JAPAN

05/16/2018 - 06/01/2018

The goal of this post is not to tell you what to do and how to do it, but to provide you some guidance and ideas for when you plan a trip to Japan. The information below is based on my experience travelling in Japan from May 16th until June 1st, as well as websites I found and information that was shared from other travellers and friends.

I have travelled countries in Asia before: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and a little Hong Kong, but that was over 4 years ago. With that said, this experience was very different. Travelling in Japan - well where we chose to visit - is very much a “city trip”. Your trip will be spent walking, eating and drinking your way through different neighbourhoods / districts, temples, shrines, and parks. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this, but if I were to go back to Japan, I think I would need to find a way to include either a beach break in Okinawa or have your trip be half Japan and some other area in Asia as well.

So this is what our breakdown was:

We left Toronto on May 16th and arrived in Tokyo on May 17th
We stayed in Tokyo from May 17th until May 21st (4 nights)
We left Tokyo on May 21st and went to Hakone for a day and night (1 night)
On the 22nd we left Hakone and went to Kyoto where we stayed until May 25th (3 nights)
We left Kyoto on the 25th in the morning to spend the day in Nara and then made our way to Osaka from there
We were in Osaka from May 25th until May 30th (5 nights)
We went back to Tokyo on May 30th until it was time to go home on June 1st (2 nights)

Would I recommend to follow this breakdown? It depends on the type of traveller you are and what you enjoy doing. I was quite “temple and shrine”d out by the mid point of our trip. Although we loved and made the best of each experience, I would do it different if I was to return. Firstly, I would probably only realistically return to Tokyo, but if I was hypothetically do to this trip again, I would do Tokyo for 5 or 6 days, maybe do a ryokan for a night or 2 there; I probably would not go to Hakone / Mt. Fuji; I would do Kyoto for a day trip or for just 1 night; and then I would do 3 or 4 nights in Osaka. Based on the length of the trip we did, we probably could have included more day trips to places like Kobe, Hiroshima, and more.

I highly recommend looking up craft beer bars in Tokyo and Osaka, as well as going to a baseball game in either city.

HOTELS

It is hard to recommend hotels because prices vary by personal preferences and time of year, but I did like where we stayed. We chose our hotels based on location, price, and availability.

WARNING: BEDS WERE ROCK SOLID AT ALMOST ALL HOTELS WE STAYED AT IN JAPAN!

Tokyo:
I would recommend staying in Shibuya or Ebisu. It is easy to walk to the station or to different areas and restaurants. We stayed at the Cerulean Tower Tokyo Hotel when we arrived in Tokyo at the beginning of the trip. This hotel was great - good location, clean and easy. When we went back to Tokyo at the end of our trip, we stayed at Hotel Koe, which I do recommend looking into. It is a small boutique hotel in Shibuya. Unlike Cerulean, I found the staff at Koe were way more helpful, personable, and able to communicate with you with ease. If you are wanting to stay in a ryokan in Tokyo, I recommend looking into Hoshinoya Tokyo. We did not have a chance to visit or stay here, but we have heard amazing things. It is located in Ottamachi, which is a nice central area in Tokyo. It is an authentic ryokan with a beautiful hot spring on the roof.

Hakone:
This was the part of the trip that we decided to splurge and when I look back, it was kind of silly of us to do and we should have used this money for a nice hotel in a different area. We stayed at Goran Kadan Hotel, which was beautiful and such a special experience, but my boyfriend and I aren’t spa people and didn’t take advantage of the hotel enough.

Kyoto:
We stayed at Hotel Noku, which was very clean and nice. It ended up working out for us just fine, but I would recommend staying closer to the river area. We felt our hotel was a little out of the way.

Osaka:
We stayed at The Nikko Hotel, which I highly recommend because it was clean, easy, super accessible, and such an amazing location. We were walking distance from almost all of the main areas we enjoyed spending time in.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

The language barrier was STRONG. We had some apps, but in the end we didn’t use them because they were not all that reliable and it also felt rude to use. So… be prepared. Screenshot the Japanese address for your hotel and/or destinations you will be going to, especially if you are planning on turning your data off while travelling. Do research on restaurants. Some nights you will likely want to just walk around and eat - definitely do that, but be prepared to be turned down. We shockingly were sent away because restaurants or clubs were “Japanese Only”... or sometimes they would just say “NO” or “SOLD OUT” and cross their arms in an X. We were able to walk around and find places, but I do recommend making reservations or having an idea of where you want to eat. Some hotel staff will be able to be of assistance, but be prepared for the barrier to still be present within the hotel. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem though. Last note here is that you should be prepared to not always know what you order because the English menu may not include all or any information other than the title of the dish and the waiter or waitress likely will not be able to articulate it to you.

