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We then went to Takeshita-dori for shopping. I used to frequent this street back when I was in school, and it was interesting to see how much the area has changed since then. What used to be mostly small stores with unique fashion items is mostly now larger, commercialized chain stores. Some of the stores I remember are still there; it’s always fun to check out Closet Child, which is a second hand that carries used Lolita dresses and alternative fashion pieces.
This is also a great area to grab a crepe! There are tons of different places down and around the block that carry tons of different flavours.
We did more shopping, and checked out the Laforet building so I could visit the Angelic Pretty store in there.
Our next stop was the Q-Pot cafe, which was a bit of a walk away from Harajuku, but definitely worth the hike! We had a dessert set with coffees and the treats were not only delicious, but adorable as well! Q-Pot also makes really fun dessert inspired jewelry and across the street from the cafe is the one of the their retail locations.
Headed back down Omotesando and stopped in Kiddy Land, which is a giant, multi-level store that carries all sorts of goods from things like Pokemon, Sanrio, Disney, and Studio Ghibli/
We took the Yamanote-sen up to Shinjuku for the final leg of our trip. Lynnette wanted to visit a few used CD/DVD stores that sell J-rock items to look for a specific Raphael DVD (Lynnette's Note: if you are not an aging J-rock fan, I was really into this group in high school and they have reunited a few times since!) . We checked out a few shops and also hit up one last Book Off while we were there before finally heading back for the night.
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We got up early Sunday morning to visit Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. Sunday is always the most crowded day, but with our trip coming to an end, we had to brave the crowds! We walked up the main shopping street, Nakamisedori, to visit the temple. There are a lot of snack stands and gift shops along the street, but it was just too packed for us to try anything right away.
(Lynnette's Note: I went to Sensoji multiple times on my 2nd trip to Japan in 2002, since I was staying in the area, but it was Eri's first time. It's the largest temple in Tokyo, so it's worth a visit!)
After visiting the temple and taking pictures, we headed toward a different shopping street in search of a snack. Our friend told us about a bakery called Kagetsudo that specialises in jumbo sized melon pan. We hadn't looked up where it was, but stumbled upon one of the locations. Melon pan is one of our favourite treats! It’s a sweet bread, shaped with a lattice pattern on top that resembles a melon’s skin. The name comes from the look, not the flavor.
They also serve ice cream at Kagetsudo, and even make a melon pan ice cream sandwich— which we’ll have to try next time. I got sakura ice cream and Lynnette got a jumbo melon pan.
Since there were so many souvenir shops in the area, we did a lot of our shopping for friends and family, despite the crowds on Nakamisedori.
Once we were done shopping, we took the walk over to the Tokyo Skytree so we could have lunch at their food court. It was super crowded and took us a while to finally find a seat. Once we were done eating we continued shopping! We visited the Rilakkuma store, as well as the Jump Shop, Sanrio store and the Pokemon Centre. It's a huge mall, but we had a limited time to look around, as we were meeting up with a friend later.
We then headed up to Ikebukuro for more anime shopping! Our friend took us to ‘Otome Road’ which is a section of anime shops geared towards female fans. We bought more Haikyuu!! goods and then stopped at Mr. Donut for coffee and donuts.
After a long day we finally headed back to our Airbnb to rest and get ready for our final day in Tokyo.
]]>Our first true nerd day! It was the first time either of us had been to Akihabara and we were excited to shop. We met up with a friend who lives near Tokyo to show us around. Unfortunately, we were so caught up in shopping, we didn't take too many pictures...
Akihabara can be overwhelming to explore. There are so many different stores, each with different products. If you’re looking for a specific item (like I was) it’s definitely worth looking in every store you come across! You never know what you’re going to find. We could have really used another day to explore, but we were on a tight schedule and got a late start that day, since after 9 days of non-stop action, we were truly becoming exhausted!
Our first stop was Kotobukiya, an amazing multi-level store with all new anime goods and figures. We bought a bunch of souvenirs there. We then checked out Lashinbang, which had an alarming amount of second hand keychains and other character goods. They’re mostly separated by series and then by character. It probably took us twenty minutes just to find and sort through the Haikyuu wall. Somehow we escaped with only a few small items.
To take a break from shopping, we got delicious, cheap ramen for lunch. It was under $5 a bowl and still better than anything we've had in NYC.
We then went to the two different Animate buildings and AmiAmi and bought way too much stuff. The Sanrio x Fullmetal Alchemist collaboration items were a weakness for us, but we spent carefully, because we knew we had another big nerd day upcoming.
Our next stop was 2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan, which is a market underneath the Yamanote train tracks between Akihabara Station and Ueno. There are a lot of small stores with different artisan goods, but we mainly went because Lynnette collects the vinyl toys from Studio Uamou, who have a small shop and cafe. (Lynnette's Note: And somehow I did not buy the whole store. This was one of my Must Visit shops in Tokyo and it was so charming and hard to decide what to buy. Unexpectedly, the designer was there, and she speaks fluent English, so I was able to sufficiently communicate how much I loved the shop without resorting to my poor Japanese, which got worse the more tired I got over the course of the trip, haha.)
We walked up to Ueno to check out a huge toy store, Yamashiroya, which is floor after floor of everything from Studio Ghibi to Star Wars and everything in between.
