So we snagged a plain business hotel in a quieter area near a smaller subway station that is 3 stops from Tokyo Station.
I mentioned Kyoto again to Kirsten and Naoto when we had dinner Saturday* Naoto thinks Kyoto is pretty important, but when Kirsten reminded him what a zoo it was for them during a past cherry blossom time visit, he sort of agreed. It’s still up for discussion tho.
We also talked about Wa Yamamura. He said it was on the upper end of Kaiseki pricing, but we agreed to give them a call and try to make reservations. Michelin 3 stars is not something I get to try very often.
(traditional Japanese dinner of crabcake appetizer, coq au vin, potatoes roasted in duck fat, green beans w garlic and bacon, salad, and creme brulee)
Kirsten joked that the kids would probably not want to eat 3/4 of the kaiseki meal. Maybe, if Jules is comfortable, we can get the kids to do something on their own that night. longshot, but we’ll see.
Others have mentioned the airport bus, but the JR Narita Express is covered by the rail pass. A bit of caution on rail travel in japan… pack light with carry on luggage. Backpacks work best. Big bags are a royal pain in the arse. Buy easy to hand-wash socks and underwear that will dry overnight in the bathroom. (such as Ex-officio underwear and Fox River wick-dry socks)
For affordable dining - check out the Yakitori places around the rail stations. If your kid won’t eat Yakitori it will be a very long trip to Japan.
It may be upper end of Kaiseki, but very affordable for Michelin 3*!
Definitely send the kids to do something else if you think they won’t like it. It would be a shame to waste the care that chef lavishes on the meal. It’s a very special experience and you will appreciate it more as well if you aren’t worried about how it’s being received.
Totally agree, Sarah. That was the deciding factor for me.
We are flying into Haneda, so the plan now is for us to Monorail up to a stop where we’ll meet the other folks who know Tokyo well. They will guide our jet-lagged butts to our hotel. Packing for me and Dario is very light. Jules…we’ll see, but she was a trooper on our last European trip.
BTW, I did check loyalty program hotel rates, but the usage rates were still really high.
Sounds like you’ve got a good plan in place. Enjoy your trip. I was in Tokyo for about 24 hours this past weekend, and, like every time I hit the ground in Japan, I immediately thought “God, I love it here.”
thanks for all the wonderful info on this thread, Mike and I are headed to Japan for 3 weeks, and going many of these places. I booked the 3 Mich * recommendation in Nara, - does anyone have any recommendations for a great Japanese winery to visit and also any recs for Takayama as well - I’m thinking snow monkeys
Do you really mean winery or do you want to visit a sake brewery? They do make wine in Japan, f course, but the words you’ve put together up there (great, Japanese, and winery) don’t really go together.
Wineries making pinot and chardonnay in the Yamanashi area are generally going to appeal only to those that also like big, bold California style wines. Staying with California for a second, if you are a fan of the more restricted, higher acidity French style wines from Sonoma you will be sorely disappointed by most Japanese wine from Yamanashi.,
The interesting place to visit in my opinion is Hokkaido. There you have really rotten weather much of the time with decent summers. Grape paradise. The grapes used there vary from Yamanashi a bit with Kerner making a bigger appearance for example. Very cool wine and food scene in Hokkaido also which I believe is due to the need to be indoors so much for s big chunk of the year. I would definitely encourage a bit of digging into what is available to visit in Hokkaido and maybe spend a day or two up there.
Just left Tokyo and spent last night in hakone. I love it up here, especially as a counterpoint to hectic Tokyo. Using the onsen was a bit strange at first, but ultimately it was great relaxation. Food has been great; Dario even tried ramen. Best I’ve ever had and our Japanese friend said that it was “Just okay by Japan standards”
Convenience stores are a trip. The trains are great; if a bit confusing at first. People are friendly, but aloof/reserved. Much less English spoken than expected, and no American tourists except at a couple of sites. Using “sumimasen” a lot.
Had an excellent wine from Grace Winery. No idea if you can visit them.
