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peregrinology · 5 years

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Toyosu market is the new Tsukiji… sort of, anyway.

Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market closed in October 2018 and was relocated to Toyosu – a man made island south-east of the old site – to free up development space ahead of the 2020 Olympics. Lots of controversy surrounded the move – not least because it was discovered that, as well as being over budget and over programme, the new site was heavily polluted with things like benzine, cyanide and arsenic… (For those interested in more details, check out: https://www.eater.com/2017/7/25/16019906/tokyo-tsukiji-toyosu-olympics-delay). However, against the odds, the new facility opened on 11th October 2018 and replaced the old market, which had always been a popular spot for tourists wanting to view the early morning tuna auctions. Tuna of up to nearly 500kg can be sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds, the record being USD1.76 million!!! That’s a lot of sashimi.

A representation of one of the largest tuna to have been caught in Japanese waters and sold at Tsukiji market in 1986. 2.88m in length and 496kg!!

Tsukiji was hectic and bustling: forklift trucks sped around the narrow alleyways, the drivers shouting (with various degrees of politeness) to get out of the way, vendors selling their wares (you could buy direct from the stalls); you took your life in your hands as you wandered between the stalls and checked out the fish. When it was all over, you could walk a couple of hundred meters to the outer market and have sushi for breakfast among the discarded polystyrene ice packing boxes and general fish-related paraphernalia.

Toyosu is kind of the same… yet totally different. The timings are the same and you need to get there EARLY – I got the first metro at just after 5am, which got me to Toyosu around 5.45am (including the time it took me to walk when I got off at the wrong station… Note: Use Shijo-Mae station, not Toyosu…). It was already busy, so I headed straight to the auction area. You can still see the auctions, but you’re kept away from the heart of the action in an observation area on the first floor. You need to get a visitor pass (issued on a first-come, first-served basis, then it’s ‘one in, one out’, so you may have a short wait if you just miss out on one). There’s a new ground-floor viewing area opening on 15th January 2019, but for now, you’re limited to looking down on the action. Some people have been a bit derisive of the ‘lack of authenticity’ of the new facility, but the bonus of it is that you get a great view of the tuna all laid out on the floor, and you get to see the large scale hustle and bustle – there is literally always something going on to watch (also, it’s important to remember that this is a live fish auction and wholesale warehouse, rather than a tourist attraction, so let’s be honest… it’s a privilege rather than a right, that us tourists can view it in the first place). Tuna are being brought in, taken out, auctions are happening, inspections are happening etc – there is constant movement. There are also signs to explain the hand movements of the wholesalers buying the tuna, so if you’re really into it (and eagle-eyed) you can see which tuna go for which price!

An auction in progress – the guy in the grey top standing on the yellow crate is the auctioneer

That’s a lot of tuna! They have been caught up to three months prior, and frozen on the boat for bringing back to the market

The viewing corridor is lined with photos from the old Tsukiji market – this one is the New Year market (the first offering of the year of a food is considered good luck, and often increases the price above standard market value).

The viewing corridor of the new Toyosu facility

A sign explains the hand signals of the auctioneers and bidders

What comes from where in the market…

Market timescales… these guys start early!!

The wholesale side after the sale has been made

All you need is a visitor’s badge (free, first come first served) to access the viewing area.

A few of the restaurants from the old Tsukiji have relocated, but a lot still remain in the old outer market area. The new market has an unavoidably new feel, and it does all seem rather sanitised and slick in comparison. Which isn’t as bad as it may sound – it’s too early to be disparaging of the new facility from a tourist perspective: it’s a working market, not a tourist attraction. That said, it’s easy to forget that when it feels like you’re not really ‘in the thick of it’ like you used to be. There is plenty to see from the observation deck and, when the lower level viewing opens in January, you can get even closer to the action… You’ll even get to be at the same temperature as the auction floor (about 8 degrees Celsius)… Personally, since I can’t follow the action to too great a degree anyway, and I’d also rather be warm, the upstairs observation deck suited me just fine… The morning I was there, there was also a guy doing explanations – I’m not sure if he’s there all the time, or I just got lucky on the timing – but I felt I got more out of it listening to him than I would have done just wandering around on my own. For instance, the floors in the new market are green, so that the wholesalers (around 100 of whom are the ones authorised to buy direct from this market) can see the red flesh of the tuna (and thus the quality) better.

