The Shinkansen pulled into Tokyo station, it was crowded and a little chaotic but we managed to find our next train and we made our way to our apartment in Nishi-Ogikubo. We stayed in the same apartment four years ago and loved the neighborhood and convenience, so it was a no brainer to stay there again!

We dropped our bags off and headed out to Akihabara for the evening. Akihabara is the center for gaming and electronics in Tokyo. It was buzzing with people, lights and sounds. It was nuts!

After walking around for bit we decided to go to dinner, it was Fathers day after all.

We landed on a Yakiniku restaurant, basically that is japanese BBQ…on steroids. It was INCREDIBLE! They specialize in Wagyu Beef that you grill at your table. The beef melted in your mouth. It was hands down the best beef we’ve ever had! I dont think we spoke for a couple minutes, while we grilled the first pieces. Other than maybe to let out a little laugh and a “holy crap this is good” after we tasted it because it was that amazing!

The meal also came with a small tea cup of soup that was a white beef broth (top right of the plate in the pic below) that was incredible, a long rectangular plate of various little cold salads and kimchee, that was really good. It also came with a larger bowl of beef soup with rice that was also really incredible I wish I would’ve taken more pictures of this meal but I was way too busy enjoying it. Thanks to luke for documenting the meal, because I completely forgot to!

If u ever have the chance to have Wagyu beef, do it, you wont regret it.

Shinjuku View, Yoyogi park & Harajuku

The next morning we headed off to the government building in Shinjuku which had an observation deck in one of the towers. what is nice about this observation deck is that it’s free but you have to wait in a line that takes about a half an hour, which isn’t bad. The view was really great if it wasn’t for some clouds we could’ve had a view of Mount Fuji 🗻! Four years ago we went up in tokyo tower 🗼 for a view of the city. I have to say this was better, it was basically the same view, same ammenities and it was free. Its run very smoothly. Definitely go to the government building in Shinjuku vs the tokyo tower!

While we were hanging out up there, George suggested that I download the Pokémon GO app, karen and luke had been playing it since kyoto and it looked fun. I was like “ok”. Well, that app drastically changed the last few days of my vacation…in an obsessively good way! 😂

After downloading the game our agenda shifted a bit to looking for green spaces and places of interest that might have the most poke stops and gyms, it wasn’t hard because they are everywhere in Japan!

We walked from Shinjuku to Yoyogi park where there was another temple and lots of poke stops!

Harajuku

Harajuku is the epicenter of teenage hangout and cosplay in tokyo. Although, i have to say it was not as crazy crowded with people dressing up as it was 4 years ago. We wondered if cosplay may be on the decline in japan? 🤔 It was definitely a disappointment, especially since we prepped luke that he was going to see some weird stuff, but there was no one dressed up like last time. Last time there was an old man wearing a crazy hat that he had glued figures and stuffed animals to and someone holding a “free hugs” sign. This time is was a pretty normal street, maybe we were there on an off day?

Crazy go kart tour through Harajuku. Not sure I’d do it, but it looked as if they were having fun!

Takeshita Street- Harajuku

Shibuya

one of the busiest train stations in the world with a famously busy intersection just outside of it! it wasn’t rush hour when we were there, so these pics don’t do it justice for just how busy it gets!

We stopped for a quick pic at the famous Hachiko statue at Shibuya station. 33 years ago my sister diana and i waited by this statue on our fist day of school to meet an upper classman that would show us around our school. It was so nostalgic to be back there💗.

Hachikō (November 10, 1923 – March 8, 1935) was a Japanese Akita dog remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno , for whom he continued to wait for over nine years following Ueno’s death.

Exploring our neighborhood at night There were so many cool local small eateries called Izakaya’s. they may be a tiny 6-seater shop that looks like someone’s storeroom. The dining style at an izakaya is small plates that you share of everything: sashimi, tempura, yakitori, tofu etc. i wish i could have taken better pictures of the inside of these restaurants but they were so packed with people I felt bad taking pictures of them while they ate their dinner.

