Day 18 Asakusa: Lemon Pie Confectionery

We got a chance to grab some pies from Lemon Pie Confectionery, and the Lemon Meringue Pie was amazing. The rest of the day we just explored around town. 

Day 17 Asakusa: Slice of Life BBQ, Ottotto Brewery, Kadikoy Doner & Kebab Street Food

We visited Slice of Life for some smoked Wagyu BBQ. We got the Wagyu Brisket and Wagyu beef-rib, which were both delicious, but I'm not sure if using Wagyu made it any better than other places that have spent hours smoking their meats. I've had several different smoked BBQ in Texas, and they're just as good, if not better. 

 

While Tammy was shopping, Viet and I went in search of a place to grab a drink and hang out. We tried to go to Los Bar, but it was not kid-friendly, so we ended up at Ottotto Brewery nearby. 

Viet and I went to check out a few golf shops in Japan and didn't really find anything great about them besides their golf club selection. 

On our way back to our Airbnb, we stopped by Kadikoy Doner & Kebab Street Food to grab dinner. The food was ok. 

Day 16 Tokyo: Tokyo Disneysea

We did a day trip to Tokyo DisneySea. It's so much cheaper than Disneyland. Tickets were around $60. We purchased our tickets through Klook. You can also purchase tickets directly from Disney's website, but I had issues purchasing tickets due to my credit card security and being overseas. 

Everything at the Tokyo Disney Parks is cheaper. We arrived 2 hrs early because they just opened a new themed port, Fantasy Springs, about 6 months ago. At DisneySea, instead of themed lands, they have themed ports. Fantasy Springs required a reservation to visit the port, so we had to go early if we wanted any chance to visit the new port without paying extra. 

The park is amazing and very detailed. The family changing rooms are amazing. Everything is super clean. The atmosphere at DisneySea was different than Disneyland. Even though there were a lot of people, it didn't feel packed. The park closed at 9 pm, but around 7 pm, certain ports were already empty. There were times we thought the park was already closing because nobody was around, and some carts/stalls were already closing down in the less popular ports. It was kind of nice; it felt like you had parts of the park to yourself. The food was okay, but they do have a lot of popcorn flavors. Popcorn is a very popular item, and each cart had its own special popcorn container. We ended up getting Matcha White Chocolate popcorn, which was amazing. 

We're big Disney fans, so it was worth a visit, especially with how cheap everything was. Minnie Mouse ears were around $10-15 compared to $35-45 at Disneyland. My wife bought a bunch. If you have the time, DisneySea is worth a visit. 

Day 15 Asakusa: Kappabashi Kitchen Supply Town, Hie Shrine, Gyukatsu Motomura, Namu Cafe, Luxe Burgers

We were staying near Kappabashi Kitchen Supply Town, so we stopped by to buy some knives and plates. 

On our way to Hie Shrine I noticed a showroom with some exotic vehicles. It just so happened to be Bingo Sports; they weren't open, but they had some pretty rare vehicles. 

For lunch, we tried our luck at Gyukatsu Motomura. There are several locations, but it's usually really busy. We got lucky because there was a short line. I thought it was okay, but my wife loved it. 

We ended up at Harajuku vintage shopping area, just browsing for gift ideas, and stumbled upon the Liberty Walk Store. I picked up a limited-edition hoodie for my brother, and I gotta say it was the highest quality hoodie I had ever laid my hands on. 

My wife saw Namu Cafe and ended up buying a box of macarons. Which were really good by the way. 

As it was getting late, my buddy and I went to visit a liquor store in our area because we were in search of some rare Japanese Whiskey and wanted to get a price point.

On our way back to our Airbnb, we grabbed dinner at Luxe Burgers. I have to say it wasn't that good, and our least favorite thing we ate the entire trip. It was very disappointing, even though the burgers on the menu sounded really good, but fell short. 

That's it for day 15. Tomorrow we head to Disney Tokyo Sea.

Day 14: Leaving Osaka for Asakusa

On 

Day 14, we left Osaka and headed to Asakusa to spend our last week in Japan. 

Spent most of the day traveling, so we didn't do much exploring. 

Osaka Day 13: Kappa Ramen Hompo, Kuromon Market, 298Premium Namba

Day 13 in Osaka. 

We visited Kappa Ramen Hompo for breakfast, which was really good. 

Our buddy suggested we visit Kuromon Market. I considered it better than Tsukiji Market. It was less crowded, and prices were better. 

