Japan 2020

So off to the new year we left on Jan 9th to Japan. We flew JAL for the very first time in my opinion Air China (owned by Taiwan) is far better in regards to service and the food. But, overall a safe journey to our layover in Tokyo and our first destination, Osaka. The last couple of times I travelled I had issues with pressures around my knee area so I decided to purchase some compression tights which helped a lot during this trip. I highly recommend them if you have similar issues. I purchased the 2XU flight compression tights. I also had compression socks which I purchased from amazon. But the tights work well on its own. My only complaint is the material is very absorbent so after your flight it really stinks the material just fyi. The flight went smoothly. We arrived in Osaka without any data so we got quite lost about an hour and a half of searching for our hotel. We stayed at the APA hotel near the highway. I didn't know it was that close to the highway and our room was facing the highway so there was a lot of noise. I wasn't aware of this so make sure you check thoroughly the location of your stay. The rooms were small typical of japan but the anemities was there. We were about a 15-20 min walk from Dontonburi "eat street" of Osaka. Which wasn't to bad. I loved Osaka, it felt safe, the streets were clean and everyone there just biked everywhere. It wasn't busy at all, relax, chill environment even the main street area wasn't too busy which I prefer. Osaka is known for their takoyaki, okonomiyaki pancake, grilled meats and deep fried veggies and meat. Some of my favourite food items there was the melon pan with ice cream, fresh mochi from the stall near the Osaka Aquarium. And my very first ramen was from Ichiran. This was a fast food chain and it tasted just like the instant noodle package. The soup was the same and the noodles were the same but I finally go to try the egg (perfectly marinated) and the pork (thinly sliced, marinated to perfection).  I really enjoyed my stay in Osaka even though it was only 2 days.
            Next up, Hokkaido: we flew from New Chitose to Sapporo, my bf had a snowboarding trip with his friends at Kikoro resort for 5 days. New Chitose airport is my favourite airport so far, lots of places to eat, places to see ie. fish market, ramen street etc. Lots of good souvenirs to get for family and friends. You can spend a whole day there just eating and shopping. And the iso cream was definitely the best of all. Creamy, delicate, milky just the best. Kikoro resort is owned by Thai ppl because there was a popular film that got filmed in the area so they bought it. We stayed at the Marriott and it was super comfy, bed was amazing, huge space in the room, the only thing was the limited amount of things to do there and the food was just terrible and expensive. The all you can eat buffet was $67 cdn per person. Other restaurants available were poor quality. Thank goodness for our good friend who drove us into town to Otaru to have delicious food. I rather go to a Lawson's or 7-eleven then to eat at the resort. I spent most of my time: walking around, going to the onsen, reading a book, and working out. It was really a down time for me during this time. Best thing I ate on this part of the trip was the Ebi Ramen from the airport, ice cream from Jersey Cream at the airport, the egg sandwich from Lawsons.
               Lets talk about the hotel we stayed at near the New Chitose airport: Its called the Hotel Wing International New Chitose. The walls were pink, the tv selection manual had porn on it. So it was literally a one night stand kind of hotel. My bf said the walls and floors was sticky. OMG worse hotel ever! Thank goodness it was only for a night stay.
               One thing to note is that I have high cholesterol and every since then I restricted myself from eating fatty foods because my gallstones will react and then I will have acid reflex. I also cut eggs from my diet. But, I heard from many that eggs in Japan was just too delicious not to try so I did. And I felt fine.
               For my birthday everyone decided to go into town with me to Sapporo to partake of the round about sushi. My bf mentioned this place before and we waited about 30 mins before we got in. The seafood was amazingly fresh. The best was the toro, mackerel, flounder. We did karaoke and had Italian food to end of the night.
               After 6 days in Hokkaido we were on our way to Tokyo, Tokyo what can I say its a version of Netflix. So many choices, too many choices to shop, eat and look around. My least favourite place to be to be honest. It was just too busy for me. The hustle and bustle, the ppl just was overwhelming.
We decided to run around tokyo for one of the days we stayed. And the stop lights were unreal: super long, super busy. The metro station makes the one in Vancouver look super weak sauce. But, I'm glad our metro system is simple. I was just overwhelmed. And the heating must I say...you go outside its cold you go inside its super warm. Everything is super warm: the malls, the trains, the toilet seats. OMG! The back and forth of the temperature is just so vast. The best thing I ate in Tokyo must be the ramen, ramen, ramen, the baked goods is amazing, coco curry, tempura. We vistied: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Roppongi, Akihabara, Asakusa. We visited the Senso-ji Temple, Imperial Palace and Meiji Jingu, Odaiba for the Aquarium, Rainbow Bridge, Ghibli Museum, Piss Alley, Teamlab Light Show, Tokyo Lounge for a burlesque show.
              Off to Kyoto we go. We decided to stay 3 days in Kyoto and we explored the temples around the area. We went to Arashiyama to do a 30 min hike, checked out the bamboo forest, had delicious green tea ice cream, had some soba noodles, went to Gion to see the geishas, visited the Nijo Castle, went to Nishiki Market to eat soy donuts, sesame ice cream and mochi,
              Last stop was Kobe, we fulfilled our dreams of eating kobe beef. We started off eating at Steakland which was about $150 cdn for 2 ppl and we topped it off the next day with eating Kobe beef ramen which was unbelievable! Went their twice. First for the ramen noodles next up the kobe beef rice bowls. And we ended it up with a bang and went for a $400 cdn meal at Tanryu Sannomiya Kobe for a one in a life time experience. Set menu which consisted of: sliced raw kobe beef, salad, kobe beef grilled to perfection, veggies, fried rice and fruit and custard to end off the night. We had a personal experience cause it was just two of us with the chef but that melt in your mouth meat was super beefy, super tender and just out of this world! We will be back again!
               Overall, a great trip would I do it again? Yes but I would skip Tokyo and just go to Osaka, Sapporo and Kobe. It wasn't a relaxing trip because we went to see and be in so many places in 21 days. And the weather was alright not too cold not to hot so it was a great time to be in Japan.

Tokyo Tower

Tempura Soba Noodles

Arashiyama Gardens

Donkihote in Kobe