After all that shopping, we went to a family restaurant to have dessert! Our friend told us we had to try Creamia ice cream, which is a special kind of extra creamy, rich vanilla ice cream. It was delicious!
We parted ways with our friend at this point and headed back to Shin-Okubo to explore the area near our Airbnb. Shin-Okubo is the Korea Town of Tokyo and being K-pop fans, we had to make time to look around. There are tons of Korean restaurants and a string of stores that sell all sorts of K-pop goods and CDs. I ended up buying 2 CDs because they were way cheaper than in the US, and also some hilarious stickers.
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We had to make at least one trip to the Disney parks, and as time was tight, we decided to just go to Tokyo Disney Sea! Disney Sea is unique to Japan with several features not found at the American parks, so it was more of a novelty than visiting Tokyo Disneyland.
We took the train to Maihama and arrived at the park not too long after opening. We decided go to the Tower of Terror first. Since Lynnette doesn’t really enjoy thrill rides, we thought it best to get this one over with before she lost her nerve.
I hadn’t been to Disney Sea in almost 10 years, but all I remembered from the Tower of Terror was the silly demonic Tiki statue. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. (Lynnette's Note: I found this Tower less terrifying than the one at Disney World in FL, which is taller and a bit longer of an experience!)
Getting flavoured popcorn is a must at the parks in Japan! There are usually about 5-6 flavours available and some are seasonal. Each flavour can only be found at certain carts around the park. We made a pit stop for blueberry flavoured popcorn, which totally tasted like a blueberry muffin, then headed to my other favourite ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was crazy hot waiting on that line, even in the middle of January, but we somehow made it through. My favourite (and Lynnette’s least favourite) part of that ride is getting shot out of the side of the mountain after seeing the giant lava worm. (Lynnette's Note: I believed Eri when they said "shot out of a mountain" before we got on the ride but it was a lot faster and more roller coaster-y than I expected! Did not like. The ride previous to that point is very slow and chill, then it just goes all crazy! I've ridden many of the other Disney roller coaster-ish rides and this was my least fave.)
You cannot walk around any Disney park without wearing something silly on your head so after we had lunch at Horizon Bay Restaurant (which felt very affordable; about $20 for a huge meal with soup or salad, rice or bread, dessert and a drink), we hit up a gift shop to buy our first round of presents for friends, and also to find some hats!
I ended up with the biggest, most ridiculous, fluffy Minnie Mouse hat with a giant black and gold bow, and Lynnette got a 101 Dalmatians hat.
We went on some of the smaller rides after that and made sure to pick up our fastpass for the Indiana Jones ride so we could skip the long line later.
We took a look in Ariel’s Grotto, which is mostly just for children, but it is fun to take pictures of.
The Pixar Playtime event was going on, so there were a number of special foods and events set up around the park. There was a limited edition Monsters Inc. steamed bun that was coloured like Sully. It tasted like chicken pot pie! We then went back to the Indiana Jones ride to use our fastpasses. That ride is super fun, if not a little bumpy, haha.
Somehow I talked Lynnette into going back onto Journey of the Center of the Earth one more time before we left for the night. (Lynnette's Note: Just as awful the 2nd time. I told Eri I'd go on it again in 10 years, not sooner.) We did our final gift shopping at the different shops on the way out, as well as getting more popcorn (tomato and basil flavour), before heading home.
]]>We took the subway into Shimokitazawa early in the morning. Our first stop was Shiro-hige's Cream Puff Factory, a cafe/bakery that makes Totoro shaped cream puffs. It was a bit of a walk from the main shopping area, but totally worth it!
They have a variety of different flavours, as well as a seasonal flavour depending on the time of year. At the time we went, it was strawberry, which was the flavour of choice in Japan during the winter. Each flavour has a different decoration on its head. I got Banana and Lynnette got Egg Custard.
Shimokitazawa is a shopping district best known for second hand clothing shops and cafes. It's split roughly in half by train tracks. We had more fun shopping on the north side of the tracks. There's a pretty good map located on this website. It's trendy, but not as much of a tourist spot as, say, Harajuku.
Our first stopping shop was Shimokitazawa Garage Department which is home to a series of small shops with second hand clothing, accessories and more. Our favorite shop was Sukonbu, where artists/makeres rent a cubby to sell their wares in. It was mostly accessories, like jewelry, coin pouches, pins, key chains and other small wares, but since there’s so many different cubbies, it takes a while the browse them all. We both ended up buying quite a lot of fun goodies!
Next, we wandered around the neighborhood. We weren’t shopping for anything in particular, so we went in almost every used clothing store we came across. There is a huge price range, from cheap to pretty expensive, depending on the shop, and a lot of vintage American clothes.
Eventually we stumbled upon the B-side Label store. I bought a coin purse from them in a gift shop in Osaka, so we were interested to see the full store. The shop is a collective of artists and the primary item they sell is stickers. SO MANY stickers. The walls are literally lined with tons of stickers from dozens of different artists. They also had small pouches, keychains, tenugui (a type of Japanese towel), cell phone cases, washi tape and more. It's pretty common to find a small selection of their stickers in other shops, but for the full experience, the store is super fun.
The staff were really nice and we chatted about being artists in NYC with the shop girl, who was so sure that NYC is way cooler than Tokyo. The grass is always greener, right?
We stumbled upon our first of many WEGO (sort of the Japanese equivilant of a Forever 21), which is a shop that sells cheap, fashionable clothing and accessories. The one in Shimokitazawa also had some second hand items.