JR RAIL PASS

For some people this makes sense…. For others it does not… we fell into the does not category. We only used the pass to travel between cities, which happened about 4 times, so we could have saved a ton of money by not buying the JR Rail Pass and by buying train tickets at the station. If you are frequently moving and using the pass, then that is a different story and it is worthwhile for you to purchase.

Prior to travelling to Japan, websites not only told us we NEEDED the JR Rail Pass, but told us that we would need to send our suitcases the night before. This is something that is also not true. It is great to do if you plan on getting off the train and touring because then your bags are taken care of, but if you are going to the hotel from the train station, then you can definitely keep your suitcases with you and bring them onto the train without any problems.

TOUR GUIDE

This depends on the experience you are looking for and the type of traveller you are. My grandmother had a guide with her throughout her trip and she loved it because he was well educated and informed, and spoke fluent English. Whereas, we had a tour guide for a day and ended up cancelling him for the other days. Nothing against him at all - he was great! - we just preferred travelling on our own. It was nice having him on the first day of our trip because it helped us gather our bearings, understand our surrounding and how to navigate. Our guides name was Toshitake Suzuki and you can find him on viator.com or Instagram.

Tokyo

Tokyo was by far my favourite city and is a city I cannot wait to return to. We started and ended our trip in Tokyo and I recommend doing the same. Tokyo is such a special city with so many different areas to explore and experience.

Where you choose to stay in Tokyo really depends on what you are wanting out of the trip. If you are planning to party a lot, it would be best to be in Shinjuku or Roppongi, or maybe even Shibuya. If you are looking to be shopping most of your trip, then Ginza and Harajuku are perfect for you. If you want to be accessible and walking distance to restaurants and shopping, but also not sleeping where the party is, then Shibuya or Ebisu are where you should look.

I will note that we found Sumo Wrestling to be quite boring and far to get to. I personally would not recommend spending the money and time on this experience. Karaoke is all over Japan and is always fun to do - very similar to home, but still fun. Karaoke and bowling can be found everywhere in Japan, especially in Tokyo and Osaka. I highly recommend looking into going to a baseball game in Tokyo or Osaka. We did and had the best time!

As you have probably seen on multiple websites while researching Japan travel tips, the best way to break down Tokyo is by neighbourhoods… and this will be the same for the other cities we visited. There are hundreds of areas and spots to find, but I am going to highlight some of the main areas.

SHIBUYA: This is the area we stayed in. It is great because when in Shibuya you are walking distance from Daikanyama, Ebisu and Nakameguro, and from Harajuku. Within Shibuya there is tons of shopping that can be done. Tons. You can also see the famous “Shibuya Crossing” here. It is quite nuts to be part of and even more nuts to observe. I recommend going to the second floor of the Starbucks to get a good view.

GINZA: I would describe Ginza as the Yorkville, Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive of Tokyo. Think fancy shopping, department stores, and big name brands. There is the large main street that cars are not allowed on during the weekends, as well as cobblestone narrower streets. This area is where you go to shop high-end designers like Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hermes. Worth going to as well is Dover Street Market and the Hankyu department store. You can also find most of the Michelin sushi restaurants in this area. Some restaurants I would recommend looking into are: Kyubey, Tokami, Kagari, and Sushiya Ichiyanagi.

Our experience at Sushiya Ichiyanagi was quite interesting…. It was our first and only sushi omakase experience. Omakase is like fear factor. You don’t know how long the meal is, how many courses are going to be served, or what you are going to be eating. Some of the things we ate during this fear factor experience included: sea urchin, firefly squid with cod roe, tuna, salmon, mackerel, smoked sea abalone, bonito, straight up squid, and so much more…. My boyfriend and I are food driven individuals who need to try and eat everything - we travel based on where we can eat next and normally are open to trying anything… we tried everything in this meal… to the point that we do not even remember half of what we ate because we had to block it out of our memories. I think we swallowed everything at the bottom of the ocean.

