Tips for seeing Tokyo on a budget

 

Love this USA Today article that highlights what to see and where to stay in Tokyo when you're on a budget. I definitely concur that it's worth the experience to stay in a ryokan and travel the intricate subway system. In terms of sights, the Tsukiji fish market is one not to miss, the Imperial Palace grounds are beautiful and you can't go wrong exploring the plethora of temples. Don't forget to karaoke in your own private room...I promise that you'll find your cojones!

Everything's better with cherry blossoms

 

Last night I had the privilege of experiencing Carli's infamous evening monument tour. She was right -- they look amazing at dusk and in darkness. It was chilly last night, but definitely bearable from all the walking we did. Oh, my piggies were oinking.

Today starts D.C.'s two-week long Cherry Blossom Festival. This year marks the 98th anniversary of when Tokyo gifted the trees to Washington. I read on the train yesterday that the festival is the district's highest-grossing tourist event, but we barely saw anyone as we walked around the Tidal Basin. I'm sure today will be a different story.

I can't believe my Japan trip was a year ago. Walking around the Tidal Basin reminded me of when Gina and I walked around the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, which was lined with cherry blossom trees (and young professionals wining and dining on tarps beneath their branches). I hope Carli and I see tarps filled with people today!                                                                                                                                                           

She's been spoiling me with her new domestic diva skills -- homemade guac when I arrived, pesto pasta last night and now hashbrowns this morning...mmm! She's a girl after my own heart (love you, Jen)!

It's time for cherry blossoms! (this time in D.C., not Tokyo)

I just read that Tokyo's cherry blossom season has officially begun. Last year, I had the fortune of timing my Japan trip to coincide with the opening (Kyoto) and closing (Tokyo) of cherry blossoms. It was such a lovely experience. The impermanence of the cherry blossom season, which appears and then vanishes within 10 days every March/April, always reminds me that life is short and should be seized and treasured. 

This year, my friend Carli invited me to visit her in D.C. to view the cherry blossoms for our National Cherry Blossom Festival. I've been on bloom watch via this site and looks like this weekend will be perfect for a visit. Carli said she's been seeing blooms here and there, so hopefully it warms up and they're all in full view soon.

I haven't been to D.C. for fun since college when my roommate and I would stay at her aunt's in Maryland and take the train in to go to our favorite museums like the Freer Gallery and the National Gallery. (I've always been a museum nerd. Most kids spent all their money on booze in college and I was the dork buying prints to frame.)

Can't wait for this weekend!

Shabu-shabu in Cleveland?

I miss udon noodles from Japan oodles (sorry, couldn't resist) and shabu-shabu even more. Gina and I thought we could score shabu-shabu in our own backyard at Ariyoshi on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, but, alas, they recently changed their menu and shabu-shabu didn't make the cut.

No other leads so far. If you know of a destination in Greater Cleveland, please pass it along!

Cherry Blossoms (Hanami) Movie

I’m still holding onto my Japan trip last month ever so tightly. This weekend I went to see Hanami (watch the trailer below) at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. I had desperately wanted to see Hanami at the Cleveland Film Fest before my trip, but missed it because we were out of town that weekend for March Madness.

I loved the film! The impermanence of the cherry blossom season, which appears and then vanishes within 10 days every April, reminds us that life is short and should be seized and treasured. The movie is about the relationship between a German husband and wife and how it’s never too late to learn about each other and fulfill your dreams.

Looks like it’s on queue for a Netflix selection… A lot of the movie is conversed in English since it’s the common language between German and Japanese. You'll see clips of the area near Lake Kawaguchiko and Tokyo, both of which I visited last month.

Love Letter to Japan

My favorite new song by The Bird & The Bee...

Reflections

I’m four hours into the 13-flight from Tokyo to Newark and reflecting on how to savor details and feelings from this trip. I’d like to prolong what I’ve experienced -- balance, personal growth, contentment, accomplishment, appreciation — so that come Monday after a full work day, these feelings don’t disappear like the cherry blossoms that are falling from the trees.

