Hi all - this was supposed to be an abbreviated recap of our Japan trip last month, but I guess I reside strictly in the long-form mode. 
As many of you know, my sister and I were just there for our first time in October 2024, and loved it so much we went back as soon as we could. Last time, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, for 9 days. This time, just Tokyo & Kyoto â 6 in Tokyo, 3 in Kyoto. Not that we didnât love Osaka, but felt we needed to give Kyoto more attention, and still feel that way. And Osaka too! And how to not go to Tokyo each and every time? We love us some big cities⊠Weâre already planning a return in 2027.
We tried to hit all new places and mostly succeeded. In Tokyo, we stayed in an area called Koenjikita, in the Suginami Ward just west of Shinjuku. We chose it because Iâd read it was âbohemianâ, âless touristyâ, âcoolâ, and had punk rock venues (yes, weâre old, but we like what we like), as well as DJ bars and other music clubs. Koenji was definitely less touristy â aka, almost none of the menus we encountered were in English, and most people did not speak it â and had more of a locals vibe. It was easy to get to (our hotel was directly above the Koenji station on the JR line), and therefore easy to get to everywhere else in Tokyo. We didnât actually find punk rock clubs and in fact didnât end up going to any music venues at all (except a bar that had a DJ party one night), but found other utterly charming waterholes and places to eat.
Our first night in Tokyo, a Friday, we were a bit surprised that by 11:30 pm (when we finally got to our hotel), it was fairly quiet and a lot of restaurants were closed in our neighborhood. But we found a little, very casual place that had, again no English menus. But Google Translate is your friend! Every place we went to serves, when youâre first seated, an âotashiâ â some little dish that you do pay for â itâs a nominal cover charge. Here it was mac salad! We then had lovely sashimi, fresh as can be, gyoza, and gigantic, kronchy, karaage for our first meal.
After, we looked around for bars and were led by a friendly bartender (his was a wine bar, tiny and full) to another bar where, again, no one spoke English but they were willing to serve us as long as we bought two drinks each. This is where I first felt that we were not in a touristy place, as it was clear the locals were not used to having foreigners in their bar, and maybe didnât really want any, but no one was unfriendly. My impression is that the people are quite shy (and this was confirmed to me later in the trip by an English-speaking local.) After weâd quaffed a couple whisky sours, a salesman of some sort (who did speak a little English) came in and handed out these tiny bottles of a German fig liqueur, which everyone downed.
This seemed to loosen everyone up, so we shared a few laughs, had another drink, and left around 1:30 a.m. Super tired, we nevertheless had to hit the nearby 7-11 and stock up on our de rigueur late-night/bfast snacks.
A lot of places (restaurants, cafes, touristy sites) donât open in the morning until 10 or 11, so itâs a good idea to have something to eat in your room if you want to get an early start. (Our hotel actually had a Dennyâs (!!) in the lobby, serving, among other things, a full Japanese breakfast, but we saved that for another day.)
In Kyoto we stayed across the street from the ginormous Kyoto Station, and while that was handy arriving and departing, Iâd rather stay in the Gion area next time, along the tree-lined Shirakawa canals - and no, not because of the geishas, which we actually didnât see any of, not real ones anyway (fyi - anyone can rent a full geisha or maiko outfit and parade around the city.) Anywhere along the Kamo River is beautiful and picturesque, with a buzzing nightlife.