Wifey wanted Wagyu for dinner, so we ended up at 298Premium Namba. It was so good. All we ate was Wagyu. I saw they were selling Wagyu at Kuromon Market, and I calculated how much we ate, and they still made money off of us. It was only $27 a person for an all-you-can-eat 100min time limit. I would definitely do it again. 

Osaka Day 12: Namba Yasaka Shrine

We had a free day, so we just walked around and explored Osaka. 

We visited Namba Yasaka Shrine

OSAKA Day 11: Nara Park, Wafu Restaurant Kasuga, Nakatanidou Mochi Shop

Visited Nara Park for the day. There are many biscuit vendors located in various places, all selling at the same price. 

Had an awesome lunch at Wafu restaurant Kasuga located near Nara Park, and while you're there, get some amazing mochi from Nakatanidou Mochi Shop, which is also close by. 

Osaka Day 10: Universal Studios Japan Halloween Horror Nights

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.

Osaka/Kyoto TR day 9: Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple, Kintsugi UcacoCeramics, YAKITORI Torikizoku Dotonbori Store

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. 

We returned to Osaka and ended our day with dinner at Yakitori Torikizoku Dontonbori.

Osaka Trip Report Day 8: 9 Borden Coffee, Osaka Aquarium, Kushikatsu Daruma, Dearbros

Places visited on this day: 9 Borden Coffee Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan I 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.

Tokyo Trip Report Day 7: Tokyo to Osaka by bullet train and a quick visit to Dotonbori

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. 

Tokyo Trip Report Day 6: Tsukiji Market, Foie Gras Burger, Takeshita St, Miyashita Park, Hama Sushi

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. 

Next, we ended up at Takeshita St. in Harajuku. 

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. 

Tokyo trip report day 5: Meiji Jingu Shring, Harajuku, Shibuya, Sushidan, Kantan-Na-Yume, Ramen Yamaguchi, Bar Spot Light

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. 

That's it for day 5 in Japan. 

Tokyo 2024 trip report day 4: Yokohama Chinatown, Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, & Sushiro BIGBOX

We took a day trip to Yokohama to try the street food in Chinatown and visited the Ramen Museum since it was in the area. 

Chinatown was awesome, there were so many different types of food to try we didn't have the stomach space to try it all. It was worth the trip. 

The Ramen Museum was fun and cheap to visit. The replica streetscape was cool to see but we didn't try any ramen because we were so full from Chinatown. 

We asked our friend from Japan which conveyor belt sushi we should try and she recommended three different places. We chose to try Sushiro. We have reservations tomorrow for Omakase so I wanted to get a baseline taste of what to expect. Sushiro was shockingly good and so cheap. 

Google Maps links to the places we visited on this day:

Yokohama Chinatown

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

Sushio BIGBOX Takadanobaba

Tokyo 2024 Day 3: Tokyo Metro Gov't Bldg, Totoya, Gyopao Gyoza Shinjuku, Golden-Gai, Tokyo Kabukicho Tower

We visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to view the city. It's free to visit, and it has a north and south tower. There's also a cafe at the top, so you can grab a bite to eat and shop for souvenirs. They also have a stamp there if you want to fill your book.

We randomly ended up at Totoya Izakaya restaurant for lunch. It was a quaint little restaurant that served only two meal sets eel or grilled fish. It was a great experience dining at a place locals dined at. They didn't speak English but were very welcoming and a guest in line helped us communicate. They pointed to their handwritten menu on the wall which only had two items. 

For dinner, we tried to get tempura but the restaurant couldn't accommodate us since it was near closing time. So we searched on Google and ended up at Gyopao Gyoza Shinjuku cause of all the great reviews. Some of the dishes were pretty good, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting based on the reviews. The place was full of tourists and the food was a bit pricey. IMO I don't think it's worth a visit. It seems that tourists use Google or Yelp but locals use Tabelog. So use what suits you best. Some of Google's suggestions fell short for us. 

Shinjuku is a great place to walk around and Golden-Gai is a great place to get a drink for adults.

Tokyo Kabukicho Tower is another great place to visit for food and drinks. 

TOKYO 2024 Day 2: TeamLab Borderless, Savoy, Gembei

 

When walking around in Tokyo try to keep to your left. Especially on the escalator so that people can walk past you.

On day 2 we went to TeamLab Borderless it was an amazing experience and my daughter loved it. I recommend getting there at opening hours to beat the crowd. It cost around 4,000 Yen/$27. We spent about 3 hours there and it's inside a mall so you can shop afterward.  

I recommended purchasing your tickets on Klook their prices are very reasonable and sometimes cheaper than the website.

For mobile service, I purchased an E-Sim from Klook you can get 10g of data for around $11. 20g of data lasted us 3 weeks in Japan.

