BigWeather's Blog

At 12:07am we were lying in bed and felt the building swaying back and forth. As we were on the 34th floor (room 3437) it was quite the trip. About ten minutes later it was confirmed that a 5.5M quake had hit in Chiba prefecture to the east (where Narita airport is). Crazy cool to experience that, though Japan is seismically spicey it’s still fairly uncommon to feel an earthquake of that strength in Tokyo.

After that excitement we didn’t get to sleep for a bit, eventually waking around 6:30am so that we could get our showers and pack before heading to breakfast. While Michelle and Genetta got seated I worked on getting our three large suitcases forwarded to our hotel in Kyoto so we shouldn’t have to mess with them on the train and from and to our hotels. It went pretty smoothly until they were looking for a reservation number. Eventually, with Michelle’s help, we figured it out and I headed to join them at breakfast. The weather wasn’t as nice as the day before (quite a bit of clouds) but the views were still quite nice. We sat in a side room of the restaurant and basically enjoyed the same buffet as the morning before, with the exception of trying the mushroom bacon quiche.

That done, Genetta remained in the lobby while Michelle and I got our remaining small luggage and I made sure we left nothing behind. Then we headed down to the lobby and checked out around 9:15am and headed to the adjacent JR Tokyo station. There we quickly got Genetta the stamp she had missed the day before then used our Shinkansen tickets to access the platforms. One thing we had noticed all over Tokyo (and, it turns out, all over Japan) were paths of textured tiles that had either lines or dots in buildings, outside on sidewalks, etc. Turns out they are for sight impaired folk, the lines tell them to continue and the dots warn of a turn in the path. Really cool. Michelle sat in the waiting room while Genetta and I went to a small shop between platforms selling drinks, snacks, and bento — pre-packaged meals meant to be enjoyed on the trip. As our train was at 10:18am and only two hours we decided to just get a couple of drinks — water and a cold milk tea. Genetta joined Michelle in the waiting room while I took a few photos and generally geeked out over the trains. There were two that were connected nose to nose in something called the “Shinkansen kiss” — basically the two trains travel together a bit before one splits off from the other to go to their respective destinations.

We boarded the Nozomi (the fastest type of Shinkansen) 357 and took our seats. It was very clean and quiet, nobody talking above a whisper. The seats reclined as well. During the just over two hour journey we saw a wide variety of terrain — from major cities like Nagoya (with a really cool skyscraper) to suburbs to cemeteries packed with small stone obelisks to mountain canyons festooned with bamboo and a hint of color showing to beautiful creeks and rivers and a lake (Lake Hamana). The Tokaido Shinkansen line had a lot of beauty to offer! Sadly Mt. Fuji didn’t make an appearance — despite patchy blue skies the clouds still completely obscured the summit. Still, awesome! Update: I was going through the pictures to post in this blog and it did make a brief appearance (see below), yay!

After arrival in Kyoto around 12:30p we went to the restroom and then sought out food. We ended up eating at a place in the station, Matsuba. I had to duck and part the curtains to enter and the person seating us made a big to-do about my height. We took our seats and ordered. Michelle had grilled chicken and rice (though I helped with the chicken since it was a bit heavy on the teriyaki and she generally avoids that due to soy). Genetta had ramen and I had breaded pork cutlet (Tonkatsu) and egg and green onion on top of white rice with a bowl of noodles on the side. While I didn’t care for the noodles’ broth I loved the Tonkatsu. And, even more amazingly, I used my chopsticks the entire meal and didn’t land any food on my shirt!

About 1:30p we exited the Shinkansen area. There we saw a Krispy Kreme shop as well as a room filled with gachapon. I saw one that dispensed little figurines of Kyoto-related stuff like temples, shrines, etc. and tried to buy one. I say tried as I got my 10 100 yen change from a 1000 yen note and proceeded to put in the five coins needed for the gachapon. I must’ve gotten bored around four because the machine didn’t dispense the toy. The attendant noticed this and came over and when I counted six coins remaining in my hand I went “d’oh!” Put in the correct number of coins the next go-round and got my prize.

