Japan April 2012 - Day 3 Uji

Uji is a small town on the banks of the Uji river about 30min by train n the Nara line from Kyoto. It is known as the Green tea capital and is famous for green tea, green tea desserts and the Byodo-in Temple, which is on the reverse side of the 10 yen coin. Being the green tea lovers they are, the two girls requested that we visit the place while we were at Kyoto.

Tonkichi

Having reached at 1030am, we headed straight to a famous green tea dessert shop called Tonkichi. They only open at 11am and we decide to take a walk to the river side and see if there were any restaurants open for lunch. It turns out that the shops and restaurants here mostly open at 11am, some at 12pm. After half an hour's walk we end up at Tonkichi's riverside branch which just opened it's doors.

Matcha cake and ice-cream

Cha-soba and pickled mackerel

Ocha and Matcha "nougat"

The pictures speak for themselves. And the verdict is... Best dessert i have ever had. The ice-cream was soft and creamy. The cake was not too sweet and had just the slightest taste of matcha. The "nougat" was a something between a soft nougat and marshmallow. The Cha-soba was perfect, not too chewy.

What do we shop for in Uji? Green tea of course!

Pathway to the restaurant

Garden within the compound

Eating area

After shopping, our craving for the matcha desserts returned and since we were not coming back, we decided to visit the main branch of tonkichi. I'm very impressed with Tonkichi restaurants as the eating area is just a small portion of the establishment. The rest of it are gardens and pathways. They could easily do renovations to triple the seating size but chose not to so as to maintain the serenity of the environment.

Just looking at these pictures make me want to go back to Uji. Since it's Jamie's favorite place of our entire trip, we just may.

Phew! A typhoon struck today just after we came back by Shinkansen from Kyoto. All subway trains were delayed till after the typhoon though. Thank goodness we met a nice Japanese lady who wrote chinese characters to explain what was happening to us an then brought us to another underground line to go back to Namba where coincidentally she worked at.

We even managed to reach Shinsaibashi before the stores closed to do a bit of shopping.

Takoyaki

Kushikatsu

As per normal, we had dinner / supper at Dotonbori. First we sampled one of Dotonbori's 6 or 7 Takoyaki stands and then had some Kushikatsu which is an Osakan speciality.

Japan April 2012 - Day 2 Osaka / Shirahama

We woke up bright and early the next day and met at 8am in the hotel lobby.

On the way to Universal Studios, we stopped at Yoshinoya to check out the difference between Japan's and Singapore's version.

Gyu -Don

And the conclusion is... things are just better in Japan. From the moment we stepped in, the cheerful greeting of "irashaimase" rang out, and menus and green tea were placed in front of us. We felt that we were really in Japan.

















The moment we got out of the train at the Universal Town Station. We thought," Oh oh! This doesn't look right."

















As it turns out, there was a week long school holiday in Japan. This queue is just for the entry, the queue for tickets is just as long. Oh well, time to ticker with our schedule.

We went to Shirahama in the Wakayama prefecture instead. Hurray for the JR pass! Just a 40min ride by express train to a beach town with lots of onsens. First stop is at the local fish market for lunch.
















This is one of the best Ika i have ever had. Sweet and juicy.

Chu-Toro

Couldn't resist the temptation and bought some Chu-Toro. As usual, melt-in-the-mouth soft. Not too much marbling. I heard that the japanese prefer chu-toro as o-toro has too much fat and too little meat.

Sandanbeki

These are the Sandanbeki clifts. I read about the elevator going down into the pirate caves at sea level and just had to go visit.

In the Pirate caves

Onsen with a full beach view

After sight-seeing, the next on our to-do list was to visit one of the famous onsens in the area. Apparently the Sakinoyu Onsen has been around for hundreds of years and Emperors used to bathe there. Open from 8am to 5pm. Too bad we arrived at 505pm...

Kimchi Yaki-Soba

Back to Osaka and we have an hour before the train leaves. What do we do? Sample the local cuisine of course! No Wakayama ramen stalls around so we head for a family run Yaki soba / Takoyaki stand instead.

