{"id":5683,"date":"2023-04-05T09:33:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T09:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=5683"},"modified":"2023-05-24T03:29:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T03:29:51","slug":"sakura-and-patience-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2023\/04\/05\/sakura-and-patience-in-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherry Blossoms and Patience in Tokyo City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Spring break in Tokyo was Westley\u2019s first trip to Asia, but beyond the language and culture, we learned about patience. After the 4-hour SFO layover<\/a>, 12-hour flight, and 2-hour immigration line<\/a>, we were glad to have an extra night of our Shinjuku Airbnb<\/a> to settle into before breakfast. We celebrated our Ghibli<\/a> tickets from Lawson<\/a>, introvertedly slurped Ichiran<\/a> ramen, shopped at Don Quixote<\/a>, then made our way through Keio\u2019s<\/a> food hall and Shawn the Sheep<\/a> exhibit to Zauo Fishing<\/a>\u00a0where we shared self-caught sea bream and abalone for lunch. We battled hipster crowds in Harajuku to snuggle with minipigs at MiPig<\/a> and hedghogs at Chiku Chiku Caf\u00e9<\/a>, passing Miyashita Park<\/a> along the way, to shop rather than dine at Shibuya Crossing<\/a>. On Tuesday, we lined up for onigiri<\/a>, tamagoyaki<\/a>, organ stew<\/a>, tuna skewers<\/a>, and unagi don<\/a> at the Tsukiji Outer Market<\/a>, admired exotic goldfish displays at Art Aquarium<\/a>, shopped containers at the Muji flagship<\/a>, then ate Kagoshima pork shabu shabu at Ichi-nii-san<\/a>, before going barefoot at teamLab Planets\u2019<\/a> dazzling exhibits. We went to Tokyo Character Street<\/a> for Ghibli<\/a> merchandise, Tokyo Banana<\/a> treats, and an Almond Days<\/a> drink, then returned for oversized udon at Tokyo Mentsudan<\/a> to put us to bed. We arrived in Yokohama early next morning with time for a geocache<\/a> on the way to the CupNoodles Museum<\/a>, where our Momofuku Ando<\/a> lesson ended with a small bowl of his original Chikin Ramen. At the Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum<\/a>, we remembered to order mini bowls, but not to avoid lunchtime crowds. Our 2 hours of queuing got us ramen from Ganso Najima-tei<\/a>, Nogata Hope<\/a>, and Rairaiken<\/a>, which recreated the first Japanese ramen founded in 1910 with historical accuracy. We next visited bustling Nakameguro, where popular snacks were mostly sold-out except for a pineapple sando<\/a> and strawberry taiyaki<\/a>. Luckily, we snagged seats at Kushiwakamaru<\/a> for yakitori with locals before enjoying the lantern-lit sakura by the river. Our delayed start at DisneySea<\/a> Thursday was saved by Westley barely missing the 117cm height requirement for some rides, leaving us enough time for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea<\/a>, Big Band Beat<\/a>, Toy Story Mania<\/a>, Nemo’s Searider<\/a>, Aquatopia<\/a>, Sinbad\u2019s Storybook Voyage<\/a>, Venetian gondola<\/a>, and an impressive Believe! Sea of Dreams<\/a> finale. The poor phone app and reception made us miss some rides, but at least left time for lunch<\/a>, dinner<\/a>, and many popcorn flavors<\/a> including matcha white chocolate, soy sauce butter, and curry. Not having learned our lesson on timing, we missed Misojyu\u2019s<\/a> opening next morning, which cost us another line-wait for soup and rice-balls for breakfast. After mastering shurikens and katanas at Ninja Caf\u00e9<\/a>, we snacked our way around Senso-ji<\/a> with 7-levels of matcha gelato<\/a>, melon pan<\/a>, age manju<\/a>, curry bread<\/a>, warabi mochi<\/a>, dorayaki<\/a>, candied strawberry<\/a>, and silk pudding<\/a> before sharing hot and cold soba at Namiki Yabusoba<\/a>. We tired our legs shopping for ramen bowls<\/a> and a Kamata knife<\/a> on Kappabashi Dougu<\/a> street, and opted for Menya Musashi’s<\/a> tsukemen over more sightseeing that evening. Our long journey to Nikko\u2019s Edo Wonderland<\/a> on Saturday was rewarded as we donned samurai, swordswoman, and ninja garb, watched geisha and ninja shows, destroyed things at samurai and shinobi training, completed archery and shuriken challenges, and escaped claustrophobic trap rooms and an outdoor puzzle maze in the Edo-themed village. We returned by shinkansen<\/a> for Tokyo Station Ramen<\/a> on the way home. A breakfast of ochazuke<\/a> fueled our visit to Ghibli Museum<\/a> on Sunday, where we watched an animated short<\/a> of human-made sounds and Westley climbed the stuffed Cat Bus. We returned to Kichijoji for quality Inishie steaks at Satou<\/a> but missed the last Shiro Hige<\/a> cream puff en route to MEGA Donki<\/a> for tax-free shopping and more queueing and wagyu at Gyukatsu Motomora<\/a>. On Monday, we visited Odaiba for Sapporo ramen<\/a>, Takoyaki Museum<\/a>, and Gundam Base<\/a> shopping, but found the life-size Gundam<\/a> transformation underwhelming. Both the cherry blossoms and Doraemon<\/a> pancake balls at Ueno Park<\/a> were unimpressive, although we were lucky to find an opening at Sushi Kintaro Honten<\/a> for dinner. We returned to Tsukiji<\/a> our last morning for custard taiyaki<\/a>, corn-fishcake fritters<\/a>, tamago sandwich and nog<\/a>, grilled squid and eel skewers<\/a>, toro sashimi<\/a>, and strawberry daifuku mochis<\/a>. Our street food tour set us back 30 spots in line for Happy Pancake<\/a>, so we went for Original Pancake House’s<\/a> fuwafuwa pancakes instead, which along with KAL lounge<\/a> snacks, kept us full for the flight home. Despite the long lines and sold-out signs, Tokyo showed us many wonders \u2013 a chirping child Suica<\/a> card, a female-only subway car, sidewalk guide tiles for the blind, corn potage vending machines, and public restrooms with bidets and no hand soap \u2013 but most of all, Japanese hospitality, attention to details, and deep respect for rules, nature, and \u2026 patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring break in Tokyo was Westley\u2019s first trip to Asia, but beyond the language and culture, we learned about patience. After the 4-hour SFO layover, 12-hour flight, and 2-hour immigration line, we were glad to have an extra night of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5683"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5736,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions\/5736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}