Takoyaki. Wait, there's more than one?

Familiar with the term "museum?" Yes, where you go and see art and appreciate. Good.

Now, in Osaka, you get to go to a takoyaki museum, where you can appreciate various different styles and tastes of takoyaki. Mouthwatering, yet interesting, the museum is located inside Universal City, the crowded shopping arcade just outside of Universal Studios of Osaka.

Earlier on, we have taken the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka. Fancy enough, the ride only took us about 15 minutes. My phone barely charged for 10% and my butt barely warmed the seat and ta-da, we have arrived in Osaka, home of okonomiyaki, takoyaki and butter beer.
Japanese school girls walk the streets of Osaka on a rainy afternoon

After getting off the Shinkansen, we transferred to a local subway train to head down to Universal City, hoping to get inside the theme park. When we got there, it was pouring cats and dogs, so we decided to just walk around the shopping arcade. Came across an amazing anime shop JUMP and I spent quite a treasure there. Not that I am a big fan of these anime products, but some of the people I care about do and I ended up shopping for them. After a while in that shop, we walked out and that's where we smell takoyaki. Upstairs, are all the takoyaki stalls. Interestingly enough, each shop serves a different method + style of takoyaki. Coming from the US, where takoyaki is just one type, flour+octopus+scallion+ginger then overly garnished with sauces and bonito flakes, seeing these didn't bring us justice, so we ordered from different stalls and shared around. I got the bad one, or at least not to my liking. No sauces! Not used to that. However, my friend got a good one, slimy in texture but good. Lotsa sauce.

Here comes the takoyaki museum!

So awesome and so innovative.

Chi-zu!!

O-Neko Chan

After finishing our udon dishes, we head down to the train station, but got a little lost in the village. So we went around, up and down the hill to try to find the station, I mean, we saw the tracks down there, but not the station. So on the way back up, we came across a cat cafe. Ahhhhhh I have never been to one and SO wanting to see it. SO much so, I dragged my friends into Neko Cafe.

It costed us about 500¥ for a 30 min visit to the cat room. Once up there, we are prompted to sanitize our paws before coming in to meet the cats. My expectation to these cafes had gone a little too much, so I was quite disappointed to see how small the room is and how few the cats are. I finally understood that to ensure a stress-free environment for the kitties, they minimize the amount of cats and visitors each time. We definitely had a great time!

The lost samurai

On the second day, it was raining in Kyoto. We went back to Gion and rented a kimono outfit from a place we encountered the day before. Each of us had decided to don it for the entire day in the city. For fun. It was fun, indeed, but really, wearing a kimono and a pair of wooden slipper in rainy Kyoto isn't that appealing. I find myself missing my sneakers and t-shirt and jeans time to time. Nevertheless, I'd say it was quite an experience because you do feel different. You feel very connected to the city. The first place we visited was the Fuku-Inari shrine. It's the iconic shrine with the orange-reddish pillars stone walk way up to the bamboo forest. Oh my God, it was SO breathtaking. Perhaps my most memorable place out of all the rest from my trip. I loved it, even on a rainy day. It was still beautiful.

We went around the temple in our kimonos and grabbed all the attention from visitors. A tourist even asked to take a picture together with my friend. We roamed the temple for quite a good amount of time, walked up the stoned paths, through the bamboo forest, then back down. Coming back down, we got really hungry, and there was this cute, small, traditional udon place. An older lady and her mom run the place and the tables were on tatami so we sat cross-legged. The restaurant served a nice variety of food, mainly focusing on INARI (sweet tofu pouch with sushi rice in it). I ordered the Kitsune Udon and perhaps I was starving, but oh it was heavenly.

Geisha Town

That first night in Kyoto we decided to venture Gion (祇園). Gion 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. It was truly a party scene. People from different age groups come and gather in this district. I especially love the street snacks they have to offer.

At the end of Shijo Avenue, there's Yasaka Shrine. Quite a number of food stalls gather inside this temple. Some of what I remember are: yakitori, takoyaki, kushikatsu, corn, crisps, etc. It was really fun and since there were five of us, we tend to get a variety of snacks and share them around.

At the end of the evening, we came across a little area where there was a commotion. It appeared to be a matcha ceremony performed by a group of Geishas. It costed 1000¥ and we collectively agreed to participate in it. The whole experience was rather odd, or maybe because it's a set-up, it seemed very staged. Nevertheless, we did enjoy the whole experience.

First off, we were seated on a bench together and were handed out a rectangular piece of warabi mochi (soybean flour dusted mochi cake). Now, THAT WAS GOOD. A couple of my friends didn't like it so I ate theirs too. After a few minutes with the mochi, a geisha appeared and handed us a bowl of thick, green tea remedy. Doesn't look like a tea. Looks more like a liquified green powder that may turn you into a leaf monster. Anyway, that is real matcha. Something I never tasted before. Savory, slightly bitter, yet so delicate in your palette.

