natefish95

Oops, first picture was my sushi dinner at Chojiro Hazenshi. So good!

Lunch and matcha ice cream

Kiyonizu and the stage

All the gates (and the people)

Greetings from the shinkansen! I'm being rocketed through the Japanese countryside at 200mph on my way to Tokyo! I've taken many of trains before, but nothing is as quiet and smooth as this one! I opted to do "green class" for $130 for a resreved seat and including space for an oversized bag. I booked seat 1A thinking that I would be on the left side to see Mt. Fuji, but turns out I was wrong. 1D gets the view on the left side this way. Oh well, I'll be at Mt Fuji tomorrow on a tour. So back to my Kyoto tour. I booked the tour linked below called "Kyoto Top Highlights Full-Day Trip from Osaka/Kyoto" We met at Nomba OCAT and left on-time at 9am. It was about a 40 minute drive to Kyoto and we stopped at the Fushari Inari-taisha shrine where we were able to see the thousands of iconic red gates. I've seen these in pictures, so it was nice to finally see them in person with a million of my closest stranger friends. It was by far the most crowded of the places we visited. There is definitely more to explore in this area, but I was a bit pressed for time, and the guide made it very clear they'd leave if we were late. Japanese punctuality! Next we went to the Kyomizu temple and kyomizu stage. We had about 2.5 hours to explore on our own here. Leading up to the temples, there is a large shopping street, including stops for food. The shopping street was SO CROWDED, but once you got up to the stage and down into the gorge, the crowds thinned. When I booked my tickets, I decided to have lunch included. Tun-red out, only me and one other person did this option. It was a heavy tofu lunch and I would have been better suited to find a restaurant there for lunch. Third stop was a quick stop at the golden pavilion. Very beautiful. Not much to say about this. fourth and final stop was at the Arashiyama bamboo forest, which was my favorite. Our guide walked us into the bamboo forest a bit, and then gave us several options of routes we could take. I opted to take the long route, which he said takes about 45 minutes, but I did it in about 30. This was the least crowded stop, which is so nice! I was getting very peopled out with the constant crowds. This stop also had a large shopping area. On the bus ride back to Kyoto we hit traffic for about 90 minutes, which was less than ideal. If I could do it over again, I would maybe spend 1 night in Kyoto and see the sights from there instead of bussing to Kyoto from Osaka and back OR just take the train to Kyoto. Once we finally made it back to Osaka, upon recommendation from my food tour guide, I went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant called Chojiro Hazenshi and it was probably the best sushi I've ever had! You take a number when you walk in and wait for it to be called. I waited about 30 minutes or so. The staff was all very kind and spoke some English. You order via ipad or you can just take things off the conveyor belt. I did a combo of both. What was very helpful is that at each seat, they had a "how to" guide of how to use the iPad, what each plate color costs, and how to call the staff at the end. I had probably 5 plates of sushi and plum wine for $19. It would have easily been $50+ in the US (plus tip...) An exhausting day, but I was able to cram a lot in for 1 day. For a bus tour, I still did nearly 25,000 steps.

Morning all! Taking the bullet train back up to Tokyo today. While I’m on the train, I’ll post about my day trip to Kyoto. if you’re coming to Japan, I’d recommend staying in Kyoto for a few nights instead of taking a bus tour from Osaka. Traffic was a mess last night. The tour was good and I saw a lot though.

So now for the food tour last night, first things first, here is the tour I booked for $88 and would HIGHLY recommend. A very fun environment all around where we learned about the food of course, but also culture, what it’s like as an American living in Osaka, and even how to curse in Japanese. our first stop was at Johnny’s karage, which was probably my favorite stop. The decor was all 80’s, so the vibes were obviously very right. We tried 5 different types. I don’t remember them all, but my favorite was the Nampa karage, which had mayonnaise on it. The plum wine on the rocks was also very refreshing and could be dangerous. If you like sweet drinks, get it! I think we had yakitori and tempura next? I forgot pictures. Oops. Next up was Takoyaki Ichiban (which means the number one Takoyaki). It’s an interesting texture and flavor. Not my favorite but the atmosphere was so fun. The lemon sour drink was also very good! After that, we had gyoza after that it was maybe kushikatsu and sake? There was definitely sake. Overall, amazing tour for a great value. The owner messaged me our group photo on WhatsApp this morning and was so helpful when I asked for recommendations for dinner tonight. I think this is a smaller company, but they really go the extra mile.

Oh absolutely not! These are the most high tech toilets I’ve ever seen! Thankfully no squattty potties to be found!

Go in blind and just know you’ll get surprised no matter what!