The famous dragon statue

Kinryu Ramen

Kyushu-style tonkotsu Ramen

Our now customary 4th meal of the day is of course at Dotonbori, within walking distance to our hotel. This time round we tried one of Osaka's famous ramen. The Kinryu (Golden Dragon) Ramen which sells Kyushu-style tonkotsu ramen. However, it was a disappointment. The broth wasn't as thick and flavorful as the ones we had in Hokkaido and Tokyo. The Chashu wasn't melt-in-the-mouth either. There was unlimited sevings of kimchi which i found kinda weird as it clashed with the tonkotsu taste. Then again, the ones we had in Hokkaido and Tokyo were really oily so it may depend on the preference of the individual.

Japan April 2012 - Day 1 Narita / Osaka

The day has arrived! In the week before the trip, none of us could contain our excitement that the day was drawing nearer. Weeks of meticulous planning of a detailed itinerary, down to the very minute of bus and train departure and arrival, finally cumulated to the start of our trip.

Two very excited couples!

We got our air tickets cheap at $530 for Cathay Airlines. However, we had to transit at Hong Kong.

First glimpse of Japan

Japan at last. The first few flutters of excitement start to kick in!

JR pass exchange counter

Long Queue!

Upon leaving the arrival hall of Narita airport, we headed straight for the JR pass exchange counter. And waited for more than an hour even though there were just 7 customers in front. In turns out that the the exchange process takes 5-10 min per customer! The queue extended right to the back of the hall. Good luck to those behind. God knows how long they waited.

We got the passes and reserved seat Narita Express and Shinkansen tickets just 3 min before the Narita Express was due to depart. We then ran for it lol.

The $500 JR Pass.

Bad thing about the JR pass is that if u lose it, there is no replacement. Essentially that is a SGD $500 piece of card that you cannot fit into your wallet, making it easy to misplace.

Our hotel

After a 4 hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka Station, followed by a 15min subway ride from Shin-Osaka Station to Namba Station, we spent an additional 15min looking for our hotel.

It's actually very near the subway exit 5 or 6, but its kinda hidden in an alley.

Okonomiyaki

Our first taste of Japanese food! A small store along the main road selling a savoury Japanese pancake for just 100 yen. It was delicious and made us salivate in anticipation of more good food to come.

Outlet shopping!

With just a few hours of daylight left we followed the itinerary planned weeks in advance and headed for Rinku where there was an outlet shopping area.

Not much deals here though. I got a nice Adidas T-shirt for only SGD $20 after a 20% discount coupon they were giving out, but that's about it.

Soba and rice

Tonkatsu with egg and Soba

How the Soba is made

Hungry after shopping, we looked around the various restaurants near the outlet shopping area. Ootoya was there, seems like a famous chain, we were to see more it it in various cities and towns.

The Soba was great, nice and soft, and the soup was just salty enough. We saw how the Soba was made after we finished the meal. Note the pic at the bottom left corner. Hope he washed them.

Takoyaki

Back in Osaka, we went straight to the Dotonbori district where most of the nightlife in Osaka is. This is where all the neon signs associated with Osaka are located. Tons of restaurants here. Many Takoyaki stalls throng the area. The pic is of Jamie's favorite Takoyaki stall, served in a "boat".

Iconic Crab with moving claws

Kani Doraku

Menu

Last stop of the night at the famous Kani Doraku restaurant where they occupy the entire building and have a large crab with mechanized claws waving. Great view of the canal from the fourth floor where we were seated. We ordered 2 of the 5000 yen Zuwai crab sets to share and added 2 servings of porridge which was essentially rice added to the shabu shabu soup after we had finished and topped off with some seasoning. It made a simple but very delicious ending to the meal.

The set consisted of:

Boiled crab with vinegar
Crab tempura
Crab shabu shabu
Crab sushi
Crab chawanmushi

Back to the hotel after a long day of traveling for a well derserved rest.