Burp!
I love Japan. And with some regret, I have to admit that travelling in Japan was really all about the food and less about its rich culture, history, or religion. In short, my stomach took over and did most of the travelling for me except for maybe the skiing I attempted in Sapporo (but then Sapporo was the ski-by-day-and-feast-by-night segment of our Japan trip).
After spending two weeks with Henry’s family in Hong Kong, we flew to Tokyo where we would spend two days by ourselves before meeting up with his friends, May and Takashi, who live in Osaka. I had read a bit about the Imperial Palace and some of the fantastic museums to explore in Tokyo. But, as it turned out, we did none of those things.
We ended up scoping out maybe four districts of this large metropolis and planned our two days according to gastronomic math, guided by food cravings. That is, how many tasty and delicious meals and snacks we could fit into each day. After two days of stuffing our faces with ramen, udon, yakitori, unadon, and sushi, we took the bullet Shinkansen to Osaka to meet up with May. There, to our delight, we found wonderful partners in crime. She and her husband Takashi brought us to this awesome local mom ‘n pop restaurant specializing in fresh unadon – that is, unagi over rice. And when they say fresh, they really mean it. We watched the squirmy eels get butchered, skinned, cleaned, skewered, and then grilled. We even discovered a new snack of deep fried crispy eel spine, best eaten and washed down with a perspiring glass of cold beer.
May was sweet enough to take us around Kyoto for a day trip. We got as far as arriving there and taking the guided tour of the Imperial Palace before venturing off to the markets for lunch. There we discovered some awesome oden and my new favorite udon, served cold with tempura and a special sauce. The next day, we met up with my sister’s roommate from grad school, Junko. She lives in Okayama, which is about an hour’s bullet train ride away. Since Junko is an old family friend who knows the Kwongs well, she met up with us and immediately brought Henry and me to this amazing all-you-can-eat organic Japanese buffet place for lunch. Needless to say, I had a great time. Burp!
The next day, Henry and I bid farewell to our kind and gracious hosts, May & Takashi, and returned to Tokyo to meet up with Henry’s parents who were flying in from Hong Kong. We then all checked in for our flight to Sapporo (northern Japan) where we would take a bus to the Niseko ski resort for a few days of white powder skiing. To my delight, that day ushered in the start of some serious and dedicated sushi-sashimi feasting. This is because blessed Hokkaido has the freshest seafood around, and as such, many restaurants’ menus featured a large variety of fresh fish, shellfish, crab, and shrimp. Again, needless to say, we feasted. I can still taste the sweet hotate and my favorite botan ebi washed down with a swig of wonderful warm sake. Again, burp! I love Japan and cannot wait to return. We would have definitely stayed longer if the yen wasn’t so expensive compared to our USD.
