We are really getting to the end here. We have just a few more days in Tokyo, and then we go home…to see the cats who no doubt miss us very much. Okay, since I’m blogging after the fact, yes, the cats missed us, but they also seemed totally okay. One ottoman was completely covered in cat hair.

• Starting off in Tokyo
• Off to Kyoto on a very fast train!
• Takayama for a few days
• Nagoya: Not boring at all
• One Night in Inuyama
• Walking Tour Day 1: Mitake to Hosokute
• Walking Tour Day 2: Hosokute to Ena
• Walking Tour Day 3: Ochiai to Tsumago
• Walking Tour Day 4: Tsumago to Nojiri
• Walking Tour Day 5: Yabuhara to Narai
• One Night in Matsumoto
• Bike Tour and Shinjuku, Edo-Cultural Museum and Asakusa

So…(going back in time music) it was another beautiful day in Tokyo. Well, sort of beautiful, in that it was a bit rainy. We decided to skip our hotel breakfast and try something else more tasty and with better coffee. No offense, hotel 🙂

We went to February Cafe which was around the corner, and was very nice.

Yogurt with granola and bananas

Cheese toast, and avocado toast of sorts. Plus a beautiful cappucino for me.

And then we headed off on foot, with our destination being Ueno Park, but planning to stop along the way at things we wanted. Our first stop was “kitchen-town”.

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of shops dedicated to various kitchen supplies. So many gadgets, utensils, pots, pans and more! We poked around for some time.

We also found a lovely shrine.

There was a large pedestrian bridge to get around between all the streets and stations and such. Ueno is a very busy area, not just the park. There’s a lot of hotels, restaurants, shops and other stuff, as well as several museums and a zoo. There is a huge station where many long distance trains come in (not as big or busy as Shinjuku, which is the busiest train station in the world!)

Then we got towards Ueno Park. It’s a huge park, and we found a pond, but the pond was covered in lily pads. It was really cool.

So many lily pads!

The zoo wasn’t open, plus people say that we westerners wouldn’t like it because the animals aren’t treated as well as we expect. I don’t know. I do know that up until recently there were pandas there and they don’t have them anymore, they had to give them back to China. But I did find a panda ride outside the park so that was pretty good.

Next it was time to find lunch! We found a place on, you guessed it, Tablelog that was nice and enjoyable. It was called Yushimasuisan and was near Ueno Park. They had a “set menu” for lunch so we each ordered one of those.

After lunch we decided to walk south.

We found a place that sold custom keyboards for your computer.

And then we got into the Akihabara neighborhood, which is known for games and anime stuff.

This pencil will excite not only children, but also their mothers!

Harrison Ford selling whiskey.

We did a lot of shopping and bought a few things for gifts and souvenirs. We also just enjoyed a lot of window shopping and people watching!

We finally headed back to the hotel for a bit to get off our feet and relax a bit before heading to dinner.

For dinner, we decided to head to a nearby street called Hoppy Street. It is a street lined with izakayas which serve food and drinks, including one called “hoppy” which is a cheap beverage similar to beer. Often it is mixed with shoju, the internet tells me.

We picked a few places to try, and had some hits and misses, but had fun. We sat outside under tents, and had to work to avoid sitting near people smoking! So funny to have to worry about that in Japan. We ordered a variety of things, vegetables, various fried fishes and chicken, some noodle dishes. We did notice at one place that the English and Japanese menus weren’t exactly the same–some dishes had been left off!

Louie with a bottle of Hoppy.

Tofu.

Eggplant-

Each place seemed to have a minimum of what you needed to spend, and you couldn’t just order a drink or just order food.

After dinner, we decided to walk over to Sensoji Temple again and see it in the dark. It was MUCH more quiet and magical at night.

And we ended the night up on the roof of our hotel with the foot bath and some sake. They have a machine up there with 4-6 (maybe?!) kinds of sake and you can help yourself. We slept well after a long day!

The next day was our last full day in Tokyo and in Japan. We were going to meet Louie’s stepmom for lunch: she was from Tokyo originally and was visiting for awhile, and had just gotten there a few days prior.