I’ll miss using chopsticks (even though I STILL don’t hold them properly), making fun of the people on our language tapes with Gina, random acts of kindness (presents!!!!), nods of respect, warm toilet seats, experience meals (shabu shabu, yaki-tori) and cherry blossoms. Thank god it’s getting warmer because walking outside is a beautiful thing!

As a bonus, I hope my Japan adventure has stimulated my motivation to finally finish our Asia-inspired guest room. I’d like to get back in the habit of framing pieces I’ve bought instead of shoving them in a closet until inspiration strikes at a later date. I’ve got a bunch of stuff from my D.C. trip a year ago, Bangkok in the fall and now my Japan souvenirs. Michael’s, here I come!

Ten days for this trip appears to be a perfect length. I’ve had a wonderful time with a great traveling companion, and now I’m ready to go home. I haven’t heard my husband’s voice in 10 days, and that is an eternity. I definitely have a shelf-life when traveling if he’s not with me.

When I told friends and family about my plans to visit Japan, many people wondered what the allure was for me. I hope I’ve helped to give you a flavor of the beauty, tradition and culture that drew me to visit.

Tsukiji fish market

Note to self: don’t plan to get up early to visit the fish market to see 300 lb. tuna the morning after a night of karaoke and sake.

But, I give us props for shuttling out the door by 7:30 a.m. The auction was long over, but we still admired/feared the hustle and bustle of vendors preparing their fresh catches for restaurants all over the city.

Navigating the market was a bit like playing Frogger (see video below)…you zig and zag around the motorized flatbeds zipping down aisles while avoiding splashes of fish water at your feet from vendors emptying coolers.

The stink was detectable immediately upon exiting our subway car. P-U! By the way, Gina and I were packed like sardines on the train. Only the women-only cars (offered during morning rush hour) provided any kind of relief from personal space impositions.

We didn’t stay long at the fish market…the frantic pace and unattractive odor were a bit much for our tired bodies and hungry bellies.

I’ll tell you this: about the only thing I won’t miss from this trip is Japanese breakfasts…your choices: raw egg or omelet. Because I despise breakfast eggs, I’ve relied on granola bars for the past 10 days. C’mon waffles and pancakes!!!

Karaoke!!!

My only regret with the timing of our Japan trip is that I had to miss the Rock Hall inductions on April 4…particularly since I was asked to help coordinate media that night and my favorite travel writer came to town to cover the event. So, Gina and I pledged that we would try karaoke in honor of missing the inductions.

It was so much more fun than I expected! We visited Karaoke Kan, which is the site immortalized in Lost in Translation. You get your own room for karaoke and pay $8 per hour per person…a steal!

Turns out we are TERRIBLE singers. I’d like to believe that lots of sake contributed to our poor skills. We belted out tunes from George Michael, Beyonce, The Cars, Guns n Roses and also tried our hand at a couple Japanese slow sounds when we incorrectly entered digits on the remote for song selections.
We stayed out past midnight, which means we finally acclimated to the time difference. It figures that we head home tomorrow...

Yaki-tori deliciousness

Before our trip, Gina and I made a list of all the different types of Japanese food we wanted to try. Yaki-tori, skewered meat and veggies, was near the top of our list.

While wandering around the Asakusa temple, we found a stand selling buns with veggies and meat inside. We tried a veggie bun—yum—and asked the vendor where we could find a yaki-tori restaurant. He gave us a map all in Japanese and circled a destination.

Amazingly, we found the restaurant by matching up the kanji characters on our map. However, when we went in and greeted everyone with “konbanwa”, we were told, “Nihhon only,” which means Japanese people only. :( Bummer.

So, we headed back to our hotel and asked for a spot that would accept Americans. We found one and had a great time! We were seated around a semi-circle counter with a bunch of other people (we were the only foreigners in the room) and ordered up a storm of food. Initially, our conversation with our server consisted of: “Nani des ka?” (what is that?) followed by “Ikura des ka?” (how much is it?) followed by “hi!” (yes!).

