Spring break in Japan (part 2)

[I posted about Part 1 earlier].

Day 6. (March 31) Our saga picks back up in Kyoto. After yet another early morning (I didn’t sleep past 6 a.m until the last day) we chose the western breakfast in our hotel, but it did still come with soup and salad. We met our guide at 9 a.m and headed over to the mountains to see the views of Kyoto and see some Japanese macaques (there is a spot where people can feed them). In the “small world” category, this guide was a student at Meredith College in Raleigh NC between about 1986 and 1989, which was when I was living there, approximately 2 miles away from her. After some great views, we walked through the nearby gardens where the cherries were out in full force. We also walked through the bamboo forest, which was lovely, except for the approximately 1000 people with cameras filming themselves walking through it!

I took one shot that managed to crop them all out! We then had a private tea ceremony where we learned about making and serving matcha tea. My son did very well with this. I was impressed with his patience with things that might not have been obviously teen-friendly. He perfected the final slurp you are supposed to do with your cup — and later at restaurants servers would exclaim at how he was holding his tea the “correct” way (one hand under the cup, one on the side). It was then on to several temples (including the Kinkakujicho golden one) and back to our hotel early because we had a big dinner planned at Kitcho. This was definitely a trip highlight — a 3 Michelin star place. You get your own private room and you are served a tasting course of various Japanese delicacies. I enjoyed seeing my son pop an entire little squid in his mouth, tentacles and all. None of my other children would have done that! The sashimi course and beef course were my personal favorites. When we’d mention to our later guides that we’d eaten there everyone was very excited — but hey, the exchange rate is very favorable to Americans in Japan right now so the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been!

Day 7. (April 1) We were supposed to have a relaxed morning — no plans until later, so we told them we’d come to breakfast at 8 — but of course we were up at about 5 a.m. again. After breakfast, I went on one solo walk in the rain around our hotel’s neighborhood in Kyoto, and then went on a walk with my son. The cherry blossoms were just gorgeous against the gray sky. I took a ton of photos. We got picked up at 11:30 for a rickshaw ride. I felt a little cheesy about this, but it was fun and short and the driver took good pictures of us. He delivered us to a theater where we watched a traditional maiko seasonal dance featuring all women performers in kimonos playing traditional instruments or dancing through various story lines. I bought the English language audio guide and that was helpful for figuring out what was going on. After, another guide met us and took us to Kyoto’s big tourist attraction, Nijo castle. This is a a historic palace from around 1600 and shows some of the old murals. As you can imagine, this was also really, really crowded, but it was kind of a must-see. After, I asked our guide to take us to some of the best cherry blossom viewing in town. So we walked down streets lined with blooming cherries, and took some great shots, including some with orange lanterns. Amazing. All this time the rain was coming down harder and harder, so although we went back to our hotel thinking we’d head out again to find a restaurant for dinner (no reservations for the evening) we listened to the pouring rain and decided…nope. Room service it was.

Day 8. (April 2) After checking out of Sowaka, we had a driver take us to a spot on Lake Biwa, where we met another guide who took us e-biking. I love biking, and e-biking is always a great way to see a little more territory (including hills). We circled the villages, bought fresh strawberries, saw cherry trees and local shrines. I put change at the shrine for good health and my son went up to the shrine for the local mountain spirits — I gave him what change I found in my pocket and it was only a 10 yen coin (currently the equivalent of six cents) so he was worried the mountain spirit was going to think he was cheap. We couldn’t risk that so I found him some larger denominations! The bike ride was truly lovely — another highlight for me of the trip. Then (with our guide/translator) we took a local train and a taxi to a house of an older couple who showed us some Japanese home cooking. My son won them over by eating a ton of the chicken dish they cooked (including the raw egg it’s served in — teenage boy appetites for the win!) and then doing this cool yo-yo like toy they had perfectly. I was proud! Then our driver drove us to Osaka (about 90 minutes away) and we checked into the Park Front Hotel at Universal Studios Japan. Osaka is a very industrial city with a big port and lots of bridges, and we were on the 26th floor. So not only could we see the park and the roller coasters from our room, we could see the whole city. Our beds faced the window, so I guess they knew what the room highlight would be! We walked around some and I considered trying to buy day passes (since it was only 4 o’clock when we got there – our planned visit was the next day) but on the app the lines looked atrocious. So we just chilled and ate at Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza bar.

