2026 Japan Trip: Day 13 - Kumamoto

Day 13 - A City Lost to Time

I don't know how to think of Kumamoto after my first day here. I should start by overall it is a net positive, and I'm happy I came, especially after their recent earthquake. The earthquake was mostly impactful in the area South of hte city, while the city proper didn't take too much damage, but still the toiurism part of the economy, as expected, would be impacted. But waht I can't get a good sense of is how many tourists there actually are. Kumamoto is a palce of contrasts. In theory, if you look at a map, it would seem to water is close by, but the city itself is mainly in a valley with rolling hills on every side to where you would think you are in Denver. It is a larger city by population than Nagasaki, but with way less cabs, way less locals enjoying the nights (and it's a fair comparison since I went to both places on generic weekdays). It is a lovely city, maybe the most walkable of the ones I have been to, but also that is needed, since it is hard to get cabs at night. Anyway, again, not sure how to classify it overall other than you are going to a place that seemingly doesn't depend on tourism, and that is just fine.

My morning train journey took two stops, three trains, and thirty minutes of waiting in stations, but end to end 90 minutes, which is almost annoying in that the actual train journey segments were all super short. Also weird, as the crow flies Nagasaki and Kumamoto are close by, requiring a ferry on the coastal town of Shimabara which sits in between, but there is no fast train to Shimabara, so that seemingly more close route takes way longer. Anyway, I made it to Kumamoto on schedule at 11am, with a lot of time on my hands, and a car to drive around the city - keeping the car for both days as the AirBNB has a parking spot and most of tomorrow will be spent far afield in the Mt. Aso park area.

Having a bit of time to kill before lunch, I went to the Southeastern edge of the city to a large strip of land hugging the Kase River named the Suizenji area. The defining element is a series of parks, from a more traditional one with a couple small temples on its northern edge (where I went), and then things like a fishing area, a more proper botanical garden and a zoo. I went to just the main first garden, which was beautiful and serene. Even in this small area, there is a range of landscapes, heights, shrines, shrubs, hills, etc. It is a really nice 20-30 minute stroll and the hills that sit far off in each direction give it a great calmness. This was my first introduction to the hills of the Kumamoto region, which would be its defining takeaway - that and maybe the cartoon bear Kumamon (more on taht to come).

From Suizenji, I was fairly hungry as I avoided picking up any snacks on my various train stops, and went to lunch back in the main area of the city. It was another unagi spot, with a Japanese name. This one was a weird dichotomy of having the largest footprint, quite fancy decor, and was packed, but of the three I've been to on this trip, actually found the unagi itself slightly lesser than the otehr two. Still great, however, and they had a really nice miso soup and even little dessert, and was no more expensive than the others. Still would recommend, but wouldn't if it were someone's only time having an unagi box lunch. 

At this point, the rain was going to hold off for the day (I have to say, other than that first day in Fukuoka, I've been exceedingly fortunate with weather during my Kyushu time), so I decided to wait on Mt. Aso for tomorrow, and finish the sites of Kumamoto today, with the main ones being the area right off its main heart, where the Kumamoto Castle sits. The castle is a reconstructed version of the iconic older Kumamoto Castle from the Edo times, and today is seen as one of the three premier castles in Japan (the Himeji Castle, where we are going later in the trip, and the Matsumoto Castle in Nagoya being the other two), and you can see why. The walk up the main keep takes you on this cantilevered route along the walls where you get good views of the turrest and side buildings, and this imposing nine story beast lingering behind, in a sharp blue and white. It is truly striking, along with again the great hills in the distance. I can tell, having seen similar castles a couple times that there is a reason why this one is held in such high regard - and am excited to see if Himeji can match it in terms of picturesque awe.

The castle interior is slightly disappointing compared to the outside, as it is now a museum to the history of the castle itself, with some old artifacts, but a bit hollow compared to if they just made it a recreation of what they castle would've looked like. Granted, maybe the castle interior back in the day was fairly a whole lot of nothing anyway. Also they were adamant that anyone without a real excuse had to walk up the stairs to visit all eight stories. I would've rather taken an elevator up to the top and then seen it reverse, but alas not possible - and probably a good thing as it saves the best for last, which is the viewpoints from the top floor. THe views from here are lovely - most of Kumamoto maxes out at aroudn ten floors (lower than the castle, when you add in the height of the keep and walls, etc.), so you mostly get views of the hills and farmlands and lush greenery. It was gorgeous, and a crsip, I guess almsot fall, air made it all the better.

The castle sits in the middle of a larger park, which houses the Kumamoto Art Museum on one side, which was on my list. It was an intersting place that had two great exhibits that I wholehartedly enjoyed, but an aggressive no pictures policy for like 80% of the pieces. The first exhibit was "Renoir in Japan" where apparently during the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese took particular interest in the worsk of Renoir, including having a few Japanese artists move to Europe to learn under him. That gallery was abuot 40% Renior's, 50% of his Japanese disciples, and the remaining 10% of other impressionist masters (your Pissaro's, Sisley's and of course a couple Monet's - I remain astounded that basically every major art museum in the world seems to have 1-4 Monet's). The permanent exhibit was of their own collection of all Japanese artists from Kyushu, many from Kumamoto, which was lovely - your classic prints, scrolls, folding barriers and then some really nice paintings as well - with the only issue that 90% of it had a "no photo" sign next to it. The 10% they allowed photots were pretty clearly the 10% you wouldn't really want to take a photo of, since the other 90% was better.

The last bit of museum-ness was in the Northwest corner of the castle park, which sits the City Museum of Kumamoto - which was similar to the city / cultural museums I had been to in Fukuoka and Nagasaki, with a couple interesting differentiating points. First, a lot more of it was about the nature of the region - with a great exhibit showcasing the variety of native animals, fish, butterflies, birds, etc., and second, more focus was on daily life in teh city than just the wars and conquests and what not. It wasn't the biggest museum (and like most, had one of their exhibits currently closed - batting 1.000 on this trip of having some part of any museum I've been to closed), but it was a nice side quest at the end of the larger Kumamoto Castle complex as a whole.

My last stop before checking into my AirBNB was to go to the city center and visiting the large, funkily designed (externally) mall that houses the Kumamon Village store. Kumamon is a cartoon black bear with red cheeks that is basically hte unofficial city mascot. His visage is everywhere, from signage to all over the airport, and bust stations, to much more. For instance, the mall connects to an indoor plaza that houses a train station and two office buildings, and in the rotundo of an area liekly traversed mostly by white collared salarymen is a large Kumamom statue. So, Kumamon Village is a store that much like the Snoopy Village I went to in Otaru, sells a bunch of Kumamon stuff. I couldn't resist, even worse than with teh Snoopy store, wehre this time I did give in to my weaker instincts and got myself the second smallest of five sizes of plushies. 

The AirBNB was lovely, a really nicely decorated apartment with both a western full size bed and a tatami area/bed. Also, as AirBNB is coming under fire as we speak in Japan, crucially, this one was owned by an actual couple as a second apartment in the building they live. I say this because that is different to my AirBNB in Tokyo and Fukouka, which are owned by companies that own many units in buildings that are becoming de-facto hotels. Both of the two I stayed at were good and I think reasonable values for the cost (especially since hotels are the one thing that is not cheap in Japan despite the weakness of the yen), but these types of pseudo-hotels are becoming a big talking point. During my trip, the local government of Shibuya in Tokyo announced they were making these types of rental businesses illegal. They are giving AirBNB owners like the lovely couple of the Kumamoto place a bad wrap. I did appreciate the nice touch of actually meeting the hosts.

Before dinner, sitting a nice five minutes walk from the AirBNB, is a beer bar called 25 Brews, which is probably the closest thing to a true beer bar I've been to on this trip - well this or Beerkimchi in Fukuoka. It doesn't have 25 taps, but had about 12, all from Japan and then a reasoanble can selection, again all from Japan. I apprecaited really their commitment to highlighting Japan beer. The taps were cold, they had free WiFi (as I would soon learn, a rarity in Kumamoto) and it was a great time to sip a few. As I'll explain in a bit, I almost wonder if them having a nice beer bar like this was a sign of their more localized and less foreigner-forward appraoch.

Dinner was at Yokobachi, a famed local izakaya (famed enough it was on the AirBNB hosts list of their recommended food destinations). They too have the same online ordering system that the Izakaya in Nagasaki had and multiple breweries. Seems like that particular site is just taking over how it is done across large swaths of Japan. The food list wasn't as zany as I was maybe expecting, but what they did have was really nicely done, from lovely horse sashimi, to a local dish of fried lotus root that is then filled (the holes) with this near horseradish type mustard. They also had a nice fried fish, and maybe my favorite bite which was these tempura-corn dusted with a generous amoutn of Sancho, the numbing spice everpresent at the Unagi spots. Actually, my favorite dish was their quite simply brilliant custard dessert.

From there, I hit up three spots that I think shwoed a bit of what I was talking about before - they were all great, but were mostly all locals and only one of the three *had free WiFi (which had a much higher hit rate are similar establsihments all trip before). The frist was near Yokobachi, and was probably in a vaccuum the best - Bar Ladybird, which was similar in decor and intent to Bar Victor which I liked in Nagasaki. The bar master has created a fantasy world of flowers, plants, etc., including having these elaborate flower box / diorama type creations from which he puts the glass and serves you. It would be kitsch if not for the care and delicateness you know goes into this. The drinls too mostly highlight craft whisky and gin and were all fantastic, if maybe not the wildest things. There aren't crazy adders or flavors, but what it was is pure heart. 

The next two stops were places that I'm sure exist in the other cities but those other cities had more fancy / foreigner focused options. The first was Youth(Craft Beer & Rock), which is just by name perfect - its a bar focused on serving craft beer (all bottles & cans) and playing punk rock music. The music wasn't fully my speed, but I appreciated the specificity. The beer was great however, if a bit expensive, but from my understanding it was quite curated acorss Japan - but this place too seems more aimed at locals.