We tried a chicken and sesame version of a corn dog, baked potato, hard-boiled quail egg, pork-wrapped leeks and asparagus, giblets (cucka), and soy beans wrapped in fried bean curd (looked awesome, smelled like feet and tasted cucka). It was another night of two rounds of beers, which again amused our servers. We practiced our Japanese with them and they practiced their English. We showed them pictures from our trip and talked with them about the cities in Japan we visited. It was a great time! That first restaurant didn’t know what it was missing when we were turned away!

Cherry blossoms continued

Since my global phone from work isn’t compatible with Japan’s quad-band network, I’m experiencing connectivity withdrawal. No tweeting, no e-mail, no phone calls.

It hasn’t posed a problem until this morning when I was trying to get a hold of the reporter I was to meet with to clarify where she wanted to meet in the ginormous Mori Tower. I almost ended up missing her because I was using a pay phone to leave messages on her office line and she was calling me on my defunct cell phone, but we were able to get together, so all was well.

Turns out the Mori Tower is also host to a modern art museum on the top floor and the Tokyo City View, so after my meeting, Gina and I experienced both. Ferrari headquarters are based in the tower too, so we saw some sweet rides.

The weather today was in the 70s, so I happily broke out my flip flops to stroll under the cherry blossom groves near the Imperial Palace, which is surrounded by a moat (single, not double like Nijo Castle :)). The gorgeous flowers with the Tokyo skyline in the distance make quite the interesting juxtaposition. We saw more people squatting spots under trees for hanami parties in the evening.

The blossoms are already starting to fall --their bloom time is less than two weeks—so Gina and I nailed our timing for this trip.

In the evening, Gina and I wandered to Asakusa to see the shrine, 5-tiered pagoda and browse the market.

By the way, the women here are all immaculately dressed, and everyone’s in heels, which I can’t understand. Walk the miles of underground tunnels in Tokyo’s subways, and you’ll understand. Check out this map of the subway…it’s insane! However, during our 1.5 days here, Gina and I rode about four different lines.

Shabu shabu = yummo yummo

After a three-hour bus ride from Lake Kawaguchiko and a trek through the subway to our hotel with our luggage, Gina and I were STARVING. Yes, imagine that.

We rifled through all my piles of notes for each city on our trip and decided to go to Shabusen in Ginza, a shabu shabu restaurant, which is like a Japanese version of fondue, but with boiling water for cooking thin slices of meats and veggies.

Because the addresses in Tokyo are so jacked up, we gave ourselves a 25 percent chance of actually finding the restaurant.

To our surprise, we found it after only three times of asking for directions along the way. It's on the second floor of a department store, Ginza Core...lots of restaurants in Tokyo are apparently tucked away in stores and office buildings on floors not at ground level.

We were seated at a large round counter with lots of hustle and bustle along with about 15 or so other people. There was a giant meat slicer at the center of the hubbub. Each of us got our own steaming pot of water.

Gina and I ordered a meal that includes two appetizers, thinly sliced beef and pork, veggies, noodles and dessert, a plum in some clear Jell-O type substance. It was so fun!

We got lots of stares for countless breaches of etiquette, I'm sure, but our server was really friendly and completely amused by us. He didn't speak any English, so at times, all I heard was, "sha-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta." During this trip, I've learned that when in doubt, just nod and things usually work out.

Oh...it's worth noting that apparently it's a big deal for two American women to order a second round of beer. There was LOTS of chatter at the counter when we asked for ni (2) more.

Tomorrow, I have a meeting with a reporter for work and then we'll probably visit the Imperial Palace and maybe a shrine or two. We leave Friday for home.

Are we there yet?

We’ve been up for about 26 hours, with the exception of a couple cat naps on the plane, and we’re finally on leg four of five of our journey to Kyoto. Right now we’re riding on the Nozomi bullet train that travels between Tokyo and Kyoto and it is about 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (13 hours ahead of Cleveland).

