Culture, Cuisine and Cats in Japan

Case and I have been back in the U.S. for about 9 months now, so naturally for us, we were ready for another adventure. Since we've already done some European traveling (and are still dying to go back), we thought we would give the other side of the world a try and went to Japan. We spent 9 days there splitting our time between Kyoto and Tokyo. It was an exhausting (walking 8-10 miles a day trying to see everything), culturally enlightening, and delicious experience. 

We took a lot away from the trip, so I think I'll break it down into a couple of categories.

1. Food
Often times, when people travel to Japan, it's a culinary experience. Don't get me wrong, we ate delicious food, but it wasn't our primary focus. The most adventurous thing we ate was some eel and octopus.

The cutest thing we ate were rice dumplings/mochi filled with sweet red bean paste that were decorated as a panda and a koala bear.

Our favorite meal, well we LOVED everything we ate, but a few highlights were steamed meat buns, udon noodles with tofu, and gyoza (we ate at this restaurant twice).

Udon with tofu. YUMMM!

The last evening we had in Tokyo was probably the most memorable meal we had. The restaurant opened around 5, so we showed up about 10 minutes early. We read in our Lonely Planet book that this restaurant can come across as intimidating if you're not a local, but the men that run it make you feel welcome. That was the exact impression we got. We sat at the bar and the servers started bringing people their dishes with out any orders being verbally placed, so they MUST have been regulars. The restaurant was quintessentially Japanese complete with a sumo match on the TV, the servers dressed in traditional garb, and some amazing sake.

2. Bathrooms
I always remember my Omie telling me about how you have to pay to use the bathrooms in Europe. During our previous travels, that held true, but that also started to mean to me that since you had to pay, they'll be maintained and cleaned. In Japan, you don't have to pay for the public bathrooms. They're free, conveniently located throughout the city and, about 95% of the time, VERY clean!


In my research prior to our departure, I read about the squatting toilets there. I was a little worried that that was going to be the only option in our accommodation as well as in public and restaurants. In our rooms, to my relief, we had a western style toilet and in Tokyo one with a bidet in our room. During a day of sightseeing in Kyoto, we were in a park and the only option for me was the squatting toilet. Well, when in Japan, right? It wasn't as scary as I had played out in my mind and all went well.

The bathroom at our ryokan in Kyoto had bathroom only slippers

Easy-to-read/follow instructions for toilet use

3. People
Yes, there were a lot of people in both cities. We utilized the public transportation system and I have never seen longer lines for a bus in my life! Even with all the people, it's almost like a choreographed dance and they know how to move around each other. When we walked across the Shibuya Crossing, we never bumped shoulders with a person walking by.

Harajuku - If you look close enough, in the middle of this picture, there is a sea of people going up the sidewalk.  There were so many people that we just shuffled. Walking wasn't an option...

4. Day-to-day Transportation 
We utilized the public transportation system everyday. Busses, the subway, and trains. I'm so grateful for Case and how savvy he is with his knowledge on how the locals get around. We got Suica cards (kind of like an Orca card deal) which made transferring between the subway and trains stations a breeze.

Most of their cars are SUPER compact! They're not only narrow, but the nose in the front is about 1/2 the depth that we're used to seeing 

Waiting for the subway

To get from Kyoto to Tokyo, we took the bullet train. This is reason enough to go to Japan...well, if you're into fast trains that is ;-) We love train travel!

Bullet train!

4. CATS /ᐠ｡ꞈ｡ᐟ\
In Japan, cats are everywhere, on everything, and it was nothing short of amazing! Cats are on phone company advertisements, the news weather forecast, subway staircases, donut designs, chopsticks, and the list goes on. 


We didn't bring back a lot of souvenirs, but all, except one, had a cat(s) on it.

Everyone was taking pictures of this cat like they've never seen one before...including myself! :-D

One of the eclectic shops in Harajuku. Not my style, but still cute!

LITERALLY every item in this store had a cat on it. I should really own this store...

I have no idea what this sign says, but it sure is cute  /ᐠ｡ꞈ｡ᐟ\ 

These, unfortunately, weren't for sale

We were both ready to head home by the end of our trip with our travel bug quenched. It's been about a week now and the thought of a new adventure is sounding pretty great. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and know that we want to come back someday, not only to Japan, but we'd like to explore other areas of Asia (we've talked of Hong Kong, Shanghai or Taiwan).

I have a TON more pictures, but don't want to add to the length of this blog, so I'll be compiling a photo album on Facebook. I hope you enjoyed our thoughts and first impression of Japan, and maybe even given you a little inspiration or desire to take your own adventure to somewhere you've never been before! ;-)