another cliché
travel blog

We woke up, ordered pancakes, a veggie scramble, and pastries, then headed to the train to Atami. It was a couple hours’ train ride and at one point we passed within a few dozen miles of Mount Fuji, which was

1. Massive
2. Shrouded in clouds Combined, this means that we could see a little bit of the westerns slope.

The Atami station was packed with people and had a large public tub out front for soaking your feet. We took a quick taxi to the hotel and got checked in. After rinsing off and changing into our yukuta, we got a welcome tea with a little snack (consisting of pumpkin purée and adzuki bean paste sandwiched between two rice crackers).

We then had dinner and went to sleep.

We had a slow morning, but eventually got up and had absolutely wild coffee at Glitch. Katie had an incredibly chocolately flat white with Columbian beans, while I had a pour over that was so complex and delicate it was more like tea than coffee.

Sufficiently caffeinated, we got lunch at An udon spot, then wandered around Osaka looking for ceramics. We happened upon a nice little park, got some gelato, and accidentally found ourselves in Dotonbori. Katie bested multiple claw machines, then we headed back to the hotel.

We cleaned up, then grabbed drinks and bites at the beautiful hotel bar. They had their own takes on classics: I had a Smoking Chestnut (a brandy alexander), while Katie had their take on a strawberry blini. We got some bites, a crudite, spicy tuna on rice crackers, “okonomiyaki” (eggos + prosciutto + truffle mayo), “hassleback” potatoes (a potato round + mustard).

We then took advantage of in ofuro in our room, and went to bed.

We woke up, ordered coffee, oatmeal, and muslie to the room, then started our day with wonderful massages. After showering the oil off, we picked up a legendary fluffy cheesecake from Rikuro’s, got more gyoza and fried rice. We found that there was a Nintendo shop in the building, so naturally we checked that out. They had an incredible selection of Nintendo merch, including an antique style Kalita box coffee grinder from Animal Crossing, then picked up a bottle of champagne, and Katie grabbed a beer at Nito’s coffee & craft beer while I bought some magic cards.

We got dinner at the hotel, then headed to bed.

We got up, packed up, and got breakfast at Coffee Base BnA. Katie had toast, I had a croque madame (both were fine), and cappuccinos. The barista’s latte art was incredible!

Post-breakfast, we headed to the market, browsed around there for several hours. We got a late lunch at Din Tai Fung and then drinks at Kobayashi Saketen before picking up our luggage from the hotel and taking the train to Osaka. It was hot and muggy, but we made it onto the train and 40min later found ourselves in the middle of a massive city. We walked the few minutes to our hotel, showered off, and went to bed.

We got up, got fluffy pancakes from Blue Fir Tree Cafe, a super cool, retro-American diner that played classic rock. Suitably fed, we made our way west to meet up for our bike tour. Our guide Michael gave up being a social studies teacher to do guided bike tours, and was both entertaining and informative. He led us to the Golden Pavillion, the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, and Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, a cool little Buddhist shrine with about a thousand carved stone statues, each carved by the followers of Nishimura Kocho. We then some ice cream next to a pond!

We made friends with one of people on the tour, and the three of us took Michael’s rec for a ramen shop just down the street from the bike shop. Following dinner, we turned in for the night.

We got up and got coffee at Kissa Kishin Kyoto, then hiked to the top of Fushimi Inari shrine. While it was super crowded, seeing the thousands of red tori gates was cool. The ice cream at the top was clutch! On the way back down, we stopped at Vermillion Cafe for water, coffee, and a beer.

We wandered back towards our hotel, and took a nap. We rallied, and tried to get into Bar Rocking Chair, but they were booked up. So we got cocktails at an expat bar in a hotel. Neither of us were super hungry, but we got some gyoza from a small roadside shop, then went to bed.

We got up, packed, and got the hell out of Tokyo. The Shinkansen was as easy and straight forward as advertised.

We arrived in Kyoto, got to our hotel, and freshened up. We walked out and found a little beer and whiskey bar run by a guy named Antonio, who was originally from Vera Cruz (by way of Boston and Virginia). Had a great conversation with him about living in Kyoto. After that, we grabbed dinner at Issho, a really good Korean barbecue place, and headed to bed.

We had a slower morning, but by noon managed to make it to the Shibuya, where we sorta accidentally ended up at the scramble. Yep, it’s a big intersection. We went to Good Good Not Bad for coffee. Right after we ordered, their grinder broke. They apologized profusely and said it would be a few minutes wait—Normally, I’d expect that to be a “here’s a refund, we’re closing up shop” type situation, but they were super chill about it. Fortunately, it was well air-conned, so we hung out for a bit until some guy showed up to address whatever the issue with the grinder was. The barista working the grinder looked extremely concerned, but they were tasting and dialing in the grind in no time. The coffee was excellent, so we picked up some beans to take home with us.

Sufficiently caffeinated, we walked around Shibuya, found a Hands, so that I could get a razor, then stopped at Mikkeller for a beer. They had a really great selection, but we both ended up with IPAs—Katie with a hazy, and while I ordered a west coast, I also ended up with a hazy. Still, it was quite good. Following that, we did some shopping, starting with Vintage Qoo Tokyo, then to Nomos Glasshutte, then to Polène.

Katie found an incredible ramen spot (literally underground) for dinner, where we both had really great ramen (Katie had the sesame ramen, I had the Champion ramen), gyoza, and a super refreshing beer. We took a post-prandial walk to help us digest, hit up a capsul gacha thing, then Uniqlo. Then bed.

Katie’s day started at a jet-lag-induced 3:30, but I slept till 7. Once I was up, we grabbed quick coffees from the hotel, then headed to the fish market. From one vendor, we got strawberries and grapes on a skewer coated in a hard sugar shell. From another, we got an incredible set of nigiri, with Hana-toro, o-toro, and chu-toro. Both Katie and i preferred the o-toro, even though the Hana toro was marbled just like wagyu. We then got a skewer of A5 wgayu and were suckered into splitting a beer (as the hawker noted, it was already 5pm back home, and we’re on vacation!).

After we had our fill of the fish market (we think we arrived too late to see any auctions, so it was just a collection of food stalls), we got coffee at Hoshno Coffee, then went back to the hotel. After a nap, we got up and went to team labs Planet. Super fun!

We then got udon at Ton-something, and the did a little window shopping, looked at some watches, and headed back to the hotel.

After resting up, we rallied and headed out to Champagine & Gyoza in Akasaka. They were pouring Pommery, so we each had a glass and reminisced about the creepy ass art gallery Pommery has set up in their wine caves. After dinner, we walked around a bit, tried to get into Bar Le Huit, but they turned us away (it was Smokey as hell in there, so not the worst outcome). After that, we turned in for the night.

We woke up around 5:30, puttered around the room for a bit, then got breakfast at the hotel. I had udon, while Katie had tomagoyaki. We then got coffee at Turret Coffee, and then went to Nihonbashi. We walked around, then got a seafood donbori from one of Katie’s recs. Fortunately, the hour-long line to get in (there were only 20 seats or so) bought us enough time to get cash. The food was incredible: sea bream sashimi on the side in a thick, citrus/soy/* sauce, and an incredible mix of crab, scallop, eel, and fish over rice. Part way through, they add a wonderful tai dashi, turning it into an amazing ochazuke.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel room. I was starting to feel sleepy, so I got a quick workout in. After washing up, we went down to the lounge for happy hour. We had a glass of champagne looking out over the city, then headed back to the room.

For dinner, we ordered a black truffle risotto and vegetable curry from room service, and then promptly collapsed into a food coma.