Final Hours in Tokyo

For my last night in Tokyo, I decided to stay at the Conrad Hotel. The Conrad definitely lived up to it's reviews and it was located in one of the most picturesque parts of the city; right across from the Hamarikyu Gardens and overlooking the bay. If you have time for it, I definitely recommend having afternoon tea at TwentyEight . They have a great selection and their sweets were divine.

One of the other reasons why I stayed at the Conrad was it's proximity to the Tsukiji Fish Market. People start lining up outside the market as early as 2:30 in the morning to have a chance to catch the famous tuna auction, so having it within walking distance was key. 

The Tsukiji Market was one of my 'must-sees' for my trip to Japan. The best sushi chefs from around the city come to the world's largest fish market to pick out their cuts for the day. 

As a tourist, you are given a yellow vest and a small area to stand and view the auction. I was completely fine with this considering that you are getting to observe the real Japan. As long as you do your best to stay out of the way, you get to see some pretty interesting action. And, at times, I'm sure the bidders found us equally as entertaining as we did them.

After your 25 minutes is up, you are escorted out of the auction. Keep your eyes peeled for the massive amount of men on carts flying around the market. These guys won't stop for anyone!

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The only way to end the experience is to indulge in some delicious, fresh sushi. Sushi Dai is by far the most popular place in the market, but Daiwa-Zushi is a great second option. Expect to pay upwards of 700 yen per piece of fish, but trust me when I say, it's worth every last yen.

Clever in Kyoto

Today, I journeyed on the Shinkansen super-express high speed railway line from Tokyo to Kyoto. I was sad to say farewell to Oto-san who took such great care of me at his apartment in Shinjuku, but excited to be moving on to a different part of Japan. 

Oto-san on the balcony in his Shinjuku apartment

While I will miss breakfast in Oto-san's kitchen overlooking the Tokyo skyline, I am happy to have a change of pace and head over to a little bit of pampering at the Hotel Nikko Princess in Kyoto. It is conveniently located, and the concierge services were super helpful when I arrived, setting me up with a great tour and giving delicious suggestions for the best ramen, sobu, and tempura in the city.

Because I arrived late in the day, I decided to put off seeing the shrines and temples until tomorrow. In the meantime, I headed towards Nishiki Market to check out some of today's eats. Nishki Market is a narrow, five block long shopping street lined by more than one hundred shops and restaurants, and more commonly known as "Kyoto's Kitchen". You can find everything from flowers, to sweets, to baby octopus on a stick. Lots of people just wander through, but it is also a good place to stop for lunch. 

Once at the end of the Nishiki Market, you will find one of the entrances to the Nishiki Tenmangu Shrine where many of the shop owners in the market will go to pray. As I understand it, all of these lanterns have names of the shop owners in the market.

When I finished strolling through the market, I headed over to Kitaza to meet up with the Gion Night Walk. Gion is Kyoto's most traditional district where the culture of Kagai, the world of maiko and geiko (better known as geisha) are still very much alive and well. Mary was our tour guide and she was super informative. I never knew there were so few geikos, and how rare it was to see one! We managed to see one walking into one of the prominent tea houses, but alas, she was too quick for me to snag a photo of her.

Luckily, I did get to see two young girls walking out of a okiya,
which is a boarding house for maikos. These two weren't in full make-up,
 which leads me to believe they were 'maiko-in-training'. 

View from Shijo bridge.

Once the tour was over, I headed to dinner at Shunsai Tempura Arima. This was definitely the best meal that I have had in Japan so far. I ordered the Ume set course meal. Arima, the itame, artfully prepared each dish himself and served it with a description of the ingredients and preparation, which I found to be charming and helpful. Arima's can only accommodate 16 people at most, so definitely book ahead if you plan to go.

Arima giving me the 'thumbs-up' after attempting to learn some Japanese cuisine jargon.

Tomorrow it is off to the shrines!

Game, Set, Match

Earlier this week I managed to make friends with a chair tennis umpire who I met in Tokyo. He is in town because of the Toray Pan Pacific Open happening all this week. Yesterday was the opening day of the tournament, so I figured before I head out of Tokyo today, I'll swing by for some of the first round matches. I managed to see the matches between Japan's own, Kurumi Nara, and the Ukranian, Elina Svitolina. It was a heartbreaking loss for Nara, as you always like to see someone win the first round in their home country. 

The other match I saw was between Venus Williams and Mona Barthel, where Venus dominated the court. 