After more shopping, we went to the other side of the tracks to find a store we had looked up online called Grand Bazaar that sells designer and Lolita goods. At the moment, they didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted, but used clothing shopping is always hit or miss and it was fun to look around.
After Shimokitazawa we decided to wander around Shibuya to avoid rush hour train traffic. I used to hang out in Shibuya a lot back when I was in college in Tokyo, so I wanted to see the area again. We went to the huge Tower Records store, the Disney store and then had dinner at the spacious and randomly chosen Hangout Hangover which has an unusual mix of Mexican, Carribean, Japanese and American food. It was pretty good though!
Our last stop for the night was Don Quijote to buy snacks, drinks and toiletries. Last time I was there (granted this was 10 years ago,) the shop was only 1 floor. Now it’s a HUGE shop with multiple floors worth of items. I’m pretty sure you could find literally anything in that store if you tried hard enough. (Lynnette's Note: Including a very nice bathroom!)
We headed back to the Airbnb after that, because we had an early morning planned at Tokyo Disney Sea! We simply do not know how to gently go to Disney anywhere, so if we're not there from almost open to almost close, it's not a Disney day. But more on that next week!
]]>One of the greatest things about getting the JR Pass is access to the Shinkansen! Taking the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo costs around $200, so even though the rail pass itself was nearly $400, the Shinkansen to Tokyo alone paid for half the pass.
The train ride itself was quiet and smooth. I honestly don’t have much to say about it because I was asleep for most of it! We got off at Tokyo Station and took the Yamanote-sen to Shin Okubo station where our Airbnb was located.
We picked Shin Okubo because it was on the Yamanote-sen, which is a great train line to be on, since it goes in a giant circle around Tokyo. We also picked Shin Okubo because it’s Tokyo’s Korea Town! And since someone (me) is a big Kpop nerd, I figured it would be easy to buy merch and CDs in the area.
By the time we go off the train, it was still too early for us to check into the Airbnb, so we decided to have lunch. When I was in college in Japan, there was a Jonathan’s right near my school and I went there often for lunch. Jonathan's is a chain of family restaurants and they have a huge variety of items on their menu. If you’re with someone who is a picky eater, or too many people in your group are in the mood for different items, family restaurants are a great solution. They’re basically the Japanese version of a diner with both Western and Japanese fare. It’s a great, relaxed place and also inexpensive!
After our meal, we got lost getting to the Airbnb because my GPS did not take us where we needed to go. We retraced our steps, and followed the instructions the host had provided for us, but still had a bit of difficulty finding the place. The picture provided and the actual building itself were different colours! So that kind of threw us off.
Now, this Airbnb was by far the cheapest out of all of the ones we stayed in, about $70 per night (compared to the $85-118 we spent on the other Airbnbs). The location was great and the apartment was small and clean, but the futons provided were decidedly NOT comfortable. They were so thin it was basically like sleeping on the tatami mat without any padding. I slept on a futon with my host family when I was in Japan before and it was extremely comfortable. These futons were just too thin. (Lynnette's Note: I slept on a futon in the Osaka Airbnb, but it was of much better quality. You get what you pay for!)
Also, since it was a cheaper price, it didn't come with quite the same range of amenities, but there was still quite a bit! Pocket WiFi was provided, as well as basics like shampoo, face wash and instant coffee. There was even a washing machine, though we didn't use it.
After a short rest, we headed out to our only destination of the evening: Nakano Broadway. Not all of the shops were open when we got there (it was a Wednesday; many Japanese shops take off one weekday), but there were still a decent amount of anime and figure stores to peruse. I did find this Yuri on ice!!! Yurio figure I was looking for though, so I was happy about that!
In the building basement there’s a food court and a must see ice cream shop called Daily Chiko that does a crazy 8 layer soft serve ice cream cone. Neither of us could fit that much ice cream in our stomachs unfortunately, so we got small cones instead. I got ramune flavour and Lynnette got sweet potato. There were a lot of other fun flavours though!
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I really wanted to take pictures of Fushimi Inari while there were less people around, so we decided to get up extremely early this day to go visit the shrine before it opened… However, one of us is not an early riser, so it ended up being closer to 7:30am that we left the Airbnb. It was beautiful and peaceful so early, with a few people walking the trail, but it was empty enough to take a lot of great pictures. We are thoroughly obsessed with the entire mountain, so staying nearby was the right choice.
(Like we mentioned in our last blog, you can walk the paths on Mt. Inari any time of day! Early morning is a great time, but none of the shops or shrine buildings along the way will be open, just like our night visit.)
Another benefit of going early was all the local cats were out and about! In our two previous visits, we'd only seen one cat, so this was exciting. This one orange fellow was just sitting in a shrine alcove, meowing at us.
We walked up the main path to the halfway mark, Yotsusuji, and then headed to a great overlook point with a beautiful view, just off the normal path. We’d done some research on the various trails on the mountain the night before, so naturally we had to go the obscure way again! The view is indeed beautiful and has a much wider scope than the one at the halfway point.
(Lynnette’s Note: How to find the viewpoint… From Yotsusuji, with the downhill trail to your back, take the left most path until you reach a small shrine, go toward the left, behind the shrine [we actually cut through it] and you’ll find another path that leads you right to this viewpoint!)