Before I get too wordy, suffice to say we ate extremely well, everywhere we went. I canât think of a bad meal we had, and at most we paid $94 for a full dinner and drinks for the two of us, but usually weâd spend less than $30 for the same, for both of us, in sit-down restaurants. The pricier thing we did was to seek out craft cocktail bars, which turned out to be cha-chingy (for Japan, not for San Francisco); a night at a âhiddenâ bar in a beautiful former traditional Japanese home ended up costing us $98 for six cocktails â all made with fancy, new-to-us Japanese spirits, gorgeous liqueurs, house-made syrups, etc., which were all interesting and delicious.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6tgQ8sPDeJJhNDPy6
$98 sounds like a lot for cocktails, but thatâs only $16 per drink (and remember, there is no tipping in Japan); we wouldnât bat an eye at that in SF. We had a lot of frosty draft beers with meals, which helped keep the cost down
We ate in various parts of Tokyo â Asakusa, Shinjuku, Ueno, Akihabara, Roppongi, and of course, our own neighborhood. We ate ramen three times on this trip, and finally, truly understood why itâs so revered: itâs fucking awesome here, each bowl different from the next,⊠The broths were rich and deeply soul-satisfying, the noodles all had the perfect chew, and the slices of pork were silky and lovely. We also found that a bowl was nowhere near as filling as we thought it would be. (Well, I mean, yeah, it was, but we managed just fine and lived to eat again. And again.)
Somehow we managed to unwittingly order extra noodles - âkaedamaâ - at this place in the airport waiting for our flight homeâŠ
We ate gorgeous, obscenely fresh sushi, of course, nigiri & sashimi, almost everywhere we went, everyday, as an appetizer, a snack, off a fully automated conveyor belt, or served like pristine jewels at the Toyosu market. We had the fattiest piece of fatty-fat-fat-sake sashimi of our lives at the Nishiki Market in Kyoto. We visited the Toyosu Fish Market â where Tsukiji moved its wholesale operation to â very early one morning and had a bang-bang sushi breakfast & lunch at two places there.
Video of the conveyor belt in action:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9168QMy6wudV8SNx8
Breakfast at ToyosuâŠ
Of course, we had Famichiki, the fabulously renowned & drool-worthy, juice-a-licious, Family Mart chicken nuggetâŠ
And one night, I tried the interwebz trend of putting a Famichiki patty into a 7-11 egg sando. The hype is well-deserved - nirvana! I believe I self-actualized that night.
We had tonkatsu â once not as perfect as what weâd had last time in Tokyo (at KYK), and then again from an outpost of KYK we just happened upon in Kyoto by our hotel â weâd had no idea it was a chain. Still as fabulous, and we stocked up on bottles of their scrumptious sesame/ginger cabbage dressing.
The one on the right was a tenderloin, the left a loin. The cook thought we wanted to try one of each, but the tenderloin was nowhere near as fatty and juicy as the loin, as we knew would be the case.
KYK. A favorite.
We ate new-to-us omurice in the Shinjuku train stationâŠ.
Wasnât my favorite, but not bad at all. The demiglace was very clove-y, not what I expected. (The locals back at âourâ bar admonished us that you have to get it with ketchup, none of this âfancyâ beef sauce nonsense. )
We ate A5 Wagyu beef. Oh boy did we eat A5 Wagyu beef! Once, we shelled out $21 for a skewer of five nuggets we shared from a street vendor outside Nara Park, and it was worth every goddamned yen.
More chunks, at Nishiki MarketâŠ
And Wagyu Nigiri at Nishiki Market!
This was from here, a restaurant in RoppongiâŠ
Itâs just SO much cheaper than in the States. And Sofa King Good.
We ate luscious, smoky yakitori, multiple times, grilled over binchotan â hardwood charcoal - AS IT MUST BE DONE.
Still a favorite, and in fact one of the culinary highlights of our trip (more on that later).
We had a fucking amazing omelet filled with creamy/dreamy mentaiko and topped with ikura â TO DIE FORâŠ
âŠin a very smoky, little, locals-only, izakaya in Koenj. (NB: Most of the restaurants in Koenji allow smoking â to say nothing of bars. Less tourists = more smoking.)
And as for tamagoyaki, the thinly layered, rolled omelets, this is a dish I really learned to love here for the first time. So tender and fluffy, so light, we loved their salty/sweetness. (In fact, we both bought ourselves tamagoyaki pans to try to make them on our own. Actually, Iâm just waiting for the BF to become an expert at it. )
In Koenji, we also had a super fancy-schmancy izakaya meal that took over 2.5 hours as everything cooked very slowly over the small open grill in the middle of the restaurant, and cost about $95 (again, including drinks) â food was great but we were actually really hungry until the 5th course showed up!
