Written by Doug
We had a lovely time in Japan and ate such amazing food we knew we had to document it all.
While we might not publish a video on every single place, you will find links to Google Map listings for all the spots we tried. I’ll also be sure to link videos where relevant.
Jan 20
We took the whole day to travel to Tokyo. We arrived late and our hotel was near Shimbashi station. We found the food and bar area just a few steps away from the station and ended up at a tonkotsu ramen joint that really hit the spot!
Jan 21
We had breakfast at our hotel and wandered towards Ginza to check out the MUJI flagship store. Its great there. We ended up having lunch in Tokyo Station at what seemed to be a fish farm’s restaurant. We weren’t quite sure exactly how it was related but it was tasty!
We then went to go find some anmitsu and for that we found a spot in Ueno. The main branch had a long line so we went to a nearby mall
Finally we returned to the Hotel and found some warabi mochi and had some classic quick soba at Kanoya. Both were in the Shimbashi station area
Jan 22
Today we planned to visit the TeamLabs Planets! museum out in Odaiba/Toyosu. We ended up grabbing some light snacks at the cafe there. Then after the museum, we walked to the location of the old Tsukiji Fish Market. They still have many restaurants in what is now called the Tsukiji Outer Market. Using my memory from my previous trip, we found an uni restaurant and, at 4pm, we were able to sit down immediately. It was called Unitora Nakadori
Dessert was next! We went to Nakamura Tokichi in Ginza for some matcha treats.
Jan 23
Since we had some hotel credit to use up, we decided to do our hotel’s afternoon tea. January seems to be strawberry season in Japan so all the desserts were themed accordingly.
For dinner, we met with FoodWithMichel and ate gyukatsu at Gyukatsu Motomura
After that, we boarded our train to Sendai!
Jan 24
In Sendai, we stayed near the train station. We woke up the next day and got breakfast in the Sendai Morning Market. We had a few different little snacks including zunda dango, crispy fried chicken and a croquette.
For lunch we walked through the train station on the hunt for gyutan. We picked Zenjiro Gyutan Dori because had the longest line and the most salarymen. After our meal, we found the whole reason why we visited Sendai: zunda cream mochi. Some of you might recognize it from Jujutsu Kaisen. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. We had the zunda cream, zunda daifuku, and zunda shake. Our favorite was the zunda cream but we couldn’t bring any home because of the fresh nature. We did buy a lot of zunda daifuku. This was all from Kikusuian
Finally for dinner we wandered and got a fishcake corndog at Abe Kamabokoten as a pre-dinner snack then we ended up at Sendaieki Tenkai where we tried sea squirt.
Jan 25
The next day we had a few hours until our train back to Tokyo. We ended up grabbing a quick breakfast in a department store and then actual lunch at Koko-ga-Miso Ichicbancho.
Once we ended up back in Tokyo, we wandered the Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho alley and got some intestines at a random izakaya. There’s so many in that alley I couldn’t find the restaurant’s listing.
Jan 26
Our first day back in Tokyo! We had breakfast at our hotel and met Benji Travis for coffee at Alternative Coffee.
For lunch we had tamago kake gohan from Kisaburo Nojo. The eggs here were crazy tasty. Don’t forget to try the oyakodon as well.
After lunch we wandered Ueno Park and had to get some sort of snack. We ended up at Nana’s Green Tea. We’ve been to the location that used to exist in Honolulu but this one was better.
Finally for dinner, our friend Yakitoriguy hooked us up with a reservation at a place he recommended: Yakitori & Hop Duvel. The yakitori here was simply amazing. Shout out to GanChan!
Jan 27
This morning we were still on a quest for good coffee. We first went to a bakery called Shichigatu Nanoka before drinking coffee at Hayakawa-tei.
The rest of the day we toured Shinjuku picking up red bean pancakes at the bottom floor of the Takashimaya Shinjuku department store.
We got Korean food for dinner at Matsuya and followed that up with anmitsu (again) from Tokiya
Jan 28
Today we went to Disney SEA! It was loads of fun filled with a lot of popcorn and interesting bites.
Jan 29
We headed to Asakusa in the morning. We were recommended Melon Pan at Asakusa Kagetsudo and after we got that, we found little grilled fish right next to it.
