We spent a day at Universal Studios Japan. It's recommended that you arrive an hour before opening hours, as they are known to open early. If you're in the park before the official opening hours, you can enter Super Nintendo World without a reservation. We rode Mario Kart, and they had an amazing parent swap. They give you a voucher at the entrance, and you wait in line with everyone. When you get near the loading area, they take you aside and escort you to a parent waiting area where there are seats and an area for kids to run around.
It just so happened to be Halloween Horror Nights, which is included with your admission. Unlike in the U.S, where it requires a separate admission. HHN is different in Japan, though. They only had one haunted house, and the scare characters roaming the streets had choreographed dance routines.
We took a day trip to Kyoto, which took about an hour. Instead of visiting the more popular Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Viet suggested we visit Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple instead. It's less popular and less crowded. It also has a small bamboo grove. It was a 30-minute walk from the Kyoto station, and along the way, there are these cute local shops right before the Temple.
When we arrived, it was quite empty. We were able to get solo pictures at the nice bamboo grove. On the way back, we stopped by a small shop and had beer and sake. It's very quiet and quaint.
We were hungry, so we searched along the way back to the station for a restaurant to dine at and accidentally stumbled upon UcacoCeramics. I had forgotten that I was looking for Kintsugi pieces and saw a sign outside that advertised Kintsugi classes. So I popped in and spoke to the owner. She was very nice, and she was selling some pieces that she had made. Prices were extremely reasonable, but I didn't realize how reasonable the prices were until I started looking for other Kintsugi pieces later during our trip. Surprisingly, Kintsugi pieces are difficult to find and can be expensive. UcacoCeramics doesn't have a website, but you can find them on IG. UcacoCeramics was located inside Sen-Oh restaurant.
Places visited on this day:
9 Borden CoffeeOsaka Aquarium KaiyukanI highly recommend purchasing tickets in advance, as entrance to the aquarium is scheduled. The line to buy tickets was long and took an hour.
Kushikatsu Daruma
I thought this was ok. I prefer tempura over Kushikatsu.
DearBros
The food here is delicious. Next time, I would choose a lighter protein, like chicken, because with the curry & omelet, it was already a heavy meal, and adding pork belly didn't help.
We checked out and headed to Tokyo Station to take the bullet train to Osaka. If you want to save money, buy tickets in advance at the JR station. Also, if you have a lot of luggage, you'll want to purchase reserved seats with the added luggage space. There are also carts with open seating if you're willing to try your luck.
We checked out at 11am and booked our travel for 2pm so that we would have ample time to shop around at Tokyo Station for food for our journey. Dining on the train is part of the cultural experience. Also, we wanted to make sure we knew how to get around the station to find out platform.
We didn't do much on this day since most of it was spent traveling.
We spent a week in Osaka, so there's a lot more to come.
We headed to Tsukiji Market in the morning. It can get crowded, so it's a little difficult to navigate through the crowd with a stroller, and people don't like you stopping/blocking their stall unless you're purchasing something.
After, we stopped off at Hoshino Coffee nearby for a light snack. It's a nice place to sit down to get away from the heat.
For lunch, we headed back to Kabukicho to visit Shogun Burger. There are several locations, each with its own specialty burger, and the Kabukicho Tower location has a Foir Gras burger. The burger was amazing, one of the best burgers I've ever had.
I wanted to look at some G-Shock watches, and the closest location was at Miyashita Park.
Lastly for dinner, we decided to try another popular conveyor belt sushi chain Hama Sushi. It was Friday night and the wait was long. I think Sushiro is better, honestly.
We started our day visiting Meiji Jingu Shrine. It's a beautiful place to visit. After we were within walking distance of Togo Shrine located in Harajuku. I didn't take any pictures because signs said no photos, but at Togo Shrine you can get Hello Kitty Omamari (charms/amulets). I think it's the only shrine where you can get it.
We ended up booking another reservation for Sushidan since it was closed the other day when we attempted to visit.We booked the reservation on their website. It was easy to do and they are kid friendly. They also have English-speaking staff. I stumbled upon Sushidan from this YouTube channel
The sushi was amazing and very affordable.
After lunch, we headed to Kantan-na-Yume for dessert. It's a quaint little spot away from the tourist area. I found out about this place from this YouTube channel. Don't forget to bookmark your favorite places to visit on Google Maps so you can have it handy on your trip.
We really enjoyed this cafe and it was worth the visit.
Nearby our Airbnb is Ramen Yamaguchi we've been eyeing this place cause we walked by it so many times and it always seemed busy. We tried getting take-out a few days ago, but their ramen is for dine-in only. So we decided to try it for dinner after seeing their high-rated reviews. They have a few awards and have made it on the Michelin Guide. I tried their traditional Shoyu Ramen which was very good, but I prefer a thicker soup base ramen. If you're not a fan of shoyu ramen like me, try their version of Tsukemen.
Eventually, my daughter fell asleep so Viet and I headed out for drinks. We found a local bar called Bar Spot Light. It was dead on a Friday night. They do charge a seating fee of 500 yen. The bartender didn't speak English too well but was very welcoming and made good drinks. I tried chatting with the bartender about some Japanese Whiskey that my friend recommended we buy if we could find it. I asked him if he knew where I could get it, but he didn't know. He took it upon himself to call around which was extremely nice of him.
