Author: Greg

After the rain in Kyoto

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A day trip to Kyoto was always in the cards for my trip to Japan. I had decided to stay in Osaka to allow more time to explore the food culture of that city, knowing Kyoto was just a comfortable 45 minute train ride away. The question of my trip wasn’t “if” Kyoto, but “when” Kyoto. After a fall typhoon bent eastward sparing the region a direct hit but still making for a pretty impressive wind and rain storm, it allowed me to hop a train the very next morning from Osaka to Kyoto.

Getting a jump on the crowds that descend on Kyoto’s attractions, in particular, its shrines and temples, my early morning train and a short walk got me to Fushimi Inari shrine to enjoy it in a relative state of tranquility.

Fushimi Inari Taisha

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The reason for the trip

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I had a decision to make – where to go on a two week solo trip in October? As I sat in an airport in June waiting for a delayed flight home, I started piecing together possible trips and scouting airfares. While I kept looking at a wide variety of locations – Chile, Ireland, Spain, Belgium – I kept coming back to Japan. Although those other locations strongly appealed to me, I ended up selecting Japan for two main reasons. First, it scared me a bit (in a good way). And secondly, and most importantly, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the food I could try. When I finally bought my airline ticket, this trip was already on its way to being a two-week long foodie adventure in the making.

Over the trip, I ate ridiculously well. Some I’ve written about already, like a higher-end sushi experience in Tokyo. For as much as I enjoy a fancy meal, I’m also a sucker for a more approachable feast, and on my first full day in Tokyo I made a beeline to a recommended conveyor belt sushi place. The idea of delicious sushi passing before me was perfect as I was jetlagged and starving, and over the course of an hour I put away a hefty amount of delicious sushi. It was a good start to my eating adventures.

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Osaka at night

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While I knew the two cities would have very different vibes, the differences between Tokyo and Osaka were dramatic. Tokyo, crowded yet organized and efficient, did not prepare me for Osaka. Osaka was harried and disjointed, but also looser and free-flowing, and felt a world away from its more buttoned up neighbour a couple of hours to the east. Where Tokyo felt like a city where everything was in its proper place, Osaka felt like a city just trying to hold itself together…. and I loved it.

Nighttime was when I felt Osaka showed its real charm.

Osaka at night

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A week of wandering

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While my time in Tokyo was cut short by an approaching typhoon and the need to get to Osaka to hunker down, it still left me just about a week in what is now a newly favourite city. Tokyo amazed me, and it is unlike any large city I have previously visited. It has so much energy, but none of the chaos of other world-class cities. It was everything I love about cities with virtually none of the frustrations that come along with cramming so many people in such a small space. In a word, Tokyo was my kind of perfect. The week there gave me a chance to do some big things I had planned – a playoff baseball game, an amazing sushi experience…. but also the time to see a number of interesting sights as I wandered aimlessly on many days.

On my first morning, shaking off a case of jetlag the likes of which I had never experienced before, I explored Shinjuku Gardens. A grey morning for most of my visit would turn into a torrential downpour as I was leaving the park, but it was the perfect tonic to get my feet under myself in Japan.

Shinjuku Garden

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A taste of Japanese craft beer

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On my first Sunday in Japan, I felt a bit adrift. Fall Sundays for me are usually spent in my basement, a collection of delicious snacks and excellent craft beer near at hand to sustain me for a day’s worth of watching football. I didn’t really have any desire to spend my precious time in Tokyo seeking out a bar to watch NFL football in, but I had a plan for visiting some excellent craft beer bars and thought that would be a nice way to enjoy an afternoon.

After filling up my belly with a healthy amount of sushi at a fun conveyor-belt place in the neighbourhood, I made my way to the taproom at the Baird Brewing Company. While there was no football on, the World Cup of Rugby was underway so I had a prime seat with a group of ex-pat New Zealanders watching their country take on Namibia.

Baird Brewing Company

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Tranquility in Kamakura

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With any trip I take, the urge to do a day trip within the trip is strong.  In many ways, I find it can be an indulgent mini-vacation from my vacation. When I visited Tokyo, planning a day trip also came with the idea of escaping the crowds of the city to seek out a bit of tranquility. In reality, I didn’t ever find Tokyo too crowded or busy, but I did enjoy a slower pace and quieter day when I visited Kamakura.

A little over an hour after leaving Tokyo in the morning aboard a crammed train, I arrived in sunny Kamakura. About a ten minute walk from the train station, I made my way to Tsuruoka Hachimangu, the most important Shinto shrine in the city. With my early start, I beat most of the tourists here.

Tsuruoka Hachimangu

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My Tokyo omakase experience

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While I was in the process of planning my trip to Japan, the most common question I received was along the lines of “Are you planning any big sushi meals?” My answer to that was always a resounding yes, and while I was in Japan, I did indeed enjoy quite a bit of sushi over my two weeks there. One thing I spent an inordinate amount of time researching for my trip was where to have one blowout omakase experience. I wanted something very high quality, but not super formal or regimented. I wanted something where I would feel welcomed as a foreigner, but where I’d be dining with mostly locals.

I hit the jackpot. Sushi Saisho in the Ginza neighbourhood of Tokyo ticked all those boxes. And it did, mostly because of the sushi master himself, Saisho.

Sushi Saisho

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Playoff baseball, Japan style

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While I have been to lots and lots of baseball games in my life, before this past October, I had never had a chance to see a playoff game in person. My livelong hope was to see my first playoff baseball game in Montreal to see my Expos chase a World Series title, but I was only 7 years old in 1981, and in 1994…. well, we all know how that ended. When I booked my plane tickets to Japan, I knew that I’d land in Tokyo about the same time as their baseball playoffs would be getting underway. I started watching their league standings on a weekly basis to track the likelihood I could catch a game while I was in the country. With a whole lot of good fortune, the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants finished first and that meant my stay in Tokyo would coincide with playoff games.

How to sum up my first playoff baseball game? Same sport, same rules, but an experience unlike anything I’ve seen before.

I was giddy walking up to the Tokyo Dome, difficult ticket to secure in hand.

Tokyo Dome

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