We needed an actual lunch so we found a tsukemen shop called Tsukemen Kobo. We were really in this area to try the matcha ice cream though. We heard Suzukien Asakusa had the strongest matcha in the city. Even though it was freezing, the matcha ice cream was great.
We finished the day taking in the neon in Akihabara. Me, being a huge Monster Hunter fan, begged Jeanelle to take me to the Monster Hunter cafe. The food was alright but the ambience of the cafe was perfect. I had a great time
Jan 30
This day was Harajuku and Shibuya days. We did some shopping but didn’t buy too many things. My highlight was the Parco Shibuya department store which houses a Pokemon, Nintendo, Capcom, and JUMP! store all on the same floor.
We started our day once again with coffee to kill some time before our appointment at a Shiba cafe. The dogs were mostly lazy but still incredibly cute. We did see many advertisements for other animal cafes. I think next time we would check out the otter and mini pig cafe.
Our friend highly recommended to get green curry ramen at Bassa Nova and it didn’t disappoint! We ordered the laksa ramen in addition to the green curry. Would definitely recommend!
After lunch we wandered to Shibuya and got, you guessed it, matcha dessert! This ended up being at Kyoto Saryo-Suisen in the Parco Shibuya store
After that we went to check out Shibuya’s yokocho alley but were very unimpressed. We cut our meal short and went to get soba from a nearby shop called Sagatani Shibuya Dogenzaka
Jan 31
My brother and native Japanese friend arrived in Tokyo today so we were excited to have a guide.
We started the day with omakase sushi at Sushi Tokyo Ten in Shinjuku train station. We didn’t have a reservation but were able to walk in and get a spot. This sushi was extremely tasty.
After that we got coffee at Blue Bottle in Shinjuku. We have some near us at home so we knew it would be good.
That evening our friend took us to a yakiniku restaurant with no listing. Apparently entrance to this restaurant is by invite only so luckily my Japanese friend was willing to bring us. It was so good and we got to try some new things we’ve not had before.
Feb 1
We begin February with a train ride down to Kyoto. Naturally, we had to grab some food for the train so we ended up with bentos we purchased from Tokyo Station.
Upon arriving, we wandered over to Nishiki Market and stopped a few stalls. We got some tempura, some chicken, some dried fruit, and I’m probably missing something else.
We then returned to the train station to check into our hotel nearby and found another izakaya nearby called Tachinomi Inaseya. We had some pretty solid dishes here.
And finally for the main reason we visited Kyoto: MONK. Our friend saw the Kyoto episode on Chef’s Table: Pizza and wanted to try it so he graciously was able to get a reservation to include us. The food was really tasty and definitely worth the trip!
Feb 2
We only scheduled one night in Kyoto and now we’re off to Osaka!
We arrived and wandered Kuromon Ichiba Market and ended up buying some white strawberries as a small snack. In reality we were just spending some time until we headed across town to Negiyaki Yamamoto. The negiyaki (okonomiyaki w/ green onions) was sooo yummy but we were not allowed to film the prep.
In the afternoon we spent some time at a fancy coffee shop called LiLo Coffee KISSA. They pay very close attention to the origin of the beans and offer multiple extraction methods.
Our dinner consisted of takoyaki from the famous Kukuru Konamon in Dotonbori.
Feb 3
We headed to Hiroshima for one night.
Here we found a VERY tasty izakaya where we had some pretty amazing dishes. It was called Izakaya tomasu.
Dinner was at an eel restaurant called Tsuki Akari. They had both fresh and saltwater eel prepared in multiple ways.
Feb 4
We used the morning to explore Miyajima Island before heading back to Osaka
On Miyajima, we ate at Yakigaki No Hayashi and got the oyster sampler. The oysters were SO GOOD! definitely worth the short wait
Upon returning to Osaka, we decided to have sushi at a revolving sushi bar. We had some dishes and foods that were new to us like raw crab. We ate at Hakodate Gourmet-kaitenzushi Kantaro
Feb 5
Our last full day in Japan!
We started with ramen at Human Beings Everybody Noodles. While it may have a strange name, the ramen there was probably the best I’ve ever had!
Jeanelle went out for warabi mochi at Kyoto Tsuruya Sabo while I napped.
We ended the night with a food tour of Temma and Sakuranomiya. We tried kushi katsu as well as two other izakaya spots. The food wasn’t super memorable so I don’t feel the need to share them.