Certainly the last place, Rock Bar Days, is - an establishment taht has been open 20 years, has a walk of CDs and Vinyls, cheap drinks but nothing fancy, and a good late night food menu (so I can avoid some random noodling around 7-11 / Family Mart). I got highballs of JW Black for $6 (pretty damn good) and some nice beef jerky and listened to the owner playing the entirety of American Idiot front to back after she heard I liked Green Day (I guess the other 5-8 people were fine with it), and it was a great way, if a localized, smaller way, to end my first day in Kumamoto.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 12 - Nagasaki

Day 12 - Rising from the Ashes

Let's cut to the chase, going to Nagasaki means coming to terms with the fact that it, notably, was one of the two cities hit by the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. It isn't as well known from what I can tell as Hiroshima, but it is every bit as real. I knew that of course there will be various things related to the memory of the lives lost and all of it, and was not going to avoid those places even if it is weird to do this as an American. On this second lovely, rain-free day in Nagasaki, I decided to start it off by going there and experiencing it.

Around the area the bomb went off (the hypocenter they term it), there is first a large, modern museum, and then two different peace parks. I did the museum first, and it was really well done. The first rooms are all about the bomb and the immediate aftermath - the destruction, the radiation, the burns, the fires, everything else. From a first room with some mangled metal and rubble strewn around with a section on what they recovered from the nearby cathedral that was completely destroyed, it sets a tone. As does the next room with display case after display case of artifacts and photos. Much like the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh, this one doesn't pull any punches. There is one element of something a bit short of propaganda, where they've very much taken the side that Japan was on the verge of surrender so the bomb was not needed, but I was surprised it didn't outright paint the US as monsters.

That said, the last third of the museum is all about the nuclear proliferation from that point on, including some really well made diagrams of the size of stockpiles and amount of tests done by each country, and a really detailed timeline on how the world has wavered off and on around nuclear proliferation. Again, there is no malice in this, and understandably, the museum takes a very strong stance supporting denuclearization. On the whole, the museum is excellent. 

The parks next to it are also nice, the first one which has what they believe to be the actual hypocenter, is mostly a small circular arae with a moving 20-foot high sculpture of a woman and baby, with simply the date & time of the bomb on it below. There's also then an obelisk like thing at the hypocenter. This area is a restrained and solemn. The other park, which is far larger, takes a more vibrant approach. Firstly, the statue there, entitled the peace statue, is large, audacious albeit still quite stunning. There's also a good 15-20 sculptures earlier up in the park that are mostly gifts of remembrance from various countries. Sadly, all the signage was in Japanese, so unless the sculpture itself had on it some info on its source (a few did, like ones from Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt and others) it was hard to know say if a US one was there. The whoel park though is large, vibrant and if anything shows more the strength and reserve of Nagasaki, while the first park is the solemn remembrance of that day.

After that heavy start to the day, I wanted to go a bit brighter, so I headed up towards the one part of Nagasaki I hadn't really gone around in, which is the large hill area at the South end of the city, which houses namely the Glover Garden. Before taht i got a quick sushi nigiri set for lunch at a little sushi joint Sushi Kyo, which was quite nice and something I picked on the fly. It was also the first sushi place I've been to where the main sushi preparer was a woman, which was a nice twist to see.

The Glover Garden is named after Thomas Glover, a Scotsman who lived and helped modernize Japan right after the Meiji Restoration. The area does house his actual house and offices that he used at the time, but also has now expanded to include a larger park taht sits beyond what was his property. You start the route by taking two successive moving walkways (forget the term for them that run at a slight incline) and on this you also get a great view of Nagasaki. The route on teh top takes about 30 minutes meandering throuhg a few buildings, including his primary residence, and various great stonework fountains, plants, and mostly, views. The port is right in front of you, the bridges that cut across the bay leading out to sea are easily visible, as is much of Nagasaki proper. For views alone, it is worth a visit, but the history and the delicateness of the garden are plenty worth it on its own.

You also get nice spots on the walk down from Glover Garden towards normal sea level, from walking past the Oura Basilica, or my chosen handicraft shop, Rumian Glass Work, which is both a shop selling mostly blue glass work (plates, cups, vases, etc.) and the kiln and blast furnace and all that stuff is right there in teh shop. Really nice place and fairly affordable as well. This was helpful as my other shop that I checked out earlier in teh day was selling tortoise shell handicrafts which were ludicrously expensive (I guess fair enough?), so it was nice that this preplanned souvenir spot worked out well.

My last stop was one last ropeway, this one taking you 1,200 feet up Mt. Inasa. The ropeway has maybe the fastest cable car I've ever been on, and you reach the top in about 4 minutes. The weird part, I guess, is taht they run every twenty minutes, so far fifteen minutes it is just sitting there. They do run more frequently in the evening/night, and given how great the view was during the day, I do regret not making time to go at dusk or night, as it probably would look magical. From this angle, with most of the city center right in front of you, the river and bay to the right and endless forest to the left, Nagasaki does look stunning. There's also this really cool thing where at the angle where you can see the peace park peace sculpture (the audacious one), if you are not able to see it, you can press a button and then a green laser light will start blinking near it. No idea how this works, but its a really neat touch. The whole site up there is quite modern, and overall Mt. Inasa was my favorite ropeway of all, even if it wasn't as high up as Mt. Moiwa.

I then headed to the main covered shopping area, not to shop, but to get a truly long overdue haircut, which was a an ordeal. The first palce despite seeming to be empty said they were full - I think it was somewaht racist, but after going to another place where they had a ready to go sign saying that they are uanble to cut non-Japanese speakers because they don't want to misunderstand a request, I kind of get it. Anyway, I finally found a place that would take me, but then realized their razor numbering system is all different. In the end, he asked if I had a photo of what haircut I wanted, and I dug through and found a reasonably close one. I don't think I ended up with hair like the photo, but also wasn't worlds away, and like all Japanese things, the level of precision and neatness in all of it, including a nice shave, was great.

As was dinner, back in the main area, at Osakaya, which has nothing to do with Osaka, and is instead a fairly high-end, but still reasonably affordable yakiniku where all the meat is purportedly A5. I only say purportedly because I'm surprised then that it wasn't more expensive, but the beef definitely tasted buttery and brilliatn enough to be A5. I had one of their set options (rather than picking my own cuts) where you get qjuite a lot for ~$60, including two appetizers (one was a great beef tongue stew), two pieces of wagyu sushi (awesome), and then a series of cuts to grill, and the staff nicely strongly suggest they grill for you - the cuts all looked insane before grilled, adn tasted incredible after. My favorite being the one they termed as a Denver Cut, which was just so perfect. All of it was great though. There's a bunch of yakiniku's and a bunch of price points, and I honestly think this is the best value for money of all I've been to. 

The night took me to spots that weren't open yesterday, starting at Bar Victor, an 80's styled bar with incredibly weird decor, that plays into the pleasantly weird main owner, Victor, who has owned it since the 90s. There was only one other person in there with me (the place at max can hold 20), and I asked him if there are too many bars, and his response was a combination of Monday is their quietest night, and lots of bars just depend on regulars, and many regulars are on leave / vacation as we hit the end of summer. Anyway, Victor was a great place, the cocktails impeccably crafted, and you get a quite lovely broth soup as part of your cover fee.

The next step was Music Bar The Apollo, which was my first true music bar (where they have all the vinyls and what not) in a while, with the odd twist here being they don't really do cocktails, but have a great whisky selection and a really nice sake collection. I opted for sake, whic were all from Kyushu, which I've come to learn is something of a sake hotbed. It was a great way to end teh night, liking the music and the crowd there enough to not venture out anywhere else. Granted, I didn't really have anything else on my list of places I earmarked heading into my time here. Overall, it was a more lowkey night to end what has probably been the one stop that has gone off as close to plan as possible, in a city that has been the surprise of the trip. Kumamoto has a lot to live up to close my mini tour of Kyushu.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 11 - Nagasaki

Day 11 - The Birds and the Trees

I woke up in rain-soaked Fukuoka, easily more rain this morning than there was two days back. Maybe that plus a busy Sunday schedule made traffic on the way to the Hakata station (the main station in Fukuoka) a nightmare, and ultimatley I chose to fast walk the last 4-5 blocks, as I was not making the train otherwise. Of course, I still didn't make the train, as I didn't realize for picking up advanced tickets for JR Kyushu, you need to submit the credit card you used for the purchase into the ticket machine. Of course, I did not have this credit card, and no amount of complaining could fix it. So I missed that train and was out $40. Luckily the next train was only forty minutes later, so this didn't throw off my entire plan for the day, just created a messy, annoying start.

But those feelings of messiness, just like the rain, would be left in Fukuoka - which I should mention ultimately I enjoyed immensely. But the last bit was pouring rain which by stop #1 awy from Fukuoka had turned into just clouds and by the time I reached Nagasaki, a good 90 minutes away by non-super-speed bullet train, there was a healthy, beautiful mix of sun and clouds and I felt I was in for a world of fun. Making it better is right opposite their beaming JR station sits my hotel, the Marriott (using a free night and points), and a fancy mall. Now, this may give a slight misrepresentation of Nagasaki at large, as certainly not every part of town is as fancy as this, but the parts Nagasaki does well it does incredibly well. 

Lunch was in the food court of the fancy mall - as on the fifth floor they have a series of restaurants, including the one I went to which has a Japanese name, but mainly serves offal soup. Now, that sounds weird, and bad, I know, but it is most certainly not. First of all, calling the meat in it offal cuts is probably slightly mislreading - if they called it tendon and collagen and trimmings it would be more accurate. Not sure that would be greatly more appetizing a name, but either way it was a great hot pot experience. The broth itself is great, the cabbage in it is so fresh and becomes so good when simmered into softness, and their little sides of horse sashimi and pickled vegetables are great. On the whole, best lunch I've had for $15 on this trip.

I have a fairly full set of plans for the two days in Nagasaki, and decided to cross off the furthest afield, which is still just 20-minutes by cab away, which is the Nagasaki Penguin Aquarium. The drive out there is stunning, rolling hills, areas of shore and bay, nice bridges - very reminiscent of Busan in a way (which is not too surprising given how close Busan is). The Penguin Aquarium is weirdly great - the weird part being the lingering thought of "why is this here?", as notably penguins do not live in Japan - anywhere near Japan really. But of course, those adorables little fluffballs are very famous anime / cartoon / toy characters and I think that is part of the popularity. The aquarium itself is small but loaded with penguins - they have one semi outdoor space for the ones coming from more temperate areas (Chile, Africa, Australia, etc.), and a second floor indoor area for the more Antarctic ones (rockhopper, macaroni, gentoo, king). They are all adorable, includikng a few non-adults (calling them this as i don't know if they classify as "babies"). The aquarium also has a fairly well stocked two level fish tank mixing various species, and then little side exibits on shellfish and jellyfish - but this place is about the penguins and it does that well in spades.