Giant grilled sweet prawns, above, served simply with sea salt, and below, a fabulous cauliflower cream with uni⊠dreamy!
The culinary highlight of the trip, however, was a place that a dear friend/bartender in San Francisco (Mission District dive bar Docâs Clock, for those familiar) recommended. Sean is a Japan-o-phile, Kyoto lover extraordinaire, rabid yakitori aficionado, and considers this restaurant to be his favorite in all the world. Sumiyaki Sousai Toriya Hitomi â known locally simply as âHitomiâ â is hard to get into, but I hadnât known how hard. First clue was our cab driver asked us in an urgent, worried tone if we had a reservation. Yes, we did, thanks to Sean! Second, after dinner, the bartender at our newest craft-cocktail bar said he couldnât believe weâd gotten in â heâd tried three times and could not, and heâs a local.
The best was Chef Hitomi himself greeted me as I poked my head through the curtain on the doorway, âCarmen?â
How fucking adorable is that?! And then he pulled out his phone and showed me a picture he had of the exterior of Docâs Clock, and a picture of himself with his arm around our friend Sean! Even more adorable! Then, for the next two+ hours, we watched him turn endless skewers of chicken parts over and over until done to his standard of perfection â feeling, shuffling, smelling, eyeballing â with a laser focus that was mesmerizing to witness.
The chicken was out of this world, like a different animal, some of it. Locally raised Kyoto Red chicken (Kyoto âChikuâ), had a beautifully chewy texture, with a deep flavor.
Truly like no chicken Iâve ever had before.
And beautiful duck! Even my sister liked it, though she usually finds it too gamey.
HeartâŠ
One of my favorite bites.
After many other skewers, we finished with a super homey bowl of soboro don (a savory/gingery seasoned ground chicken rice bowl).
The creaminess of those eggs⊠sighâŠ. All just smashing, an outstanding meal, start to finish.
One day, we had an good-but-not-great order of soufflé pancakes in Tokyo that were $$$, at a café in Ueno Park, and then another set (on another day) at a place called Elk in Kyoto, not far from Nishiki Market, that checked every fluffy, pillowy box.
Not excellent.
The standard-bearer:
Swoon-worthy! The whipped cream â or any milk product - weâve had in Japan it is next level â made with luscious Hokkaido milk, and you can taste it, even in convenience store products. We also had a caramel boba tea at Elk that knocked our socks off â made with that milk. It really is night and day from any Iâve had.
One early, rainy morning, we deigned to eat at the Dennyâs in our hotelâŠ
Full Japanese bfast. The salmon was a tad dry, but that onsen egg⊠mwaah! Perfect on a chilly morning.
Every night we went to bars, once getting invited to a DJ party in our neighborhood:
âOurâ Bar â Watashi, a âBelle Epoqueâ bar in Koenji, was helmed by the lovely and incredibly sweet Takahashi, a fabulous (and unironic) mixologist.
This is her, stirring a cocktail with her head bent studiously close to the mixing glass. In her halting English (and with the help of an English-speaking regular) she told us she smells for changes in the liqueurs/spirits as sheâs stirring the ice, which tells her when the drink is ready. I was so intrigued by this â just like in cooking! Once we found her bar, we went there every night, and chatted up the couple of locals who spoke very decent English.
Again, we were just struck by the many liqueurs weâd never seen nor heard ofâŠ
Right around the corner from Takahashiâs place one night, we (literally) stumbled into a tapas bar (!! Do you see that Jamon Iberico leg?? ) that was closing, but managed to sneak in a glass of delicious Japanese bubbly that came out of a tap.
We had some mighty fine house-made pate one night there too, and visited multiple nights after leaving Watashi Bar.