2013 Grace Winery Gris de Koshu
KOSHU
Japan Chūbu Yamanashi
March 16, 2017 - Book Club (Seiber Cellars): Blind - guessed chardonnay and from burgundy. Others were on the sauvignon blanc trail.
One thing you know when Chris S. is providing the wines you’ll be off the reservation at some point with an interesting wine. Here’s a perfect example. A very nice wine, indeed.
Very light yellow in color which looks like an SB, actually. The nose is very expressive on opening and hints of flint and gun powder. Definitely old world in style. This really got me thinking white burg which I couldn’t get off of. Tart red apple flavor and lemon/lime flavors with high acidity. The wine is light bodied, almost thin, but very refreshing
I find myself wishing often that “sumimasen” worked in the US…
It’s true about the reserve. I love Japan and the Japanese, and we have good access for foreigners due to Jonathan’s language skills. Still, no matter how friendly they are, I always get the feeling they’ll be happier when we leave.
Insofar as no one can speak on behalf of anyone else you are right.
That said, when an individual spends 3 decades in a place as a working functioning adult, gets married to a local, deals with the spectrum of life from raising kids to dealing with the passing of senior family members, works in local companies, speaks the language fluently, in fact does all of the aforementioned adult living in the local language, we can assume that that person’s observations of the various demographics that exist is based on experience of a far deeper quality than that of a tourist.
In the same way that Americans, Germans, Russians, or whoever you may care to ponder who are in their late 40’s / early 50’s (i.e. who have spent 3 decades working as functioning adults in a given society) who are considered adequate observers of their society and who when offering an opinion are seen as being more likely than not accurate in their observation, I too am thus qualified vis a vis Japan.
So while not qualified to speak for any other human, I am certainly as qualified to opine with accuracy on Japan as any person of any culture is of their own where they have lived as a functioning adult for 3 decades.
If one does not however speak the language fluetly, understand the nuances of the culture and goes as a tourist relying on the language skills of a partner, colleague or friend, it is hardly surprising the perception of locals that person gets is one of relief at their departure. It may well be a simple matter of it being easier for them to deal with those who speak their language and live in their culture.
Of course I could be off base on all this. Kind of doubt it though. So it bears repeating, your impression stated above could not be farther off base (speaking in general terms about a society as one can).
I wanted to do a quick post trip report, as a thanks to those who weighed in and in hopes that future folks can gain a nugget of info.
Random tips & thoughts:
We rented a little wireless router tied to a japanese mobile provider Pupuruwifi.com. This was really slick and worked great. Just remember to charge it up at night. You pick it up right at the airport int’l arrivals area and just drop it in the mail before you clear security on the way out of japan. We got unlimited and it was about $8.50/day.
We used the Japan Railpass. It was fine. The only hassle was finding a place (with my lack of japanese) where you could initially activate the thing. Only larger stations seemed to have the JRail travel counters that handled this. The other counters were useful for seat reservations, etc.
We sprung for the 1st class tickets. It was $70 well spent. The crowded, cramped 2nd class coaches were fine, but they were crowded and cramped. First class was relaxing and comfortable.
trying to do too much/living out of a suitcase: This is something we always try to avoid, but the last minute planning and need to coordinate with our japanese hosts made our schedule a bit overblown. Next time I would avoid single nights in a particular place, or at least mix them in sparingly.
Pack light – Taking your big wheeled suitcase on the train sucks. Wear the same clothes/wash them as you go.
Tokyo: Nothing really prepared me for how cool Tokyo was. It’s got so much to do and just the normal mundane things like Department Stores, train station Bentos, and the crowds/buzz were amazing. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but after maybe 3 days, we started to settle in.
Where to stay in Tokyo: Lodging is crazy expensive. PLAN AHEAD. We thought we had a good plan B; a moderately priced(??) business hotel that was just a couple of stops from Tokyo Station. The problem was our line (Shiomi) was clearly added later and the walk from our platform to any of the connection trains was really long. We would have been better off staying a few blocks from a station on the Yamanote line. The walk would have been shorter.
Get a handy Suica card for the tokyo (and other subways) It’s much slicker and faster than buying and fumbling with paper tickets.
