It has been over a month since this happened but instead of a food post of some new food I made, here’s a post about some new food that I tried. Predictably, this trip flew by faster than I expected. I took my mom (and my aunt) to Japan, focusing on three different areas:

• Kanazawa, Takayama, and Shirakawa-go
• Kyoto (Arashiyama, Gion)
• Osaka (Namba)

Wanted to highlight some of the awesome food I got to eat and document some thoughts I had from the trip.

Kanazawa, Takayama, Shirakawa-go

We first made a pitstop in Kanazawa and ate some bentos for lunch on the way on the Shinkansen.

We also had this amazing view on the way over! This is probably one of my favorite parts of Japan–the rural areas that look so different from the urban cityscape. I joked that the places I passed by look like they could be the ideal setting for a slice-of-life anime or a small town murder mystery anime. I’d be down to watch both.

In Kanazawa, we tried to visit the Omicho market. It was a lovely little market that was first not open when we arrived in the late afternoon. To pass some time, we ended up shopping at a nearby boutique. I noticed that a lot of people wore loose fitting, wide legged pants, probably to stand against the humid heat. Following what the Romans do in Rome, I bought myself a pair of flowy pants, which ended up paying off later when the weather became hotter.

For dinner, we found a small seafood restaurant since we heard that Kanazawa was know for seafood. I had a pretty solid chirashi bowl and this glass shrimp Kakiage tempura!

In the morning, we ate a filling breakfast and revisited Omicho market, eating some pretty tasty things along the way before heading to Shirakawa-go.

My mom and I were looking forward to visiting Shirakawa-go after first visiting this place a couple years ago in the winter. This place was gorgeous in white in the winter and I wasn’t sure what to expect in the summer. I was a bit afraid of how hot it might be but it turned out to be alright. It was drizzling a bit actually but the rain made it look so beautiful.

In Shirakawa-go, there is this dish that is served on a dried Hoba leaf and cooked over a flame called Hoba miso. It’s really flavorful and best eaten with rice!

The eating train continued back in Takayama where I ended up spending my birthday, eating Hida beef over a teppanyaki grill.

The meat literally melted in my mouth. It was amazing and I felt justified, casually dropping $160 the last time I ate this.

Still the best steak I had in my life.

Kyoto (Kyoto, Arashiyama, Gion)

Next stop was Kyoto. So I wanted to try something in their cuisine called, obanzai cuisine, which was a type of cuisine native to Kyoto where at least half of the ingredients must originate from Kyoto and all parts must be used without waste. After some digging through Google Maps, I found a place that seemed to offer this. I actually almost missed this place because it was underground in a random apartment building.

Y’all, this place was weird. I can’t actually explain what I ate here exactly. There wasn’t an English menu and even through the use of Google Translate, I don’t actually know where I ate and basically ended up asking for their recommendations.

It’s probably really good food but it personally was not for me and yeah, I’m still confused. My mom did not like this place.

The next day, we ended up traveling to Gion and visited a series of places–from temples to Sanmachi. One place that I was especially excited to visit was Gion Tsujiri, for its matcha products. I got myself a nice matcha sundae and a hojicha latte cake to eat on the side. The matcha was soooo smooth! I liked that it wasn’t super sweet and had this mildly grassy/earthy taste that I really liked. The saleskeeper also showed me how to consider different types of matcha powder and their umami flavor. It was really cool!

We also ate soba noodles at a restaurant in Gion. I got a cold soba dish that also came with grated radish. I never ate a noodle dish with grated radish before, it did not take away or enhance my udon dining experience. At a different restaurant, they served just tempura. I did not like the restaurant that serves just tempura.

The next day, we visited Arashiyama to see the monkeys, who were oddly not afraid of humans. After feeding some monkeys, we ate at this random hole-in-the-wall that my Mom found and thought that it looked promising–it turned out to be an udon place. Since I wasn’t in the mood for udon, I ordered their katsudon, which was a nostalgic favorite for me. I like crispy katsu with runny egg. The egg was surprisingly orange!