We entered the subway platform area, taking the green Karasuma line north two stops to Shijo station. From there it was a short-ish walk to our hotel, the Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto Kawaramachi Jokyoji. The only issue was it was along a one-lane road against traffic and less than optimal sidewalks, leading the small suitcase to make quite a rattle. We arrived at a Shinto shrine, Hokora, and our hotel was adjacent to that. The check-in process went smoothly and, though we were thirty minutes early for our 3p check-in we were able to go to our room, 514. Same three double beds with two pressed against each other but still nice and clean. Toilet seems a little less smart but the shower looked to be quite nice — a proper one rather than a tub. Nice! In this room the toilet area had a little wash sink with the main sink being in the main room.

We laid down to rest for an hour and a half or so then Genetta and I set out looking for umbrellas as the forecast called for quite a bit of rain both Friday and Monday. The sun was just setting but wow there was a ton of people out and about shopping. Across one of the main streets was Teramachi Shopping Street, a grand covered market lined with shops, eateries, etc. and Nishiki Market, another area with stands and such. Honestly, it all kind of blends together, the shopping here in Japan. We went to a mall, Kyoto Takashimaya, that was seven stories but each story was pretty wide open with areas for particular stores (and even some pop-ups) kind of seamlessly flowing from one to another. No central entrance to each store or anything. They had bookstores (with funky shelves), clothing and cosmetics, manga and collectibles, vinyl, and what I later realized was probably no accident.

The seventh floor was the Nintendo Kyoto store. Genetta and I spent quite a bit of time browsing the goods and Genetta bought a few Zelda souvenirs and mom one of the random packs, this time of Animal Crossing figures. In a major nostalgia punch to my gut they had the AC ambient music playing. Genetta wanted to buy a keychain of the Zelda boss key but sadly it was sold out. We found some Zelda-themed umbrellas but at 4,000 yen a pop decided to check elsewhere.

Yeah… there were some fancy ones at a department store at 16,000 yen (nearly $100!) each so we didn’t get those. We set out north up another busy street for the Kyoto LOFT store. Along the way we passed a Family Mart which did have some umbrellas at 2,000 yen ($12) but they seemed pretty flimsy. So we pushed on past some slot parlors, bowling, and karaoke in addition to lots of restaurants and ice cream. The LOFT was in the same building as UNIQLO, which I know Addison and Nichole really like. Unfortunately, the UNIQLO was under renovations until November 6th, so basically the whole time we’re in Kyoto. We got to the 4th floor where LOFT was and found they had a ton of umbrellas but they were either too much or sketchy. We figured if we were going to spend decent money on some they may as well be Zelda-themed so headed back to the Nintendo Kyoto store.

Along the way we passed a Baskin Robbins with the “31” cleverly placed in the “BR” logo as well as the Disney Store which was frankly a little disappointing. Back at the Nintendo Kyoto store I bought the three umbrellas and we headed back to the room. We spent a few minutes figuring out where to eat — we didn’t want to go too far as it was past 7p and Genetta and I had just walked a few miles.

We settled on Y’s Burger, a tiny non-chain Wagyu burger joint tucked in the street market. After ordering we went up some narrow stairs to a tiny room with plants hanging from the ceiling and a few sparse tables. A lady brought us our food. Michelle had the cheeseburger and Genetta and I had bacon cheeseburgers. They each had a flag planted in them. Mine was an American flag but Michelle and Genetta had Halloween themed ones with a pumpkin and a ghost. Cute! In addition to the burgers there were fries with some kind of orange-ish sauce and iced unsweetened teas. The burger and fries were excellent!

On the way back to the room we stopped at Rin Kyoto, a Uji matcha cafe. I got a strawberry milk matcha with a scoop of matcha ice cream and Genetta got a milk matcha. It was something to see them make — they doled out the matcha, sifted it through a tea strainer, then used a mortar and pestle to grind it out before adding liquid. Setting that aside they prepared the strawberry and milk with a scoop of matcha ice cream then poured the matcha on top. Finally, they sprinkled some edible (I hope, haha) gold flakes on top. Beautiful!