Louie had bought this eye mask and I had to try it on. No time like the present.

Hotel breakfast.

We headed towards the area where we were meeting for lunch then, because there were some other things to do.

We had a coffee upon arrival, and we ordered it “Viennese style” which we learned means with a scoop of ice cream.

The Toranoman area was very different than Asakusa and other areas of the city we had seen. Cleaner, more big buildings, more modern.

Oh, look, a little white work truck!

There was a shrine on top of the hill.

We visited the NHK Museum of Broadcasting.

We learned about the history of broadcasting in Japan. It was quiet interesting.

And then we met Kiyoko for lunch. We took an elevator down from the top of the hill, which we didn’t know about at first, ha!

We went to Bakery and Grill Sawamura Toranomon which was a nice restaurant. It was our first really not Japanese restaurant, which was kind of funny.

There was a bread basket instead of rice! And dessert.

Then we walked around for awhile with Kiyoko and she showed us the neighborhood.

After a few hours, we said our goodbyes. Our next stop was Jimbocho Book-town, a neighborhood with lots and lots of bookstore, of course mostly Japanese but also supposedly any language you would want.

After books, it was time for music. We wanted to visit some Jazz Kissas, or listening rooms. We also visited some places Louie’s dad recommended that played classical and tango music. The idea is that you sit and listen and you can order food and drink (or maybe even are required to hit a minimum order.)

We went to Cafe Ataraxia and enjoyed classical music with coffee and cake.

And we found a cat bookstore, all cat books. I should have bought more. My one regret.

We really wanted to get to Jazz Big Boy, which was one of the Jazz Kissas we had read about. It didn’t disappoint! It was really fun to sit and listen to music over an old record player.

Next we went to the Tango listening room. Viennese tea and a few snacks.

Then to a place called Jazz Coffee Incus, which was in a nondescript building and you had to take an elevator to the third floor. It felt like it was a studio apartment somebody turned into a jazz listening room.

The cheesecake was really good! And I think we were just on lemon sodas at that point, figuring any more caffeine was a bad idea, but not wanting more alcohol either.

After that, we thought maybe it was enough. We thought about what sort of food we hadn’t eaten yet, and realized dumplings were on the list. Are they Chinese really, probably, but they were all over, so we found a nearby and of course, highly rated place called Jinbocho Gyoza and Soup Dumpling.

There we did have to order a drink as well. Like, we had to, it was required. You couldn’t just order food.

We tried a variety and enjoyed them all!

After dinner, it was time to head back to the hotel. We ended the night as usual, up on the roof soaking our feet.

You can see the Tokyo Tower from the roof.

Last day: We woke up and wanted to do some more sightseeing before the flight. We didn’t need to be at the airport until around 3:30 pm, so we packed up and stored our bags so we could go out sightseeing again.

We had a delicious breakfast not far from the hotel at a restaurant called Blucca.

We poked around Asakusa for a bit and then decided to take the train to Ginza to explore there a little bit more.

We ended up back at Uniqlo as well as some other things.

Coffee and a snack at their cafe.

Not exactly Louie, but close.

A little white truck on a complicated intersection.

Finally, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags and take the train to the airport. We got through check-in and security and then had one last meal before boarding:

Honestly, this was probably the best airport food I’d ever had! Soba noodles with tempura.

I have to confess, I have no notes from after that. I think our flight was fairly uneventful and went mostly as planned. We connected in Detroit, and then got into St Louis in the evening. We got a ride home and went to sleep pretty soon after.

I have had a lot of time to think about this trip, and the thing I really took away was that 1) Japan was really amazing to visit and 2) the FOOD was sooooooooo good. People asked what was my favorite part and that was it. The food! But also, the people were overall so friendly and helpful, I loved learning about the history, using public transportation, doing a ton of walking, and let’s not forget, the onsens. It was really an amazing trip. I loved the itinerary, I loved what we did, and it was just really fantastic. Thanks for reading!