Category Travel
Kyoto (Day 1) – Biking through Kyoto: Golden Pavillion, Ryoanji, Bamboo Forest
Tokyo is a glittering, modern city and I love it in all ways, but it’s a little short on history and tradition. If you want that, you need to go to Kyoto, which was the seat of imperial power for centuries and escaped the worst of the bombing during WWII. The city has a higher […]
Tokyo (Day 3) – Symphony concert at Tokyo Opera City
Classical music is a big deal in Japan. They take it very seriously here, both the performing of it and the building of halls in which to perform it. In researching for this trip, we learned that not only was the concert hall at Tokyo Opera City reputed to be architecturally stunning, it was also […]
Tokyo (Day 3) – Michelin-starred sushi in the Ginza district
Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in the world (including Paris!) and so naturally Amanda and I came here with every intention of notching a few more stars on the proverbial belt. For some reason the Michelin guide for Tokyo is not available in the US (even the outdated versions are hard […]
Tokyo (Day 3) – Toys! Toys! Toys!
It was barely 10am when we finished walking around the fish market, and our lunch reservation wasn’t until Noon. What to do? Shop for toys! Kiddy Land is a fancy toy store on Omotesando (Tokyo’s primo shopping strip) and is enormously popular among all ages. Amanda and I figured that some time (and funds) spent […]
Tokyo (Day 3) – Blood and guts everywhere
Tsukiji Fish Market is the biggest seafood market in the world. According to the guidebook, it moves something like 2,400 tons of seafood each day. It’s only a fifteen minute walk from our hotel in the Ginza District, so on Saturday morning we walked through the rain to see what we could see (they only […]
Tokyo (Day 2) – Ramen and Mochi in Akihabara
By the time we escaped from the Maid Cafe, we were both starving and crashing from the sugar high we’d gotten from those brightly-hued sodas. So we set out to find something a bit more substantial for dinner. One option caught our eye for sheer outlandishness — but chasing a disgusting purple potion with what […]
Tokyo (Day 2) – In which I frequent a "Maid Cafe" and become a sexy bunny
Last night Amanda told me that, after the onsen, her number one priority in Tokyo was to visit the Akihabara neighborhood, or “Electric Town” as it’s often known. When we got back from Hakone, we headed straight there. With little experience in Japanese-oriented geekdom, I had no idea what to expect. The guidebook simply said […]
Tokyo (Day 2) – Bathing at Hakone
We got naked again today! This time in pursuit of that quintessential Japanese experience: the onsen. Japan, as you know, is part of that volcanic “ring of fire” that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. As a result, it has not only beautiful volcanoes (see Mt Fuji) but also about a million hot springs. These hot springs […]
Tokyo (Day 1) – Cooking dinner with Mari
At 5:00pm sharp, we emerged from the Shintomicho subway stop and looked around. We saw four other non-Japanese-looking people standing awkwardly a few feet away. “Are you guys here for the cooking class?” we asked. Four nods, six introductions, next thing we know a young Japanese woman named Mari shows up and ushers us all […]
Tokyo (Day 1) – Exploring Harajuku and Shibuya
We flew into Tokyo late last night. It was dark, but from the cab I saw forests of skyscrapers, spotless highways and chic business and shopping districts. It seemed sparkly and full of intelligent life, and I couldn’t wait to start exploring. Somewhat unusually, however, we didn’t have any concrete plans for our first day […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 