I wandered through the fish market after the auction; again, there is plenty to see and wow over, and it feels slightly less hectic than the old market at Tsukiji, but to be totally honest, I didn’t spend that much time here. My priority had become eating, and the outer market area at the old site is still open… I wanted to go and explore there again and, since the sun was up by then, I walked over the wharf area and Sumida River in the morning sunrise to meet Jamie and Hugo for a sushi breakfast…. there is literally no better way to start the day than with some raw fish!!

Sumida RIver

Looking towards Southern Tokyo

Tokyo at dawn

We worked on the principle that nowhere was going to be awful, and picked the place with the friendliest person outside their restaurant, and we weren’t disappointed! The Tsukiji Sushi Sen lady was really friendly, and the sushi was really good! We went for two selections: a general one (prawn, tuna, salmon, salmon roe, scallop, tuna, and omelette) and a tuna one (fatty, belly, seared, and normal), then picked a few extras that we fancied (horse mackerel, sea urchin, and seared horse meat). We got a chawanmushi (savoury egg custard) and a prawn head miso soup to accompany.

Horse mackerel, sea urchin, and seared horse meat

Tuna selection

Chawanmushi

Prawn head miso soup

Sushi selection

Then it was off to explore the outer market. There’s plenty of street food, and plenty of samples. We tried less than we’d expected to, having over-indulged at breakfast, but did manage a few treats… The first – and yet hardest won of the day – was definitely a matcha green tea mochi (rice ball) stuffed with a fresh strawberry; I had to wait for three older ladies to negotiate their increasingly large orders of dried squid jerky… at one point one of them started to try the pickles that were also for sale and I considered letting my patience get the better of me…. but for once I didn’t, and managed to stick it out to get the mochi, but it definitely took longer to buy it than eat it…

A moment of silence for the mochi that triumphed over my impatience please…

There is plenty in the way of grilled fish on offer; scallops are our favourite, but eel, prawns, salmon and many others are also on every corner, as well as wagyu beef, the ubiquitous pickles and cured products, and desserts. The cool thing is that you get to see so much of it being prepared. You can see matcha being ground from green tea leaves, bonito flakes being shaved from the smoked fish fillet, oysters being shucked and grilled in front of you, and sushi rolls being made and – like the Nishiki market in Kyoto (45. Street Food Tour; Nishiki Market, Kyoto), it just adds an extra dimension to your snack.

Cutting the fresh tuna for sashimi

Octopus, squid, scallops and prawns ready for the grill…

On the grill…

Fish packed and ready to go!

There were little hidden corridors all over the place!

Fresh shellfish

Fresh fish

Fishcakes on sticks

Preserved and cured products

That’s a big selection of mushrooms

Bonito flakes – freshly flaked on site!

There are also plenty of non-food items here – mainly knives, it has to be said…. And boy, do they have some knives!! One day… but not this trip. This trip, I settled for some matcha (powdered green tea) in a lovely tin!

Knives…

More knives…

The green tea (and seaweed) shop

We also stopped for a taste of sake; two different ones, in fact. A ‘raw’ one, and a ‘premium’ one. The premium one being made only with the very centre of the polished rice grain, the raw one being partially-fermented and cloudy in appearance; you could definitely taste the yeast, and I couldn’t help but compare the difference to a pilsner vs a wheat beer. And talking of beer, we also stopped to try some of the Asahi brewery’s offerings…

The sake shop

A choice of 4 for tasting

Some very fancy sakes here…

The shop was lovely and had all kinds of artisan foods to accompany the sake!

The sake – premium on the left, raw on the right

The Asahi Brewery stall

Asahi

Anyway, the upshot of the early start was that it is still totally worth getting out of bed at a hideous hour to see the tuna auction – especially if you’ve never seen it – but equally, you should still head over to the old Tsukiji outer market for breakfast afterwards, you wont be disappointed!

48. Toyosu Fish Market, Tokyo (the ‘New Tsukiji’) Toyosu market is the new Tsukiji... sort of, anyway. Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market closed in October 2018 and was relocated to Toyosu - a man made island south-east of the old site - to free up development space ahead of the 2020 Olympics.

#Asia #Fish #Fish Market #Food #Food and Drink #Japan #Market Food #Markets #Seafood #Street Food #Tokyo #Toyoso #Travel #Tsukiji #Tuna

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peregrinology · 5 years

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One of the main attractions of Kushiro is listed as a road bridge over the river. Our hopes were not high.