From there, I headed back into town and started my Nagasaki city-based sightseeing by seeing the Suwa Shrine and nearby Nagasaki Cultural Museum. The Suwa shrine is quite lovely and ornate and for better or worse, takes great advantage of one of Nagasaki's defining features - its hilliness, almost like a Rio de Janeiro in that way. The shrine sits up about 200 steps, and four gates, and from the bottom or top the views of this in front of you are stunning, but the experience on teh steps is awful. Doesn't help when the sunlight has made it a good 10 degrees warmer than it had been heretofore on teh trip. Anyway, the shrine was quite nice, but the cultural museum was better, not only becasue it was indoors.

As always there was a temporary exhibit, which didn't really speak to me this time - it showed various art that looks quite different in a lit room v dark room - interesting concept and fascinating to see but probably I'm not the target audience. Seemingly kids are as they packed the place. The main part though was showcasing in lots of detail the history of Nagasaki, which is a super interesting one. I didn't know this coming here, but Nagasaki was essentially the only port that foreigners could visit / exchange goods at for a good 300 years during Japan's inclusive period. Also with its proximity to Asia and being basically the biggest Eastern port, they've had at various points significant enclaves of Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese. All of this was explained in great detail, including a mini exhibit about the underground Christianity that survived through this dark period in Nagasaki. There is also then an exhibit where you walk through a replica of the old tatami-mat and bamboo government offices that sat at that point. The museum was fascinating, really, just to get a better sense of how special and significant Nagasaki was.

The last sightseeing stop was the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, which is a really modern, beautiful building that straddles a small canal that leads into the bay. The museum is all glass and truly is something to look at. Inside, they had a feature exhibit showcasign various art and sculpture from Kyushu students that all placed well in competitions, and it showed as some of these pieces were really inventive and beautiful. The main hall showed their personal connection, which is 50/50 local Kyushu and Nagasaki artists, and somewhat oddly, art from Spain (including a few Picasso's, Miro's and a Dali). Apparently one of the main benefactors of the initial museum was a Japanese dignitary to Spain back in the early 1900s, but it still is a bit odd that this museum so heavily showcases just these two places. Either way, it was a really nice museum, and there was a roof garden from which you could some great views of Nagasaki port and the mountains on each side. The sunshine helps, but I don't think I've been to a city that "looks" better so far.

The final stops before heading back to the Marriott for the club appetizers (which replaces my usual craft beer stop for these two days - not a bad thing as craft beer seems fairly limited in Nagasaki) was wandering around the main shopping and entertainment district. Getting there from the museum required me walking adjacent to the Dejima area, which is the name of the whole port part, but now it signifies a 5x2 block area that has been kept to look like it would've done at the time of the Dutch. The main shopping area looks all Japanese though, and had some pretty cool shop faces especially in the areas with teh covered mall look (something that seems pretty omnipresent in Japan). Overall, very impressed me first day meandering around.

Dinner was back in that area (most of he restaurants, and nearly all the bars are either in that main area or bordering it), which was my first this trip at a true izakaya. Now, I've kind of back-loaded those, as I have one my first day in Kumamoto and planned at least one if not two for Kyoto. They too were using the same online ordering system most of the craft breweries I've been to have been using. More than just the app they've embraced modernity with really nice plates and decor - but the food was classic izakaya and all quite good, favorites being a great sashimi platter, a great thing that translated as "duck ball" which was strips of confit duck, green onion and some chewy thing in a meatball, and the karaage. The sake was great too.

After a liesurely nearly two hours there, I hit the town which was fairly quiet (it is a Sunday, after all) but quiet only in Japan terms. I had two stops in mind, the first being Bar Nagarre, which specializes in fruit-based cocktatils. I tried two, including a really excellent yuzu one that is among the better fruit based cocktails I've had. The scene was also lovely, and the bartenders here continued the trend from Fukuoka of being on the more talkative side. Sadly, Bar Nagarre is closed Mondays - in fact of all the places I shortlisted there was a nice 50/50 split of those closed Monday v Sunday, as if they had all made a pact to split the two quiet days.

The second spot was Cellar Lamplighter, which has a Germany Dive Bar style (obviously, being Japan, it is still cleaner than any dive bar), and had an extensive whisky, brandy and gin based cokctail list. I tried one which was something like a Brandy Alexander, which was great. Oddly, they also had a selection of local craft beers, which was weird (and went against my statement earlier of there not being beer bars in Nagasaki), so I tried a local IPA which was excellent. 

The last stop for the night was at Bar Ibex, which I read was a more social drinking place, but seems at least on Sunday, its a karaoke bar - but not the type where you reserve rooms and what-not. It is just a bar which also has an open karaoke set-up. The vibe was gerat. It was quite crowded as there was a group of 10 or so that all work at a popular hair salon who are off on Monday (sad, as I would've gone there for my haircut). Wasn't shocked to laern this since they were all incredibly attractive, but they were also super personable (the alcohol helps - the owner was slumped over) and it was a great way to end the night. Wouldn't have guessed that Sunday Night in Nagasaki would be my most social non-club night, but as the day already showed me, Nagasaki never fails to surprise. 

2026 Japan Trip: Day 10 - Fukuoka (Itoshima)

Day 10 - Lost in the Forests

Today was the first day in a while that wasn't impacted by weather, and went off basically as I had planned it from start to finish. Granted, technically I swapped my morning itenerary from something I initially had planned yesterday, but the swap made added sense since my first stop was a good 30 minutes south of the city, and today I had a car. For the second time, quickly grabbing a car from Budget was a simple process, admittedly with not quite as spiffy a car this time as last.

Anyway, from leaving the AirBNB at 10am, I was at the Daizenfu Temple & Kyushu National Museum complex by 11, which was a good pace. I say complex because these two things are connected to each other by the "rainbow walkway", which think of as an above ground version of hte O'Hare tunnel (with similar-ish lights). I did the museum first, as parking is easier there, and it was lovely. They had a special exhibit which was all about Japan during the time of the ice ages, with fossils of animals, artifacts, etc., to book. Again, I found myself quite pleased with the specificity of the special exhibit. The permanent one was if anything an even more elongated, detailed and picturesque view of what I saw in the City museum yesterday, as in a series of rooms you are told the story of really Japan itself, from the time right after the ice age (stretching a bit) to modern day. The artifacts were all interesting, including some really great sections are stuff the Japanese received as gifts during the height of the silk road days, and overall it was a fabulous museum in a large, regal building in the mountains.

The main temple complex was similarly sprawling and grand, one of the better ones I've seen on this trip tp be honest, and reminded me of the my favorites in Kyoto, Nikko, etc., with the added luxury of it being all flat (I guess when you are already a good elevation, no need to go higher). The buildings were a royal red, and really had some nice carving work. The side shrines had some great sculptures of gods, deer and more. Overall, the temple was great, the museum was great, and this is all worth the trip out here. 

What made it better is my main spot for the day was Itoshima, a day/half-day trip to the East of Fukuoka, a town that closely hugs the coast with beaches adn peaks and much more. Itoshima sits about 30-40 minutes away from Fukuoka, and I was 30 minutes West, but it made something of a triangle where I could drive the hypotenuse, and still get to Itoshima in about 50 minutes. The town is beautiful, with some amazing scenery and sightlines. It is a must-do day trip when in Fukuoka, though I probably don't need to say that specifically, since I think its pretty much an unavoidable part of a Fukuoka itinerary.

My first stop was lunch at a place that is a tonkatsu ramen bar by day and izakaya by night. It is the first place on the trip whose name even on Google Maps is in Japanese, so can't really give a recommendation, which is a shame since it was very good. I'm not a huge ramen fan overall (far prefer pho as my go-to asian soup) but tonkatsu ramen is probably my favorite variety, and it was quite excellent - soft pork, great noodles adn a really hearty broth. They also had a nice side of karaage, which as always is excellent. My guess is they're still very, very good when in izakaya mode. 

My first stop sightseeing wise was the Senyo-Ji Temple, the main temple of note in the Itoshima area, which is up a bunch of winding roads, which I will admit was a bit scary to do driving on the other side of the road. Anyway, after a while I got the hang of it and got there, and saw my second quite nice temple of the day. This one wasn't all that orante or flashy (it was mostly wood or bamboo base) but integrated itself so well into the surrounding forests, and had a nice tatami-may style series of interconnected houses and rooms to walk throuhg, including a beautiful pond in the back. This is also a must-do sight, and I can see why. The whole palce is mightily serene, if a bit more uphill than I would ahve liked.

From there the other main sight in this part of the Itoshima area is the Shiraito Waterfall, which is up another series of hairpin turns, and results in a really nice waterfall spot. Now, its far from the largest or most impressive, even for this type of waterfall that is more about the closeness and beauty than say Victoria Falls which is more about the overall awe of it. But it is also right next to the road, and has some great views of Itoshima and the sea behind it - which was a nice preview of the next stop. The waterfall also has this weird thing where I guess somewhat purified water from it is then used to live cook pasta that people eat. Strange, but a ton seemed to be doing it, I guess it is a thing.

The last main stop was my mini-hike to the top of Mt. Tateisha, one of three of this mini mountains that sit between the main city of Itoshima and the beach / coast to its North (the temple and waterfall are in mountains South of Itoshima). Tateishi is not the highest, but the one that has the best position relative to the rest, to give you the best views. It is not a long hike, but a damn arduous one at fairly steep levels throughout the 800m from the trailhead to the peak. I was close to dead by teh top, but man are the views great throughout - the Bay on two sides, rolling paddy fields on the other, the mountains behind you, and then even little slices of Fukouka peeking out on the other. It's a pretty magical setting that was, in the end, well worth the effort to get up.

The rest was a drive on the coastline, with two mini stops, before heading back to Fukuoka - first one being at a random small farmers market type thing selling mainly eggs but also dairy, produce and, for me, a brilliant cappucino. The last was the Couple's Stones and white gate on the beach - sights like these are fairly well known from photos and there are a few strewn around Japan (particularly common in Kyushu). I wouldn't go well out of my way to see it, but it was a fun spot, and especially beautiful as I arrived at the beginning of sunset, to end my time in Itoshima.