There are some great steak restaurants to look for as well. We went for a steak dinner at this small hidden spot: Shima. It was tricky to find, especially because it was our first night in Tokyo. We managed to find Shima hidden downstairs. It is a quaint restaurant with tons of energy.

Ginza is quite close to Tsukiji Fish Market, which is a MUST when visiting Tokyo. You will likely be told and/or see on other websites that you need to go for 4 or 5 AM so you can see the fish auction and stand in line at Sushi Dai for breakfast… but you don’t. We went for 9:30/10 AM and managed just fine. You can walk through stores, restaurants and market; explore the different vendors and fish options; eat fresh sushi, crab and more.

Daikenayama, Ebisu, Nakameguro / Meguro: We made our way to these areas at first by accident, then multiple times on purpose. They are all interconnected and were by far my favourite to walk around in Japan. We first stumbled upon these areas one night when we decided to go to Afuri (ramen) for dinner. They have multiple locations around Tokyo, but we decided to walk to the one in Ebisu. To get there from our hotel we walked through Daikanyama and fell in love! These neighbourhoods are modern, simple, beautiful and unique. Full of windy streets, houses and apartments, pop up bars and cafes, and cool restaurants, you can truly lose yourself here. Very similar to parts of Tel Aviv and Abbot Kinney. Some popular stores you can expect to find while exploring these neighbourhoods include: Nike, an APC discount store, Free City, Issey Miyake, Fred Segal and more. We ate multiple meals in these areas because we never wanted to leave. There were tons of option to choose from: Japanese, Italian, French and more. We ate yakitori one night, which was an adventurous meal of eating chicken hearts, chicken skin, smoked quail eggs, beef, mushrooms and more. We had amazing ramen at Afuri. One night we needed a break from Japanese food so we have beer, wine and pizza at Pizza Slice, which aims to mimic the “New York Pizza” experience. We did brunch at Garden House Crafts, and after brunch snacks and beer flights at Spring Valley Brewery. We also did a more American style dinner one night at Ivy Place, which is also a very popular Sunday brunch spot. We also has soba along Nakameguro river, which was delicious.
Helpful links: https://trulytokyo.com/ebisu-daikanyama-and-meguro/ and https://wanderwisdom.com/travel-destinations/Another-Sunday-in-Tokyo-Daikanyama-and-Nakameguro.

Akinabara: This area was shocking and mind-blowing - somewhere you need to go once in your life. This is where any gamer / anime lover goes to retire. Akinabara is known as the “Electronic Town” and the name does it justice. It is famous for electronic shops, specifically arcades. You can also find tons of cat / owl / maid cafes in this area. The shops and “activities” in this area are devoted to anime and manga.

Harajuku: Harajuku was one of the highlights of my time in Tokyo. I expected a cheesy, over the top area full of “Harajuku Girls” and Geishas. Harajuku was beyond cool with one main strip of shopping and then alleyways and side streets with cool shops and restaurants. To compare, I would say Harajuku is like Queen Street, King Street and Ossington, or Soho. Make sure to look up “Cat Street” - it is not actually full of cats - it is the main side street that has tons of cool shops and restaurants. In Harajuku you can find designers and stores on all levels: Lululemon, Comme De Garson, Chanel, Opening Ceremony, Nike, Adidas, Patagonia, Off White, and among other boutiques and vintage stores. There is also an amazing strip with hundreds of sneaker stores. You will find a long line of people waiting at Luke’s Lobster… I recommend passing this line and getting Thai, Gyozas or Ramen at the restaurants across the street instead. If you are wanting to stay in Harajuku, I would definitely say to look at the Trunk Hotel… and if you aren’t wanting to stay there… I would say go see this hotel anyway because it is awesome. A couple great coffee shops to look for are Chop and Mameya Coffee. Ometasando Hills is right next to Harajuku and resembles Nolita with flower shops, boutiques and restaurants. The other noteworthy street to explore in Harajuku is Takeshita Street (Harajuku Street), which is super super touristy. You can also find the beautiful vast Yoyogi Park, which is on the same level as Central Park: full of ginormous trees and hidden paths. In Yoyogi Park you will find the Meji Shrine.

Asakusa: This area is considered “old” Tokyo and it is where you will find the Sensoji and Asakusa Shrines. The Sensoji Shrine, Famous Buddhist Temple, is north of Akinbara. To get to the shrine, you walk through Asakusa market and Nakamise shopping street full of local snacks and tourists vendors.