We headed back to the room around 9pm and I did my Duo. As I couldn’t stay awake another moment I went to bed around 10:30pm without blogging or offloading pictures.

We woke up around 7am and got our showers. The shower was nice, and even had a “gutter” just outside the tub to direct any overspill to a drain. Something I so wish our upstairs tub had! Also, the shower head was adjustable and went high enough for me so yay. One really cool thing was the mirror had a square that was permanently defogged. Really handy!

Went down for breakfast around 8am. We ate at the hotel’s buffet. Like my trip to India a decade ago (yikes, that long ago?!) it had a Western offering and a traditional Japanese offering. I had an odd mix of chocolate Danishes, little sausages, potato salad with fired onion topping, broccoli (don’t judge — it was healthy!), eggs, bacon, cold cuts, cheese, and hot tea. Michelle and Genetta had similar, though Genetta added some Japanese food like miso soup and Michelle a hard-boiled egg. The view, though! Up on the 27th floor it overlooked Tokyo Station and all of the trains coming and going as well as the harbor and, beyond the skyscrapers, the mountains beyond. Sadly no Mt. Fuji, though it would’ve probably been visible as the skies were very clear and visibility was amazing.

Went back to the room to grab Genetta’s coat and picked up a paper along the way as a souvenir (as I can’t read a word of it!) while Michelle and Genetta waited in the lobby. Took a couple of pictures of the awesome miniature trainset in the lobby then we all headed out to Tokyo Station. It wasn’t so crowded at this hour. We briefly went downstairs to Character Street — a long corridor lined by stores dedicated to various properties like Sanrio, NHK (the angry chicken nugget thingie), Detective Conan, One Piece, and even Lego. Most didn’t open until 10am, though, and as we had about 30 minutes to kill we went upstairs and started figuring out how the trains and metros of Japan worked.

We first went to a JR East ticket office and bought Shinkansen (their high-speed train) tickets to Kyoto for the next day. Originally I chose three seats on the left side of the train (ABC) but then realized “oh crap, we need the right so we’ll see Mt. Fuji!” and switched to two windows and an aisle (DEE). Whew! It was about 40,000 yen, or $200, for the three. Not bad, all things considered, for what you get. Only two-ish hours by bullet train versus nearly ten hours if we drove (which we wouldn’t, as they drive on the left and we can’t read the signs, so that’d be baaaaad). Then we went looking for a machine for the Suica card but as we wanted the “Welcome” one with pretty cherry blossoms we had to go to the JR Rail Cafe, where there were very helpful agents. We got three Suica cards (think a pre-paid card, we chose 4,000 yen for each, used for riding the metro, for instance) and two badge holders (mine had an extra pocket for holding Michelle’s). The agent told Genetta that hers looked kawaii, or cute, which made me smile. Genetta and I also bought stamp books for stamping at various stations and other neat places we encounter.

After that was done I visited Michelle briefly just outside — she’d found a wonderful bench and with the sun and pleasant breeze was living her best life — while Genetta went downstairs to Character Street. I joined her and we shopped a bit. She bought some packs with random stuff in it from one of her favorite animes (Apothecary Diaries) and I checked out a really cool fan with the famous The Great Wave washing dudes out of a boat with Godzilla scooping them up to eat. Soooo tempted! I also checked out the NHK store but they didn’t have anything I wanted, as well as the Detective Conan store. At the Sanrio store we bought Addison and Nicole some limited edition (that ended that day, in fact) keychain in a cross-stitch style after consulting with Addison via text. I then went to the Lego store where I got a 2×4 brick keychain engraved with my name in English on one side and Japanese on the other. They also had packaging for an Animal Crossing set with Celeste that was exclusive to Japan but I just couldn’t justify the luggage space and was worried the box would be crushed in transit.

