Trip to Japan

2024-05-31

In December 2023 to January 2024, Joanne and I went to Japan! We went to Tokyo and Kyoto. Right afterwards, we went to Macau and Zhuhai, which will be covered in the next blog post.

As always, these pictures are available in full resolution and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 license.

1 Friday 2023-12-29: Shinjuku

In the afternoon we arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport via Zipair flight ZG029. We took the Keisei Skyliner and then the Yamanote line to the Hotel Washington in Shinjuku. The hotel room was really small.

At night we had dinner with Andrew, a good friend of mine who lives in Japan! We had various types of food at an izakaya.

A corridor on the way back to the hotel. Feels like a liminal space.

2 Saturday 2023-12-30: Shibuya and Shinjuku

Morning view of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building from our hotel room.

We went to Yoyogi for breakfast and then Shibuya for strolling around. We got some delicious pastries at 365 days.

Pastries! LEICA Q2 with SUMMILUX 1:1.7/28 ASPH., 28.0 mm, ISO 100.

Then we went to Shibuya!

Mitsuoka Buddy, a strange Japanese phenomenon. Sorry the photo is out of focus but the car is too weird not to share.

We went to Kitamura, a camera store, but didn’t buy anything. I got to try out the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 though, which is amazing. I have to save up money and work out my muscles to get that lens sometime in the future…

Nice Rolleiflex shot on Sigma 105mm f/1.4.

Afterwards, we went back to Shinjuku, where I went to MapCamera for extreme camera shopping, but first, lunch!

2.1 First lunch: Shio ramen

We had lunch at Menya Kaijin. It’s Tokyo-style shio ramen. Despite the name meaning “salt ramen”, the broth is seafood-based and extremely flavorful. It was served with a couple of chicken meatballs.

2.2 Extreme camera shopping

Due to the weak yen and lack of sales tax, it is advantageous to buy certain kinds of camera gear in Japan. Therefore, I went to MapCamera in Shinjuku!

There, I bought a Sigma Art 70mm f/2.8 and a Fringer EF-GFX adapter. This lens is suitable for taking pictures of sushi for dinner, while covering the medium format sensor adequately for general use.

Test shot with the lens. What better way to test it out than taking a picture of another camera store?

2.3 Second lunch: Unaju

Equipped with the new lens, we had second lunch at Shinjuku Unatetsu with Shiro, another good friend! This was grilled eel over rice (unaju). It was extremely delicious and vastly superior to unagi you can get in the US. Unlike American restaurants that drench it in overly sweet sauce, the charcoal-grilled unagi here was minimally seasoned, allowing you to taste the deliciousness of the fish itself and the smoky flavor of the grill. The eel was very fatty and melted in my mouth.

Then we had a coffee and walked around randomly in the Shinjuku area.

Well, it’s back to the 55mm lens which is sharper overall and better at night.

2.4 Dinner: Omakase

We had dinner at Shinjuku Sushi Tsumogi. Its tabelog rating wasn’t the highest but the food quality was still excellent. However, the chef, an old man, was rather carefree in his approach and often threw stuff around. Overall, we were very satisfied.

Anago. For some reason, anago is ubiquitous and cheap in Japan but rare in the US.

3 Sunday, 2023-12-31: Ginza

3.1 Rainy breakfast

We woke up to a rainy morning and had a hankering for traditional Japanese breakfast but all the places were closed for new year’s. So we ended up getting ramen at Zundou-ya. It was decent and quite affordable.

For second breakfast, we went to Renoir and got a mille crepe along with some coffee. The mille crepe was pretty bad.

3.2 Extreme shopping in Ginza

In the end we just went to Itoya and Muji and got some small items. Apparently, the Muji flagship store in Ginza sells groceries! So we bought some tomatoes. It’s hard to get vegetables in Japan.

For lunch we went to shabu shabu Kisoji. It was really hard to find an open restaurant for some reason due to the time of day and the fact that it’s new year’s eve. But it ended up tasting decent anyway.

3.3 Train photography at Ochanomizu

While Joanne was shopping, I took a train to Ochanomizu to take pictures.

In theory, three trains could show up at the same time, but I didn’t manage to see that happen.

In order to freeze the train motion I had to bump the ISO up to 6400 which caused the photos to be grainy. Modern deep learning denoising algorithms can probably fix that but I’m faffing around with Darktable, which currently doesn’t have advanced denoising yet. To make matters worse, the lighting changed significantly between the shots and I shifted the camera a bit accidentally, so it’s hard to composite them.

3.4 Dinner: Yakiniku

For dinner we went back to Shinjuku.

We had the set menu at 29 Terrace Shinjuku Gyoen. It was a lot of meat and we couldn’t finish all of it, but it was pretty good.

4 Monday, 2024-01-01: Train to Kyoto

We took the shinkansen to Kyoto! It’s a two and a half hour ride from Tokyo Station to Kyoto Station via the Nozomi Shinkansen. Almost all the trains on this route are some variant of the N700 series.