Kushiro was our first stop in Hokkaido, we had picked if for a couple of reasons, neither including Nusamai Bridge (despite its local fame and status as one of the ‘top three bridges in Hokkaido’). We had picked it mainly for the nearby airport and the proximity to areas with local wildlife and National Parks. We wanted to see something other than cities in Japan; while exciting and bustling, it is nice to see something totally different, and something of the nature with which the Japanese hold so much affinity.

We picked up the hire car at the airport, and drove to our Ryokan guest house. The owner was there to meet us (and painstakingly watch our every move as we removed our shoes and put on our ‘indoor slippers’ – we were constantly worried we’d be in the wrong footwear in the wrong place: bathroom slippers, indoor slippers in the hall, but not in the lounge etc! So many potential faux pas to make, and that’s just with our shoes!). We decided to venture out for food and exploration; we drove into town. Almost nothing was open, perhaps due to it being a weekend, but we went to Fisherman’s Wharf – we’d seen it advertised in the airport and knew it had food. This was our priority; our ANA flight – although very comfy – had served no snack, just a hot drink, and we had been ill-prepared for that situation.

We drove through the streets of what we assumed was the centre, but it felt deserted; nobody walked, there were few cars. Yes it was cold, but it wasn’t that cold, and these were hardy northerners… where were they all? We arrived at the wharf (the stalls were thankfully indoors), but we were almost the only people there bar the stall holders, and most of them were sitting, just waiting for a customer. We wandered upstairs, but that was even weirder; empty areas, then suddenly some kind of radio interview happening (broadcast over loudspeakers to the rest of the floor), a small art exhibition, more empty space… we returned to the ground floor.

Looking down…

Looking up…

It felt surreal as we wandered between the stalls of fish, sweets, crab (a local speciality, and just coming into season) as well as some cured products – mostly fish in origin. Most stalls had crab in some form and trust me… there are a lot of forms; cured crab, tinned crab, curried crab, frozen crab, crab roe, steamed crab, crab innards, and – possibly the weirdest thing we’ve seen – a crab arcade game where you can catch your own crab with the ‘claw’ (intentional pun??)… if you’re successful they will even cook your catch for you at a nearby stall. Not our thing, but whatever ticks your box I guess…

Sea kelp – this felt so soft! Like stroking a marine cashmere shawl!

Frozen crab

Selected fish products

Selection of fish roe

Tinned crab, and crab miso

Crab ramen noodles

Catch your own crab…. (and get it cooked at one of the nearby stalls)

Dried fish jerky

Most of the restaurants were closed, but we found a smokehouse (with on-site smoker), and some much-needed lunch. We tried the crab, which was every bit as good as expected, as well as some katsu curry and smoked sausages. Then we spied some sushi…on a grill…! Wait. On a grill? Sushi’s cold and raw, right?! Not in Kushiro (Hokkaido)… here, they’ve got their own style: Sanmanma. It uses an entire Pacific saury fish (caught just off the coast here), de-boned and marinated in soy sauce, wrapped with a mix of glutinous rice and normal sushi rice, with a green siso (Japanese basil) leaf, then barbecued over hot coals. It was amazing – probably the most interesting thing I’ve eaten on the trip so far! We followed this up with ice cream – cream and melon flavours (Hokkaido is dairy farm land and famous for its dairy produce) – it was, as expected, deliciously creamy! Then we stumbled upon a bakery we couldn’t ignore and bought some treats to take back. By this time, the other restaurants gave the feeling that they may be opening for dinner, but we had had our fill…

Crab rice

House-smoked sausages and egg…

Pork katsu curry

The sushi grill!

Grilled sushi!

Cold, but still not cold enough to refuse ice cream!

Vanilla

Vanilla and melon…

It seemed like a strange little place, but very, very cool – it’s a far cry from the bright lights of Tokyo here, but unusual little places like this really make it worth getting out of the landmark cities and exploring some of the smaller places. We would definitely recommend visiting while you’re in Japan.