Good morning! It: about 7:40 here in Osaka and I’m about to go meet up with my tour to Kyoto. Yesterday, taking the train to Nara could not have been easier. The online schedule was correct and of course everything was perfectly on-time. From Namba, I was able to take the Kintetsu-Nara line which is about 40 minutes to Nara. The train was packed and I had to stand the whole time. Each way was about 650 yen and I was able to pay with my IC card, just like the metro. Once you get out of the station and walk straight ahead, you will immediately start seeing deer! It’s just so crazy how they aren’t afraid of people. I bought some deer crackers for 200 yen to feed them. They will even bow at you, and if you’re not feeding them fast enough they’ll bow more aggressively and closer. One bit my jeans when I couldn’t unwrap the deer crackers fast enough. You could definitely smell the deer poop, but it wasn’t awful. Overall I spent about 2 hours walking around. I had originally booked a walking tour through Viator but decided to cancel and I’m glad I did. It was nice to just wander around at my own pace. I’m sure I missed some context and fun facts, but I still had a great day there. IMG_8161.mov

Send me an email! Would like to connect with a NoVa neighbor. Is there a way to DM on here?

I’ll tell yall more about Nara and my Osaka food tour tomorrow. I would highly recommend both. If I forget to link the Viator tour, someone remind me!

Spent a few hours walking around Nara and it was awesome.

My train to Nara should be arriving at 9:43. Very glad the signage has been so clear (and in English).

Feeling like @TxTeach79 now

It was…different. I could not stop laughing the entire first time.

I called BOA and after battling with their automated prompts (“AGENT”…”AGENT”…”ohmygod no I don’t want to do a survey…”AGENT”) I finally talked to a real person and it wasn’t a fraud issue. BOA just didn’t recognize the transaction type. I tried a few more times using the 7-11 Seven Bank ATM and got the same results. The money exchange actually worked out well. I’ll probably go back there before I head up to Tokyo just in case.

7-11, Family Mart and Lawson have been great! I stopped into one yesterday to have an onigiri as a snack. this is my first trip to a country where I don’t speak the language fluently. I did some Japanese Duolingo so I learned so basic phrases but not enough to hold conversations. Everyone has been so kind when I’ve asked for directions. The google translate app has been a life saver, especially the Google Lens feature which will translate pictures I take (I needed that to pick the right onigiri haha)

No mirrors, no optical illusions! It was really that crowded with people! Japanese McDonalds was so interesting. There were so many unique things I wanted to try. Plus, that entire meal was only $12!

I walked around a bit and then hoped back on the metro to Namba to walk around Dontonburi and Shinsaibashi street. So. Many. People. This place makes NYC look like a quaint town I found a Mickey D’s and decided to pop in and try some local items. The fries taste the exact same and the burgers were quite good. The melon ice cream thing was awful though. The drink was a large but it’s about the size of a medium drink in the U.S. 20,000 steps and 7.4 miles later, my day is done. Tomorrow I’m going to Nara to see some deer and then a food tour in the afternoon.

After my spa day, I went back to the hotel, showered and took the metro over to Osaka castle and walked around the grounds for a bit. I don’t know if you’d call this full bloom, but the cherry blossoms are definitely in bloom. I am such a great planner (not) that I totally knew I needed to be her at sunset. Perfect timing.

From what I’ve read, and been told by some others, tattoos are associated with gangs I believe (like the yakuza), so they don’t want anyone with tattoos visiting. There are special onsens that do allow people with tattoos.

Going to spa world today was a great choice! 1500 yen to enter and you get use of all the spas, saunas, and hot tubs you could imagine. I got a 30 minute body scrub for 3600 yen which was well worth it. I feel like a smooth baby dolphin. For those in DC, King Spa Chantilly is a great place to go for a body scrub and relaxation. No gangsters, please (or tattoos) A fresh OJ vending machine for 500 yen (did not try it out)

One quick note: I used my Delta AmEx to buy the Shinkansen ticket and Japanese Advil with no issues. I’ve heard some credit cards don’t work well here, but that one has been doing just fine so far.

Took the Osaka metro to Shin Osaka and came to the conclusion I’ll be taking a taxi instead of dealing with all of that with a 60 pound suitcase. Morning rush hour was so crowded but most signs were in English and the Apple Maps transit feature was helpful. Since I was at Shin-Osaka, I purchased my Shinkansen(bullet train( ticket for Sunday. I was able to buy a Green class (first class) ticket for $125 including a dedicated space to put my large suitcase. I’ve run into a bit of an issue with ATMs. I tried using the 7-11 ATMs but the transaction wouldn’t go through. I called Bank of America and they said my card is fine but they didn’t recognize the transaction type. Went to another bank in Namba and it wouldn’t read my card. I found a place to exchange money, so I’ll just go there even though I’m sure the rate won’t great. i also struggled to find a pharmacy to get something for my headache. That type of stuff isn’t at 7-11. Finally found an open pharmacy in Namba and got some “Eve” (there’s another product name called “Adam”. Despite language barriers, everyone has been super nice!