From the viewpoint, we realized that we were already almost halfway to our next destination for the morning, Tofukuji temple. So, instead of walking all the way back down the mountain and taking the train one stop, we decided to take a hiking trail down. It’s part of the Kyoto Trail (part of a network of hiking trails throughout Kyoto), so it’s maintained for the most part. We used GPS to make sure we were going the right way. It wasn’t a difficult hike-- not like climbing the mountain the back way to the top! But there were a lot of rather steep paved areas to descend down and they were damp since it was early morning.
It was still early, so Tofukuji wasn’t open yet, but we still explored the grounds and took some pictures. By then we were exhausted, so we took the train back to Fushimi Inari, where we had some delicious breakfast Yakitori and Yakisoba! After a short rest back at our Airbnb, we headed out again.
Shimogamo shrine is one of the few shrines in Japan dedicated to Yatagarasu, a mythical golden crow. As it is the inspiration for the name of our business, as well as our logo, it was a must-see on our list. The shrine itself is small, but beautiful. We stocked up on crow related omamori (good luck charms) as well. We also visited the Kawai shrine, which is a small shrine dedicated to women on the same grounds.
Shimogamo is also recently popular because of an anime! We were wondering why there were random anime cutouts and a whole cabinet in the gift shop dedicated to this anime, so we had to look it up later.
We then walked to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, which was sadly closed that day since it's only open on very specific days, but we still enjoyed the park itself, and visited a few of the small shrines on the grounds, our favorite being the small Munakata shrine, where we met a lot of wild life! One cat walked right up to us, demanding pets! There were quite a few cats wandering the grounds, as well as a heron sitting atop one of the entrance gates!
We continued our walk to Ippodo Tea, which is an amazing tea store, as well as a tea room where you can experience authentically brewed Japanese tea. (They also offer tea ceremony classes, which we did not do.) Don’t fret, if you’re unsure of how to properly brew your teas, the workers there will tell you how to do it! There is English speaking staff in the shop and the tea room, as it’s a popular tourist destination. It’s a nice, quaint spot to sit down, elax and enjoy some traditional style tea. I had Hojicha, and Lynnette got their special year of the dog blend of Matcha.
The weather was super uncooperative with us on this day!
We went toward Gion and took some time to wander different shrines and temples in the area. It was pouring for most of the morning which made picture taking pretty difficult. We visited Yasaka Shrine which was super cute and decked out in dog motifs for the new year.
We had heard about a special Starbucks located in Gion that is styled like a traditional teahouse, so since we hadn't been to Starbucks in Japan yet, we had to check it out. It was pouring even more at this point, which made navigating difficult, and we honestly would have walked right past the Starbucks if not for Google Maps! At first glance, it’s almost impossible to tell that this building is a Starbucks, as the outside is pretty inconspicuous. The only give away was a small wooden sign with the Starbucks logo on it.
The inside of the coffee shop was so pretty. They have a few small private rooms and also tatami areas where you’ll need to take your shoes off first. Since we were damp from the rain, we just found a regular table to sit at. We both ordered the limited edition drink at the time, which was a Green Tea Mascarpone Fruit Frappuccino, and a Earl Grey Scone. It was nice to get out of the rain for a bit, but also the atmosphere in this Starbucks was so nice.
I wish the weather was more cooperative, because this area of Kyoto is extremely beautiful and we would have liked to explore more of the shops, but it was just too wet out to do so. We'll definitely have to make another trip!
From the Starbucks, we walked to Kiyomizu-dera and, lo and behold, this temple was also under construction (just part of visiting in the off season). The inside was really beautiful, and the grounds were impressive to walk around since the temple is built on a mountainside, but the iconic view of the temple was mostly obscured by the construction, which is why we haven't got any pics of it!
After wandering around for most of the morning, the rain finally started to lighten up, and we headed to our next destination, Pug Cafe Living Room!
We took the train out to Katsura Station and used the directions they provided to find the place. It's a little bit of a walk from the station, but it wasn't raining much by then. Even though it was a weekday afternoon, it was fairly busy, and we had to wait for around 20 minutes to get in. Once we filled out all of the paperwork, they let us into a smaller room at first while we waited for space in the main room. While we waited 2 pug friends came running in to greet us! First Gontaro came to sit with us, followed by Mei-chan. They provide you with snacks and a drink for yourself, and treats to give to the dogs, as well.
There are around 12 pugs and with that many dogs at once it's slightly chaotic, but in the most adorable way possible! All the dogs are friendly and like to make their rounds begging for treats and pets from the visitors.
At one point they handed us a puppy, which apparently makes all the older dogs go absolutely crazy! All the older dogs bark and jump playfully all over you to make sure you’re worthy of holding their baby friend. Whoever is holding the puppy needs to complete the right of passage first! Chakko, the puppy, was adorably confused every time they handed her off to someone else and the pug party moved to their next patron.
No reservations are needed and it cost us about $11 each for the hour, including the snacks and dog treats. Well worth it!
Later that night we went back to Fushimi Inari to get street food and take some pictures of the shrine after dark. It’s beautiful at night, but I definitely would not recommend walking very far up the path, as it is really dark! If you want to though, there's nothing stopping you, as the paths are open 24/7. Evening and early morning are less crowded, so they're great times to get pics and take your time.