Lunch we ate at Savoy Azabujuban one of the best if not the best pizza I ever ate. It's worth the visit and they have several locations. Their lunch special combo is tea, appetizer salad, and a pizza for 1100 yen/$7.38

For dinner, we decided to find a random Izakaya and ended up at Gembei. The food was pretty good and was a fun experience for us.

TOKYO 2024 DAY 1

Travel tips:

Have some yen before your visit. We exchanged about 200 USD with our bank before our arrival. You don't need that much because you can withdraw more money at 7-11, which has a better exchange rate. 

You'll need to get a Suica or Pasmo to ride the transit. We purchased ours at Narita Airport. The machines that recharge them usually only take cash. The only machine that let me charge my Suica/Pasmo card with a credit card was at Narita Station. If you're an Apple user there is a way to add money to your transit card with your mobile device. We started with 5,000 yen.

We flew with ZipAir with our 1 yo and you'll still have to pay for a ticket but it's at a discounted rate since the child will get their own seat. 

Google Translate is your best friend highly recommend you download it. Helps with reading menus

We used Google Maps to navigate the public transportation system and filtered our route with wheelchair accessibility to guide us closer to the elevator since we had a stroller.

When trying to find the elevator on Google Maps you'll need to zoom in close so that you can get the option to map the station by different ground levels.

Link to Google Map demo

There's a lot of walking in Japan so bring some comfortable shoes

The ticket barricade is about 22in wide, they usually have 1 barricade that is wider for wheelchairs, but I have run into some places that don't have the wider barricade. 

We used the Bugaboo Butterfly stroller and it was the perfect size. The other nice feature of this stroller is that it has a built-in leg rest which acts as a nice grab bar for another adult to help you carry the stroller up or down steps in a pinch.

Use Google Maps to create a list of all the places you want to visit that way you can just look it up based on your location for easy access. There are a lot of places to eat so it can be overwhelming at times. 

If you're looking for baby wipes and diapers in Japan you'll need to look for drug stores. Convenience stores like 7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart do not sell them.

Most restaurants/eateries are small and won't have a high chair. You'll need to bring your own. We used this booster seat/backpack and it was very convenient.

Food:

Tonkatsu Hinata

Palm Springs Golf Trip 2024 day 1: Bubba's Bones & Brews, PGA West Pete Dye Dunes

Been hearing a lot of great things about golfing in Palm Springs so we made a trip out of it with some friends.  

The weather was great for February. 

Usually our golf bags would arrive at the oversized baggage claim area, but in Palm Springs they arrive just like any other luggage. There were so many people with golf clubs. 

We had some time to burn before checking into our Airbnb so we headed to Bubba's Bones & Brews. I chose this place because it was on the way and we could see the parking lot from the restaurant to keep an eye on our luggage. 

Jalapeno Sausage Wontons

Blue Cheese Chips

Bubba's Feast 2lbs of meat and 3 large sides. 

I love a good Western burger, but I also like brisket. So I asked them to add brisket to the Western burger it was amazing. 

Korean Ribs

Brisket Sandwich

Food and drinks at Bubba's was great. We got a message that our Airbnb was ready for us to check in. So we headed on our way. The Airbnb had a heated pool free of charge which was nice. 

The guys made a run to Costco and we cooked dinner at the house. 

The next morning we headed to PGA West. The first course we played on the trip was Pete Dye Dunes. It was around $125 for the round.

It's a gorgeous course the greens were firm and we were informed so before we started our round. 

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PGA West Club house also has simulators you can rent by the hour. 

We had pizza for lunch and hung out at the house for the remaining day. 

Son and Tom arrived a little later in the day. Tomorrow they'll be playing with us at Eagle Falls. 

Hawaii Day 8: Aloha Kitchen

Our last meal in Hawaii before our flight home was Aloha Kitchen.

Tammy wanted to try their Souffle Pancakes. 

Greeny omellete. Nothing special about it, but the potatoes were really good. 

Apple Alamode Souffle Pancake

Very Berry Souffle Omlette. Both Souffle Pancakes were really good. If this is what you're looking for then a stop at Aloha Kitchen is worth it. The other breakfast items are pretty basic. 

Meat Omellete. 

After breakfast, we packed up our things and headed to the airport. We headed to one of the new lounges at the airport but there's no food here, only beverages. You also not allowed to bring your own food either. They ask you to keep the conversation to a minimum. So it's just a nice place to sit and have a drink. 

That's it for this trip. It was relaxing and Emmalyn enjoyed the beach and long flight. Where to next? We're heading to Palm Springs for our first golf trip.