Dinner was at Yakitori Koto, which was one of the first meals I booked, and one of the ones I was the most excited about, because it was new - much like Masa three nights back in Sapporo. I had not done a proper Yakitori before. I was determined to do one this time, and Yakitori Koto stood out. It is a really impeccably decorated, designed and pampering place. As expected, the skewers of chicken were so sublime, so fresh, so juicy. The prepared plates, which all used some element of chicken (be it gelatin, shaved chicken, consomme) were excellent. Their final plate of chicken curry was brilliant. On the whole, I am all for the yakitori experience, and this, to some degree, completes my various array of different types of fancy meals, from yakinikus to omakase sushi, to tempura, to kaiseki, to a more traditional one and now yakitori.

For my after dinner activities, I had a lot of time to play with, since tomorrow I am fairly timebound by a train at 10:45. I started by replaying my stops the first night, at Bar Petrol Blue, which nicely for them was more crowded than it was on Thursday, and then at Citadel, which is just a peach of a place. Petrol Blue is as well, with some really great craft gins and whiskeys, this time me trying two half portions of craft gins which were both excellent. Citadel was packed, but I was welcomed back as somethign of a returning hero, enjoying another nice sampler and a play on a martini which were both awesome. 

After repeating two stops, I did want to try somethign new and that led me to Transform, which is a place that even more than Kieth Flack, was after my heart. Up a narrow staircase, you get into this dark, lively little spot with incredible sound system and AC, and on this night three great DJs. The drinks are good and cheap. The crowd was teh friendliest out of any place I had been to in Japan to date (no idea why). It was a place I didn't want to leave, and was sad I didn't come to before. On the whole, it was a great capper to Fukuoka. Out of all the things I look for in a city, the only place where Fukuoka isn't like a 5/5 was cocktail bars, but even there they are quite good - just not up to Sapporo, Tokyo, etc., but from everything else, Fukuoka is a great place and probably the star of the trip so far.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 9 - Fukuoka

Day 9 - Meandering through the Rains

Once again, weather is playing around with my trip. Now, I should say this day ended up quite fulfilling, mainly because tomorrow there is no rain, and there are enough indoor things in Fukuoka to just switch around the orders. If anything, it played better, as I'll have a car tomorrow, so reaching the further out Daizenfu Temple area will be far easier / more affordable tomorrow than it would have been today (not sure why I had planned it for today, to be honest). Checking forecasts further out and it seems I will get relatively lucky in Nagasaki and Kumamoto. And looking back at my time in Sapporo, while rains elsewhere made planned day trips impossible or nonviable, where I was itself was rarely rainy. So I probably shouldn't overly complain. Plus there is no more umbrella friendly country, in terms of every stroe and building front having umbrella holders, than Japan. Add those things up and it still easy to have quite a productive day.

It started with the first of a few museums (what can I say, I am a museum guy - which is especially helpful on a day like this where being indoors helps). The first was the Fukuoka Art Museum, which sits not too far from my AirBNB, near the larger Ohori Park, which I would have loved to walk around more, in the end for the park I could only snap a quick picture of the wide expanse of lovely lake. The Museum itself is quite worthwhile, with a lower floor focusing on "pre-Modern" art, and the top floor on more Modern stuff. The lower floor had a great mini-exhibit where they showed all the statues and sculptures that used to be in a now destroyed temple, andx then a couple other rooms that went deep into prints, pottery, tea sets, etc. The modern floor, however, was wonderful. Not too over the top in terms of contemporaryness, and mostly Japanese artists, with some legends thrown in, including a beautiful Dali that I hadn't seen before, a Basquiat (who I really don't get, but that's an aside), and a Picasso and others. Overall, the trip to the Art Museum was lovely.

From there, it was about a 15 minute walk to my planned lunch spot, but that also happened to have on teh way a temple and two stores I had shortlisted to visit. The temple was nice, but a quick stop given the rain (and honestly it isn't a super notable one, other than it being in a location near a lot of other more interesting things). The shops were both lovely, and a two minute walk from each other. The first is Suenega Folk Art, which is run by this lovely odler man, and has just a collection of all random high quality wares, handicrafts, etc., of all types - where I bought a nice teapot after much deliberation. The second is called Faucalt, which sells higher end china and pottery, in a lovely almost barn like settting - truly the decor of some of these stores is excellent. 

Lunch was at a place called Yanagawaya, which is a steamed unagi place. That's all they serve, and they are damn good at it. You walk in and there is a smell of a combination of steam, smoke and eel and it is salivating. You sit and basically pick what quality and size of eel, and if you want it over rice or rice on teh side (or only eel). You then get a great small plate of pickled vegetables, a lovely, super clean miso soup, and then the box of unagi. The rice has its own sauce or something in it, so the rice by itself is great, but break up the perfectly steam-cooked unagi over it and it becomes somethign amazing. There's also this Japanese version of Sichuan Pepper (the mouth-numbing one) that these places have that I liberally doused over the dish. I don't think this rose to the heights of the Unagi place in Kamakura that had a few more sides and the just grilled / fire preparation of eel may be slightly better (that is the more common than this just steamed version) but still, Yanagawaya was awesome.

After that it was back to museum land - first was a small two-room building called a museum but was more a store. It sat right across the street from Yanagawaya and was not on my list, but the name intruged me of a fossil museum, and truthfully that's what it was. The fossils though were on sale - most $1,000+, but to be fair that may be super reasonable for what I would believe to be real fossils. That was the audible, but the real next museum was probably the best I visited so far, named the Fukuoka City Museum. It has only two exhibits, a permanent one that works almost as a walking history of Japan, but more specifically of the Kyushu/Fukuoka araes, from the first peoples in the area (i.e. Siberian folks who came over land) through to today. It is told in painstaking deatail, but lovely detail, with a ton of interesting images, sculptures, art, etc. The other is a special exhibit, which for right now was a long tribute to the art of Yokais, the spiritual monsters that were all the rage in Japanese mythology and art in the 1600s-1800s. From long scrolls, to prints, to sculptures, it was really engrossing - I love when one of these special exhibits is laser focused on somethign so unique and interesting like this.

From there, I walked around taht little stretch of Fukuoka, which is land taht was reclaimed in the 1980s and hoists a bunch of modern looking buildings, including the Fukuoka Tower. Overall, Fukuoka is a really modern place, a mini-Tokyo, with teh added advantage of more water, be it this area that borders the sea, or the canal/river areas closer to where my AirBNB and downtown Fukuoka is. I would get a gerat look at that on my way to dinner, as the restaurant was on the bansk of the river. The buildings, the architecture, it's all so lovely and modern. Truly as just a city, Fukuoka is really impressing me (should note by this point, the rain had stopped).

There was one fairly mid stop in the middle at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, which had two of its three exhibits closed, but didn't really have any exterior signage, which is a bit annoying. I don't think I've ever been to an art museum where every exhibit is open, but for 2/3rds of them to be closed was annoying. The only upside was it brought me to the more commercial and business end of downtown whcih was glistening and had some great coffee options for a quick pcik-me-up.

Dinner was at Goh, a famed Japanese-French mashup tasting menu restaurant run by Goh Fukuyama, who while being known as one of the more famous chefs in Fukuoka, is also Gaggan's good friend. I randomly sat next to him on my 2022 Gaggan visit (he arrived about 30 minutes late, but when we were later told who it was, it made sense why in this case Gaggan had his staff wait to start the meal). Sadly, chef Goh wasn't there, but the rest of his small team (Japanese restaurants truly to miracles with small staffs) served a truly wonderful dinner. It was the closest thing to a classic tasting menu as I will have on this trip, but that was apprecaited in this case. The cooking was incredible.

Despite the meal taking 2:40, since it is a one-serving at 6:30 start, the night was still early. That's definitely something I'm not a huge fan of, be it here or a few days abck at Masa. These early dinners lead to early night outs which gets rough. Luckily, I took the next thirty minutes or so just walking around the canal area of Fukuoka, including a large extended semi-open-air mall called Canal City, which had a man-made extension from the real canal running through it. It was all tremendous. As was my night stops in this part of the city, of Bar Lapin and Bar Cherokee. I'm not really sure where they get these names from, but with the quality of drinks, who cares. Lapin was probably slightly better of the two, but that may be it was more crowded and a bit more lively. I live in this weird place where I abhor places that are overly crowded, but also get a bit sad if I'm one of just two or three there.

The last stop was back at Kieth Flack. Tomorrow, they have a group coming that is more mainstream so I will probably try somethign else, but all the clubs I shortlisted are in this area near my AirBNB (this was a coincidence, though a great one!), but on day two of my Kieth Flack experiecne it remains a great, great place. The artists were more my style this day, especially on its second floor which was about as close to perfect as I can think of in a setting like this. Writing this (the next day, obviously) I am already reconsidering my idea from a few sentences ago to try somethign else - it's taht familiarity crutch coming back. Let's see what tomorrow brings, but for today, ending the night at Kieth Flack was perfect.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 8 - Otaru to Fukuoka

Day 8 - The Scotland of Japan

Ironically, I probably spent fewer hours doing touristy things today, but packed more in, than yesterday. It was a packed agenda with a clear starting point, the 9:33 train from Sapporo station to Otaru, and a clear end point, the 4pm train from Otaru to the Sapporo airport. Once again, the weather was obliging me, holding off for most of the day, ironically until 30 minutes before my flight was supposed to take off. Anyway, back to the better stuff.

I made the first timebound train by the skin of my teeth. Granted, there was another one thirty minutes later, but that was a slightly slower train, and left unsaid until now was two more constraints - first a train from Otaru to Yoichi at 12:24, and the reason for that train, the tour of the Yoichi Nikka Whiskey distillery at 1pm, a coveted whiskey tour that I was fairly lucky I could nab a spot at.