I loved my first foray into first class for my flight from Cleveland to Houston. But, I felt like a loser when I asked for a mimosa (I thought you could get anything???) at 5:45 a.m. and the flight attendant turned me down. Apparently they don’t have sparkling wine. Pshaw!

I’ve had lots of questions about how to pass the time during a 14-hour flight, so here’s a snippet of my Tokyo flight:

Hours 1-3: read magazines, eat meal one of three, read even more magazines (ask Chuck about how many I pack for trips)
Hours 3-6: Watch Australia, bawl during four scenes and look like an idiot
Hours 7-8: Read one of Gina’s books on Kyoto
Hour 9: Eat meal #2, which reminds me of $2 Tuesday Chicken in Basket lunches in high school (w/o fries), sip a Mr. Pibb!!!
Hours 10-11: Watch Lost in Translation, feel relief that the sign in the movie for Kyoto Station is in English
Hour 12: “sleep”
Hours 13-14: reacquaint myself with my language guide, get really stir crazy

So far, we’ve navigated the trains pretty well. We took the Narita Express from the airport to Tokyo Station and it only took us three tries to find the correct seats. J (FYI, the Tokyo Narita Airport is as close to Tokyo as Toledo is to Cleveland.) From Tokyo Station, which was insanely busy since we were there during rush hour, we hopped on the Nozomi that I’m riding now, which will take us to Kyoto Station. We should be passing Mt. Fuji soon (or Fuji-san as the Japanese affectionately call it), but it will be too dark to see. Thankfully, we’ll have up-close views later on our trip.

Once we get to Kyoto Station, we’ll take a subway line a few stops, get out and look for the Louis Vuitton store since that’s the landmark our Ryokan owner gave us. To be continued…

Sayonara!

Tomorrow starts my 10-day Japanese odyssey with my friend Gina. I've got cherry blossom fever big time, so I can't wait to get moving despite the 30-hour journey from Cleveland to Kyoto. BUT, I found out that I've been upgraded to first class (for free) for the first leg of our flight tomorrow to Houston, so I'm psyched. I've never flown first class before! Hopefully we can convince the folks at check-in to let Gina accompany me. Now if only we can score deluxe seats for the 14-hour flight from Houston to Tokyo and the four-hour train ride to Kyoto... Here are some highlights of our itinerary:

Kyoto: April 2-6
- Visit Nijo Castle and as many of the 19,000 temples in the city as possible
- Go geisha watching in Gion
- Breathe in the cherry blossoms (check out the blooming forecast...perfect timing!)
- Take a sushi cooking class

Hakone: April 6-7
- Explore the Venetian glass museum (the blogger who reviewed the museum in the link helped us to plan our transportation for our trip. Thanks Sandy!)
- Ride the Hakone ropeway by Mount Fuji

Lake Kawaguchiko: April 7-8
- Admire kimono at the Itchiku Kubota Museum at Mount Fuji (Canton currently is showing kimono from this museum, and I saw a preview of the exhibit in San Diego)
- Sample the hot spring by our hotel

Tokyo: April 8-10
- Ogle giant tuna at the Tsukiji Fish Market
- Poke around the Imperial Palace
- Grab coffee with a reporter at Time magazine in the ginormous Mori Tower

FYI, since we're staying in Japanese ryokans for most of our trip, I won't have reliable Web access until Tokyo. I'll do what I can to find Internet cafes every couple days to blog, and I'm hoping I'll have Web access on my work phone so I can send travel updates via Twitter (check the home page of my blog on the right side). The phone's on the fritz, so I'm doubtful that will happen since I can't make or receive calls at this point. So, DON'T WORRY if you don't hear from me for a while. We're going to have a great time, and we're visiting very safe cities.

Back to packing...

When I grow up I wanna be a maiko

I finally pulled the trigger on my Japan trip in April during cherry blossom season. The stars aligned when flight prices came down (although the Honolulu connection is now out the window), and my friend Gina signed on as my travel companion. (You might recognize her hand or elbow from some of my Heights Observer restaurant photos from my reviews since she's always a great sport about tagging along with me.)