Don’t be intimidated by the baths/Onsen. It’s weird at first, but very relaxing once you get used to it. And ultimately, it’s part of the culture you should embrace. - Toilets/Washlets..I bow down before the superiority of Japanese toilet technology. We are getting one. - The Japanese people: I earlier said that they were aloof/reserved. I think I didn’t really have the right context. I only spent a few days in the country, so take this with a grain of salt – The aloofness that I talked about before is the “public face” of people that you encounter during the day; fellow commuters, shoppers, etc. You can bump right into someone and they will totally ignore you. Now I think that what I took for aloofness is really a cultural coping mechanism for a people that are so incredibly crowded. When you are packed in like sardines on a crowded train, you create a metal wall around yourself. That person jammed up against you really isn’t there if you don’t acknowledge them. This same thing happens in the baths where there is no interaction between bathers. That person on the street is just background noise.
On the other hand was the Japanese graciousness that I ran into everywhere where I had a personal interaction. (Restaurants, stores, sites, workers, or people that I would actively approach asking for help) These people were the epitome of gracious, friendly service; the most amazing that I’ve ever encountered. And it was not generational. Everyone down to young kids “got” this.
The food: Wow, I was blown away. Sushi made me realize that I’d been eating crappy sushi my whole life. Same with Ramen, which I tried to eat as much as my traveling companions would allow. (in japan, many places only serve a single type of food, so a ramen place really focuses on ramen) It took me til my meal in Tokyo, at the Haneda Airport where I finally was forced to figure out the Ramen ordering machines…again a helpful young couple stepped up. The quality of prepared food is much higher than the states; train stations and convenience stores have great fresh stuff. That aspect reminded me of Europe. Don’t miss the food courts in the big Tokyo department stores…amazing. I’d say the one area that isn’t as good is fresh fruit, which is very expensive.
Temples/shrines: So many, you could spend a lifetime and not see them all. Sometimes the “best” are not as good as a quiet hour or two spent at a less crowded “lower tier” temple. These places are good at making it easy to spend money on charms, souvenirs, incense, and fortune sticks. It’s still cheap. The one thing that I wish I’d done was buy a little journal at the first temple to have the various scribes add their temple stamp and write a message on each page. That would make a cool souvenir. Hakone – Loved the mountains, loved the hot springs, loved the campiness of this place…Japan's Yunessun Spa Resort Offers Hot Tubs Filled With Red Wine, Coffee (PHOTOS) | HuffPost Impact We only spent a single night there and I wish we’d have spent another. Kyoto – great variety of amazing temples, shrines and other sites, BUT it’s a big city. Do yourself a favor and pick a temple area to base your stay out of, rather than staying in the city center and using public transit. You can waste a lot of time on buses. We did stay two nights in a Ryokan. It was a great thing to do once, but after a long day of sightseeing, I want to collapse on a raised bed, not sit on the floor. It was fun, and the gracious lady hosts and the in-room tradition dining (Kaiseki first night, Sukiyaki second night) were amazing. Breakfast was 17 different things all served to each of us. Just off the hook. I would say that Kyoto, being a tourist city was less gracious with visitors to the temples. You felt a bit like cattle at a the Golden Temple. Nara – maybe our favorite city. We loved the smaller crowds and the beautiful temples around the deer park. I also just liked the scale compared to tokyo and kyoto. This was the only city we ran into a ton of western tourists. Language – In general, I expected to have more english spoken. It wasn’t uncommon to encounter folks who had no english/weren’t comfortable speaking it. We used a lot of pointing and gesturing, and as I mentioned earlier; a lot of “sumimasen”
Bucket list things not done: Sumo match, Jules getting made up as a Geisha in Kyoto, conveyor belt sushi, pachinko, climb Fujisan (Dario), Hiroshima, snow monkeys, more temples and palaces, Edo museum, Markets, more mountain time.
The grapes used there vary from Yamanashi a bit with Kerner making a bigger appearance for example. Very cool wine and food scene in Hokkaido also which I believe is due to the need to be indoors so much for s big chunk of the year. I would definitely encourage a bit of digging into what is available to visit in Hokkaido and maybe spend a day or two up there.![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}