Day 9. (April 3) We woke early to see (from our high up window) people already queuing outside Universal Studios. I didn’t go to Disney this spring break, but the spring break theme park crowds still found us! We ate breakfast at the hotel’s Hawaiian themed buffet with a great many Japanese families who were also about to go to the park. We watched the gates open from our room and saw people race inside — quite entertaining. We had express passes, thank goodness, and the first one wasn’t timed until 12:20, but three rides had no required time and we thought we’d try to get at least one non-express ride done early. So we went down at 8:15, got through security and the gate, and went straight to…Jaws. This was honestly hilarious. We couldn’t understand any of the boat driver’s acting in Japanese of course, so we just got the giant sharks leaping out of the water (and then getting fried in one case). An experience for sure. Then we headed over to the Flying Dinosaur, which my son was really excited to ride. I begged off this one — it’s a coaster with multiple inversions where you are in a harness just dangling over the ground, as if you are flying. I waited for him and he came back happy — that was a highlight of the week for him. Since our express passes could be used for that or Minions we then walked over to Minions where I went on by myself— the weird adult with no kids in the vehicle was various Japanese families. After, we walked over to Harry Potter and did the Forbidden Journey on our express pass, and then we went over and did Jurassic Park, wearing ponchos I bought from the gift shop. Good thing as we were in the center of the front row, where you get absolutely soaked on the ending drop! (Our express passes were for either Jaws or Jurassic Park, and since we’d waited in the regular Jaws line we hadn’t used them yet). Then we got ice cream and had about an hour to kill before our timed Super Nintendo World entrance. (Sadly, there was nothing to ride with less than an hour wait at this point.) We sat in the shade and read and then went in. While both my son and I have been to Universal Studios in Orlando we have never been in Super Nintendo World, so this was a lot of fun. The scenery was all Mario style. In quick succession we did Mario Kart Koopa’s Challenge (a highlight), Yoshi’s Adventure (a kid ride but hey…fun to see the scenery from above) and then Minecart Madness. This was a tame but fun roller coaster. By this point we were very glad to have our Express passes as the lines for everything were over 90 minutes! We then went to see a show that was surprisingly good in terms of special effects and pyrotechnics, even if we didn’t understand any of the dialogue. There were planes, jet skis, explosions…and it was done in 20 minutes. Amazing. We thought about waiting for the Hollywood Dream roller coaster, but it was almost 2 hours, even for single riders, so we just did some shopping then went back to the room, and to Shake Shack for dinner. We crashed at 9:30 and I slept all the way until 5:30.

Day 10. (April 4) We checked out of our hotel in Osaka, and got to the Shin-Osaka station where we took the 9:15 bullet train to Tokyo. I had hopes of seeing Mt. Fuji out the window but alas, it was too overcast. We arrived in Tokyo and found our driver, who took us to our hotel (The Okura Tokyo – a nice business-y type hotel) and then to a sushi-making class. This was another trip highlight. A sushi chef made absolutely amazing sushi in front of us and then had us assemble some pieces ourselves. It was a good lunch with an interactive component. He also served us a little bit of blowfish, which I hadn’t planned to eat in Japan, what with the fatal toxins and all, but he had his “blowfish license” (that is a thing) and said he hadn’t lost anyone yet. I appear to have survived as well. I can report it tastes somewhat like chicken. Then our driver took us over to Shibuyu station, as my son wanted to find some tiles on one of the platforms (it was a meme or something?). I bought him a platform pass and waited outside the gates for him but about 15 minutes later he came back saying he never found it. Oh well. I’d planned to take the subway back to our hotel but the tour company had booked our driver to 4:00 so he met us at 3:40 and took us back. We hung out in the hotel, walked outside for a bit, then took a taxi over to Tempura Kondo, on the 9th floor of a building in Ginza.

This was another “hard to get” reservation — but we had one. It was kind of a funny experience. They walked us past this bustling counter full of Japanese people to an empty counter in the back. Approximately 10 minutes later another western-looking family joined us at the counter, so I guess this is where they put the foreigners. The food was good, though, even if we were sequestered, and it was fun watching them deep fry the tempura in front of us and serve it steaming. We ate this appetizer of some sort of crunchy crustacean with eyes and antennae still on it (again, points to my kid!) and then enjoyed several pieces of shrimp, asparagus, lotus root, and sweet potato. We had ordered the smallest tasting course but it was still way too much food, and by the time they brought out the rice, pickles, and miso soup course I was barely able to eat anything. Apparently having a big buffet breakfast, a late big sushi lunch, and a huge tempura dinner is past my capacity. I did make room for the strawberries though for dessert. We navigated our way back to our hotel on the subway, which was good because then we were able to walk for a little bit. That made sleeping much more possible. We chatted with our family back home then went to bed at 10:30 p.m.

Day 11. (April 5) Though I was up a few times in the night (too much salt on the tempura + a lot of water, alas) I did sleep to 6:30 thanks to the blackout shades. In other words, my body finally adjusted to the time change, just in time to leave! We got breakfast at the Okura’s buffet, which was quite possibly the only time I’ve ever been out to Easter brunch in the last 19 years. We walked around and then hung out in our room until it was time to check out. We left our luggage at the front desk and walked to the teamLab Borderless Digital Art museum. I wasn’t sure what this would be like, but it was quite cool. Dozens of rooms have different digital art work displayed on the wall. The art moves, sometimes from room to room, and many of the installations are designed to be visually mesmerizing. We liked a room with mirrors on the floor and ceiling and hundreds of thin crystals hanging and reflecting the light. There was also a room that reminded me of a huge marble run — all silver with giant tubes and balls. We stayed for almost 2 hours, then quickly got something to eat from a bakery, went back to our hotel, and got in a car to head to the airport.

It was a long, long flight home. There is no way around that truth. My son managed to sleep 7 straight hours. Youth! I…did not. I got one 2-hour stretch and one 1-hour stretch and I was kind of grateful for that. The flight was shorter than the way there by a little bit, but then as we were 45 minutes outside Newark, air traffic control put us into a holding pattern. I was really unhappy to be circling the airport but the good news is that — despite the Newark website claiming the customs line would be 30 minutes — when we got there the whole hall was empty. We breezed through and found our car service to take us home.

I slept some Sunday night (to 4 a.m.) and was pretty much exhausted Monday but unable to nap when I tried. I will recover eventually though, even if it doesn’t currently feel like it! And hey, Monday night slept 10:30-5:30, so we’re getting there….