京都 • Kyōto

I have to be honest, I really like Kyoto, much more than Tokyo. Perhaps having spent most of my life in an urban, busy setting, I'm getting tired of city life. Kyoto somehow helped slow down my breathing. It's almost like San Francisco, hype and modern in its own way, but still keeping it's traditional historic places in tact. Kyoto served as Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from 794 until 1868, that is why this city is so rich in history and culture.

People, and people, and people

Upon arriving in Kyoto, we made our way to take the local bus to get into town and check in into our hotel, the Kyoto Itoya. This country, let me tell you, is beautiful, but somewhat confusing sometimes. One station serves multiple transportation lines. You need to make sure you buy the right ticket for the right destination and enter the right gate to take the right train to your destination. Same goes to the buses. You pay different amount to get to your destinations.

Most of the directions and ticket stations are in Japanese. Obviously, we got on the wrong bus and ended up walking a long way to get to our hotel.

Downtown Kyoto shopping district

Our never ending bag-pulling

QUEST TWO COMPLETED: Got into Kyoto and checked in at Kyoto Itoya.
Itoya is a cute minimalist hotel with only 5 floors and some hints of the Japanese traditional accents. The receptionists are super friendly (most of them are in Japan service industry.

Charging our energies in both our devices and bodies

The Crew

The Shinkansen

Day 02 | 03/08/2015 | Sunday

Welcoming the first wave of jet lag. I woke up for nothing at 4.57am Japan time, which is 12.57pm San Francisco time. Of course, usually my brain is the most active in the afternoon, thus why. After 10 minutes of tossing and turning, I finally went back to sleep, and woke up at the sound of the alarm at 8am.

Rainy Sunday morning in Shinjuku

Because we squeezed all five of us into the Granbell loft, we have to take turns using the bathroom. Hustle hustle, we finally checked out of the hotel at 10.30am. In the morning Shinjuku felt slightly better compared to last night. Perhaps there weren't as much people, and it's a Saturday so none of those commuters' rush coming our way. So dragging all our chunky bags back to Shinjuku station isn't too bad. At the station, we grabbed bento boxes and bought the tickets to board the Shinkansen 3 hour ride to Kyoto.

Ride with style

The Shinkansen, also popularly known as the Japanese Bullet Train, travels at a high-speed of 320km/hr (200mph). Which would take us roughly 2 hours from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Kudos to this Japanese technology, we can get around super efficiently. Aside from that, you get really comfortable in these trains. The engine noises are well-subdued, restrooms are cleaned constantly, and food carts come rolling by your seats frequently. The seat reclines, has abundant leg space, and of course comes with an electrical plug so you can charge your overly-used mobile phones. Oh, did I mention a foldable table where you can comfortably consume your cute bento meals?

However, these tickets don't come cheap. It costed us about 13600¥ (USD135) for a one-way trip. Totally worth it. Wait till I show you Kyoto.

Welcome to Japan.

My single trip ticket from Shinjuku to Kyoto

Hello Nippon!

Day 01 | 03/07/2015 | Saturday

The ANA direct flight took us about 10 hours to Tokyo-Narita. It wasn't too bad compared to the longer haul flights I'm used to. Cathay Pacific took about 12.5 hours to Hong Kong and EVA Airways took about 13.5 hours to Taipei. Thus to me, this flight is a piece of cake. I rarely nap on a plane ride, so I spent most of the time watching inflight movies and excelling Tetris. The flight itself wasn't bad, a couple bumps here and there, but otherwise rather mellow.

On time departure is a good sign of a terrific trip

Collected snowflakes outside of my plane window

When we arrived in Japan, it was 3 or 4ish in the afternoon. Wow, rather late, half a day has been wasted. Plus, I needed to get on the 1.5 hour Narita Express train ride to Shinjuku station, where my friends were already waiting in the hotel. With no Wi-Fi whatsoever, I ventured through Shinjuku, surviving with my printed out hotel map and the directional street maps written in Japanese. Great! When I thought I was lost, I bumped into a couple of English-speaking tourists, most probably Americans coming from their accents. I gave them a shot.

R: "Hello, are you familiar with this area?"

A: "Not really, this is our first day here. What do you need?"

R: "I need to get to my hotel, the Granbell Shinjuku, it shouldn't be too far from here."

A: "Oh! That's where we're staying!"

R: "OH THANK FUCKING GOD. How do I get there?"

They directed me to the hotel, which is about 2-3 blocks away. If it wasn't for them, it would be hurtful enough to try to find Starbucks to borrow their Wi-Fi. Lord knows where the hell Starbucks is. Dragging my luggage around crowded Shinjuku was already a major weightlifting session.

QUEST ONE COMPLETED: ARRIVED AT THE HOTEL AND FOUND MY FRIENDS!

We had sushi that night together. I thought they have the best uni I've ever tasted. So sweet yet subtle, soft, luscious and melts in your mouth.

A sushi bar in the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku