Origami Cupcake

It took a long time but I finally managed to take my dream trip to Japan. It was twenty-one days in three cities, sweltering heat and with one jam-packed itinerary. That’s a slight exaggeration, I left carefully scheduled blocks of time free for “spontaneity”. It was amazing and exhausting. But perhaps the best thing were those little moments you can’t take pictures of. Chatting to salarymen over shochu, or soaking in the best bath of my life. I can’t wait to go again.

You can also check out some videos we took on YouTube.

Our Itinerary

9 Days in Tokyo – Sawanoya Ryokan

1 Day in Nagoya for Sumo – Hotel Wing International Nagoya

7 Days in Kyoto – Capsule Ryokan Kyoto

4 Days in Osaka – Hokousou

1 Day at an onsen – Marukyu Ryokan

 Ueno

We stayed in nearby Nippori and enjoyed to cute suburban feel of the area.

This is the view from the roof of our hotel:

We walked past this cute cat café walking to the station… Needless to say it’s even crazier inside.

Cat face curry:

Devoured:

This area is filled with small temples:

And with the temples there’s a lot of cemeteries. We walked through here every day going to the train station:

Tennoji Temple:

The lotuses at Ueno Park:

Mitaka

We took a side trip to Mitaka to visit the Ghibli Museum. Apparently this location was chosen for the museum because of the beautiful park. It definitely feels like you’re walking through an enchanted wood in one of their movies.

Unfortunately we couldn’t take photo’s inside the museum so you’ll have to satisfy yourself with pictures from their website.

This bright red temple was also in this park:

The outside of the Ghibli Museum:

Akihabara

This was a chance for us to totaly geek out with maid cafés, otaku goods and electronics.

Check out the massive Sega arcade:

The Gundam Cafe and AKB48 Cafe and Shop:

There was really a lot of maids everywhere, but you’re not supposed to take photo’s them, so we stalked this lady:

Dinner was grilled cow tongue:

Tsukiji

Tsukiji is the world’s largest fish market and a place where you can get some of the world’s freshest sushi. Unfortunately we missed the early morning tuna auction because the trains only start running at 5:00. If you really want to see it you’ll have to get a taxi.

We took a video of our walk through the Vegetable Market (it’s super long).

Inside there’s no bad fish smell, everyone is really busy filleting and selling the fresh fish:

There’s probably more strange seafood than you knew existed. These look like abalone to me:

So that’s it for now. Tokyo Part 2 will cover Odaiba, Harajuku and Shibuya.