Genetta and I rejoined Michelle at the outside bench and we headed back in to figure out how to get to Akihabara via the metro. It wasn’t too hard — especially after consulting a friendly (everyone here is super friendly and helpful) metro agent — used the Suica pass to gain entry to the metro area, got up to the correct platform and rode the Yamanote green line north two stops to Akihabara station. The metro was clean and really quiet as people on public transport are expected to whisper and not make much noise.

Just outside the station were several restaurant options but scones made the decision for us. We went to R. C. Arms, kind of a Japanese take on a British pub. It wasn’t bad though there was some confusion on how the ordering process went. That resolved, Genetta had the special plate (pork, some mystery meat) and iced coffee latte, Michelle had an iced tea and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and I had an iced tea with Hamburg stew — basically a tasty hamburger patty atop mashed potatoes and swimming in a dark brown mushroom sauce. There was something else a little chewy afoot which I didn’t care for but I isolated it.

We headed through Akihabara Electric Town, a district known for lots of electronics stores, collectible stuff, anime and cosplay good, and vintage games. There were billboards all over and more than a few maid cafes.

We walked west past all that and up a moderate hill to Kanda Shrine (Kanda Myojin), a Shinto shrine moved to its current location in 1616. What a beautiful complex of building, painted vermillion and gold with lots of neat details like dragon dogs and turtles and owls. Going through the main gate the main shrine was across a courtyard. To the left was a store that sold the shrine stamp (think a sheet of paper pre-stamped) in a neat full color fold for 500 yen (about $3.25). Genetta and I each got one and Genetta also bought a book to hold that stamp and future ones we would visit.

There was a small stable with a donkey, sadly MIA. We’d learn later, though, that it was being walked around the courtyard — Michelle saw it from her bench but Genetta and I missed it. Genetta and I paid our respects then checked out the rest of the grounds. There was a beautiful bonsai tree and an impressive fountain as well as a more secluded shrine in back.

Leaving the shrine we briefly considered getting some soft-serve before deciding against and going into 7-11 looking for Tylenol. We didn’t find any. However, we bought some bottled water and Genetta got an iced tea. A short distance from the Shinto shrine was Yushima Seido, a Confucian temple also from the 17th century. It was in stark contrast to the Shinto shrine in that it was mostly black and tucked into a more wild environment with plenty of overgrown vegetation and such. I found some free postcards for Genetta and I and we headed out. Genetta wanted to check out another part of the temple and I’m so glad she did as there was a giant bronze statue of Confucius.

Leaving the temple we headed back toward Electric Town. We passed a really cool building tucked under a rail bridge. Some of the signage was pretty wild! We stopped by Super Potato, a vintage store specializing in retro gaming spread over three tiny floors (third, fourth, and fifth). It was a bit cramped for my taste but they did have some neat stuff. I’d hoped to see some old school Ultima stuff (as that was very popular in Japan) but no luck — and I wasn’t going to spend hours looking. Genetta found a cool Katamari Damacy thing, though.

Next we headed to Animate, a four story store with lots of video game artbooks, collectibles, music, etc. Genetta spent quite a bit of time there and bought something, I bought a small envelope with a DragonQuest slime and a chest which I thought was cute. While Genetta finished up in Animate I tried to find Don Quijote, a five story store specializing in… everything nerdish. Gaming stuff, cosplay stuff, tourist tuff, you name it. I say tried to find because the entrance wasn’t super easy to find and I wandered into a Pachinko parlor first by accident. Having found Don Quijote I went up to the fifth floor where some of the cosplay stuff was, including costumes, maid uniforms, accessories, etc. I saw some Genshin Impact stuff that I thought Genetta might like as well. I navigated the narrow escalators down and out of the store and met up with Michelle. We waited for Genetta to get out of Animate then I took her to see the Genshin Impact stuff. It turns out that she wasn’t interested so we didn’t buy anything but it was still nice of her to see that fairly popular store.