The second day, we decided to drive to Japan’s easternmost point accessible to the public (according to Wikipedia) and get cold and windswept…. Which you can read about in our post: 46. Journey to the Edge of the World…

The Kuril Islands

Lighthouse and bird hide

Bleak headlands

The Disputed Four

Co-ordinates

Bokyonomisaki Park

Telephone Box…

Remembering…

After a bit of a search (and some help from TripAdvisor), some more local food was on offer – this time in the form of ramen noodles. Everywhere in Japan seems to boast that it specialises in ramen noodles, and Hokkaido and Kushiro is no exception. We tried two types: shio (salt) broth and miso broth – both delicious, but the heartier miso broth ticking our box after being so cold all day. We went for a side of pork and rice too, and I almost went for another bowl of ramen as the crinkly egg noodles were so good.

Happy ramen face

Miso broth ramen

Pork on rice

“What have you got, mum?!”

Salt broth ramen

Another must-do Kushiro activity is visiting the cranes – we had seen some in the wild on our way to Nosappu, but there are also a couple of options to see them in captivity: we chose the Akan Crane Centre. In 1952, there were just 33 Tancho cranes [Grus japonesis] left in the world. In. The. World. Ridiculous. So, luckily for us (and, not least, the cranes), the local population set about starting a conservation, winter feeding, and breeding programme to protect this breed of crane (the only one of the three found in Japan that is resident all year round) from becoming extinct. The local people literally stopped the extinction of an entire species. Think about it.

Anyway, the Crane Centre is one of the main places it happened. And they’re still working on further-increasing the population of the Tancho (red crested crane). They breed, nurture, run winter feeding programmes, run wetland conservation programmes, reintroduce the cranes to the wild, educate the public, and collect crane-based data…. And now, nearly 70 years on, there are now around 1500 Tancho cranes in Japan!

Trains by the cranes… (does that work?!)

Crane skeleton

Young crane, bred in captivity, waiting to be released when mature

Young crane

Playtime!

Crane upon crane upon crane

Cranes of the world

Crane-based art

The final day we were here, we drove through the city area trying to find a ‘centre’, and eventually happened upon a few blocks square of small streets absolutely packed with shops and restaurants – most were unfortunately closed (too late in the afternoon, too early in the evening… Kushiro, it seemed, has an ‘in between time’) but it looked good; it looked like it could be lively when it was open. There was a vast selection of restaurants and bars, ramen places, sushi places, bars and cafes. We realised that we had not seen Kushiro at her best; we had let her down by not staying longer and experiencing everything she has to offer. Next time, Kushiro, next time, we promise!

47. Sorry, Kushiro… One of the main attractions of Kushiro is listed as a road bridge over the river. Our hopes were not high.

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peregrinology · 5 years

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Or at least that’s how it felt when the wind and rain whipped our faces as we got out of our hire car at Nosappu-Misaku (Cape Nosappu) — the most easterly point of Hokkaido (Japan’s northernmost island), and – according to Wikipedia – the most easterly point of Japan open to the public…

The car journey out to the cape was almost surreal. It rained heavily the entire way, some areas were foggy, it was cold, and the scenery was strikingly similar to Scotland or Norway in autumn. We found ourselves thinking we could basically be anywhere north of Buxton for a lot of the journey.

‘Open’ was not really the operative word on the day we visited – it was noon on Saturday by the time we arrived, it was cold, rainy and extremely windy, not much at all was open, and it all seemed rather bleak…. It was literally the coldest, wettest, windiest place I have been in over 3 years. I tried making a video, but the noise of the wind drowned out the sound, and the rain on the lens ruined most of the visual…. However, we did find the (warm, indoor) Hoppokan Museum, the ‘Four Bridge Park’, and the lighthouse.

Sasagawa Memorial Peace Tower

Telephone Box…

Bokyonomisaki Park

The Bridge of Four

The eternal flame

Gnarly Seas

Co-ordinates

Lighthouse (and bird hide)

The striking symbol of the park is the ‘Four Bridge’ – an arch of four sections to represent the four islands (or archipelagos) of the Kuril Islands that comprise the Northern Territories of Japan. These islands are the subject of an ownership dispute with Russia. After WW2, Japan had to give up the right and title to the Kuril Islands, but the dispute centres around whether or not the sovereignty of Russia (or the USSR, as was) over the islands has been formally recognised.

Under the arch there is also a sculpture containing a flame lit from the Olympic Flame of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Close to the Kuril Islands themselves (the closest of the Habomai Archipelago islands is just 10km away), all the road signs are written in Japanese, Latin and Cyrillic script! Apparently the majority of the foreign trading ships that stop here are Russian, so it makes sense. That said, the sailors don’t seem to venture far as, one mile out, it’s back to Japanese and Latin script only.