Shinjuku: We did not have a chance to visit this area during the day, and I do wish I did because there is a big botanical garden to see and an observation tower to see the skyline. We went to Shinjuku at night. It is one of the older areas in Tokyo that has become quite touristy as it has many similarities to Time Square and/or the Red Light District. People recommend the Robot Restaurant because it is a crazy show and experience. I would note that it is quite touristy and expensive. The go-to spots in Shinjuku are Golden Gai and Piss Alley to find the historically small Japanese restaurant and bars. Shinjuku is the party district and where you will likely spend your nights if you are wanting to be drinking and partying. This area is packed full of neon lights, nightclubs, bars, and restaurants. It is the neon wonderland of Tokyo. You may also want to visit the famous Park Hyatt rooftop view from Lost in Translation.

Tokyo also has Disneyland and Disney Sea. We spent a day exploring both.

Things we didn't do but prob should including visiting the spots below in these areas:
Minato, Shimokitazawa, Roppongi and Ueno

Nezu Museum
West Aoyama Gardens (Pancakes)
Niku Kappo (Steak)
Savoy Pizza (from Ugly Delicious)
Ueno Park & Zoo
National Museum
Ameya Yokocho
Mingeikan Folk Art Museum
Mori Tower
Mori Art Museum
Kappabashi (Japanese Kitchen Capital of Tokyo)

If you are unsure how to break up your days in Tokyo. I would consider doing the following:

Harajuku and Aoyama
Ginza, Tsukiji Fish Market and Imperial Palace
Akinbara, Asakusa and Ueno Park
Shibuya, Daikanyama, Ebisu and Nakameguro

If you are going on a shopping trip, then the areas you want to spend most of your time in are Ginza, Harajuku, Aoyama and Nakameguro.

Food:

STEAK: If you are looking for Japanese BBQ, steak sandwiches, Kobe beef or burgers, check out either Shima Steak, Yoroniku, Blacows, Sumibiyakiniku, Nakahara or Wagyu Mafia
RAMEN: Ramen was our favourite! We were obsessed with Afuri. Other good spots include Ichiran Ramen, En-Ramen Shop, Kagari, Akonren Roppongi, Ganko, Dokan Ramen, Ippudo and Tonkasu
ITALIAN: There are 3 great pizza places worth noting: Pizza Slice, Savoy Azubajian and Pizzeria e Trattoria de isa. For Japanese/Italian fusion, visit Tacubo. Other restaurants include Tenoha and Ristorante Cascina Canamilla
KAISEKI & TEMPURA: Look up Den, Ishikawa, Tempura Fukumachi, Deli Fu Cious and Kondo
BRUNCH: Too many delicious spots for brunch in Tokyo. For the famous fluffy pancakes I would recommend Gram or Soaks. For your more classic breakfast choices, spend a morning at Ivy Place, Garden House Crafts, Bills, Mercer and Cafe Gitane
SUSHI: There are thousands of options for sushi in Japan. You have to be careful with sushi, because low level sushi is quite mushy... medium level sushi is good and similar to home... and high level sushi is rather expensive and often adventurous. You will also find that most sushi restaurants are Michelin Star as well. Look up the following: Masuda, Kyubei Ginza, Tokami, Sawada, Jiro, Mizutani, Sushi Dai, Sushi Saito, Fukuzushi and Sushi Zanmai
OTHER FOOD: For Japanese/Chinese Fusion visit Tama. For French food and wine Fujimaru is delicious. Great gyoza spots include Harajuku Gyoza-Ro and Usukawa Gyoza Senmon. Soba along Nakameguro river or at Honmura An
BARS: JBS, Bar Bonobo, Casbar, Aoyama Tunnel, Golden Gai, Piano Bar, Rubyroom, Mother Bar, Standard S and Coins Bar

Hakone

The reason we decided to do Hakone is because we wanted to experience the hot springs, the mountains and to see Mount Fuji. Do I think you need to visit Hakone? No, I don’t. With that said, we did enjoy our experience there. We arrived in Hakone quite early and our hotel was not ready for us to check in upon our arrival (we clearly were not thinking when we decided to take the earliest train out of Tokyo to Hakone). This ended up being a blessing because it forced us to explore Hakone, which for some reason was not something we considered doing. Now let me break this down for you - exploring Hakone is a real planes, trains and automobiles circular mission. We literally walked from the hotel up the mountain to a cable car, which took us to our first gondola that led us to our second gondola, and then we hopped on a boat that took us to a bus to a taxi, until we finally walked back to our hotel. Quite a lot of transportation! Don’t worry, it was worth it because we saw magical fews of shrines, the lake: Lake Ashi, Mount Fuji, the mountainous land of Hakone, communities off of Lake Ashi, volcano and the mined sulfur, and more. Before heading back to the hotel we had a quick snack at the Gyoza Center.