We headed back to Akihabara station and took the metro south back to Tokyo Station, whereupon we found ourselves in the west entrance, an older structure with an impressive dome. Michelle and Genetta decided to eat at the Tokyo Station Cafe (North Dome). We had a bit of a wait but eventually got seated. Michelle and I ordered Wagyu beef with wasabi sauce and lettuce sandwiches which was quite excellent. They came with a bit of tangerine (which was wonderful), pear (blech), and some kind of melon. Genetta had the Omurice with tomato sauce (rice in an omelet with a tomato-based sauce on the side). Genetta ordered a teapot for herself and Michelle but Michelle didn’t care for it so I got a cup and Genetta two. It was definitely an interesting taste, a bit fruity. I also had a ginger ale. For dessert Michelle had a grape tart and I a strawberry tart and both were massive and excellent. Oh, our entrees came with an amuse bouche of a small arugula salad with some salmon tartar (pass!).

It now past dark we headed across the street hoping to find a pharmacy (for Tylenol) and failed. Turns out it was underground and we just couldn’t muster the energy. Michelle and Genetta went back to the hotel while I went to the convenience store to get another iced latte. Back at the hotel we slept a bit until almost 10p then I offloaded pictures and started blogging. Genetta and Michelle sorted through the day’s purchases then Genetta watched some anime. All the menus were in Japanese but using Google Translate we were able to just hover the camera over the screen and it superimposed the English translation on top. Sometimes I step back and realize we’re living in the future! Headed to bed around midnight after an amazing first day of getting some “chores” done — buying tickets, getting Suica passes, learning how transit works — and experiencing a range of sensory experiences from gorgeously painted temples to crowded stations to the cacophony of the gaming stores.

We woke up super early, around 4:30a, to shower and finish packing for our trip to Japan. Addison showed up at 5:45a to take us to airport for our 9:30a flight to Toronto. Since we were there three hours before departure check-in and security were a breeze and we were at our gate by 7a. We decided to get some breakfast at Crawford’s Genuine. We had a really nice person seat us and our waitress was wonderful. I had two eggs over medium and bacon as did Michelle (who also had some sourdough bread). Genetta had some kind of breakfast bowl. We boarded around 9a onto a very tiny (two and three seats per aisle) Mitsubishi commuter jet.

The stewards were delightfully Canadian (meaning, nice!). A fellow passenger mentioned that he was learning French and one of them said that what really helped her learn French was watching hockey with the French language track. The snacks weren’t bad either — there were little cookies with a nice slab of chocolate with the Hotel Frontenac (in Quebec City) pressed into them. I ate three of those as Michelle didn’t want any and they had extra. Also there were butter and garlic pretzel bites that were delicious. The decor was nice too, especially a gray curtain with the subtle pattern of maple leaves.

As we landed Toronto I noted that the leaves had already changed for Fall. We walked down a long corridor to a food court where Michelle and Genetta had paninis and I went to a burger joint and had a mushroom and Swiss burger and fries. It was not bad. As we had a bit of time I also looked for some soft maple sugar candy. It took awhile but I found some finally. Yes!

Our flight to Tokyo (Narita airport) was aboard another Air Canada plane, this time a 777-ER. The safety video was pretty slick — it used Canadian themes but tied to the safety topic. Like a dog sled with airplane seatbelts or the map of the airplane showing exits etched in a wheat field. As we were taxiing for takeoff Genetta noticed a husk of a plane burning and fire engines — the firefighters were doing a burn drill. Shortly after takeoff we looked at the menu and Michelle realized that both entrees wouldn’t sit with her. Imagine her surprise a short time later when they brought a custom meal out. We’d totally forgotten that we specified her needing to avoid onions and nuts and they prepared herb chicken and an oatmeal cookie. Yay! Genetta had pork don and I had beef and mashed potatoes and noodles with cucumbers. We both had bread (adequate) and butter and a bag of maple-iced cookies that were amazing. I also had ginger ale.