It was a place that had the feeling of being hard and stern – the wind and salty sea air lashes the buildings and ages them before their time, the harsh winters do the roads no favours. This felt like a place that knows what it’s like to battle the elements every day.

The sea looked cold, violent and unwelcoming. We hadn’t seen waves like these since we crossed the Bay of Biscay, and even then, these ones seemed to look even less welcoming. The photos of the sea ice in the Hoppakan Museum were startling, yet that same ice is only a couple of months away this winter.

The sea ice…

…only a couple of months away…

For all the inhospitable climate and somewhat surreal home-from-home scenery, we also got our first view of the famous Japanese red-crested cranes on the journey. Just hanging out on Lake Furen. And scores of Hokkaido’s sika deer (Servus nippon) too. The Yezo sika are indigenous to Hokkaido and for tourists (especially those with hire cars…) are mostly famous for wandering out into the road in front of you, bewitched by the headlights. We even got a leaflet from the rental agency on how to deal with any deer-related encounters while driving!

It was really good to get out of the hustle and bustle of the cities (and believe me, ‘hustle and bustle’ gets a whole new meaning in the cities of Japan) and see something different. Maybe November isn’t the most temperate time of year to come here, but it certainly a good time to spot some wildlife and get all awestruck at the rugged scenery!

The north of England??

Frogs. Not sure why.

Rain? What rain?

46. Journey to the Edge of the World… Or at least that’s how it felt when the wind and rain whipped our faces as we got out of our hire car at Nosappu-Misaku (Cape Nosappu) — the most easterly point of Hokkaido (Japan’s northernmost island), and - according to Wikipedia - the most easterly point of Japan open to the public…

#Exploring #Hokkaido #Islands #Japan #Travel #Travelling with Kids #Weather

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peregrinology · 5 years

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Sparrow? Cod roe ice cream? Octopus with quail egg-stuffed heads?

Not what I’d expected either to be honest, but Nishiki Market is not known as ‘Kyoto’s Kitchen’ for nothing. And I’m nothing if not up for trying something new.

Staying in Osaka, we’d headed to Kyoto for ‘One Day Only’… principally to visit Nikishi Market, but also the Fushimi Inari shrine (famous for all its red torii gates).

We got off the train and headed straight for the food… We’d heard the market area was rammed by lunchtime, but even at 11am it was pretty busy (lunchtime in Japan tends to be earlier than most places, but much, much earlier than what we’re used to in Spain!!). We found some food – a custard-filled pastry – before we even entered the market, so dove straight in. We’d seen them being made – not our exact one, although it was still warm – and that was the cool thing about so much of the market; you could see it either made, cooked, or both, right in front of you. It gives you an experience on a whole other level than just buying it in a shop.

One thing that we found is really important in Japan (and the market area was not exception) is that eating while walking in the street is not the done thing. Eating on the metro, local trains, and buses is also frowned upon (long distance trains are the exception). In the market, you buy your snack, eat it by the store, or in one of the designated eating areas, and you either take your rubbish back to the stall you bought it from, or you take it home with you (there aren’t many bins around). We ate our custard pastry in front of the shop, as the owner’s watched on to check that we enjoyed it!!

The first salvo – custard-filled bun

So, with that in mind, we headed off to the market ‘proper’. I almost want to say I didn’t know where to start, but it would be a total lie; I knew exactly: with the first stall we came upon…

Free samples of dried seaweed with sesame, and sun-dried fish paper. The seaweed was my favourite, light, crispy, slightly salted, and with the roasted sesame… yum!

There are plenty of free samples as you walk through, mostly of pickles, but also tiny fish with various flavours – we tried the miso and liquorice. Really nice, but not something we felt we needed to buy a whole bag of. Especially as we wouldn’t be able to bring them back to Spain and would have to eat through them all over the next two weeks. Same for the pickles. Pickles are usually served automatically in restaurants and takeaway bento boxes, so you have to really love pickles (or be a pickle connoisseur) to want to buy more. We don’t really fit either of those categories, so we enjoyed our free samples and moved on…

Pickles

Seaweed with sesame seeds

Pickled vegetables and fish

Preserved fruits and vegetables

Next? Sardine on a stick. The surprise? It had a full roe sack which kind of disintegrated as I bit into it, but added both texture and extra fishy flavour! I bought one for ¥500 (about £4), but we later saw smaller ones for ¥200 (about £1.60) which would have been plenty big enough for a try.