The first train was fairly routine, and as we reached Otaru with the clouds actually giving way to sun (a rarity on this trip), I called an early audible and gave up the botanical garden, which is at ground level, for another ropeway, this one being the Mt. Tengyaku ropeway, that of course leads to the summit of Mt. Tengyaku. This is about half as high as the Mt. Moiwa one, but in that sense Otaru was way less than the half the sprawl of Fukuoka, though from the summit you see how bit it actually is. The ride up was quick, the views form the top excellent, including as Otaru is a truly coastal city, a great view of the Sea of Japan (assuming Trump hasn't renamed it yet...) behind you. Despite the prevalence of skiing, the areas I've gone to in Hokkaid aren't the highest or most mountainous, but they are rolling cliffs and hills and still quite beautiful. Similarly nice, talking about skiing, was the little three room museum to the legacy of skiing in Japan that was in the ropeway top station (there is a parallel ski life operable in winter). All these trips up mountains have taught me is I probably should make another trip to Hokkaido in winter some time.

From there, I took a cab back to the city center, and specifically the Sakaimachihondori Street, which is a stretch of about 10 blocks taht are in the old school edo style, withs shops and little eateries. It was all lovely, especially the beginning stretch which had stores selling merch and goodies of various cartoon / anime characters - my favorite beign teh Snoopy Village store at the beginning. Not sure if my love of Snoopy is replicated by teh rest of Japan as fervently, as the two other ones to charcters I am unfamiliar with were more crowded. The rest of the stretch of land included some really nice souvenir shops, from kitchenware, to fans, to knives and more. Now none of these things are particularly notable for Otaru as a place, but it was still a lovely stroll.

One thing is well known in Otaru, and that is glasswork. There is a large museum taht sadly I didn't get a chance to visit wuth English-style stained glass throughout. Aside from that museum, however, are about 5-6 boutiques selling glassware, of which I ambled around a couple of them, and ultimately settled on one place and a really nice frosted designed sake holder/pourer as my main Otaru swag.

At this point it was time to head back to the station to catch the local train to Yoichi. This is a 25 min train ride that hugs the coast and you get some nice views of beaches and rock formations, all with the Sea of Japan just glistening behind it. The other side of teh train, which mostly becomes hills and forests super quick, had some threatening clouds overhead, but it stayed dry, which was a great help because the Yoichi Nikka Whiskey tour involved a good amount of outdoor walking.

The tour overall is excellent. Yoichi was the first place that Nikka Whisky company set up shop after founder Masataka Taketsuru studied whiskey production in Scotland, married a Scottish girl, and came back to start distilling whisky in Japan, first for the original company that would overtime become the Suntory conglomerate, and then by his own founding what would become Nikka. He picked Yoichi because the climate, weather, hills, etc., reminded him of the perfect conditions (chemically perfect) of Scotland, and once the tour guide mentioned that part if all clicked together. The distillery groudns and buildings are also built and styled to what he saw in Scotland, and in truth they did a great job. Walking around it, I did feel like I was one one of the scotch tours I took in Scotland. The tour itself hit all the normal spots those did, but also his old house, and a few other notable buildings, and included a free tasting (the tour itself is free, though requires reservations well in advance). Overall, it was a great time, made even better when I realized you can by Nikka Whisky's main bottles here for about 25-30% less than in the US - so of course I took one.

From there, I headed back to Otaru, and headed to a restaurant uncreatively titled Sushibar - I say that in jest as the sushi itself, from their lunch set to their tuna trio (I ordered both - combined bill $25) were great, despite the boring name. This will be my last sushi in Hokkaido, and I can confdiently say the level of sushi is insane, froim the high, high end of Sushi Sohei, to the slightly above mid-level of Tuesday's lunch and today's. The last bit of tourism in Hokkaido was walking a few blocks on the Otaru Canal, which is lovely, tree lined and brimming with life, be it boats or fellow walkers. Overall, Otaru is a charming little town , and I would think a must-do day trip from Sapporo.

The whole day, there were thunderstomrs in the offing, but those held off, and continued to hold off. Some would call this lucky, and it definitely on aggregate was. But then it started to get real dark when in the airport. We boarded on time, but then I could start to see the white flashes of lightning. Frustratingly, ANA only gave update announcements in Japanese, and more frustratingly, their text message service that will text you incessantly about unneeded updates was silent on this, even as it was clear we woiuld be delayed. Finally, the first of what would end up I learn being a wave of storms, passed in time for us to take off an hour late, and of course we didn't make up a minute. Never when you want to make up time is there a nice tailwind. Anyway, Japan is super efficient with getting bags to baggage claim, and Fukuoka's airport is right off the city, so despite landing at 10:00, I made it (with suitcases) to my dinner at 10:35 - twenty minutes behind the reservation time.

The dinner was my first of another type of meal, this time the set beef dinner, where you get 6-7 dishes, most featuring some element of wagyu, one or two featuring the real thing and then finished off with fried rice fried in the wagyu fat. My first one of these ever was in Nikko randomly on my 2023 and was quietly one of my most memorable meals from that trip. This maybe wasn't at that level, primarily because the steak was slightly less sized (it was a couple pieces of four different cuts, vs one single cut) but it was great. The starters were a beef tongue taco (nice), a salad with tuna and beef marrow (excellent), a beef cutlet bolinho (came with a great thin bbq sauce), and then the main plate which had various charcoal fried pieces - some veggies (all quite nice, especially this sauced onion) and then the stars of a sliced wagyu beef tongue (the best tongue I've ever had) and then two pieces each of loin and rump, which were wonderful. One day I should just bite the bullet and get a full wagyu steak at one of these places, but even in limited portion sizing they are excellent. Then came on the sizzling plate cuts of "lemon steak" which was a super sweet cut of beef that I'm not sure what it was, but from this sizzler came the fried rice. The whole meal was great, and actually looking back it is right up there with the one in Nikko, and at a lovely downtown location as well.

From there, it was already fairly late (11:45) but I did want to do a quick whistle-stop tour of a couple Fukouka bars before hitting up the somewhat legendary Kieth Flack (which nicely is two blocks from my AirBNB). The weather held off tonight before what is expected to be rain most of tomorrow, but we'll get to tomorrow, tomorrow. The first place I went was Bar Petrol Blue, another great music bar specializing in craft whiskey and gins (e.g. no real cocktails, other than if you want to add one of their numerous house bitters), and it was a lvoely setting with a really nice bartender/owner. From there, I went half a block away to Citadel, which is a reputed cocktail spot that has a whole host of their own concoctions, and about 70 types of craft spirits, which are basiclaly all flavored alcohols, but flavors such as "Chorizo Vodka" and "Beef Jerky Bourbon". I name those two because along with '"Fig Brandy" I got a sampler of three, and wouldn't you know it, the Beef Jerky Bourbon tasted like beef jerky. It was weird, but excellent.

Weird but excellent is probably also a fair way to describe Kieth Flack. First off, the building looks from the outside like one of the gaudi buildings in Barcelona. Inside, it is the perfect level of grime, along with great ventilation. There are two main floors (apparently threr ias an infrequently used third floor too) which play similarly house/EDM type music. The day I went, neither was too hard, if one being a bit too start and stop for my liking (granted, I don't know if I can really define what my liking is). The place though was just a great level of crowd, fun, with cheap drinsk (cash only) and nice decor to roam trhough like posters and vinyls. The place on the whole is quite awesome, though I worry about how crowded it may be tomorrow when I plan to return. But that's a fear for tomorrow. Today was about a nice way to end the one day that worked out based on my original plan in Sapporo, and a nice introduction to Japan's South Island of Kyushu.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 6-7 - Sapporo

Day 6: Sapporo, Again??

There will be a fairly lengthy preamble on this one, but it is necessary, because these two days were among the rarest form of my travel - planned on the fly. It's due to weather. Not weather in Sapporo, mind you - other than late night on the first of the two days, Sapporo has stayed dry, but weather in other parts of Hokkaido wreaking havoc. First, was rain towards the furthest South part of Hokkaido (near Hokate) forcing all cancalletions of the one specific Shinkansen I was supposed to take to get from Sapporo to my half-day hike and tour of Noboribetsu. Now, Noboribetsu itself had fine weather, as did Sapporo, but alas, there was no easy way to get there. Not to worry, as I just moved all the stuff I was planning to do in Sapporo on Wednesday (the second of the two days in this post) up a day.

But then what to do Wednesday? First I ruled out going to Noboribetsu since it seemed the train wouldn't be restored in time. I then panic booked a day trip to Biei & Furano - the lavender and farm fields in the rolling hills to the Northeast of Sapporo. This is one of the other popular day trips (Noboribetsu, and Otaru being others - of which I am still almost assuredly going to Otaru on Thursday). I chose Noboribetsu becasue of hiking, but called an audible. The only worry though was booking last minute, the tour I could book would have an estimated return time of 6pm, which is the same time as my tempura omakase dinner. So then I thought maybe I should rent a car, as I could drive there and back more quickly. In the end, that's what I did, but then came the actual day, where more issues came up. 

Namely, the weather was expecting to be awful in Biei and Furano on Wednesday. Those sights didn't interest me as much of Noboribetsu in a vacuum, and the weather, and still risk of not making it back in time told me to rule that out. On a whime, I looked up weather in Noboribetsu, and alas it seemed fine until later afternoon, by which point I needed to be gone from there anyway, so I decided to take my rental and drive the 90 minutes down to Noboribetsu. And of course, whatever forecast I looked at was hilariously wrong, as it was raining hard for the back half of the drive. At first I held out some silly hope that it would clear by the time I hit Noboribetsu, but it did not. I cut my losses, had lunch there and then drove back, on what would be my final audible, which actually worked out ok. But more on that in the post about tomorrow.

Overall, these two days forced me to be nimble, which when you plan trips as meticulously as I like to, is not a great thing. However, I will say that given how much I travel, I have been miraculously lucky with weather. Now, there have been some notable exceptions - be it these two days, or what seems to be a messy forecast for Fukuoka next, or probabyl most notably when a typhoon forced me to chop two days and two cities from my 2022 Korea trip. But that Korea trip is a great example - after the monsoon cleared (basically as I landed) it barely rained for the next two weeks. I shouldn't complain, but in the moment it was annoying - and mostly because I'll be leaving Hokkaido not really seeing it at its best.

Anyway, with that long screed over, lets get to what I actually did. The first day of the two went to plan, only the plan was for a different day. The only downside, was this day had an 8:30pm dinner, and there really wasn't enough things to fill it. The morning actually I had planned to just walk around the last remaining city cetner garden areas, including the grounds of the Hokkaido University, which is well known for its rows of ginko trees. That was beautiful, adn the setting serene. Sapporo is a wildly green city. It was only after this travail did I go to the Sapporo JR Station and realize my train was cancelled.

