Japan with my family was just eating whilst my dad went to see temples. I brought my camera and intended to create some kind of travel guide or fancy travel diary, but I came back from my trip, looked through my photos, and mostly just found photos of food taken with my iPhone. I didn’t take out my camera at all! I suppose I didn’t feel any urgency about it because I had visited the same areas in Japan three years ago (recap here). But anywho, here’s a little food diary of what I ate in Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto!
Osaka
Because the hotel we stayed at was right by Osaka Station, we grabbed a quick dinner in the Eki Marché shopping area of Osaka Station the night we arrived. Well, we meant for it to be quick. When we arrived at our chosen restaurant, Hakata Motsunabe Yamaya (for offal hot pot), the line for the wait was long and slow-moving. However, that only made us more determined to eat at such a popular restaurant. During the wait, my mom and I wandered off to the nearby food court and we grabbed some cheese tarts from Oven Lab to munch on in line with the rest of the family. I was also tempted to grab some bubble tea at Tea 18, but the line was obnoxious. We did come back for it another day though!
The next day, we couldn’t get some people out of bed early enough, so we decided to spend what little we had left of the day in Osaka. (It wasn’t me, but hey, I sympathise; holidays are meant to be restful and relaxing!) When we finally got everyone up, we made a beeline to Kani Doraku at Dotonbori, the iconic crab restaurant. We got a number with an estimated wait time of 50 minutes, meaning we’d get in for lunch at 3:20PM, or as my family likes to call it, “lunner” (what’s brunch? Who is she?).
There was plenty around to pass the time. Just outside Kani Doraku was a to-go line so we pre-gamed with some nibbles from there before exploring the rest of Dotonbori. On our way to Kani Doraku earlier, we passed by a super long line for takoyaki at Kukuru, so since we had time to spare, we decided to head back there and get some for ourselves. By the time we got through the line, got our takoyaki, and ate it, it was pretty much time to head back to Kani Doraku.
For our family of five, we ordered five set meals, which included three different kinds of sets, and each set had different courses of crab cooked (and not cooked) in more ways than I could imagine. At the beginning of the meal, I took a photo of every course, but by the end I could barely move. Whilst eating, we noticed a balcony through the restaurant window and saw a bunch of people looking out at something, which we later discovered was a river, along which a girl group was performing. We noticed one particular member of the audience in a blue hoodie wearing a dog mask…
After lunner, we searched for Bic Camera, an electronics store by the Sennichimae shopping arcade, and along the way we spied fries at Torikara Stick, which we somehow found space in our stomachs for. They seemed to be popular for their fried chicken and fries (which you can season yourself by choosing seasonings from a large selection, tossing them in the bag, and shaking it up), but we definitely didn’t have space for fried chicken.
At Bic Camera, my mom was looking for a curling iron and discovered the Dyson Airwrap, which she tested and got obsessed with (our family loves Dyson — Dyson fan heaters, Dyson hair dryers, etc.). The rest of us spent our time at Bic Camera looking at snacks and left with two humongous bags. At one point my mom pulled me away from the snacks so that she could use my long hair to test the Airwrap, ~tragic~.
Kobe
We got out earlier the next day and caught up with sleep on the long subway ride from Osaka to Kobe for a lunch of Kobe beef. We decided on Kobe beef teppanyaki at Mouriya, which was full when we arrived, but the host was so accommodating and called another branch, checked their availability, then had another employee walk us down the street to that branch, all the way to the door! I’m pretty sure we were the only customers at that branch, Mouriya Lin; the first restaurant we tried might have been the flagship. Anywho, we ordered three different kinds of steak, which were rib eye, sirloin, and fillet.
After lunch, we rounded the corner and I caught the tantalising smell of taiyaki at Naruto Taiyaki. They had two different fillings for taiyaki: red bean and sweet potato. Looking at the photos, I had initially thought the sweet potato was custard (I usually go for custard), but when I found out it was sweet potato, I decided to go for it anyway. I think it was my favourite taiyaki in my life, ever. The sweet potato filling was delicious (I haven’t come across sweet potato filled taiyaki before, but that’s because I’m a creature of habit with my custard filling, so I don’t know whether sweet potato filling is unique) and the pastry itself was both crispy and fluffy. We also got a red bean taiyaki to share. My brothers got ice cream sandwiches; one got a plain vanilla ice cream sandwich, and the other got it with red bean paste.