We moved on to some enormous prawns – he painstakingly arranged them to make a heart (it means “I love prawns” he said) when I asked if I could take a photo… but they really were delicious. One stick for ¥500 (about £4), and three big, juicy, really meaty prawns – almost lobster-like in their meatiness.

Before the roe exploded in my mouth…

Fish on a stick

The meatiest prawns I’ve ever eaten…

It means “I love prawns”

Mid-tour dessert stop: a matcha (green tea) cake. It was more like a small matcha pancake wrapped over a lump of sweet red been paste, which was kinda disappointing. I love matcha, and matcha-flavoured things, but this was overpowered by the red bean paste inside. Hugo liked it though, so I donated it to him and moved on to some more fish.

Octopus with quail’s egg stuffed head. Sounds a little odd, perhaps, and indeed it was. Bit it was also delicious. The octopus was really, really red, and had been marinated in a sweet red sauce (possibly even char sui?). I bit into the head and the quails egg shot out the side, rescued only by lightening-quick reflexes at the fear of losing food. The octopus itself was chewy, but in a good way, and the egg broke up both the sweet marinade and the chewiness nicely. I went for a small one, but they had 3 sizes, up to ¥400 (about £3.50).

Grilled scallop. This is a must-have! It was so, so good! Tender and juicy, cooked to perfection; grilled over open flame, brushed with a soy sauce reduction…. honestly, just go there and eat it. Even Jamie (who isn’t that keen on scallops normally) loved it. So did Hugo, but he likes pretty much everything, so that’s not saying too much… I also had a ‘crab stick’ from the same stall. This one got deep fried and, although it was much nicer than a rolled crab stick you’d buy in the supermarket in Europe, it was basically still a hot, oily crab stick. Get the scallop, every time. In fact, get three, because there was a discount for buying three sticks.

Octopus on a stick…

The quail’s egg burst out of the octopus’ head…

Scallop grilling

This is where you need to get your scallops!

Sparrow. I walked past this twice before my curiosity got the better of me. I mean, I had sparrows in my garden in London, I see them around town in Cartagena; they’re tiny and cute and fluffy. And grilled, it seems. And they were grilled to perfection; semi-spatchcocked (if that’s a thing?), the remaining bones were grilled to the point of being crunchy enough to eat. The meat was surprisingly rich; more akin to pheasant than chicken, but very tasty. They were served with a reduced soy sauce glaze, which certainly added to them, but I couldn’t have eaten more than one stick. One of those things that was interesting to try, but just in a small quantity.

Sparrow…

Lots of sparrows…

Eel-wrapped burdock

We had promised Hugo an ice cream, so we stopped at the snoopy store for a strawberry cone with a snoopy wafer. Decent ice cream, strawberry flavour. There isn’t much more to say…

That is one happy boy….

Spicy cod roe ice cream. Slightly (only very) envious of Hugo’s Snoopy ice cream, I decided to head off to sample the spicy cod roe version; surprisingly spicy (that chilli spice that really gets you in the back of the throat), but also really delicious; a delicate roe flavour, but it went really well with the plain ice cream. Strangely addictive, and certainly no weirder than salted caramel (on the assumption you like fish…). The lady on the stall was absolutely lovely, and even gave us a free ‘top up’ of plain vanilla for Hugo (I guess she took pity on him having a mum that would tease him with an ice cream that turned out to be spicy fish egg flavour…).

Spicy cod roe ice-cream

The cod roe ice-cream stall and the lovely ice-cream lady!

We had had our fill, so it was time to move on to the shrine. You definitely don’t need to go into a restaurant while you’re in this area of Kyoto, you can snack to your heart’s content, and try a bit of everything on offer. One word of warning though, it can potentially be more expensive than a restaurant – sticks/snacks start at about ¥100 (about 70p), but go up to ¥1200 (about £9.50) for things like Wagyu beef skewers, so buy the time you’ve had 7 or 8 things, you’ve potentially spent a fair bit. That said, pick and choose your snacks, and you’ve got a really unique food experience!

