but not least, we went to our first onsen! An onsen is a hot spring and bathing facility, which is very common in Japan. Most onsens are split by gender, each side having several different bathing pools of varying temperature. Some people regularly use onsens for the health benefits, and from what we observed, onsens are a family affair. We saw adults bringing their elderly parents and children to the onsen, spending time chatting while enjoying the baths.
Did we mention everyone was naked? Not a loincloth in sight. It was nice to see everyone so comfortable in their bodies, not thinking twice about being naked surrounded by 40+ strangers. It took a bit of time for us to adjust, but eventually we let go of our insecurities and just enjoyed. Definitely an experience we will both remember!
KYOTO
Kyoto is a much more “traditional” Japanese city in the sense that it has much less urban architecture. While the city was much quieter than Tokyo, it was packed with tourists. In Kyoto, we spent time visiting the countless number of shrines and temples, exploring some of the surrounding cities and towns, and continuing our food tour.
As part of our food tour, we took a day trip from Kyoto on the Shinkansen (high-speed bullet train) to Kobe where we went to a Kobe beef restaurant to try the famous beef in the place where it comes from! The meat was cooked on a teppan right in front of us, and the chef instructed us on the best way to season and eat each item he prepared. To our surprise, he suggested that we eat each bite of steak with fresh wasabi and salt! It was absolutely delicious. Side note — this was also our first time eating real, fresh wasabi… and wow, what a difference it makes! Overall, the meal was legendary. The most tender meat we have ever tried.
We also took a day trip to Nara, which was a wild experience… literally. We visited Nara Park, which is home to over a thousand friendly and adorable deer that roam freely in the area. The deer in Nara Park are considered sacred animals in Japan and they have been protected by law for centuries. In ancient times, the deer were believed to be messengers of the gods and they protected the area. Today, the deer have become accustomed to human interaction and are very friendly, often bowing their heads to be fed crackers. It was a lot of fun interacting with the deer!
The only bummer about our time in Kyoto (aside from the crazy amount of tourists) was that there was a pretty major storm on the day we arrived, which essentially wiped out the remaining cherry blossoms. We tried to plan our trip to Japan around the cherry blossom bloom schedule, and we thought we nailed it… but alas. It definitely made the cherry blossoms we did get to see in Tokyo that much more special!
OSAKA
Osaka is known as the food capital of Japan, but we would argue that the whole country has an incredible food scene. That said, we tried many new things in Osaka. Our Airbnb location was a highlight, as we stayed right next to the longest shopping street in Japan, Tenjinbashisuji, which extends for ~1.5 miles. We loved walking through at different times of day, watching the crowds come and go, and seeing the same familiar faces day in and day out. Early in our stay, we came across a bakery just down the street. The fluffy salt roll caught our eye and we had to try it. The roll was soft, oozed with butter, and had the perfect amount of salt sprinkled on top. We ended up going back to this bakery every morning and tried almost every item they offered, including a mochi donut, cream bun, ham and cheese sandwich, baguette, and more. We could go on about how delicious and amazing this bakery was, but our favorite part was being greeted by the baker each morning and chatting with him about Japan. He shared life stories with us and told us where we needed to visit on our next trip. Every day as we left we told him we would be back the next morning, and he quickly replied with, “I’ll be waiting.”
We were constantly amazed by the etiquette in Japan. Everyone was so respectful of the people around them, always being cautious not to do anything that may disturb others. There was never any pushing or shoving when getting off the train or waiting in lines. People always waited their turn in an orderly way. Everything in Japan was at a higher standard. Over the course of three weeks, we did not have a bad experience.
And this leads us to the things we won’t miss… lines and cover charges. There were lines everywhere… for everything. We found ourselves just jumping into lines whenever we saw them and assuming the food would be good, and 9 out of 10 times… we were right. Although the lines were quite annoying, we will say that they definitely made decision making that much easier since we knew we could count on whatever was at the end of the line being good. In addition to queueing everywhere, there were also many restaurants and bars that required a cover charge just to sit down, which was surprising to us. We equated it to tipping since there isn’t an expectation to tip in Japan (or really many other countries) like there is in the US. All in all, more things that we will miss than those we won’t! We are already excited go back one day to explore more!