Asakusa

Asakusa is a temple district in tokyo lined with shops and all the hustle bustle of an active temple and tourist site.

On the outskirts of the temple are more shops and covered markets. We found a conveyor belt sushi 🍣 place for lunch. The sushi was fantastic, but because it was linch time, their wasnt a large enough crowd that they were just making sushi and putting it on the conveyor belt, you had to order it. Which was a little bummer because we were hoping to see the conveyor belt in full action, but nonetheless it was really delicious 😋

After lunch we headed to Ueno park- such a great park to hang out in, and people watch and Pokemon!

We happened to catch a street performance in the park. He was really cool, we couldn’t understand a word he was saying, but he worked the crowd in the familiar way a street performer would, so it wasn’t hard to follow along! I was able to snap some great pics of him twirling a teacup on a paper umbrella, it was a really cool moment.

Ueno park has a really pretty lake that is covered in water lilies and lined with park benches, a perfect spot to rest our feet.

We found the Godzilla statue, it was about 6ft tall. I was expecting it to be a little larger, but we all agreed, if we saw this guy roaming the streets, we’d probably run! 😂

Our last night in tokyo ended at the hole in the wall ramen restaurant across the street from our apartment that we frequented last time we stayed here 4 years ago. The couple that run it don’t speak a work of english, but they had an english menu that they brought to us and we had another awesome meal at one of our favorite places. It was a great way to end our last night!

The kitchen

We were a little nervous at first because this was the only menu we saw, but were thankful when she brought out the english menu. She was so sweet and accommodating 💗

Packed up and ready to head home

Walking through the grocery store next to our place to get to the train station. It was such a great store with an awesome prepared food section!

We had some time to kill between when we had to check out of our apartment and our flight, so we headed to Shinjuku station, put our luggage in a locker and headed to a park for some last minute Pokémoning and sightseeing. Another beautiful park, the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, it was beautiful! We milled around untill it was time to catch the train to Haneda airport.

It was a fantastic trip, we all had a great time. I was ready to come home, but sad that japan is so far away, it would be nice to be able to pop by for visit without 24hrs of travel on either end!

But wait, theres more!

My final word on the amazing drink vending machines…why don’t we have more vending machines in the states? And with the variety these have! Waters, flavored waters, green tea, milk tea, cold coffee, lemonade, etc. I am going to miss these vending machines. They were so convenient to get a drink, they make being a thirsty traveler bearable. Thank you Japan!

Ok so ive been slacking! I’m going to combine our last few days into one (probably long) post. 😬

Here it goes…

Thursday was a no plan day, well actually our plan was to go to breakfast at a cool Starbucks in Gion that was an old wooden 2 story house that had tatami mat seating upstairs and then head over to a buddhist temple from there. After that, we had no plans. I think I’ll post the pics and just explain as i go 😉

Breakfast in Gion

After breakfast we headed to the buddhist temple, there was so much to see along the way that we hadn’t expected. It seemed as if every corner we turned there was something beautiful.

And tons of signs about mischievous monkeys, but we never saw them! That was disappointing 😔

this was a sign just above the monkey sign, thought it was a nice sentiment that i had never seen before.

Finally we made it to the large buddhist shrine, just the gate to the complex of buildings was impressive!

Corner view of the same gate

The grounds here were wide and open, but tucked in the back were a few little shrines with gardens.

From there we decided to have lunch in a bustling shopping district we had visited a couple nights previous. As we were approaching the busy street where we would catch the bus, we saw a large torii gate in the distance. We were commenting on how large it was when karen said, “we are here, i feel like we should just go check that out”. We agreed and started walking toward the large gate.

Oh, something i forgot to mention. Getting around kyoto is super easy, it has a fantastic bus system as well as subway, but the buses are so convenient, plentiful and reliably on time, that that was our go to mode of transportation. Also they announce each stop in Japanese and English. Oh and google maps was spot on with bus/subway routes and timing of them!