Osaka (Namba)

In Namba, after some complications with understanding the train system, we made it to Osaka. For our first meal, we ate at this ramen place called Hanamaruken Namba Houzenji. It was a long wait with weird small episodes of rain in-between. Luckily, it gave me ample time to have a nice conversation with my mom in the meantime, asking her different questions about herself and her childhood. The wait felt shorter.

The ramen was worth the wait. The broth was good, the meat was so tender, and the noodles were chewy. If the line weren’t so long, I would have went again to this place another day.

The next day, we went to Kuromon Market and shopped at different food stands. One notable one was eating pufferfish sashimi, which wasn’t planned but definitely would be something on my Japan bingo card. In addition, we ate other grilled items, other sushi, and filled up for lunch.

After meandering around, which included visiting a pig cafe, we had dinner at an okonomiyaki place, which I vaguely remember being something I really liked eating in Osaka last time I visited. My mom was a little wary because she didn’t like the sauce but she was willing to eat it. The okonomiyaki was sweet and savory, a very satisfying pancake to eat. It was especially cool to see it being cooked before my eyes on the grill.

Ginza/Tokyo

As a final gift to my mom, I wanted to treat her to something that she has talked about wanting to try for awhile—omakase. While we were on a bit of a tight schedule, since the only available spot was open at 5:00PM, we made it just in time to the restaurant, which was called, “Ginza Onodera Sushi.” The reservation for an omakase dinner was held in a separate private building. It was a bit of an experience to sit at the counter and watch the food being made.

It was a quiet 1.5 hour dining experience. Since the chefs didn’t speak English, they hardly spoke with us. It was a bit mesmerizing to see how precisely they cut even the small things like ginger. Each time, they would serve us a small dish, usually accompanied with a picture and description on an iPad depicting what sort of fish they were serving to us.

Something that I learned was that you can eat sushi with your hands. They give you a small warm towel to wipe your hands with after eating what they serve you. Another discovery I made was that true wasabi was pretty subtle and not supposed to be pungently burning. They served us about ~16 pieces of sushi. My personal favorite was probably the charred seabass and the dessert they served to round up the meal, which was a matcha coconut pudding. The coconut pudding was especially good, very lightly sweetened with a strong matcha taste.

Though it was a fun experience to go through at least once and my mom enjoyed herself, both of us agreed that, while the food was good, omakase wasn’t worth the price point (~$200 per person).

Overall

As mentioned before, this trip went by much faster than I expected. In other ways, it was also longer than I expected. Perhaps, that is what it feels like to travel with family.

The area that I liked the most was probably Shirakawa-go and Takayama–I enjoyed the food and scenery the most there. While I still think the area is most beautiful in the winter, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the summer rain weather in this area. It felt like I was in a Studio Ghibli movie (even though the location was known to be an inspiration for a horror anime). I liked that it was not as busy as the other areas I visited and was very peaceful. Again, the best steak I had in my life remains unchanged.

I was disappointed that I didn’t get to bond with my mom as much as I hoped to do on the trip. There were many times where I actually felt like a third wheel to my mom and aunt on the trip, which was something I feared would happen. Even as this trip drew to a close, there was a part of me wondering if I could have done more or thinking, “Oh, I should’ve done this during this time”.

Nevertheless, what was made apparent to me after getting back to Japan was my mom’s overall more softness towards me. She expressed gratitude towards me for making this trip possible and even asked when our next trip together would be, making a promise this time not to bring my aunt along for next time. At least at home, I felt that there was a subtle shift of my parents seeing that I was an adult who was capable of handling some things in my life. My mom has especially given me more space in my life, which includes not nagging me when I don’t call her everyday. Something about taking my mom on a trip, despite its flaws and hiccups, softened my mom’s heart towards me, which I could even hear in her tone when we talk over the phone.