After the mental gymnaistics and scenario planning so detailed above, I did get off my ass and get lunch at a nice lowkey sushi spot Yazaki, where a sushi master plates lunch sets one by one - which is why you are seated immediately, but then in my case told it will be 30 minutes. I get it though and its nice, the chef is just cutting each persons order one by one so you can eat it almost at the pace as if it was an omakase. It was still excellent, even if not the level of the sushi the past two nights. That said, I can't live on just having that level of sushi - and places like Yazaki are what make Japan great.

My afternoon was based on going to three museums within Sapporo (remember, thinking it would be raining on Wednesday, I had moved more outdoor sights to yesterday), but one of those was temporarily closed - the Modern Art Museum having full re-installations at the moment. My trek out to that part of town was not without value though, as my one shopping stop in Sapporo was there, a brilliant artist gallery of a guy that carves animals (mostly bears) out of wood. These are of all sizes, shapes, attitudes and price points and they are all cute, beautiful and just amazing. I ended up buying a couple small ones, already with a mindset where if I am to come back to Sapporo say in 5-10 years, I'll be something more sizable.

The two museums I did go to were interesting. First was the Sapporo Beer Museum, which is a museum about the brewery company that is the leading Japanese export (well, them and Asahi), and also a leading local product. The museum had an audio guide and detailed main room explaining in about 15 steps the history of the company, starting from its roots in teh 1870s when a local Japanese man went to study beermaking in Germany (around the same time similarly people were doing taht for wine, whiskey, etc.), to the  creation of the company, to Japan privatizing it post war, and to the crazy change in advertising strategies over the years (from geishas to housewives to mostly men). It was fascinating, and they had a tasting room at the back where for $8 you can get a half-pint of the standard pour, their special Japan-only label, and one that tries to recreate their original 1920s formulation. Overall, it was a unique, informative way of presenting a beer museum.

The other museum was an aquarium, the AOAO which takes up three floors in a office building right in the heart of the city - right opposite one end of the covered shopping district. The AOAO is small, for an aquarium, but truly lovely. First, they know what sells - most of the top floor is penguins, and a lot of them being as adorable and floofy as always. The top floor also houses a ton of varieties of jellyfish, lit beautifully and overall just mesmerizing in their weirdness. The floor below that has about 50 small tanks of individual fish, eels, salamamders, urchins and much more - all of them really well presented. 

As I had some extra time to kill, I went to Beer Koto, a nice little craft brewery a few blocks from AOAO, which had the same online ordering system and also had a nice set of appetizers, including a lovely charcuterie plate. On the whole, craft beer in Japan is still lagging behind other places, but is basically as good as South Korea at this point.

Dinner was at one of the many, many lamb Japanese BBQ restaurants, all bearing the name Genghis Khan. It took me until coming here to realize that this is actually the name of a specific preparation of lamb, and not just some weird Mongol-inspired name. The one I booked had good reviews, but was also fairly empty - no idea if it was a place any better than most of the others, but i figure they all have more or less the same menu. I had plates of the titular genghis khan preparation (salted and then doused in sauce), then lamb rump, roll (thin slice), loin and hormone (innards), and a mushroom sampler which was excellent. Overall, I will say I'm not sure why this lamb-only yakiniku version has taken over Hokkaido, as I think the beef ones are better, but it was fun for the novelty.

Also fun for the novelty were my night spots of Bar Owl & Rooster and Farben - the latter being right up there with Bar the Hubris from the night before - they too also served their menu as a 2x2 matrix of sweet v bitter and high abv v low abv, and it worked well. All of these bars are similar in strucutre - small, beautifully designed, beautifully crafted. No idea how one differentiates itself from another, but I did get closer to ansewring that question when I went on a lark to Rock Bar Fxxcked Up, a rock & metal bar run by an American and Japanese guy, with the American being the bartender this night, he mentioned that the hundreds of similar bars basically find a few locals and that becomes their running customer base day after day after day - and of course it is hard to build more beyond that but that generally since they are small locations and rent is cheap, it works. Either way, it does make me question of the advance researh I did actually helped find the best places. Either way, places like Farben, Bar the Hubris, and even Rock Bar Fxxcked Up are all nice, and make wandering the crazy, brightly-lit streets of central Sapporo a charm.

Day 7 - And Again???

I already did the preamble of the mess of the day at the start, so let's do a quick whistle-stop on what I did. The first thing is rent a car and get used to driving in Japan, which truly isn't all that difficult. This was my second time driving on the left side of hte road (Scotland in 2023 being the other) so I wasn't a complete amateur, and Japan drivers are exceedingly clam and normal, other than maybe a few fast driving folks on the expressway. The car does an annoying "Please Control Your Speed" message when you go ten km over the posted speed limit, but luckily as long as you stay above the speed limit, it doesn't just continue to do that.

The drive down to Noboribetsu was fine, running through forests and again makes you feel like you are driving in the Pacific Northwest. I did stay there for lunch (reached at 12 nearly on the dot) at a nice little seafood spot named Maruhira, which is one of the few noted restaurants in that part of Noboribetsu. The seafood set lunch, which was about eight pieces of delicate sashimi, rice, great shrimp-head miso soup, was excellent, as was their karaage (of which I had two of the five pieces, savings the others for midnight snack territory. From there, I googled what things I could actually look to do with the rest of my day. I scouted things on the drive back to Sapporo, as it seemed as you head clcoser to Sapporo, the weather gets a lot better. And that's where a splotch of green with a lot of purple "site" icons, sitting around 40 minutes south of Sapporo called the Takino Suzura Hillside Park. From there a bit North is an outcrop of Sapporo called Sapporo Art City. These were all outdoor sites for the most part, but of course that area was dry.

These ended up being all fairly fun and worth seeing and a bit odd that I missed them on my gathering of information on what to do in Sapporo the first time. Suzura Hillside Park is what it says, a large expanse of a park within the forests and hills. The main points of the park is a flower garden area which was beautiful, with four of five sections of vibrant, bright colors. Certainly the pictures you see of the flower parks near Furano are better, but this was a nice minimized version. 

The next stop is a five minute drive from Suzura Park, and it is a series of three sites which are bizarre but beautiful. Bizarre because one is a series of Maori heads, about forty of them, and one of the others is a replication of Stonehenge. The Stonehenge one is a bit of a nothing, but the Maori one is at least visually stunning and also has some nice sculpture of deer and bears and stuff dotted around. Then there is the third site though called The Buddha Hill Temple, which is lovely. It's modern, its basically a white 20-foot tall or so buddha with a circular collapsing wall around it with four of five outcrops of sculpture on the circumference of the wall. It is stunning, replete in white stone and marble. It is serene. It is worth seeing and makes the trip out here worth it enough.

The last stop then was the Sapporo Art City area, which is a large expanse with two main features, one being teh Sapporo Sculpture Park and the other the Sapporo Art Museum. Starting with the Art Museum, it is another beautiful building outside, and inside showcases a really stunning series of art, animal sculptures, prints, etc., from famed Hokkaido artists. Sadly, they didn't allow photos and of course in Japan people respect that rule, so I had to avoid the urge of sneaking a few and just soaked it all in.

The Sculpture Park is another thing entirely and is wonderful. It is a medium sized expanse of forest with winding, interconnected paths with 72 sculptures dotted around. Some sculptures are of people or based on people, some are more modern and angular, some are kitschy, some are super intriguing. These were all interesting though and it is a fairly magical place, that sits just 30 minutes from city center. The Sapporo Art City is absolutely a must visit.

I made it back to the hotel with just enough to time to shower, rest for 15 and then head to one of the more intriguing dinners of my trip, a stop as a tempura omakase called Masa. Tempura is usually not something I go out of my way to eat, but that is silly American tempura which is often over fried, over battered, etc., This is different - with all the art, craft and care that I saw from the sushi masters Sunday and Monday, this was incredible. The first two dishes are non-tempura, are ways to warm you up. Then comes the tempura itself, first with shrimp, then some vegetables (okra, pepper, mushroom, pumpkin) and various fish, oysters, etc. All of these were so perfectly battered, so light, so brilliant. Also the produce and seafood itself was so perfect and fresh, from giant oysters to the sweetest pumpkin. The final dish, like in most kaiseki meals, is a rice bowl of salmon and corn (both tempura) and various greens. It was an incredible experience, and changed the way I look at tempura forever.

The only downside of the meal was it was at 6pm - Masa has a 6pm and 8:30pm seating, but only allows solo diners at the 6pm one. That meant I was done by 8:15, which is way earlier than needed to start my night. Did have to go back and repack somethings and what not, but from there headed first to Moon Sun (where I'm writing this) for some last few wonderful beers, and then checked out Farben and Bar The Hubris one last time, as those have been the two best of the five bars I went to in my time in Sapporo, and showcase again the care, refinement of this great little enclave within Japan - an enclave I saw way more of than expected, but luckily this was not a hugely negative thng.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 5 - Sapporo

Day 5 - The Seattle of Japan

In some ways, you can say that the vacation really begins now - as it is the start of a whole set of new things in Japan. The first time in an island not named Honshu, the first of four straight new places to visit, stay, explore, etc. When I told friends, colleagues, others, about this trip, the fact I was visiting Sapporo always got a reaction. There was less of a reaction when I explianed to them about the Kyushu part of the trip (the South island) there was less of a reaction. The reason largely is for people somewhat aware of Japan, Sapporo is known, the North island is known - mainly as a ski destination and winter destination. For that reason, I don't have any higher expectations of Sapporo than my visits to Fukouka, Nagasaki and Kumamoto later in the trip, but certainly I am no less excited. I don't ski - I do hike and walk trails and the world of Hokkaido seems ripe for that.

To get there of course I had to get out of Tokyo, which was fairly easy. It is a quick 25 minutes to Haneda around 7:15am, and an even quicker check-in and security (Star Alliance Gold, Baby!) so I got to the lounge in Haneda's ANA terminal quicker than expected, by 7:55, 40 minutes before boarding. This shouldn't be a bad thing, but very oddly, the domestic lounge has no food. They have a ton of drink options, which aren't all that helpful at 8am, but no food. Anyway, I'm not a breakfast person, so it didn't matter too much. Soon enough we boarded a domestic configured B777-200 (both ANA and JAL love flying widebodies on domestic routes), and were off to Sapporo, a quick 90-minute flight that I slept for most of.