The flight was over thirteen hours. Though my visit to India in 2016 was technically farther from home than Japan none of my flights were over ten hours. Luckily we splurged for an extra three inches of legroom and it was noticeably more tolerable having that space. About five hours in I happened to glance through a window on the way back from the bathroom and noticed beautiful snowcapped mountains. Genetta opened her shade briefly and checking the map we were just east of Anchorage. Goodness, Alaska is so gorgeous. I’ve got to get back there someday!

In the hours that followed, as I watched the first three episodes of Shrinking (which is excellent, by the way), I crossed the international date line for the first time in my life and Monday became Tuesday. It is about then that I also noted that we had daylight the entirely of the trip thus far — and would continue to do so until shortly after landing in Tokyo. It was a bit like that time in Minnesota in 2017 when we were driving west and hit multiple July 4th fireworks celebration as we were driving right on the dusk line. In addition to Shrinking I watched the movie Pressure (about the weather forecasting for D-Day) and Toy Story 5 and Bugonia via peeping other passengers’ screens. Bugonia is weird. Emma Stone, man. Shortly before landing Genetta and I had some chicken yakisoba which was OK and Michelle an egg skillet that wasn’t great at all.

Upon landing we went to the bathroom and it was here that I encountered my first Japanese toilet. I’m not exaggerating when I say it may be smarter than I am. A heated seat was a really nice touch, especially after that marathon flight. The immigration line was an unpleasant surprise, though. “Helpers” waived us past all of these kiosks that were supposed to read the customs forms we’d already submitted as well as scan our passports and take our fingerprints. We were dumped in a immense room with a very large line that snaked very slowly before finally dumping us at some kiosks similar to those we were told to skip earlier. Our fingerprints weren’t read properly and we were assigned letters (Genetta ‘c’, us ‘d’) with no explanation and continued to wait in line. Two hours later we got to a point where we were directed to go through the ‘c’ or ‘d’ line based on the letter we were assigned. It was kinda neat that on the TV it showed a live camera feed of us and the letter was super imposed in real time. Neat and chilling, as there was definitely some fancy facial recognition going on. After a few more minutes our passports were stamped and were at luggage claim. As the whole process had taken two hours I’d almost forgotten about needing to get our luggage! It was just sitting in a corner, the conveyer long past… conveying?

We heeded Addison and Nichole’s advice to not even try using the Narita Express train to get to Tokyo but just hire a taxi. It wasn’t cheap, though, about 34,000 yen (just over $200) for the one hour ride. Still, worth it. The ride was mostly silent but the driver did point out Disneyland Tokyo on our left. I also noted that many of the highways had flashing green lights in the guardrails which was cool. We crossed a number of rivers, some with bridges lit up in the dusk. We moved at a fairly good clip, not even hesitating as we hit tool booths with arms that we missed by inches at most. I could swear I heard one scream out in fear! Entering Tokyo proper we neared our hotel and he was directed by a security card into a parking garage that had some of the car lifts I’d seen on TV for more compact parking. We were dropped off there next to an elevator that would take us to the 27th floor (lucky number) where the lobby for our hotel was. The lobby also had a really neat train diorama of Tokyo, including some of the iconic buildings as well as Tokyo station, adjacent to the building with our hotel in it. We were assigned our room, 3437, and proceeded to there to rest for an hour or so.

When we set our for dinner around 8p we had a surprise — most places were closed or full (like the Italian place). We ended up going to a Family Mart convenience store that was in the building and had an automated checkout — it had captured each item that I picked up. Unfortunately it wasn’t accurate since I had put several things back. A human appeared as if by magic and resolved it. Heading back to the room we noticed that there was a smoking booth were smokers went to smoke so that it wouldn’t bother anyone else. Back at the room we ate our food — Michelle had a custard, Genetta a chicken sandwich and chocolate sticks and milk tea, and I an egg and teriyaki chicken sandwich with a cold latte by some company called Boss. It was pretty boss. I turned on the TV to get a sense of what Japanese TV was like and one thing that was interesting was the newscasters, all seated, bowed before signing off. Went to bed shortly thereafter around 11p.