Ok back to the massive gate in the distance…

It turned out to be a major Shinto shrine that we had read about but hadnt really considered seeing.

Heian-jingu Shrine

“Like most Shinto shrines, Heian-jingu Shrine is marked by a vermillion torii (shrine gate) out front. But the torii at Heian-jingu is anything but ordinary: It’s vast. Standing almost 25 meters high, it dominates the entire Okazaki-koen Park area. 

Interestingly, it’s set so far away from the main compound of the shrine that many people assume it’s completely unrelated to the shrine. Heian-jingu Shrine was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto as capital of the country…” – https://www.insidekyoto.com/heian-jingu-shrine-northern-higashiyama

It was turning out to be a pretty hot day, so we found a shady spot just inside the entrance, got a drink from the awesome vending machines (i feel like the vending machines warrant a post just to themselves!) sat on the cool stone and relaxed. Which also gave karen and luke some time to focus on their Pokemon Go game. Seriously though, if you or your kids are at all into that game, this is the place to play it! There seems to be a gym at every major tourist attraction as well as a ton of pokemon to catch everywhere you walk. There are even professional players. We saw this one guy, riding his bike with a board gerry rigged to his handle bars with 5 phones attached to it as well as a battery pack, all 5 were open and playing pokemon Go! We surmised that people pay him to keep their game going whiles they are at work or something like that. Oh and its not young kids playing this game, its EVERYONE! Adults and kids. Its pretty cool and has been a fun aspect of the trip!

Ok back to the amazing shrine…

So the website i quoted above said not to bother to pay the fee to tour the gardens unless its cherry blossom season. It said they were not that great (to paraphrase)…they were wrong. Luckily we had done no research on this shrine so we didnt know they weren’t highly regarded (by whover wrote that article). The garden was so beautiful with a meandering path. It is definitely a must see!

There were two trees located on either side of the main temple. In the temple you can shake a stick from a metal container. This stick has a series of characters written on it. You take the stick over to the counter and they give you the corresponding fortune. If the fortune is bad you tie it to the tree and leave it at the shrine if it is good you take it with you. We had a hard time figuring out what the fortune said since it was written in Japanese. We decided to do the only safe thing and tie them to the tree 🤗😂

Ramen lunch 😋

⛩Fushimi Inari Shrine⛩

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.

Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are thought to be Inari’s messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds. Fushimi Inari Shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital’s move to Kyoto in 794.

–https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3915.html

It took about 2hrs to climb the 2.5 mile hike, it was worth it. Such a uniquely beautiful trail, the vermillion gates set in a forested scene. It was breathtaking!

Each of the torii at Fushimi Inari has been donated by a Japanese business.

Ritual cleansing before entering the shrine.

It was really crowded for the first half hour of the walk. Then it thinned out. There were not as many people ambitious enough to go to the top, which was nice!

One of many fox statues

Smaller shrines dotted the trail along the way to the top.

The last set of stairs to the top!😅

Made it!!

There was a pokemon gym at the top. Had a nice rest and a quick battle and we headed back down.

Nanzenji Temple

Legend has it that when Emperor Kameyama withdrew to his retirement palace in Kyoto, disturbing things began to happen there. Doors flew open by themselves and the royal family felt ghostly hands press upon them. The Buddhist priest called to perform an exorcism burnt incense, prayed and chanted, but to no avail.

The emperor turned next to the Zen priest, Fumon. In the year 1290, Fumon sat down in the palace and began to meditate. When he was through, the spectral squatter was gone. So impressed was Kameyama with the power of Zen (the story goes) that he handed over half of his palace to Fumon in order that he might teach – https://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/nanzenji

The entrance to this Zen temple was unique in that we were able to climb a steep staircase to go up into the temple gate for a spectacular view.

There were parts of the garden that were carpeted in meticulously groomed moss. I know moss doesn’t sound super exciting, but it was impressive! 😂

From there we took the Philosophers path along a canal stopped for an awesome noodle soup lunch and made our way to the next temple.