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We left Osaka early in the morning to catch the train to Kyoto. There are a ton of ways to get between Osaka and Kyoto, but since we had JR Passes and were already in Tennoji, we got back on the Haruka Express, which is the train that comes from Kansai Airport and goes through Osaka to Kyoto Station. Unfortunately, the train was late! We didn’t have pocket wifi with us since we were between Airbnbs, so there was no way for us to check the schedule and we had to just wait and see what happened. Thankfully, after what felt like forever the train finally came.
When we got to Kyoto Station, it was a bit of a walk across the universe to the train we needed to get to Fushimi Inari. We strategically decided to stay there, knowing we'd want to visit the shrine a lot. Since it was a Sunday the train was super crowded, which is not fun when you’re lugging around a giant suitcase and your backpack.
When we got off at the Inari JR Station, we exited right near Fushimi Inari Taisha. Our Airbnb host sent us a video (which we reviewed the night before) on how to get to the apartment which was really helpful, along with photos. The area near the shrine was packed with tourists, since it was a Sunday and still pretty close to New Years.
Our Airbnb was so cute! We booked an apartment that was a good mix of traditional and modern for this leg of the trip. There were 2 separate sleeping areas, both with tatami and sliding doors. Each room had its own aircon/heater, which was great for keeping the rooms warm at night. Best of all, there was a soaking tub, which we made use of later, after the crazy mountain climbing journey that I’m about to talk about…
We decided to go check out Fushimi Inari Taisha with the intention of just looking around shrine and the lower part of the torii gates. We stopped for some nikuman (meat buns) on the side of the road. They were delicious! In front of the shrine, there are a lot of vendors selling street food and we stopped back there often while we were in Kyoto. Like everywhere else in the area, it was super crowded around the shrine, but we got in line and started through the red torii gates. It was so crowded it took us nearly a half hour to get past the first few sets of gates. As New Yorkers, walking at that pace in a crowd of people just wasn’t gonna happen. (Lynnette’s Note: At this point, I’d like to mention that Eri had never climbed even a small mountain before this and didn’t believe I wasn’t exaggerating when I said there was a mountain involved.)
Luckily, we saw a sign pointing to another small shrine, Fushimi Kandakara, up a dirt hill off the main path. An escape! Little did we know, this was the beginning of a long unplanned walk! Behind that shrine, we followed the pathway through a bamboo forest to a few of the dozens of small family shrines that litter the mountain. It was super peaceful and quiet and we only saw a few other people.
This trail had a mostly gentle incline, but there were times as we got further up the mountain that the footing became a little tricky and muddy. We kept following the signs, except every time we saw one that said ‘top of the mountain,’ we decided to just ignore it and go to the other way.
We came across Shichimen no Taki, a waterfall area beside a famous wood carver's shop (he wasn’t in at the time). We didn’t use it, but just of note, there’s even a toilet all the way out here on this more far-flung path. Finding a public restroom in Japan is so easy.
We kept going up this crazy path away from the mountain summit, when I saw two signs: one for Oiwa Okami shrine and one for the summit… so of course we went to the shrine. Needless to say, we were a little disappointed to trek all the way up to this shrine and have it just be a rock face with more torii gates on it and a prayer platform that was under construction. It wasn’t very visually stimulating after a long climb, but at least there were benches for us to sit on and recuperate a for a bit, which was awesome!
At this point, we had the choice to walk back down to rejoin the main path, or to keep climbing and hope the path would eventually lead back into the main trail (we did have wifi at this point, so never really lost). So, of course, we went upward and onward! At this point, the obvious trail pretty much melted away and it felt like we were just walking in the woods. There was a downed tree in the pathway, which we rested on a for a few minutes, since the dirt path was steep and we were exhausted. We hadn’t really dressed or planned for a hike. Oops. No regrets!!!
Still, for some reason we found it amusing that we were alone, in the middle of the woods, somewhere on the side of a mountain because we had decided to take a weird anti-social path, instead of the normal one.
After more wandering around in the woods, we finally saw torii gates again and rejoined the main path, basically one set of stairs before the top of the mountain. We waited in line so that we could pray at the summit shrine, and stopped for some overpriced drinks from the vending machine. Next time we’ll remember to be better prepared and get drinks down at the bottom, as the prices go up the higher you climb. But honestly, I don’t think either of us expected to just randomly end up climbing the entire mountain on our first visit.
We took the normal route back down, stopping at Yotsu-tsuji intersection which is the halfway point and took pictures of the view of the city below. There were a few other shrines on the way down and we stopped at Araki Jinja and bought super cute inari omamori.
By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain we were beyond exhausted. We went to the Lawsons convenience store for snacks, went back to the Airbnb, took baths, and passed out for the night.
If you have the urge to recreate our crazy hike, we marked out on this map the way we went! Red dots on the way up, green dots on the way down. Click the map to make it bigger!
It was an exhausting, but exciting day!
]]>We didn't film a ton and we couldn't get every booth, but we took a little footage for those who missed out on going and shared all the stuff that Lynnette bought (Lynnette: I felt that I restrained myself very well...). There are also links below to all the booths we featured!
Five Points Fest
Instinctoy
Nate Bear (he's a good friend, so check out his stuff!)
ZazaToyBox
1000 Toys
Martian Toys
Nightly Made (the video does not reflect how much time we spent chatting with these guys! they are delightful and have some beautiful stuff!)
