We went to Japan

Ever since our first trip in 2016, I always try to take a trip to Japan once a year. However the pandemic over the past couple years made it rather difficult to get back out there given all the restrictions and precautionary processes. This year we were finally able to make it back out there to my favourite place in the world!

Since we went for two whole weeks, I cut down the day-by-day and stuck with just the main points of the trip. We flew in via Haneda and went straight to Yokohama to start our adventures.

Moving Gundam

This was probably the biggest reason we went to Yokohama. We love Gundam and seeing this one actually move around was incredible.

Cup Noodle Museum

Can’t visit Yokohama without going to the Cup Noodle Museum! It was cool to see the room with every single cup noodle product made.

Suika never stops

We walked around World Porter and found a suspicious melon! (Don’t buy these, they are supposedly unauthorized products).

Yokohama Landmark Tower Sky Garden

Pretty sure we have been here before, but its always worth it to get a good view of the city!

Hakata Ramen

The first thing we did once arriving in Fukuoka was to find some delicious Hakata Ramen. We found "赤のれん" and ate a delicious ramen where the broth was creamier than we were used to! It was unique and delicious and exactly what we needed after being on a shinkansen for 4 hours!

Our Swanky Hotel??

Since we were staying in Fukuoka for a couple days, we decided to go all out and book a Ritz-Carlton. This hotel was the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at and boy did I feel out of place there.

Wandering Fukuoka and Nooice

One of my favourite things to do in Japan is just walk around and get lost in the neighbourhoods. We found a neat cafe named Nooice (noice.) which had a very tasty black sesame latte.

Canal City

Fukuoka is well known for its large shopping centre called Canal City. It had a great variety of shops to explore, and even has a fountain that plays a show every hour.

Kushida-jinja and Tocho-ji

Fukuoka has a ton of rich history I did not know about! We visited Kushida where the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival is held. After we visited Tocho-ji which has Japan’s largest seated wooden Buddha. Underneath this Buddha was a passageway that was pitch black (and I mean we could not see a single thing!!). We reached out with our hands to feel the wall and followed it out. What a surreal experience.

Kirby Cafe

I wanted to visit a Kirby Cafe and the one in Hakata was perfect. They were running the Winter Menu and I just wanted to eat some food modelled after a cute mascot.

Mandarake

I adore window shopping in Mandarake. I don’t usually buy anything in the glass cases, but its fun to look at toys that were made before I was born.

mister donut x pokemon

This isn’t Fukuoka specific, but we had our first misudo x pokemon donuts on our way to Nazoin. They were really tasty! I liked the Psyduck one.

Nazoin Reclining Buddha

Nestled in a hilly countryside is the Nazoin reclining Buddha. It is so massive and absolutely worth a slightly longer than usual trip out.

Gundam F-Side

On our tour of all the Gundams in Japan, we stopped by Gundam F-Side. This Gundam was huge and we got up pretty close to it! Unfortunately when we visited, it was having maintenance done.

Ohori Park

We visited Ohori Park in the late afternoon and it was beautiful. Plenty of greenery and wildlife around. We didn’t stick around for too long but it seemed like a great place to get some exercise if you lived there.

Sumo

We had one whole day set aside for sumo. We preordered tickets well in advance from a redistributor and recieved the tickets in the mail. This was absolutely the number one thing we were looking forward to this trip and boy did it not disappoint. We have been following sumo since 2017 and it was a goal of ours to see it live. It was hype as heck with everyone calling out to their favourite wrestlers.

Death Note Exhibition

Oh MAN I am so glad we were in Osaka while this was going on. It has been a dream of mine to see the original manuscripts of all my favourite manga from childhood and Death Note is absolutely on the list. I definitely bought a ton of things at the shop.

Universal Studios...

So... we tried to enjoy Universal. Unfortunately we were not able to get in to the Super Nintendo World area that day. I’m not sure if we just picked the worst day imaginable but it was not very fun to see wait times be over 2 hours for every single ride.

Umeda Sky Tower

To fill the rest of the day after a disappointing few hours at USJ, we headed to the Umeda Sky Tower. As a designer, I loved the architecture and thought put into the design of this place. It also had a great observation deck!