We'll be spending a few days in Kyoto, then will take the train to the area around Mount Fugi and will end our visit with a few days in Tokyo.

Rooms have been hard to score in Kyoto since the time we're visiting is enormously popular...cherry blossoms only stay open for about a week. But, we found a ryokan in our price range, so we're good to go. I found this site really helpful for finding places to stay with traditional Japanese rooms.

Now I'm obsessed with hanging out with maikos, apprentice geisha, when we visit Gion. But, alas, I can't fulfill all 10 requirements:

1. Become an apprentice of professional female entertainer

2. Be between 15 and 17 years old (nope)

3. Be shorter than 63 inches since the okobo add another 4 inches (nope)

4. Weigh more than 95 lbs. to handle the heavy costume (definitely not an issue)

5. Have parental consent

6. Demonstrate fondness of traditional Japanese entertainment

7. Demonstrate fondness of Japanese life style (ask me after the trip)

8. Overwhelming patience (patience is not one of my virtues)

9. Be accepted by an okiya to cover monthly fees

10. Commit to a 4-5 training period

For now, I wonder if Gina will let me do something like this. She really doesn't know what she's got herself into...

Turbo planning mode for Japan

Dear family:

It’s too late…you can’t stop me from going to Japan this spring. I’m not waiting until next year because Continental is dropping the KIX airport as a destination on May 1, and I want to gobble up as many miles as I can (and take advantage of my super sweet Silver Elite status). Even the PD travel editor says you shouldn’t let the economy derail your travel plans (love Susan Glaser)!

Plus, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival is April 10. Remember how I used to take weekend trips in college to D.C. in April just to see the trees?

I already have about two dozen travel books and language CDs from the library, so there is no turning back now. Even Phil knows this. (Side note: it is insane that the Rosetta Stone language program is $400!!)

So, here’s the plan. First, visit Kyoto, one of the most exclusive and well-known geisha districts in Japan (my favorite novel is Memoirs of a Geisha). Next, take a train to the Mt. Fugi area to visit the Itchiku Kobota Art Museum (got a taste during my trip to San Diego). And, finish off with a couple days in Tokyo since passing through without a visit to and from Bangkok was torture.

I even found a flight with a one-night stopover in Honolulu. HONOLULU!!! Now I just need the price to come down…

Love,
Christina

P.S. Thanks to the shout out from Always a Bridesmaid. Check out her blog for hilarious musings on her single-girl status.

A glimpse of Tokyo

I'm at a layover in Tokyo and have officially arrived on my first trip to Asia! I typically don't count a visit as a valid trip unless I stay at least one night, but people, I'm in TOKYO! This is the coolest, and dammit, it counts even if it's for a few hours and there's not really a skyscraper in sight.

The airport rocks with oodles of couture stores. And, the toilets are entertaining since they feature hilarious sound effects you can select for white noise.

As most of you know, my final destination is Bangkok, and I should arrive at my hotel around midnight tonight, which is actually noon Eastern Nov. 13 because of the time difference. My flight outta Cleveland left at 7:30 a.m. and my total flying time to Bangkok is 23 hours with two layovers in Newark and Toyko. The flight to Tokyo was 14 hours and the flight to Bangkok is seven. Crazy. Prior to this trip, my longest flight was 10 hours coming home from Italy in 2001.

So, I've been awake for about 22 hours now thanks to Starbucks. On the flight to Toyko, I read about a dozen magazines, a book: The Tipping Point, watched Wall-E, ignored Pee Wee's Playhouse and sucked at video poker and blackjack on my personal Continental TV screen.

So, why I'm going to Bangkok...My friend Mary, who I used to work with at my previous job, was supposed to spend two months here for work and invited me to visit her. I started making travel arrangements because I thought it would be an incredible opportunity, and then her work trip got canceled. She convinced me we should still go, just both as tourists, and after a few days of considering it, I booked my travel.

Our trip is eight days, but we lose three of those days to air travel, so we really have five days to explore. Plenty to do and experience, and I can't wait!.