We took the train to Nara pretty early in the morning. It’s a bit of a walk from the JR Nara train station to Nara Park where all the shrines and deer are, but there are a lot of cute shops along the way. We decided to check out the shopping area later, as our main goal for the day was to see the deer!
Our first stop was Kofukuji, which is the first temple you run into coming from the train station. There were a handful of deer there, but it didn’t really prepare us for the sheer amount of them we’d soon see!
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I heard the park was full of deer, but we weren’t disappointed. You can buy crackers to feed them, and they’ll take them gently from your hand. I wouldn’t recommend trying to eat any of your own food around these animals, because they will definitely attempt to pilfer it right from your hands.
One of the cutest things about the deer is that they bow! The deer are considered sacred animals and protecting spirits of the grounds. They are treated with respect and after many years of patrons bowing to them, the deer have learned to bow back. Of course, when they bow, they’re also looking for handouts...
The park in Nara is huge! There are a lot of different shrines and temples to see, but we headed to the biggest one, Todaiji. The main hall houses one of Japan’s largest bronze Buddha statues (15m tall!), called Daibutsu, along with other smaller (but still huge) statues and a model of the original hall. Admission is 600 yen, which I think was one of the more expensive temples we paid to visit on this trip, but definitely worth it!
We wandered the area near Todaiji, where there are many more buildings and small temples, and then headed back toward the main gate to get a roasted yakiimo (sweet potato) from a seller we’d spotted on the way in. We got a large one to split and tried to hide it from the deer while we searched for a relatively deer-free area to sit and eat.
We found a small covered area with benches and sat down to eat. We were nearly done when a friend came to visit. A deer had finally found us! She stared for a moment, before coming over and sticking her nose right in our food. We gave her some of the potato skins, which she devoured, and then she stole the paper the last of the potato was wrapped in right from my hand and ate it! Jeez. After that she hung around us for a while, so we petted her and tried to take a selfie with her. I guess we made a lifelong friend! (Until more people came near, who she thought might have more food.)
Parting ways from our deer friend, we headed across the park to Kasuga Taisha, following the trail of lanterns to the main buildings. After that, we were too hungry and tired to continue. We knew there was a Coco Curry back down the main street, Sanjo Dori, so we left the park and headed there. We got katsu curry with cheese and a vegetable curry, both of which were insanely delicious!
Then, it was time to go shopping! There are a lot of super cute touristy shops down Sanjo Dori, which have tons of goods featuring-- you guessed it, deer.
Lynnette Narration Take Over!
At the park end of Sanjo Dori, we went to two covered shopping streets, Higashimuki to the north and Mochiidono to the south (Mochiidono is right next to famous mochi shop Nakatanidou; Higashimuki is across the street). We found several adorable stores selling cat-themed items (cat person, here!) and some tiny artist shops selling handmade wares.
All the way at the end of Mochiidono, we stumbled upon a real treasure of a cat-themed shop, owned by local artist Itoi Tadaharu, an older gentleman who was sitting in his tiny closet sized shop drawing cats when we arrived. I made a purchase, using my broken Japanese, and gave him my business card, explaining that I also draw cats. I was way too excited. He was excited, too! When we got home from Japan, finding more of his art became a bit of an obsession for me, so being able to have some of it in our shop is still really thrilling. (1) (2)
Other Shops We Liked/Remember:
Vesel (on Higashimuki, it’s on the 2nd floor and sells Wachifield goods)
Necoco (on Mochiidono, more cat stuff)
Torito Te (on Mochiidono, down a tiny off-shoot with some other artisan shops; handmade bags and accessories)
On our way back to the JR station to return to Osaka, we stopped by a small shop selling specialty melon pan called Melon de Melon. They had all sorts of flavours, but we went for Earl Grey and Uji Matcha. They were delicious!
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Obligatory morning conbini pan!
Our first stop for the day was supposed to be the Osaka Aquarium, because someone (Lynnette) has a whale shark obsession, but they didn’t open until 11:00am. Thanks to jet lag, we were awake very early, so we decided to check out the area around our Airbnb in Tennoji. Tennoji Park was directly behind the building and is home to a beautiful traditional garden, as well as some small shrines, an art museum, a zoo and a few small historical monuments.
Sadly, since we were there in the winter, the garden wasn’t exactly as pretty as it could be, but it was still nice to look at and since we got there at about nine am, no one else was around except maintenance workers. It was also only about 200 yen (roughly $1.75 USD) for entry, which was a steal!
We then walked to Shitennoji, a Buddhist Temple, which was also in the neighborhood. Entry was, again, a steal at 400 yen (~$3.75). A lot of shrines and temples we visited during this trip were under construction/renovation, this one included. I think this is the large downside to traveling outside of the tourist season, since this is the best time for these sites to do their construction. It is nice to avoid the crowds though!
There was a morning prayer ceremony going on during our visit, which we respectfully enjoyed. I tossed a 10 yen coin into the donation box and a Japanese woman standing near the front politely dragged me up closer so that I could do my prayers in front of the monk. I was surprised, but also grateful for the opportunity.
On the grounds there was a huge pagoda, which we were able to go in and climb up! I’ve seen tons of pagodas at different temples, but never one that you were allowed inside. Since it’s disrespectful to the families whose ancestor’s and relative’s monuments are housed there, there was no photography allowed. It was a lot of stairs first thing in the morning, but it really just set the tone for the rest of the trip.