Gora Kadan - the experience we went for and splurged on. What did we get? A bedroom, dining room, living room, and ensuite hot tub / hot bath / hot spring. We spent hours in the bath. It was outside surrounded by beautiful stones and plants - so beautiful, relaxing and special. We had a Geisha assigned to our room as well. She was ADORABLE - we wanted to take her on the rest of the trip with us she was so cute. She was very formal, respectful and traditional. She served us dinner in our room… dinner which was an 8 course traditional meal.

Kyoto

Kyoto was not our favourite… we actually ended up cutting out a night and leaving for Osaka early. This depends on who you are and what you enjoy to do when you travel. There are some beautiful hotels in Kyoto, if you are okay with spending money - we stopped by the Four Seasons and wow it was beautiful. We stayed a little out of the way, closer to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. I would recommend looking for a hotel closer to the river / Gion area. Walking along the river is quite beautiful at night - people sit along the river and there is a ton of action happening on the well lit restaurant back patios adjacent to the river. The streets in Gion neighbourhood include department stores, well known brands like Uniqlo, H&M, GAP, Zara and more.

For me to walk you through Kyoto it is probably easiest if I just copy and past my daily journal from the days spent there. I will bold the key words to pay attention to.

NOTES ON WEDNESDAY MAY 23:
For our first full day in Kyoto, we decided to follow Inside Kyoto’s 2 day itinerary. It was raining all day, but we decided to walk the city anyways. Our day focused on: Southern Higashiyama, Downtown and Fushimi-Inari. We started with Kiyomizu-dera Temple which is quite large and special. We walked through shops to get through the temple and it was beautiful. These temples and shrines are often tourist traps (all of them) but still worth exploring and seeing, plus the people watching is entertaining. From there we walked through the temple and around that area. We used Google Maps to guide us from Kiyomizu-dera Temple to Matsubara-dori Street (lined with shops) to reach the lovely preserved district of Sannen-zaka Hill. To quote the Inside Kyoto website, because we followed it during this time, we continued “down the street to where it flattens out and then go a bit further and take a right down into Ninnen-zaka, another lovely preserved district. You will come to a larger cross street with cars. Go left down the hill then quickly turn right into Nene-no-Michi, which is mostly free from cars. Follow this north, with one quick right-left jog to reach Maruyama-koen Park.” We walked around and saw more temples and parks. We continued our day by walking to Downtown Kyoto to go look at the restaurants Downtown, Nishiki Market (where it joins the Teramachi Shopping Arcade) and Daimaru Department Store’s Basement Food Hall. We tried different food in the market and food hall, and had some dim-sum outside. We then decided it was time to go to Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine, which is the beautiful orange Shrine that one would see when googling Kyoto and one of the popular classic tourist Instagram. It was beautiful and a wayyyy larger experience then we thought; it was huge and as warned by websites online: a tourist trap. With that said, it was still special and worth walking through. It was truly beautiful and I think if I were to go again I would try and go there first super early in the morning to avoid the busy commotion of the tourists. After seeing temples and shrines all day, we decided it was time to go to 2 sake breweries: Gekkeikan Okura Kinenkan and Matsui Sake Brewery. Both interesting and fun experiences. If it was nice out we would have followed the Inside Kyoto Sake tour but it was pouring and a lot of that tour requires being on a boat. At night we walked around the area near our hotel, Downtown Kyoto and Gion. We tried different food all over and then called it a night.

NOTES ON THURSDAY MAY 24:
We stayed in bed late so we were off to a late start but that was okay. We cabbed to Arashiyama to see the river, town and Bamboo Forest. From there we took another cab over to Kinkaku-ji to the Golden Pavilion, which was packed with tourist but was still special and serene. We then were temple and shrined out so we went to Kyoto Station to get ramen at Ippudo. At night we went to Fortune Garden for drinks and appetizers and then to Hafuu for a delicious steak dinner. Another great dinner we heard to look up was Steak & Wine in Gion.