Koji Kinutani Tenku Art Museum

Alongside tickets to Umeda, they also offered a bundle ticket to see the Koji Kinutani Tenku Art Museum happening in the opposite tower. So of course being the art nerd that I am, we decided to check it out and it was pretty awesome! His paintings are done in fresco and his sculptures in mixed media. It’s particularly impressive when you see just how large some of the canvases are!

Umeda Sky Garden

Just outside Umeda tower was a small garden that we wandered around.

Capcom Cafe Osaka

We needed to kill some time so we ended up scoring a reservation to Capcom Cafe Osaka. They were doing a collaboration with the characters from Ace Attorney and the food was tasty!

We headed to Tokyo via Shinkansen and grabbed a tasty ekiben! Once there we checked in to our next major hotel which was almost just as swanky as the Ritz-Carlton from earlier.

We found Blue Bottle!

The one thing I miss dearly after leaving San Francisco is Blue Bottle! Hilariously, the menu and design is the same no matter where the blue bottle is so ordering coffee every morning was super easy.

Return to Nakano Broadway!

Nakano Broadway is such a place of wonders it’s always worth a return trip.

Regrets at CoCo Ichiban-ya

We were told CoCo Ichiban-ya has different spice levels, so being the idiots we are we decided to challenge ourselves. I got level 8 while my partner got level 15 (he’s nuts) and well, they were not enjoyable. I think I could have done level 10 but it would have been mostly pain. After enough bites, you don’t really taste curry at all haha.

Small Worlds

I have written about my love for miniatures, so we had to visit Small Worlds. Not only did they have a fantastic and magical exhibit, they also had a huge area dedicated to replicating Kansai airport complete with planes taking off and landing. The highlight of Small Worlds was their Evangelion exhibit that actually had a miniature Neo-Tokyo that transformed.

Diver City Again!

Just to complete the Japan Gundam Tour, we headed to the Unicorn Gundam near Diver City! That’s it! We visited every Gundam in Japan!

Monster Hunter Bar

We are gigantic fans of Monster Hunter. So when I knew we were going to be in Tokyo around my birthday, I thought it would be a great idea to get a reservation at the Monster Hunter Bar to celebrate! It was so much fun to see the place decorated like a gathering hall from the game, and to see a bunch of weapons and armour on display.

Warhammer Cafe???

It makes sense when you think about it, but I was completely shocked there was a large store in Akihabara dedicated to Warhammer.

Tonkatsu Marushichi

We heard about this tonkatsu place from a youtube video and absolutely had to make the trek out to devour the tonkatsu from the gods. Tonkatsu Marushichi has to have the thickest tonkatsu in their katsudon I have ever seen! There was a line up when we got here, but luckily we were able to get seated in the first group. A server took our order before the shop opened, so there was no fussing with a menu or anything!

Shueisha Manga Art Heritage

Because I’m a gigantic manga nerd, I had to visit the Shueisha Manga Art Heritage exhibit in Azabudai Hills. They had printed a bunch of iconic scenes on really really fancy paper using a metal plate which was also on display. Apparently you could buy these pieces? But I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on them unfortunately.

Ryogoku Kokugikan National Sumo Arena

No sumo was happening in Tokyo, but we thought we would head in the direction of Ryogoku to at least check out the sumo stadium. We were surprised to see a small sumo museum and shop open even if no events were taking place.

Sumida Hokusai Museum

I’m an art nerd that likes to do art things. Also if I told you that you are likely familiar with an artwork created by Hokusai, you might not believe me.

Return to Oni Ramen Heaven

We visited Kikanbo on our previous trip and thought we would return again! This was such a memorable meal we decided to go full Oni level hotness. I tried the other type of pepper which was alright but I definitely prefer the kara chili pepper instead.

I absolutely want to return again soon. Japan is still my favourite place in the world. Next time though, I would like to gain more fluency in the language and communicate with locals better! From a day-to-day living perspective, it is so far ahead of living in North America. Their public transit is basically perfect and the fact that I can get from Fukuoka to Tokyo in around 4 or 5 hours via Shinkansen is the dream. I wish to someday live there or move there!