4.1 First lunch: Ekiben

4.2 Second Lunch: Kyoto cuisine

Kyoto cuisine is characterized by greater emphasis on vegetables and tofu. Hungry, we went into a random restaurant — Ichifuji in Kyoto Station. It was not bad.

For tea time we went to one of the Tsujiri locations near Kyoto Station. As you know, the Kyoto region (particularly Uji, which is right next to Kyoto) produces lots of matcha. In recent years there has been an explosion in popularity of matcha-based desserts and drinks, so various matcha shops, taking advantage of this popularity, have set up locations everywhere in Kyoto.

4.3 Kyoto strolling

This clam noodle shop had a long line so we didn't go. — This clam noodle shop had a long line so we didn’t go.

We checked into our charming hotel: Tanimachi-kun (谷町君ホテルひとめぼれ). It was amazing! Vastly more comfortable and spacious than our Tokyo one. Vastly.

Right after I took a shower, we experienced an earthquake. There was some prolonged strong shaking but nothing fell.

Pizza hut next to our hotel. We didn't eat there but I just thought it looks cool. — Pizza hut next to our hotel. We didn’t eat there but I just thought it looks cool.

A taxi blocked my view of this nice gate.

4.4 Dinner: Kaiseki

We went to Yamahei for new year’s kaiseki. The theme is the fusion of French and Japanese cooking. I’ll save you the scrolling through a huge amount of courses but here are some highlights.

Seasonal matsuba crab legs poached in crab broth in crab shell.

5 Tuesday, 2024-01-02: Kyoto and Uji

5.1 Kiyomizu-dera

In the morning we went to Kiyomizu-dera. Even in the early morning it was already crowded.

And with this obligatory shot, the Leica Apo-Telyt-R 180mm f/3.4 has fulfilled its purpose on this trip.

5.2 Uji

At the station taking the train to Uji. We took the faster train on the right.

We got a quick lunch at Uji Washokuya.

Then we went to Tokichi Nakamura Uji Honten and got a Maruto parfait, only available in their main store. There was a huge line so we had to wait a while to get in. In fact, we had put our names down on the waitlist as soon as we arrived in Uji. The parfait was okay.

5.3 Train photography at Kyoto Station

While Joanne was shopping, I took some photos of trains. The lighting was bad but I still got some pictures.

5.4 Dinner: Normal sushi

We got some sushi at Izugen, a highly acclaimed local cheap sushi spot known for its authentic Kyoto-style sushi. Kyoto-style sushi includes oshizushi and vegetable-based sushi. However, after all, we prefer raw fish.

We also got another plate focusing on Kyoto-style sushi but I didn’t get a good picture due to bad skills leading to an overexposed and out of focus shot.

We tried to get second dinner of yakitori but all the places were closed due to new year’s, or full. After walking around for a very long time, we couldn’t find any. So we ended up having only instant noodles from Lawson — very sad.

6 Wednesday, 2024-01-03: Pontocho and train back to Tokyo

6.1 Breakfast: Japanese breakfast

We had traditional Japanese breakfast at Sanga Ono. It was quite good.

Then we walked around and did some sightseeing.

I thought the cranes were mythical creatures but there really is a real one in this shot.

There's another crane in this shot. — There’s another crane in this shot.

6.2 Train ride to Tokyo

Wagyu ekiben. I stole a crab limb from Joanne's kani meshi. — Wagyu ekiben. I stole a crab limb from Joanne’s kani meshi.

Obligatory Fuji Mountain photography from the train.

We checked into Tokyo Dome Hotel.

Also view from hotel, but at night. This was actually taken later but I figured I should put it next to the daytime shot. I'm also honestly amazed at the quality of the Fuji GF 55mm f/1.7 which is super sharp even wide open. — Also view from hotel, but at night. This was actually taken later but I figured I should put it next to the daytime shot. I’m also honestly amazed at the quality of the Fuji GF 55mm f/1.7 which is super sharp even wide open.

Then, while Joanne did shopping in Omotesando, I went to Shibuya for some train photography at Miyashita Park.

I got some really amazing line scan photos but I will have to process them later.

Grainy unprocessed preview of line scan photo of E234 series.

After that, I went to find Joanne and took some pics along the way.

6.3 Dinner: Unitora Tsukiji

We had Tsukiji Itadora Unitora Nakadori for dinner. It was extremely delicious! We had five kinds of delicious uni from different parts of Hokkaido, along with otoro sashimi and ikura.

Tsukiji market was pretty barren in the evening but this spot was still open with available seats, no reservation needed! Some other sketchy stores were trying to trick us into going to other restaurants by telling us that everything else was closed, but fortunately, Unitora was still open albeit very hidden.

7 Thursday, 2024-01-04: Flight to Hong Kong

In the morning we flew to Hong Kong for the next leg of the trip: Macau and Zhuhai!