The immediate thing you realize about Sapporo is the weather, in that it is perfect. Now, I landed Monday morning (10:30am) and there is rain in the forecast from Tuesday Night through Wednesday (not bad rain, but somewhat everpresent) but until that comes, the skies were faily sunny, and there was a light breeze and it was 70 degrees. Just awesome. Less awesome is that the airport is a good 50 minutes outside the city. They have a cheap, convenient dedicated bus that leaves every 10 minutes or so, but still, landing at 10:30 but not reaching the hotel (Fairfield, a way better quality in Japan than the US) until 12:10 was annoying.

Less annoying was lunch at Garuku Soup Curry. The Soup Curry - basically a Japanese bowl of soup, spiced with the famous Japanese Curry flavors, thinned a bit, and then loaded with tons of random interesting elements, is one of the staple novel foods of Hokkaido, and Garuku is one of the more known ones. Known enough that I had to queue for about 20 minutes, but it was worth it. The bowl came packed with lightly cooked chicken leg and thigh, loads of mushrooms including tons of maitake, four quail eggs, brilliantly fried brocolli, and more, and of course the curry itself. All of that was about $15, and together with a cold brew I had a wonderful lunch for $20 that truly was excellent. A great entry into Hokkaido cuisine.

With good weather today, and a day trip to Noboribetsu planned for tomorrow (assuming the weather holds up there...), and bad weather on Wednesday when I would be back in Sapporo, I decided to try to get all the outdoor sites out of the way with today. There aren't loads of them, but the ones that are there take time and are worth taking them in, because you get a sense so well of what Sapporo is about: forests, evergreens, natural beauty. 

This really hit home when touring my first site, the temple complex of the Hokkaido Jingu shrine, that sits at the north end of the Maruyama Park. The Hokkaido Jingu shrine is something of a combination of a traditional shinto shrine in structure and overall design, but mixed with a log cabin type motif - that's where my whole "this is the Pacific Northwest of Japan" comes from - that this is like if you told a bunch of Vancouverite limberjacks to build a shinto shrine. Helps also with the towering trees and evergreens around you as well. It's admittedly a bit of a weird combination this, but it works so well, and is only compounded when walking through the rest of the park.

From there, I hugged the hilly line of this part of West Sapporo, down towards the dual sites of the Fushimi Inari shrine, and the Mt. Moiwa ropeway and summit. For the first, it is Sapporo's version of the fairly well known (in traveler circles) shrine type that is now spread out across Japan - the series of red gates, usually high in number and frequency placed close together. The one in Sapporo is nothing unique, and is probably skippable, assuming you are seeing one in Kyoto (the OG) or somewhere else, but it also sits a six minute walk from the Mt. Moiwa ropeway, so why not.

The ropeway is the real sight here, a two part cable-car that takes you up about 1,300 feet up the summiot of Mt. Moiwa, a large hill overlooking the city. Now, I don't fully know why it is two parts, because the first part is probably 85-90% of the way up, but either way, it helps break up the trip a little I guess, and both rides allow for great photo opportunites, as does of course the rooftop summit where you can really see the sprawl of Sapporo.

Sapporo is an interesting city from this angle - it is by far the tallest point int he city proper. There are no real skyscrapers - the tallest buidling might be a radio tower that sits in the Odori Park (a lovely city park with amazing flowers, fountains, etc.), and the cluster of buildings around that. There are two or three domed stadiums, the main one being the Sapporo Dome (now with some corporate sponsor name) which has hosted WBC and World Cup games. There's the glimmer of the sea to the North, but not truly visible, and then a vast expanse of rolling hills, some small farms and what not behind you. It is a lovely setting and also the starting point for a 50-minute hike down. Now, you can also hike this up (which I passed probably 15-20 people doing that), and of course you can also not hike it down (sadly, the only ticket for the ropeway is a roudn trip...), but I chose to hike it down and that was a great call.

The hike down is lovely - never too steep, though at times quite rocky. There are human-made steps at various points that are helpful, but at no point is it really too frought other than one where they put up ropes to ensure you can hold onto something. Every now and then there are these little buddha statues with red ribbons - probably two dozen sets of these on the way down. It truly is a great hike, though I do think hiking up will be quite difficult.

It still worked up enough of a hunger and appetite that I headed back towards the main town and went to a craft brewery, Moon Sun Brewing, that sits right across the street from teh Fairfield. Other than not letting me get a table, the place was excellent. They sat me at the bar despite being emtpy when I arrived, but admittedly by the time I left they had filled every table. The beer was quite good, enough so that I am definitely considering getting some to go cans later on, and they too have this great mobile ordering system taht seems quite omnipresent in the beer bar world in Japan.

This all led to the main event of my first day in Hokkaido, which was an omakase meal at Sushi Sohei. Now, I didn't go in planning to have two of these back to back, but it did work out that way. It was an interesting contrast, though off the top both are excellent. Sushi Sohei may have had better sushi, but I think the prepared dishes were better at Sushi M, but either way they were both excellent meals. Sushi Sohei is one of many top-flight omakase's in Sapporo, and is the one I actually got a seat at (I put in requests for three of them). So it wasn't like I specifically picked this one out, but it was excellent. The meal starts with seven appetiziers (so unlike Sushi M who intersperses them throughout the meal), which are all of the moment and weirdly where you can't take photos (I guess because he wants to keep these as a surprsie). They varied from sashimi, to fried eel, to a wonderful mint, spot prawn and potato dish. The star though is the sushi - ten pieces of sushi that are all so brilliant, and then a special a-la-carte option of up to five additional (I got two of them), which were all just stunning and perfect. In some ways this trip just started - but in another way, I've now finished two of my three omakase sushi meals and feelign sad about that!

My night events in Sapporo were fun. There is this 4x4 block (my hotel is on the edge of this) where there are bars and restaurants and izakayas and more bars as far as you can see. Who knows how many of them are good, but seemingly every building you walk by has six to ten floors, and in many of those floors there are bars. I had a list picked out and while i was too late for my intended first stop of Bar Owl & Rooster (will go tomorrow or Wednesday) I first settled in at Bar ReCalm, which was a classic Japan cocktail bar. Sadly, they didn't have too many of their own options, but their exacting touch made classic options still excellent. From tehre I went to Bar The Hubris, which was not at all as pretentious as that name would suggest. They did have their own creations - some were interesting Japan-ified plays on classics, and a great vibe. Bar The Hubris was a favorite, and its 3am closing time makes it one that I may likely find myself back in. It was only these two for this night, but with at least three additional (including Bar Owl & Rooster) on my list, it will be interesting to compare and contrast as this visit goes on in what I am already seeing as a top city in Sapporo.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 4 - Kamakura

Day 4 - Temple City 1.0

I say this with love, but you better like temples (shrines) if you want to enjoy Japan and Korea. More than that, you better enjoy trying to spot the narrow differences between some of them and what make them all special. Now, they aren't all special - do your homework, understand going in which are the better ones, which are the more forgettable ones, etc., and you will leave a happy person. Kamakura was my parents first taste of that - in a way it was mine as well, the one day trip I actually managed to do during my time in Tokyo in 2013 (as I've now revealed a few times, by that point in my RTW Trip I had fairly strong home sickness/FOMO and was super lazy). But even for me, this was like re-discovering it.

The day started with us managing to get out of the house early enough to get an earlier train down to Kamakura than expected. The train from Shimbashi there is about 50 minutes, but its essentially an extended commuter train that was fairly busy for the first half of taht until we got past Yokohama, at which point it emptied out a lot. After a quick bit of shut-eye, we got to Kamakura, which I really forgot about how small and beautiful it all is. Even the area right outside the station, with teh Kamachi-Dori shopping area on one side, and the trains to the various temples on teh other side - including the little Enoden train/tram, which we took from the main station over to Hase station, which is where our first two stops were - the Hasedera Temple and the Kotoku-In Temple (more known as the Great Buddha temple). We went to the latter first, because it was a bit further away so we could start there and walk back. 

The Great Buddha Temple is mostly about the Great Buddha, a 30-foot or so bronze buddha statue in the middle of an otherwise fairly staid temple complex. The other beauty is the scenery, all of these are tucked into various bits of hills, forests, etc. You know you are now far away from Tokyo and far into the beautiful Japanese scenery. The Hasedera Temple which was next is more a proper temple - a real first temple for my parents, full of the many different smaller buildings, the various steps adn walls adn steps and walls, the lotus flowers, the buddha statues all over. The Hasedera is probably the best temple in Kamakura (to me), and the best example of what they will see a bunch in Kyoto and other places. My favorite aspect was this running character of Nozomi that they have, a fat, smiling cartoonish buddha statue and figure that shwos up a half dozen times in the temple complex, and is beloved I guess to have its own souvenir store right outside.

Trying to break up the string of temples, from there we headed to lunch, which first took us on a 20-minute traipse through Kamakura, including ten or so minutes walking along the beachfront. Now, this isn't the most beautiful beach in teh world, but it was weird to remember taht Kamakura is a beach town, something that I think gets (probably rightfully) lost among the temples and secrets. Anyways, the walk over to our lunch got the appetite going so we could rightly experience the brilliance that was Unagi No Okamura - a classic Unagi spot where we get our own private room (sliding doors) and first a series of small bites, from great picked vegetables to a lovely mushroom chawanmushi, to miso soup and then of course the main event, a brilliant box of perfectly cooked barbecued unagi over rice. Eel is one of my lowkey favorite things within the Japanese cooking ouevre and I'd dreamed of meals like this - so much so I have booked and/or planned a couple more. Those have a high bar to clear, as Unagi No Okamura was just brilliant.

That meal also geared us up for more walking than I had planned in our post-lunch tour of temples all to the Eastern side of Kamakura, which has a series of them in the hills. The chasallenge was they are all 10-15 minutes apart walking, which is just short enough to make calling a cab to this more remote part of the city not a great business case, but just long enough that the steps add up. The first temple was the Engaku-Ji, which was a lovely setting - wide open\landing areas, regal buoldings, giant stalks of bamboo but all in the backdrop of the forest. I would still rate the Hasedera slightly higher, but the Engaku-Ji was a lovely start, and its a stone's throw from the Kimi-Kamakura station (the stop right before Kamakura proper on teh JR) - a great starting point to head back towards town through the temples to come.