(The women-only train car is a magical place!)
After our wandering adventure, it was finally time to head to the Aquarium! Of course, we were not paying attention to the train announcements so we ended up at Universal Studios instead, whoops. (Lynnette’s Note: And this is after we both heard the announcement say Universal City a thousand times.) Train ordeal aside, we made it to the Aquarium.
Though not the largest Aquarium, it was still really fun and worth the approx. $22 USD entry. There are a lot of different areas, but the most exciting part is the GIANT tank that spans 4 floors worth of a viewing points. There were two whale sharks in it, as well as various rays, sharks and other smaller fish. The top area and first viewing point of the big tank can get quite congested, but once we moved further down we had a ton more opportunities to sit and watch the whale sharks. There was also a cute exhibit of penguins, a touch tank, and seals. The special exhibit at the time was about fish with unusual markings and faces!
We were starving after the Aquarium, so we went to the Tempozan Marketplace across the way, where there was a huge food court. It was really crowded and instead of entering the ruthless fight to get seats, we went to a restaurant on the second floor. We got delicious yakisoba, then headed to our next stop: Tempozan Anipa, a petting zoo. If you went to the aquarium first, you can present them with your ticket and get a discounted entry (600 yen, 550 with the aquarium ticket, if we remember correctly). As we were waiting in line, they were switching out the cats and a pig almost ran us over in its hurry to leave the back room and get back into the petting area. It’s kind of weird to have a petting zoo in a mall, but they change out the animals on duty regularly and post pics of them walking the dogs outside on their Instagram, so we definitely got the impression that these animals are well cared for. (We actually chose not to go to an owl cafe, because all the ones we watched videos of beforehand looked so sad.) The more shy cats wear special bandanas, so guests will know they are not as friendly or attention seeking as some of the others.
Once we got in, it was a hilarious mix of different animals in three different rooms. The first area had rabbits, guinea pigs and tortoise. The second section had cats, dogs and pigs. The third room was the ‘exotic’ animal area which had capybara, mara, red kangaroos, owls and an alpaca. All of the animals were adorable, but were were totally smitten by the capybara that seriously just sat there and didn’t give a crap about anything. Honestly, the chillest creature I’ve ever met! Huge regrets we didn’t take a pic with it, like everyone else was, but our animal selfie time was yet to come...
The mall didn’t really have anything we were interested in shopping-wise, but there were some huge gachapon rooms, which kicked off our obsession for the trip.
At night we visited Shinsekai, since we were curious about the giant tower we could see from our Airbnb. It was late by the time we got there, so we mostly just explored, bought more gachapon and picked up some souvenirs.
Bonus pic!
This illustration of a baby dolphin was Lynnette's Facebook profile pic for a hot minute...
]]>Our airport hotel in Korea included free breakfast! We made sure we got up early to go downstairs and have something to eat. They had the regular Western breakfast fixings like cereal, toast, jam, juice, etc. but, of course, they also had Korean food as well! I had kimchi jjigae, rice and a fried egg. Getting back to the airport was fast, but getting through security took a while. Thankfully, we got there with a few minutes to spare before boarding.
Goodbye, Korea! |
Hello, Japan! |
Incheon to Osaka was a quick flight, a little over two hours, but they served us a full meal (Again, props to Asiana Airlines.). Getting through immigration and customs in Osaka was a bit of a mess. We were still super jet lagged, so we had a hard time figuring out exactly what they needed on the custom forms. We had to go back and redo them like 4 times, which was our own fault, but we were so tired. It was stressful awkwardly trying to figure out the phone number of the ‘person we were staying with’ since we had an Airbnb, but eventually we figured it out.
We got stopped at customs and they looked through our suitcases. The customs agent asked us if we were bringing any drugs into the country, while showing us a laminated piece of paper with pictures of drugs on it! No, we were not. But they soon realized our suitcases were literally just full of personal items, clothing and makeup products, so we made it through quickly enough.
Before our trip we did some research and found out that the near best exchange rates for USD to Japanese Yen are actually at the Japanese airports themselves, so we converted our cash there. We eventually had to take out more from an ATM, but not until much later in the trip, which I’ll talk about at a later date.
We opted to get 2-week JR rail passes for our trip, which are pricey (about $400 USD, as of this time), but definitely worth the convenience of being able to take almost any JR train without having to buy an actual ticket. You must get your vouchers for the passes before you enter Japan, so make sure to order them about 2-3 weeks before you depart. You can't buy a JR Pass once in Japan! We got ours here. We picked up the actual passes at the station right at the airport. (Lynnette's Note: We used the passes the most in Osaka & Tokyo and very little in Kyoto! You can also take the shinkansen, which can be a huge money and time saver. We did this to travel from Kyoto to Tokyo.)
The JR Haruka express train from Kansai airport to our station in Tennoji took about an hour.
From Tennoji Station, it took some time to orient ourselves and figure out the way to our Airbnb. Luckily, our host’s directions and pictures were very clear. We hadn’t realized yet that GPS on your phone works even if you don’t have WiFi, but we figured that out later.
Also, if you need early check in to your Airbnb, just ask! We asked in advance and the apartment was ready for us when we arrived around 12:30pm, despite the 3pm check-in. Most hosts will say if they offer possible early check-in on the apartment listing.
