Now for a short break from the Japan trip recap. My boyfriend and I went to a restaurant called All Spice on Friday in San Mateo. I wanted to book a table for his birthday dinner back in January, but I didn’t realize that you actually have to book at least a month in advance to get a reservation at a good time on a Friday or Saturday night. Anyways, it’s a fancy Indian/American fusion restaurant. I didn’t realize it had a Michelin star until last week, actually. Surprising because it’s only been open for around 3 years. My first Michelin star restaurant! (not an elitist). It was surprisingly affordable for such a fancy place though. Granted, most of the entrees are at least $25-35, but not completely out of reach for our budget.
Japan trip 2014: Day 2, Part 2 (Shinjuku, Odaiba)
Shinjuku
We parted ways with Cristina at the Shinjuku station, which is scary as hell. Not because Cristina was gone, but because there were so many people, just rushing rushing rushing. Maybe I’m not used to it because I’m from California and not NYC, but I felt really anxious about being too slow and holding up traffic. At least in Japan, when it’s crowded, people don’t push and shove. In China, if you don’t shove back, you will get trampled over.
Restaurant Review: Sno-Zen (Mountain View, CA)
Yesterday, I went to Sno-Zen, which is a shaved snow place in Mountain View. Technically, I think this was my third or fourth visit, but first time reviewing it. It’s been open since last September and is housed in an apartment that’s converted into retail space.
Yelp user’s photo of the outside. Couldn’t find a bigger picture of the building exterior.
Sadly, this means that parking is pretty much non-existent, because you have to compete with the people who actually live in this residential neighborhood. Somehow, we managed to find a spot yesterday, but in the past, we just parked right by the store.
Its specialty is shaved snow, which is NOT the same as shaved ice. Oh no, it is so much better than shaved ice. It’s more creamy like ice cream, but it comes in flakes. And it actually tastes like its flavors. I’ve tried the mango and green tea shaved snow, which taste just like mango and green tea.
What I ordered: vanilla shaved snow with black sesame condensed milk and strawberries
Sadly, the picture doesn’t really do the shaved snow justice because you can’t really see the flakes, but like usual, it was good. Though I think my order got messed up. I asked for jasmine milk tea shaved snow, but they ran out, so I asked for peanut butter, but I think the server forgot and substituted it with vanilla, which I didn’t realize until long after I finished. Whoops.
The store has become much more popular since last time I visited in December or January. Partly because that was the winter, when no one really wants cold desserts anyways. Yesterday was the complete opposite. Barely anywhere to sit, when in previous visits, there were maybe at most 4 other customers in there. Since it’s in an apartment-like space, it’s not that big – maybe space for about 20 people or so.
Anyways, I highly highly recommend Sno-Zen. Hopefully its quality won’t go down as it expands into more locations and becomes more popular.
Japan trip 2014: Day 2, Part 1 (Tokyo – Ginza, Shibuya, Harajuku)
Ginza
Another early morning due to jet lag. We decided to head to Ginza, which was really near our hotel. However, we soon realized that Ginza is very dead at 8:30AM on a Sunday. Whoops. I did get some nice pictures of the newly renovated Kabuki-za, which is a famous kabuki theater in Tokyo.
Kabuki-za Theater
Japan trip 2014: Day 1, Part 2 (Tokyo – Ueno, Akihabara)
Ueno
After our tempura lunch, we headed to Ueno Park, which reminds me a bit of Golden Gate Park, since both have museums. I thought it would be really cool, but to be honest, it wasn’t terribly exciting. We did find some (real!) sakura at last though.
Japan trip 2014: Day 1, Part 1 (Tokyo – Edo Tokyo Museum, Asakusa)
Day 1 in Tokyo! We originally planned to visit Tsukiji this day, but because of my cold, we decided to postpone it to day 3. So we planned to hit up the Edo-Tokyo museum in Ryogoku, Asakusa, Ueno, and Akihabara.
Japan trip 2014: Day 0
Sorry for taking a while to get posts up and running, haven’t had too much time to write the last few days.
Day 0
The flight was not great because I just caught a cold the day before. I won’t go into the gory details, but anyways I was pretty miserable on the flight. I will say that Japan Airlines is pretty awesome, and so is the Boeing 787. It’s more comfortable than other planes I’ve been on. More leg room and higher air pressure.
Aside from my nausea and general discomfort, I like the on-flight entertainment. They had manga! … which I did not read. Partly because it was kind of a hassle to keep flipping the pages on the seat screen, partly because most of them were in Japanese, though there were a few in English, like Ouran.
Also watched 2 in-flight movies, both Japanese. The first was “The Eternal Zero” (Eien no Zero). It’s about two siblings who try to find out more about their grandfather, who died in WWII flying a Zero fighter plane for Japan. It was really good, but also really sad. It’s interesting to compare it to Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises”, which is a fictionalized biography about the inventor of the Zero plane. The other movie was “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t”. It’s a comedy about these college students who were coerced into joining their school’s sumo wrestling club. Not as good as The Eternal Zero, but it made the flight more entertaining.
Then we slogged through an hour of customs and took the last airport bus to our hotel! We stayed at the Ningyocho location of the Sotetsu Fresa Inn. I actually quite liked the area; it was really quiet but felt pretty safe. Ningyocho is actually named for the puppet shows that were done in this area hundreds of years ago. It’s near Ginza and the historical center of Tokyo. Also we were super close to the subways, which was nice.
Our first impression: wow the room is small. When people say that about Japanese hotels, they really are not exaggerating.
Picture from their website (http://fresa-inn.jp/eng/ningyocho/room.html)
Well the room looks bigger from the photo than it actually is. That aisle next to the bed is barely big enough for one person. Also the bathroom was tiny. The tub was literally right next to the sink, and 2/3 the size of a normal American bathtub. Anyways, as a grad student on a budget, I can’t really complain, but I don’t think rooms in America are ever this small.
Other than the size, this hotel was quite nice. They had slippers, like all Asian hotels, which I actually like a lot. Also it was quiet and the bed was pretty soft.
Finally, the end of a long day. Time to sleep, then onto exploring Tokyo!
Japan trip 2014: Intro
So as some of you know, I just came back from a trip to Japan with my boyfriend. I’m so happy I finally got to go, especially since it’s been on my bucket list for years. I’ve been planning the trip on and off for the last year, and I was going to make this trip 6 months ago, but then I had a bit of a quarter-life career crisis and had to put things on hold. I’m still figuring out what I’m going to do with my life, but the dust settled enough so that I could finally go to Japan (for real this time).
Here’s a quick run-down of our itinerary (March 20-30, 2014):
- Day 0 (3/20-3/21): Fly from SFO to Haneda (Tokyo)
- Days 1-4 (3/22-3/25): Tokyo
- Days 4-5 (3/25-3/26): Hakone
- Days 5-8 (3/26-3/29): Kyoto
- Days 8-9 (3/29-3/30): Osaka, then fly from Kansai Airport to Haneda to SFO
Hope you enjoy following along my trip! I’m going to try to update at least once every few days.
Welcome!
Hi there! I decided to start a blog to post about my travels, since I really enjoy reading about the places my friends go. Also I like sharing stories about my trips, but I was too lazy to do it online about it in the past. But no more! I will blog about the trips I take, and possibly restaurant reviews as well and more local trips that I make around the Bay Area. Thanks for reading!
gybl travels 