The next was the Meigetsu-In, which was probably the worst of the lot but still had some unique elements - it was the most built into nature (it was basically a botanical garden in small, with a temple inside), and had some lovely elements, like the classic sand and rock garden setup at its main temple area. We sadly didn't make it to the Kencho-Ji temple in time, but did make it back to the main town and the Tsurugaoka Temple complex. I forgot about this one alltogether, but it is a gerat spot. Built right off the town, its a wonderful ending spot like we used it for, as you walk through it (essentially walking in reverse to the normal direction) and it spits you out right at the Nortern edge of the pedestrian shopping village.

In the middle though you get a giant temple (granted, up a lot of steps), some really open plazas, and a graet lake that was just covered end ot end with lilypads and lotuses - a few in bloom, but all open and serene, even with a few birds milling about. It is these things that remind you just how special some of these temples are at the end of the day. Kamakura overall was just a joy throuhg all the temples, even if the shopping at the end was a relative disappointment. This is of my own making though, as I had looked up specific places to visit for souvenirs and handicrafts in all my other stops - you know, the new cities, but didn't for my time in Tokyo. In the end, I did find a nice magnet (weirdly got into the magnet game the last few years, but my rule is it has to be of a secondary city), but also found time to go to a beautiful craft brewery called BTaps that sits a block away from the station, overlooking the pedestrian shopping village. The beers were good, cold and exotic and a lovely way to end a lovely day in Kamakura.

The day itself wasn't over - if anything, the main event was to come, as I was taking my parents out to Sushi M, an Omakase Sushi spot that I went to last time in Tokyo. Tis was their combined Father's Day and Mom's Bday (July 19) gift, made more interesting because heretofore my Mom doesn't eat sushi. She really never has, genearlly doesn't like raw food. Now, this seems to be mostly because she hasn't tried it, but it was an aversion that was going to be tested.

In the end, she had all of it , without nary an averse reaction. There was a bit of me fearing that she would throw up or something. But instead, she enjoyed it. Understandably the rawest, fattiest pieces she didn't like as much (for instance fatty tuna), which makes sense for someone who has never had sushi before, but of course those are also the best pieces. Sushi M also has about five or six cooked preparations thrown in throughout the meal taht are all as excellent as the sushi, and of coruse there is a great calm in just watching the sushi master do his thing. In the end, she liked it, my dad loved it, I loved it, and we had a great time.

From there, they went back to the AirBNB, and I checked off the last remaining cocktail bar I hadn't done previously, going to The Bellwood, which is jsut as lovely this time as last, still in its speakeasy, 1920s decor and clothing, but the cocktails themselves were more innovative, more interesting than them reliving old 1920s classics last time. I also had a long chat with the lead bartender, who convinced me to visit his favorite music bar, Bar Davy, which was a few blocks away, and that too was graet - a bit more rock and roll and less polished than the peerless Bar Fortified I went to yesterday, but given that the Music Bar concept is the one throughline of basically all Japan, I better get used to and love the range of these places as well. If anything, the music aspect of Bar Davy was even better than it was yesterday, and for what amounted to the last thing I did in Tokyo, it was a great way to end my time.

2026 Japan Trip: Day 3 - Tokyo

Day 3: The Return to the Maw

I'm not sure why that in every iteration of the itinerary for this trip I was spending pretty minimal time in Tokyo. Well, I know why - I've been here twice before in 2013 and 2023, and Japan has more exciting places to offer, be it where I am going this trip, or where I went last one. Granted, I have been to Kyoto before, and heading there for the last two full days of the trip, but when planning this out, Kyoto for those days seemed like an active decision. Tokyo was more because you have to fly into Tokyo, and why not get settled in a city I know fairly well. This was the plan even before it became a joint three days in Tokyo with my parents.

Near the end of the first full day in Tokyo, I started to wonder if I underrated the city a bit - or at least forgot its appeal - there is a certain brilliance in just the ridiculous size, the sprawl, the modernity, the bits of nicety that so often get lost (the cheap vending machines on every block), etc. All of that came back to me on this first day, even if it started with something new that I hadn't done before.

It was my Mom who actually discovered TeamLabs Planets, a exotic, futuristic, brilliant interactive museum / art piece in the South end of teh Tokyo. TeamLabs as a company runs many of these interactive things across major Japanese cities, and Planets is their latest and maybe most reputed. It's really hard to describe. Housed in a warehouse turned museum, you just get lost in the ridiculous, teh sublime. There are three areas, titled Forest, Garden and Water. The "Water" is the most known, mainly because you actually have to walk through water at various points, but all were great.

After about three various queues and welcome videoes, where you are heavily suggested to download the TeamLab app, you get to the Forest area. The first room is just an intro - an interactive room where the walls have various lit up bigs and flowers floating around - if you touch one, things happen, be it hte flowers explode or the bugs fly away. It is cute and fun, but small. But this is just the intro. The next room is where it becomes something unreal - entitled "Catch and Collect - Extinct Animals" it is a series of rooms with interactive walls with fantastical lights, motifs, etc., and animals just all over the place - on teh ground, on teh walls, in the sky. You can "catch" them using the app and it will tell you all about what it is and when it went extinct. Some are extinct versions of existing animals (e.g. the Elephants that roamed Northern Africa), but some are truly ancient. The whole thing is mesmerizing. That past paragraph did not do it justice. Same with teh final room in the Forest section which was a series of other interactive displays and surroundings.

Garden is one room, but it is a weirdly brilliant one wehre there is a real life garden suspended upside down from teh ceiling with orchids and many other brilliant flowers. The floewrs are real, you are told very clearly to not touch them, but just sit and enjoy what is all around you. Its all a bit surreal but real, compared to Water which is surreal because it is surreal. Yes, you wade in water, but it is to be surrounded by computer generated koi and other frogs and such floating around and if you approach or touch one they will scramble away. Again, describing this is a fool's errand. Just go to Tokyo and go to TeamLabs and see waht I mean. 

From there, we walked a few blocks over to the Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, which is a created food market / village made to look like the Edo times, selling all kinds of stuff - mainly seafood, as it sits directly opposite the Toyosu Fish Market (which replaced the famed Tsukuji as the actual practicing fish market - the Tsukuji is now just food stalls). Teh setting was lovely, and a graet way to get my parents used to the Edo-style architecture and lovely little stores and stalls. I told them repeatedly that they will see more "real" versions of this in the cities to come, but a nice intro here as we split about six skewers and an ice cream.

After this, our last joint tourism of the day happened much closer to the ehart of Tokyo, visiting the Meiji Temple, the sprawling park / temple complex that sits between Shibuya and Shinjuku. This was their first of probably two or three dozen temples they will see on their trips across both Japan and Korea, and also in that sense a nice starter. The Meiji is in  no way the most ornate, or most beautiful, but it is peaceful, serene and also just crazy in the sense that this temple and the giant park that surrounds it exists right smack dab in the middle of Tokyo. Our trip there included all the requisite photos and oogling the sake and wine barrels exhibit - a lasting testament to Emperor Meiji's belief of learning the great Western traditions (which has given us things like Japanese Whiskey) in his whole strategy to open the country up. It was also during this time that the overcast skies finally gave in and started raining, which was right aroudn the time we were splitting up and both shifting indoors - them for shopping, and me over to Roppongi for the National Art Center, and some craft beers.

The beer first, a lovely little brewpub called Ant N Honey, sitting in Roppongi, in a shadow from both the Tokyo Midtown Mall complex and the National Art Center. It was down this little lane, and had about six beers on tap, all from Japan and at least the three I tried were excellent. The National Art Center was a relative disappointmet, however, but it is hard to blame them. It is an Art Center in the sense it always has rotating exhibits. When I came last time, their main exhibit that took up basically 3/4s of the galleries, was showcasing a national art competition over the past three years and was incredible. This time, taking up 2/3s of the galliers was exhibits on language prints, which while I'm sure they were wonderful, I just didn't get. The one special exhibit on the works of Picasso was quite excellent in ikts design adn setup, even if I'm usually not a fan of being bombarded with European artists in non-Europe.

After a quick R&R at the AirBNB, I headed out to dinner at Eureka, a recent add to the Eater 38 for Tokyo, but a place taht was seemingly mostly locals when I went. The concept is simple - it's basically a hyper-focused Sake izakaya, where they ahve all the normal Izakaya type small plates but with weird modernity and craft, along with a boatload of sakes. What most people do, and I did, was do the "omasake" where you order your plates and they'll recommend sake pairs for it. The sake half of the equation was great, but to be honest, so was the food half. I basically got five starters and a half portion main, ranging from an onion & eggplant mouse (great, especially on bread), a lamb and mince summer roll (brilliant), a just brilliant fried karaage, and maybe my favorite, which was the half portion, of a lamb steak and maitake puree. THe lamb steak was unreal in terms of cook and flavor. Eureka was a home run, and way more affordable than the setting and reputation would indicate.

On this night, my parents did join me for at least a couple rounds, trying out a new cocktail spot for me in Tokyo Confidential. The setting was great, a covered outdoor space with clear views of Roppingi Hills (and as always, endless Tokyo behind it). The drinks were excellent, all their own concoctions based on common Japanese junk food - like a cup of noodles inspired bloody mary, to one based on an Onigiri. Overall, Tokyo Confidential was great, entering my personal rotation. As was the next place which just I went to, which crystallized what is probably one of my top two or three things of Japan - the Music Bar.

It's called Bar Fortitude, a stone's throw from Tokyo Confidential - and its a classic Music Bar where the barmaster picks the music, and does all the drink preparations, focusing on a giant roster of fortified wines (hence the name), and cocktails he built nbased on those, presented in teh form of a board. They were unreal - things like cardamom flavored negronis and the like. They were all so well crafted, so tastefully decided and made. This whole place was the perfect embodiment of Japan, as to was my nigth ender at Vent, which I think has firmly re-established its place as one of my favorite EDM clubs on earth. Tokyo itself has done a lot to maybe establish itself higher up my rankings of favorite cities on earth as well.