another cliché
travel blog

We woke up at a reasonable time, and debated going to either the Spanish Steps or St. Peter’s Bascilica. We lamented not going to St. Peter’s when we were already in the Vatican, and leaned towards the Spanish Steps. Upon checking the news and learning that the Pope had died overnight, that solidified it. We got out around 10:30 and grabbed coffee and pastries from the cafe around the corner. Honestly, it was the best coffee we’d had since arriving here. Katie had a cornetto (basically a croissant) and I got a maritozzo (a whipped cream filled brioche). Maritozzi are excellent, and pretty much exactly what you’d expect. After, we wandered towards the Spanish Steps. They’re pretty! So that was cool. We got lunch at CiPasso (which had only Asian customers for about half the time we were there—wonder if that’s the internet playing tricks on people or just chance).

After lunch, we went back to the hotel before meeting up with Katie’s coworker. Got gelato, then sat out in Palazzo Navona. Back to the hotel, then dinner at Retro Bottega. The whole schtick being that the restaurant is retro and like dining in the early 2000s. Air Jordans were an a case next to Jordan’s Wings poster, music was Zero 7, plating to match. The food though was still really good. We had:

• Artichoke Katsusando: Panko fried artichoke hearts with cheese, garlic, mayo and mint. Sort of like a grilled cheese sandwich and excellent
• Green spaghetti : puréed green garlic and chili for sauce over spaghetti. Nice and spicy from the garlic.
• Fried broccoli rabe: Broccoli rabe tempura with a citrus seaweed sauce. Really tasty.
• Asparagus: asparagus, broad beans, and an olive purée. Also really tasty.
• Chicory and shallots: pretty much what you’d expect
• Bunet Branco: Similar to a panna cotta served covered in thinly sliced strawberries and caramel sauce.

For wine, we had

• La Zerba Sante Il Bandito 2022: a natural white
• Markus Scholtes Mosel Riesling 2023
• Massimo Abbate Musa 2023: Moscato and Sauvignon blanc that worked really well as a drier dessert wine
• Manni Nossing Gruner Veltliner 2023:

Post dinner, we went straight to bed.

Toured the Vatican

Travel day SFO > Rome.

Our last day! We got up early for breakfast a the fish market, then coffee from Teron Coffee. We wandered slowly back to the hotel, stopping at the seven-story flagship stationary store Itoya, then the Sanrio shop in Ginza for additional Hello Kitty souvenirs.

We made it back to the hotel, packed up, managed to pack EVERYTHING into our suitcases, then headed to the airport. The lounge had decent food, and the flight home was easy!

For our last full day, we got up with loose plans to go check out the Museum of Contemporary Art, but ended up just walking around Tokyo. We got huge bowls of ramen from Ippudo, then wandered around Shibuya. We checked out Cat Street, and got coffee at Chop. We walked through Meiji Jingu, a super densely forested park, and walked out to a beautiful sky at sunset. We then walked back to Cat street, checked out the Coach there that was doing some super cute stuff, then headed back to the room.

Japan has legendary manholes, with each city having patterns unique to it, so while Katie hung out in the room, I went out and took a rubbing of one of the Tokyo ones. Fortunately, Japanese sidewalks are absurdly clean.

Rubbing collected, we got dinner at SG Tavern. We split some fried chicken, cold udon noodles in a truffle and whipped soy milk sauce (the consistency of yogurt), and a curry roasted cauliflower. The cocktails were the best I’ve had in years.

We woke up to rain, so we ordered coffee and lounged around the room till our lunch reservation at Maten Sushi. Incredible. The sushi chefs were characters.

Post meal, we spent the rest of the day just wandering around.

Woke up, had breakfast, took a taxi to the station, and then took a train to Tokyo. Once we arrived at our hotel, we dropped our bags, freshened up, and went shopping in Ginza. We had a late dinner at the hotel restaurant, where the caprese salad, made with locally produced burrata and dry farmed tomatoes, absoulely stole the show. I had a miso lasagna (cool concept, ok excecution), while Katie had a creamy chicken and mushroom pasta. We had planned to get a drink at the rooftop bar, but neither of us had the energy for it, so instead they offered to send coffee to the room, where we called it a night.

Just as we were about to leave, they brought an adorable plate of fruit with a little chocolate placard congratulating us on our wedding and snapped a super cute Polaroid of us!

Woke up, had a very healthy Japanese breakfast, and then hung out on the property for the day. We read, relaxed, took a soak in our private bath, then took a quick sojourn to the 7-11.

1. Popcorn
2. Cheeto rings
3. Egg salad sandwich
4. Pork cutlet sandwich
5. Chocolate candy type 1
6. Chocolate candy type 2
7. Hi-Chew minis
8. Coke Zero

The pork cutlet sandwich was EVERYTHING I imagined it would be.

We had dinner, which Katie unfortunately started feeling ill part-ways through, and had to go back to the room. The staff was super accommodating though, and packed up the eel rice into onigiri for me to take back to the room for her.

After we took some time to digest and Katie was feeling better, we went to the onsen and enjoyed it. It had started raining lightly, and each pool was partially open to the sky, letting the rain in. It was lovely.

Post soak, we called it a night!

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.