Fancy pickles

Cured roe and scallops

Crunchy crabs!

Rice cakes

Sweet treats; mostly mochi

Fresh wasabi

More sake and shochu (potato wine)

Sake (rice wine)

Tiny fish!

Yet more pickles…

45. Street Food Tour; Nishiki Market, Kyoto Sparrow? Cod roe ice cream? Octopus with quail egg-stuffed heads? Not what I'd expected either to be honest, but Nishiki Market is not known as 'Kyoto's Kitchen' for nothing.

#Asia #Culture #Fish #Food #Food and Drink #Japan #Kids #Kyoto #Market Food #Markets #Meat #Seafood #Street Food #Travel #Travelling with Kids

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peregrinology · 5 years

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This is definitely a question I have asked myself previously, both of other people and of myself. But I really wanted to go to Asia. More specifically Japan. So I started looking into exactly how awful it might be.

Reading other people’s blogs, it seemed that keeping a toddler in one place and occupied for 10 + hours was the main issue. We were flying Madrid to Tokyo, and we had planned to get to Madrid – about 5 hours on the train – the day before our flight. I had (what I thought at the time was) the brainwave of splitting the flight by changing in Beijing, so after a 10 hour flight Hugo could run about for a couple of hours before the final 3.5 hours to Tokyo. I thought this would be better than doing 13 hours in one go. This turned out to be an error. No matter how tired we all would have been after 13 hours, it was nothing to how tired we actually were after a) the trip to Madrid the previous day b) a bad night’s sleep in the hotel and then c) 18 hours of air travel (including the connection in Beijing)… added to this we arrived in Beijing at 4am when only about 3 things were open, so it was not only more tiring but also more tedious than expected… Although I did inadvertently liven things up a bit by mis-reading the gate number, which lead to us having to run what felt like the length of the airport 15 minutes before our flight was due to leave…

Madrid – Beijing… so far, so good…

Playtime in Beijing

Rallying well after 16 hours on the go…

The flights themselves were surprisingly good – we flew with Air China on one of their new fleet of Boeing 787-8’s (I know that that fact will interest at least 3 people who read this… the rest of you, please forgive me). We had gone prepared with a supply of pencils and paper, a book, a (small) toy car, some sweets, and an almost infinite supply of Peppa Pig, Pocoyo, Oddballs and various other kids programmes. Aside from the tiredness, it was all going pretty well…

When we arrived in Tokyo, the jet lag hit us all hard; flying eastwards and 9 hours of time difference is a bad combination at the best of times. Jamie and I were just plain tired, having not really slept on the flights. Hugo’s body clock was all over the place; he was bouncing off the walls at 1am, yet unable to wake up before 11am or keep his eyes open on any form of public transport. It was really, really difficult, and the first few days were exhausting and possibly more stressful than they should have been.

Thus, I learned my first lesson: push on through and fly direct.

Of course, we will also have to do the same on the way back, so that’s something to look forward to….

Anyway, we’re over half way through our trip now and we’re doing well post-jet lag…

The brief itinerary, for those interested, is as follows:

Tokyo (2 nights) – Shinjuku area

Osaka (7 nights) – Shimanouchi area. We did day trips to both Nara and Kyoto from here

Kobe (1 night) – Arima onsen area

Tokyo (2 nights) – Asakusa area

Kushiro (2 nights) – on the north island of Hokkaido

Sapporo (2 nights) – we will also do a day trip to Mt Yotei from here

Hakodate (2 nights)

Tokyo (2 nights)

We have hired a car in Hokkaido for 6 days so we can go into the National Park areas, and also to (hopefully) see the red-crested cranes (one of the famous symbols of Japan) – something different from what I’ve normally done while in Japan, and also the chance to see some snow for the first time in a few years (and for Hugo, the first time in his life!).

Aside from the staggering jet lag and my ill-conceived flight itinerary, it’s been remarkably easy travelling with a child here. Although we haven’t seen as many children out and about as we do in Europe (apart from those on school trips), Japan is very child-friendly, and Hugo has been very popular. He has been given lots of stickers with cartoon characters on (infinitely preferable to the sweets and lollipops he normally gets in Spain…), and many hotels have welcome packs with small-sized slippers (usually also with a cartoon character on), and other little goodies (stickers, mainly…). Lots of cities, as well as individual attractions, have ‘Passports’ you can buy and stamp up at different locations – we have only bought one so far, but the stamps in general have been a big hit (with me as much as Hugo…), and it’s a fun thing to hunt for – they all have different pictures on them and, this being Japan, they also usually include a cute little cartoon character!