We love love looovvveedd this Airbnb! The apartment was small, but super cute and, best of all, it had a kotatsu! Honestly, while we were checking out different apartments one of the “must haves” was a kotatsu. Once we were settled, we turned on the heating unit in the kotatsu and we sat under it for a few minutes. It was so cozy that we didn’t want to leave! The apartment came with wifi in the apartment and also a portable pocket wifi, which is the most convenient thing ever! We cannot recommend strongly enough finding a place that provides a pocket wifi or renting one. It made getting around easy, since we had access to our BFF, Google Maps, at all times. There are some free wifi hotspots around, but the convenience of having wifi on your phone anywhere you go is much easier.
Though it was hard to get out from under the kotatsu, we wanted to do some wandering around Osaka before it got too late. We took the train to Namba and walked up to the Shinsaibashi area to do some shopping. The Angelic Pretty store was having a winter sale and Lynnette wanted to go to Aranzi Aronzo. (Lynnette: Where I blew so much money. I've been a huge fan for over 10 years, so while they have other shops in other cities, I had to visit the flagship in Osaka!) We just did a little window shopping and wandered around the area and visited a few cute shrines, too.
It still always amazes me to see all of these small shrines sandwiched in between modern buildings.
We made our way to Dotonburi, which is a super touristy area, but an essential stop if you’ve never been to Osaka before. There were tons of souvenir shops and places to eat but they all had very long lines and it was pretty crowded.
It was hard to decide what we wanted to eat, so it took is way longer than necessary to decide on something. Somehow we ended up in a random mall, where I saw a picture for super fancy looking pancakes and decided I needed to eat pancakes. The waitress told us it would take around 20 to 30 minutes for the pancakes to be made, but boy was it worth the wait!
Quite honestly, the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my life. They were super fluffy, soft and delicious! The ones I had came with a mixed berry jam, granola and vanilla ice cream. Lynnette had a matcha and chocolate one! (Lynnette eats something matcha flavored: part 1.) They were delicious and super satisfying because we were starving at that point.
We did a little more shopping after that, checked out a stationary store, and found a Tower Records so that I could buy the new EXO album. Finally, we were just too worn out and headed back to our Airbnb.
The view from our balcony looking over the park to Shinsekai was amazing!
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The very last thing you want to hear when you’re in the airport, waiting to fly out of the country, is that your plane is delayed. So, of course, as we’re sitting there nice and early, eating our airport muffins and drinking coffee, they made an announcement that our flight was delayed. Thankfully, it was only for an hour, but we were happy to finally be on the plane!
We flew Asiana Airlines, which we can’t recommend enough (though we bought the tickets on a 3rd party site, because their website was not agreeable). Our roundtrip tickets came out to around $900 USD a piece, which was an amazing deal. We flew out of NYC into Incheon, and then from Incheon into Osaka the next day. While we were on the plane, they fed us 3 times and were super attentive with drinks, too. It is a long flight though, (around 14 hours) so if you’ve never been on one that long before make sure you bring lots of entertainment for yourself! There were tons of movies and TV shows available in both Korean and English, but I personally ended up watching a Korean movie on my laptop and writing for a bit. I wish I had the magic power to sleep on flights! But I’m pretty sure I was too hype to sleep, anyway.
When we got into Incheon Airport, we promptly got lost for a good 20 minutes. It’s a HUGE airport and we couldn’t figure out where we needed to go at first, mostly because we were exhausted and probably pretty delirious at that point. We eventually found immigration and had to fill out paperwork to get into the country so we could find an airport hotel to sleep in.
Since we were technically on a layover, the airline transferred our suitcases to our next flight, so we just brought stuff in our backpacks for our short 12 hours overnight in Korea. It took a while to find a hotel info desk with a person available, but we booked a room at Incheon Airport Hotel for about $80 USD for the night that included free shuttle service to and from the airport.
We saw a super moon while we were waiting for the shuttle to the hotel! Sadly I couldn’t get a good picture with my phone camera but that thing was HUUUUGEE. Like Majora’s Mask, scary-ass moon looking like it wants to smash into you, huge. There were Japanese tourists in the shuttle with us, also commenting on how insanely huge the moon was. The drive from the airport to the hotel was about 10-15 minutes, but the entire time both of us were sitting there separately wondering why it just looked like New Jersey. Like, we had just taken a 14 hour flight and somehow ended up in New Jersey? But, thankfully, once we turned a corner onto the block our hotel was on it magically became Korea.
After we dropped our bags off, we went to the convenience store across the street and picked up snacks for the night. I needed banana milk in my life and it must have been comical to see our tired asses standing in front of the triangle kimbap for a good 5 minutes while I tried to read things in stilted hangul. Eventually, we managed to pick some out and headed back up to our hotel room.
It was nothing fancy, but it was spacious and clean, but thankfully we had portable chargers with us, because whatever outlets they have in Korea we did not have a converter for! This was totally our fault for not thinking about it beforehand, but we were only there overnight so it wasn’t a huge deal. We both took showers in the hilariously huge bathroom and chilled out for the night and watched some Korean TV. I’m not sure if it was just the time of night we were there or what but I swear to you all we could find on TV were cooking shows, shows with dogs and home shopping channels. I did finally come across a channel playing music videos, which I left on, (mostly because BTS was playing) just for some background noise.
And with that, our exhausting adventurous first night was over!
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