Nara

On our way from Kyoto to Osaka, we decided to stop in Nara for a day. Nara is quite small and you really only need a couple hours to walk from the station to go roam the Deer Park (straight walk from the station) and then you can make your way to Osaka.

Osaka

Similar to Tokyo, in Osaka there are main areas / streets to explore. What I loved about Osaka is that we stayed very central in proximity to the main areas we wanted to spend time in. We stayed right in Namba / Minima area, walking distance from the main street of Dotonbori and along the water.

Dotonbori: In a nutshell, Dotonbori is a long street with amazing little alleyways off of it. Most of the areas to explore are like this. Expect long streets and alleyways full of lights, restaurants, bars and food huts. You can also find some classic shopping, i.e. Forever 21 and Zara. Definitely visit these areas and make sure to walk down the side streets and alleys. We definitely tried and ate everything possible. Some notable eats include Japanese BBQ, Tempura kobe beef, shrimp tempura, and more. Off of Dotonbori you can find Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade, which is one of the largest shopping arcades in Asia. It spans on multiple streets and parts of the Namba area. I recommend exploring Dotonbori Bar Code streets as well. You can find a bunch of small bars, sushi restaurants and Japanese BBQ here. Make sure to venture off to Ura-Namba, also known as Secret Namba or Behind Namba. We found one of our favourite restaurants in Osaka, which we returned to: Torame Yokocho / Tiger Eye Alley.

Shinsekai: A smaller version of Dotonbori. It is about 2 or 3 small streets with restaurants and shops. Definitely worth walking around for an hour or so.

Americamuri: This area demonstrates the weird love and obsession Japan has with the U.S. They have an entire neighbourhood dedicate to American culture. Here you can find vintage and second hand stores, popular well known brands, hundreds of different foods to try and more. It is quite fun to walk around. It is always packed with tons of people.

Tenma: Another great area to walk around. All the areas are kind of similar with just different restaurants and bars. We went to a delicious gyoza spot and to a yakitori / soba restaurant.

Umeda & Osaka Station: You can find Shake Shack, tons of restaurants, karaoke, bowling, and more here. There is a famous ferris wheel that has an incredible view of the city. These streets are quite lively at night. It looks like this is an area where you can definitely find locals.

Bay Area: This area was not worth it for us, but is great if the weather is nice and you are wanting to visit the famous Osaka aquarium. Also a great area to take kids because a kid’s park and Lego land can be found here.

Universal Studios: Sometimes you need a break from walking around neighbourhoods and need to discover your inner kid. The Harry Potter World was awesome. Just a heads up, all of the rides are in Japanese.

Osaka Castle: A beautiful site and walk. On a hot day it would be nice to come here and have a picnic or some lavender ice cream while exploring the famous castle grounds.

Great website to refer to when thinking of what to do in Osaka is: https://www.kansaiscene.com/2017/05/osakas-coolest-neighborhoods/.

FOOD:

Wharf: When in Umeda, go to Wharf for delicious fish and oyster bar. The oysters are quite large, which I normally hate, but these were actually quite good.
Sarabeth’s: Classic New York favourite, Sarabeth’s, opened a location in Osaka station. It is a Japanese twist on traditional breakfast. They have great waffles and pancakes.
Biotop: Take a break on Orange Street and visit Biotop’s garden rooftop restaurant for beer and pizza.
Torame Yokocho / Tiger Eye Alley: In door small food hall / restaurant with 5 or 6 different restaurants inside. You can get sushi from a delicious fresh stand up sushi bar; Italian food, yakitori, okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake), yaki-soba, udon noodles and more.
Good Spoon: Awesome breakfast spot walking distance from our hotel. I believe they have multiple locations. We got normal breakfast food, but we also had a delicious carbonara: rice, pesto, and a poached egg. Insanely good.
Northshore Cafe & Dining: Healthy dishes including grilled chicken, shrimp plates, and ginger pork.
Yamagoya: Yakitori and steak
Endo Sushi: standard sushi dishes
Tonkotsu Mazesoba: ramen and soba
Westwood Bakers: Delicious brunch spot with fresh bread and coffee
The Pie Shop: Pie and baked goods by day, bar and meat pies by night.
Garb Monaque: French food outside of Osaka Station