Desserts in hand, we roamed around looking for the bus to Kobe Harbourland. Dad was intent on getting scenic photos around the harbour, and the rest of us ventured to Umie mall to entertain ourselves. I could have spent all my time at Donguri Garden, the official Ghibli store (it’s a chain). I was so tempted to buy a Totoro pine cone ornament, Totoro mini puzzle, No Face cable bite, and a rooibos tea blend in a Kiki’s Delivery Service tin. Alas, I was too overwhelmed and left the store without a single thing in hand. Besides Donguri Garden, we also spent time at Frantz, where I got hot chocolate (their custards are also delicious and they come in cute little pots. I tried them last time I visited), and Calbee+, where we got fries.
Kyoto
We spent our last full day in Japan in Kyoto. Recalling how troublesome it was to get from Osaka to Kyoto via public transportation the last time we visited, my dad decided to call a car for the day. Our first stop was for the Sagano Scenic Railway, also called the Sagano Romantic Train. Apparently our family has tried to ride this scenic train before, but always came too late when it was closed for winter maintenance. I just checked their website and discovered that they closed on December 28 this season, which means that we snuck in just in the nick of time; according to the polaroid, we visited on December 27! Oh yeah, so during the train ride, a lady was going around taking polaroids of customers (an official lady, with customers’ consent), and we had the option to buy them in a snazzy lenticular souvenir frame. (That polaroid is the only real polaroid in this post… Yikes, exposed!)
Finally it was time for lunch (our first day not starting the day with lunch!). We picked out Hanamikoji Street in Gion to browse for lunch, but none of us did any research beforehand and it was difficult to know what was good since all the storefronts looked the same. It’s a very picturesque area though. There were quite a few groups of people getting their street style Instashots.
Next up was Kiyomizudera Temple. Up the hill to the temple was a market with a bunch of vendors. As someone who loves street food, I would have preferred lunching my way through the market than at expensive restaurants on Hanamikoji Street. After peeking at the temple, we left my dad up there to finish his thorough sight-seeing and photography whilst the rest of us stuffed our faces in the market. We shared sesame matcha soft serve from a shop whose name I didn’t catch and matcha cream cinnamon puffs from Kiyomizu Kyoami. The soft serve was sooo delicious, and the matcha cream cinnamon puffs were good as well, but I think I was a bit too stuffed to fully appreciate it.
Our last stop was the Fushimi Inari Shrine. I was immediately enticed by the market outside the shrine; apparently I had digested my snacks from the previous market already. This time we went straight for the market and left my dad to go explore the shrine himself. The market here held more vendors whilst the previous market held more proper shops. I had myself an average custard taiyaki (wouldn’t recommend), my mom had grilled crab on a stick, and my brother had a spiced senbei. There was a plain, non-spiced senbei enveloped in a large strip of dried seaweed with the shrine printed in white on it, which would have made for a marvelous photo, but my brother wanted to try the spiced flavour. There were also Kobe beef skewers and toasted mochi, but we didn’t try those although we wanted to. Now thinking back to it, I don’t know why we didn’t get them. I don’t understand. We wanted to get a Kobe beef skewer for my dad but figured it’d cool by the time we got it to him. Still coulda tried it ourselves though…
Anywho, we made our way through the market and my dad was still roaming the shrine, so we decided to take a quick peek into the shrine and it wasn’t until then that I realised where we were LOL. I felt dumb thinking about how dumb it would be to make it all the way to the Fushimi Inari Shrine and not see it hahh. Crisis averted.
I think that’s pretty reflective of what state of mind I was in at that point in the trip. Towards the end of trips, I often start feeling tired and lazy, burnt from the excitement. Our Japan trip came to a close just in time, and we flew back home to Beijing to relax and ring in the New Year.
Now I’ve just gotten back to Philly and will be spending the second half of the week in Hawaii with my parents! My brothers will be back in school hahh. I’m debating whether or not to bring my camera… The iPhone XS camera is pretty impressive, no? But I should probably bring my camera anyway, just in case; better to have it and not need than need it and not have it.
Where have you traveled this winter?
PS: winter break 2015 in nara, osaka, kyoto, universal studios japan