We took a day trip to see the giant Buddha in Kamakura, a seaside town, and had beautifully fried tempura and stunning sashimi just at a little place in the train station thereâŠ
Takahashi recommended her favorite bar, The Bank, in Kamakura, so of course we walked 25 minutes to find it and have a few cocktailsâŠ
One late night, after many drinks, we went to a McDonaldâs near our Koenji hotel and tried the famed (on Tiktok) sandwich, the McEbiâŠ
Judge ye not - we just had to do it once. Shrimp patty sandwich was totally fine for drunk food, not great, although the fries were quite yummy, and reminded me of the ones of my childhood.
We also had this for lunch one day:
Egg Baby CafĂ© in Ueno â a modern cafĂ© featuring beautifully made egg sandos, salads, desserts, etc.
And as our last meal in Kyoto - sob - we had a huge tempura set lunch at the Kyoto Porta mall next to the train station.
Along with all the side dishes, they bring you individual pieces of tempura as theyâre fried and place them on that wire grill, to keep them fresh, hot and crispy. What a country. HEAVY SIGH
NOT ABOUT FOOD: What else did we do besides eat and drink? We visited three wonderful museums this trip: The Artizon, Tokyo National Museum of Art, and the Mori Art Museum. We saw more shrines and temples, went up Tokyo Skytree to see the astounding vista, strolled the Philosopherâs Walk in Kyoto as the sun was setting, and â perhaps the very best â spent hours petting bowing deer at Nara!
This was a day trip from Kyoto, only 45 minutes away. AND YES, THEY DO BOW AT YOU FOR MORE RICE CRACKERS, AND IT IS FUCKING HEART-MELTING! There was a lot of squealing on our part that day.
We walked an average of 15,000 steps a day â much less than last time, and our legs suffered less for it. I gawked at all the people, took waaaaay too many photos, shopped our asses off (mostly food items to bring back), marveled constantly at how fucking cute and wonderful everything is, and how polite and helpful everyone is, and generally just had a fucking blissful time.
Me, in heaven.
Here are some restaurants and bars I actually have names for (didnât get names of a lot of the little places):
Tokyo
Restaurants:|
Oreshiki Jun - ramen, on Tokyo Street Ramen, inside Tokyo Station
Tokimeki â Koenji â The fancy izakaya
Egg Baby CafĂ© â Oeno â egg sandos, salads, etc.
Kura Sushi â Asakusa â conveyor belt sushi â fully automated, I donât think we spoke to anyone!
Warayakiya â Roppongi â affordable A5 wagyu (plus much more) cooked over an open flame
The Station Grill â Shinjuku Station â for omurice with beef sauce, hamburger steak, etc.
Bars
Bar Watashi â Koenji â Craft âBelle Epoqueâ bar (our favorite)
Toritsukare Otoko â Koenji â Tapas & wine bar
Kamakura:
Komachi Fuurin â Kamakura Train Station â beautiful sashimi and tempura
The Bank â Cocktail bar in an old bank building
Kyoto:
Restaurants
Sumiyaki Sousai Toriya Hitomi â Yakitori extraordinaire â MUST HAVE RESERVATION
Musoshin â Gion District - Ramen bar
Elk Pancake & Boba â Shinkyogoku District âfabulous soufflĂ© pancakes and boba tea made with Hokkaido milk â usually a bit of a wait.
KYK Tonkatsu â Kyoto Station, and also in the Kyoto Porta shopping mall â fabulous tonkatsu
Hageten Kyoto Porta = also in Kyoto Porta - Tempura set meals
Bars
Common One â Gion District - craft cocktail bar
Bar Ixey - â Gion - craft cocktail bar (right next door)
Narita Airport
Ippudu Ramen (downstairs)
Thatâs it! Domo arigatou gozaimasu for reading along, if youâve made it this far! We canât wait for our next Japan sojourn!
(P.S. This took me so long in part because I have a cataract that needs tending to, and have to be without my contacts for a month, which is murder when trying to type/read on a screen.)