Hotel welcome pack in Tokyo

Free stickers on the bus..

Children under 6 travel free on public transport, and school-age children for a reduced price). Trains have priority seating areas for people with young kids and pregnant women (as well as elderly and incapacitated people), and people willingly give up their space if there isn’t one already available (people don’t seem quite as obsessed with sitting down here as we do on the tube in London!).

Osaka Aquarium

Tired, but happy

For the boy born in Year of the Dog (2015), we found this statue in Kobe’s Chinatown

His cutest Yukata look at our Ryokan in Kobe (Arima hot springs)

Messing about in the fountains in Kobe Port

Feigning civility (and lack of tiredness) at our first hotel in Tokyo

Stamps were a big win; we found this one in Kobe Port Tower

Entry for most attractions, even child/based ones like Legoland, are generally free for under-3’s and reduced for school-age children. We scored big here as Hugo doesn’t turn 3 till next month. Result.

Sliding Down at Anpanman Children’s Museum in Kobe

Looking Up at Anpanman Children’s Museum in Kobe

Big Balls at Anpanman Children’s Museum in Kobe

Checking out the new models (Kawasaki World, Kobe)

Kawasaki World in Kobe

Messing about (Kawasaki World, Kobe)

MotoGP 2032 for sure (Kawasaki World, Kobe)

Driving a shinkansen bullet train at Kawasaki World, Kobe

Legoland, Osaka

Children are welcome in most restaurants and bars in the evening – we had no problems anywhere we went. That said, we weren’t out very late, we tried not to outstay our welcome, and did use some discretion as to which places we went into. We asked first in a couple of bars if it was ok to bring kids in (it always was), and we saw other young children in several places we went to; it is usually possible to judge places that you would or wouldn’t take a child into on the same criteria as you would anywhere else in the world. Hugo has loved the food, especially the sushi, but there is also plenty to tick those child-win boxes of fried chicken (tori karaage), steamed rice, ramen soup noodles with egg and pork. Edamame peas in their pods have also been a big vegetable hit. The food is diverse enough that everyone can find something to their liking. If all else fails, the convenience stores (Lawson, 7-Eleven, and Family Mart are the three biggest chains we’ve come across) are everywhere and sell all sorts of bento boxes, as well as snacks and hot food such as steamed buns, skewers, and yet more tori karaage.

Ichiran Ramen, Tokyo

Wanomiya Wagyu Steak restaurant, Osaka

Izakaya in Tokyo

Tori karaage in Osaka

Who doesn’t love ice cream?

We predominantly stayed in mid-range generic business hotels and small guest houses, but we splashed out on one night in a beautiful Ryokan (traditional guest house) with a private onsen (hot spring mineral bath). Hugo was equally well-accommodated here as the other accommodation, with his own kaiseki (traditional) meal, small-sized yukata (a cotton robe kind of like a dressing gown), and access to the onsen. It was really lovely, but the property was old with thin walls and floors, so while it was certainly child-friendly, we found that we became a bit preoccupied (to the point of near-obsession) with being quiet, especially since we discovered that Hugo can only walk at one volume and unfortunately it’s ‘elephant’…

All in all, Japan is a great place to travel with kids. I’ve heard it described (along with Singapore) – somewhat derogatorily – as ‘Asia Lite’ because of the ease of getting around, the cleanliness, and efficiency, which to a point sets it apart from other countries in Asia, but to say it as if you’re not visiting ‘Asia proper’ would be to do Japan (and Singapore) a vast disservice. It’s a fascinating country, with a wealth of experiences, culture, food (yes, I had to say it..), nature, and tradition to be enjoyed – and it’s also a great place to start exploring at any age; even when you’re only nearly three!

Trying a chocolate melon bun in Nara

Who on earth would travel long-haul with a 2 year old?! This is definitely a question I have asked myself previously, both of other people and of myself.

#Air China #Asia #Culture #Departures #Family Travel #Japan #Japan Public Transport #Japan with Kids #Kids #Kobe #Long-Haul #Osaka #Osaka with Kids #Tokyo #Tokyo with Kids #Travel #Travelling with Kids

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