Favourite 2019 travel photos. Kyoto, Japan. October 2019.
Pagoda
Japan
Meiji Jingu Torii
Favourite 2019 travel photos. Tokyo, Japan. October 2019.
Osaka alley cat
Favourite 2019 travel photos. Osaka, Japan. October 2019
The happiest place on earth
At some point in the spring of 2019 I watched an episode of the Netflix series “Street Food” centered on Osaka and the story of Toyo and his izakaya. I was transfixed by all of the food featured on that show, but the memory of Toyo’s tiny, open air bar stuck in my mind. I immediately wanted to visit it. Fast forward to June, and when I was planning my big trip for the year, the izakaya, Toyo himself, and the amazing food wouldn’t leave my mind. I ended up buying plane tickets to Japan and planned to fly home out of Osaka so I could visit Izakaya Toyo.
Sometimes the ideas of things surpass their reality. But not in this case. On my last day in Osaka, knowing how popular this little bar is, I walked past more than an hour before opening and gave Toyo a wave that he returned before returning to preparing his humble restaurant.
Exploring Osaka
I came to Osaka primarily for the food, and for the fact that I could save a couple hundred dollars in airfare by flying home out of KIX. I knew very little about the city before visiting, and thanks to a typhoon, I got an extra day to explore Osaka when I moved around my plans to avoid traveling during the storm. Osaka became my home base for four of my last five days in Japan and I enjoyed wandering the city in search of some fun. I found night to be when Osaka came alive, but there was plenty to enjoy in the city during the daylight hours as well.
Top of my list, and a perfect way to while away some time during that typhoon passing through, was the Kuromon Market. Its long aisles of merchants featuring exotic (to me) food was a great respite from the wind and rain raging outside.
After the rain in Kyoto
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.
The reason for the trip
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.
Osaka at night
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.
Master at work
Favourite 2019 travel photos. Tokyo, Japan. October 2019.
A week of wandering
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.
Bluenose Traveler 