Ginkaku-ji Temple

Originally designed as a retirement villa for the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490) , Ginkaku-ji Temple was modeled on its sister temple Kinkaku-ji Temple (the Golden Pavilion). Yet Ginkaku-ji Temple was never plated with silver, and the main temple building remains an unpainted brown–and in its way, exemplifies the Japanese idea that something plain can be beautiful.

This temple is one of the only remaining wooden pavilions that is original. Most of the others have burnt down and been reconstructed, which makes this Pavilion very special.

My pictures of the gardens do not do it justice. 😔

We then hopped on a bus to get to the Imperial palace, not realizing how late it was by the time we got there, we made it just in time to tour it before it closed 😅 The highlights were definitely the gardens.

As soon as we were done it started to down pour

The next morning we packed up and left our awesome house and headed to Kyoto Station to catch the Shinkansen 🚅 for tokyo!

We picked up some boxed lunches for the 2.5hr high speed train ride!

On our way we were able to see Mt. Fuji!

Kyoto was really beautiful, but we are ready for our next adventure in Tokyo!!

Its 6:30 in the morning on our 4th day. Im sitting here on the couch having a cup of coffee, my legs covered in IcyHot. They feel like we’ve been walking for 12 days! Kyoto is such a walkable city that we fall into the classic Siddoway trap. “Its only a mile or so, lets just walk it!” Fast forward and we have averaged about 11 miles a day. No wonder my legs feel like tired jello! Its a good tired though, we’ve seen so much already that it feels like we’ve been here a week vs 3 days!

Our trip started off sunday morning with an unexpected drive to the Toronto airport. Our flight from Pittsburgh to Toronto was cancelled at 4am the morning of our departure 😳. We made a quick decision to drive the 4.5 hrs so our trip would not be delayed by almost 2 days! We made it to our gate about 30 min before our plane boarded, so it worked out perfectly. 👍🏼

After 2 planes, a bus and a taxi ride ✈️✈️+🚌+🚕 we arrived at Machiya Momiji (our traditional Japanese townhouse)

Its beautiful, simple and in a quiet neighborhood, a perfect home base for our trip. We arrived around 7:30pm, the taxi driver hesitated in leaving us, waiting until we got to the door just incase we were mistaken in where we were staying. 😂

We unpacked and headed out to explore and get the lay of the land. Winding our way through the quiet streets, passing shrines and modern houses blended among the traditional wooden houses with ornate roofs, we finally popped out on a more bustling main street. We came upon a small grocery store and decided to go in to pick up dinner, snacks and some food for breakfast. It was fun seeing all the different food. Groceries in hand we walked back to our Machiya for a light dinner and to relax, we knew the next day might be rough with the time difference!

Ok now for the pics!!

Day 1- Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Gion & Nishiki Market

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the early Heian period. The temple was founded in 778 by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, and its present buildings were constructed in 1633, ordered by the Tokugawa Iemitsu. There is not a single nail used in the entire structure. It takes its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizumeans clear water, or pure water.

We got to the temple waaay early on the first day. 😂 we were not adjusted to the time yet, but as it turned out we were one of the first people there so we had it to ourselves for the first hour or so.

A Temple monk.

People write their prayers or wishes on these plaques to leave at the various shrines

Gion

Gion (祇園) is Kyoto‘s most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko(geiko apprentices) entertain.

Gion attracts tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. Due to the fact that property taxes were formerly based upon street frontage, the houses were built with narrow facades only five to six meters wide, but extend up to twenty meters in from the street.

Nishiki Market & Exploring at Night

Nishiki Market (錦市場 Nishiki Ichiba) (literally “brocade market”) is a marketplace in downtown Kyoto, located on a road one block north and parallel to Shijō Street (四条通 Shijō-dōri) and west of Teramachi Street (寺町通Teramachi-dōri). Rich with history and tradition, the market is renowned as the place to obtain many of Kyoto’s famous foods and goods.