My friend gifted me tickets with some pretty great seats. I was amongst some of the other athletes spectating, coaches, and a few other overseas guests. As a sports enthusiast, I always like to watch how athletes and coaches watch their competition. The parents and guests of players also gave me some interesting insight into some of the other players, which I couldn't have gotten elsewhere. 

After those two matches, I decided to venture back into the city. In order to get to and from Ariake Colosseum, you take the Yurukamome Line, which allows for some of the best panoramic snapshots of the city. Even if you aren't going to a tennis match, it is worth the ride. You head over the Rainbow bridge and see some beautiful views of the bay. The whole loop around only takes about 45 minutes.

Today, I'm hopping on the bullet train to head south to the cultural center of Japan. Kyoto is loaded with countless shrines and temples, and is also host to some of the best traditional cuisine in the country. Can't wait to report back!

Konnichiwa Tokyo!

First stop on my tour around Asia: Tokyo! Moshi, moshi ah no ne. I honestly can't think of a better way to start the next three months. Customs and immigrations in Tokyo was a breeze. You truly experience the friendliness of the Japanese people the minute you step off of the plane. One of the not so great things about Narita Airport though, is that it is quite far outside of Tokyo, so you need to either take a train to the center of the city, or split a cab with 2 or 3 people. I picked up a Suica N'ex card to go from the airport to central Tokyo. This is a great option (roughly $50 round trip), and you get a Suica card pre-loaded with 2,000 yen, which is the card used for their subway system. I had to transfer at Shinjuku station, which was quite hectic. Luckily, a very nice young man offered to escort me to the Oedo line, in exchange for practicing English with him, which led me to where I will be staying for the next four days. After arriving at my apartment, I was out the door less than an hour later for dinner with two guys who I had met on A Small World. We went to Two Rooms for dinner and drinks. I recommend the Kiwi Mojito to start your night off; super refreshing. To eat, I had the Tsukiji fresh carpaccio of the day and the veal chops, which were both delicious. After being up for 30 hours and having a few cocktails, I headed back to my apartment and slept like a baby. 

When I woke up today, I headed straight to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. This is one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo where you get a 360 view of the city at the top. It definitely puts the size of Tokyo in perspective. This place is huge! 

On the main floor of the TMG, there is a tourist center where you can pick up guides for different portions of the City in English. I picked up a few for Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya and the Harajuku area. I have a feeling I'll be back for some other areas in a few days. I decided today I would do Harajuku. The self-guided tour has your start at Omotesando station, which is just a quick ride from the TMG. Before trekking through the streets, I grabbed a quick lunch at Hiroba. Hiroba does a lunch buffet for 1,260 yen until 2:30. The organic Japanese buffet includes primarily vegetarian options, but they have meat options as well; descriptions are only in Japanese, but signs for each dish include cute drawings of fish, chickens, or pigs to help you figure out if animal ingredients were used. Everything was super yummy, and I recommend the little quiche squares that they have. So good!

After lunch, I strolled down Omotesando street and browsed in the shops. There is everything from Prada to Laforet, where I managed to pick up some fashionable souvenirs. 

The corner of Omotesando and Meiji-dori

After having a taste of the modern, fashionable world in Tokyo, I decided to switch it up and take in some of the more traditional sites. Just a 5 minute walk from the shops is the entrance to the Meiji-jingu shrine. This particular shrine is a Shinto shrine, which is the ancient original religion in Japan. After walking through the gate it is about a 10 minute walk to the shrine through a nice park. 

Before reaching the shrine, you encounter a few more gates and barrels of sake wrapped in straw. These sake barrels are offered every year to the enshrined deities to show respect. 

Before entering the shrine it is customary to rinse your hands at the temizuya. One of the guides told me the very specific wash instructions: First wash your left hand, then your right hand. Then take a scoop of water and wash your mouth with your left hand. After your mouth has been washed, rinse your left hand again, and finally rinse the water dipper. 

Once inside, it is frowned upon to take pictures of the area where all of the ceremonies are performed, but I managed to take a few shots of the surrounding architecture.

These are special votive tablets for personal prayers of gratitude toward the deities. 
They are hung around a divine tree with your wishes written on one side and then they are offered at Mikesai.

That about wraps up day one. Tomorrow I'm going to be exploring Roppongi and Ginza! More to come, mata atode ne!

Tank: Rag & Bone

Skirt: H&M

Bag: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Sunglesses: Chanel

Sandals: H&M