Where to begin with Sukiyabashi Jiro and Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Begin at the beginning? We first learned about Sushiyabashi Jiro and its chef, Jiro Ono, by watching a documentary about the restaurant, Jiro Dreams of Sushi (movie trailer above).

And then we saw Anthony Bourdain go there on his show, No Reservations. We were amazed!

Sukiyabashi Jiro is a three-star Michelin-awarded restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. For reference, one star is “very good cuisine in its category,” two stars is “excellent cuisine, worth a detour,” and the rarely awarded, coveted three stars means “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” At 86-years-old, Jiro Ono holds the Guiness record for being the oldest chef to be awarded three stars! He was also the first sushi chef to be awarded Michelin stars. Famous chefs like Joel Robuchon, Eric Ripert, and Anthony Bourdain consider Jiro to be the world’s best sushi chef, Sukiyabashi Jiro as the world’s best sushi restaurant, and the country of Japan considers Jiro to be a national treasure. I mean, all this is just to say that Jiro and his restaurant are the shit!

There are so many crazy stories from the documentary and that we heard from friends in Japan. That Chef Ono, when he scoops the rice out of the container to make the sushi, always has within a few grains of 50 grains. In the documentary we saw how hard the apprentices work. They might stand in the kitchen and wash dishes for months before ever getting to touch anything else. One guy made tamago (kind of like an egg omelette) for months, 200 times and every time it was not good enough for Jiro. When his tamago was finally approved, he cried like a baby! For most apprentices it will be years before they are allowed to stand behind the sushi bar, helping Jiro. Jiro’s son, Yoshikazu, rides his bike every single morning to Tsukiji Fish Market to buy fresh fish for the restaurant. (This was the market we’d visited the day before.) Not only is the fish as fresh and as best quality as can be gotten, the rice is a big deal too. Jiro Ono has a special rice dealer who only sells his best grains to him. To this rice, Jiro adds his own blend of vinegar to get the perfect sushi rice taste.

Sukiyabashi Jiro has been noted as one of the most difficult reservations to get in the world. After watching the documentary and booking our flights to Japan, Dallas and I half joked about trying to go. It’s too much money, we’d say. And then we’d think about how Jiro Ono is 85 years old.. and we may never go to Japan again.. and how it’s the best sushi restaurant in the world! We were at Rory’s birthday party when Dallas mentioned it to Doug and Naoko. Turns out that Naoko, who is from Tokyo originally, knew someone who knew someone from the restaurant! She was able to make some calls and after a week or two we got an email with some rules (don’t wear perfume and don’t you dare be late) and instructions on what to do. We had to have our friends Tandy and Chris, who live in Tokyo, call the restaurant to give contact information. And not only that, they had to make a cash payment to hold the reservation! It was all so elaborate. I could hardly believe that we had the reservation. I half thought we’d show up and they’d have no idea who we were!

We arrived in Ginza way early and found our way to the restaurant, just to make sure we could find it. The restaurant is located in the basement of the Ginza station and can be difficult to find, but luckily we found this blog post where the author took photos of the path to Jiro’s! Also, Tandy had been there to make our “down payment,” so she gave us tips. With time to kill, we walked around Ginza a bit to take in the sights. When it was time, we went back to the restaurant and arrived promptly at 11:45 for our noon reservation. We sort of were just lingering outside, not sure if we should go in early or what. We actually saw Jiro Ono walk past us and into the restaurant. He was wearing a suit. We decided to go in early.

We were greeted by nice older lady cashier and then seated at the bar by a younger apprentice. Jiro’s oldest son, Yoshikazu, was behind the bar making sushi. There were three other people eating, they were near finishing their meals. The restaurant was tiny – just ten seats at the counter and only a couple tables. And it was absolutely quiet, aside from the noise of a water fountain somewhere. It was so quiet that Dallas and I whispered to each other! We were asked if we had any food allergies or if there was anything we didn’t like and we said no. We were all in for whatever they wanted to serve us! We were given the 19-course menu and whatever we wanted to drink. The choices were beer, sake or water. We got a warm towel to wash our hands and approximately two minutes after we entered the restaurant we were being served our first piece of sushi! There’s no messing around here.

I was a bit disappointed because it was Jiro’s son making the sushi. I mean, I’m sure it would all be freaking fantastic, no matter, but half the reason we were there was to get served by the 86-year-old sushi master of the world! Luckily at 12:00 exactly, Jiro came out with his chef’s coat on and took over for the son. It was interesting to see the transition. They took away the son’s knife, his cutting board. Out came all of Jiro’s special equipment.

I didn’t take photos of every course, just because I didn’t want to be annoying and also, I didn’t want to get behind. I’d read one place online that someone had taken a photo of every course and had gotten behind and missed out on some pieces! That was not happening to me. haha. So, I took photos of maybe half.. or less of our pieces just so we could remember how beautiful they were. Another reason for not too many photos is because when Jiro sets the sushi in front of you it is prepared to the exact right temperature and everything.. you’re supposed to pick it up (with your hands, not chopsticks) and eat it within seconds! I’d also only brought my point and shoot camera because I thought it would be more discreet if the restaurant was opposed to people taking photos, but they seemed to be quite open about it. They even gave me a little rubber mat to set my camera on in between shots.

View Larger Menu Photo.

Here is the whole menu of what we had and the photos that I did take:

1. Karei (Sole Fish)

2. Sumi-ika (Squid)

3. Inada (Yellow Tail)

4. Akami (Tuna) – The beginning of the tuna pieces!

5. Chu-toro (Semi-Fatty Tuna)

6. Oo-toro (Fatty Tuna) – The semi-fatty and fatty tunas were so tender and delicious. They just melted in your mouth.

7. Kohada (Gizzard Shad) This was the prettiest sushi. Dallas loves fish skin and loved this piece.

8. Torigai (Cockle Shell)

9. Tako (Boiled Octopus): I’m not usually a tako fan because of it’s consistency (kind of chewy), but this was very good. Supposedly Jiro has an apprentice massage the octopus for 50 minutes prior to serving!

10. Aji (Jack Mackerel)

11. Kurumaebi (Boiled Prawn)- Two-pieces: one head, one tail.

12. Akagai (Ark Shell)

13. Sayori (Needle Fish) – also very pretty!

14. Hamaguri (Boiled Clam)- BIG bite!

15. Uni (Sea Urchin) – This was the sushi I had the hardest time with. I didn’t like uni when I first tried it about 6 years ago or so, but have sort of come around on it when I’ve had it in Hawaii. The uni at Jiro was huge though! Dallas ate his first and was saying how briny and good it was. Then I went for it. And struggled a bit. Dallas said my face looked so horrible he was praying Jiro wouldn’t turn around at that second!

16. Kobashira (Baby Scallops)

17. Ikura (Salmon Roe) – Always fun!

18. Anago (Sea Eel) – I really liked the eel. I always do. I wished I’d gotten a second piece of eel!

19. Tamago (Egg) – This was so good. A bit sweet. Dense, but light at the same time. It was fun knowing the back story on how perfected the tamago is.

Dallas was really adement about eating the sushi as soon as it was set in front of us. I was having a hard time keeping up just eating, not even taking photos. I kept asking him to at least wait til we both were served before he ate, but most times he was chewing and almost done before Jiro even set my sushi on the plate! PLUS, in the back of my head I was kind of tallying how much we were paying for the amount of time. The meal is notoriously short and notoriously pricey, so I would have liked to drag it out a little more!

It is kind of bizzaro how you watch the documentary and then you go to Sukiyabashi Jiro and exactly everything you saw on TV is happening in front of you. Half of the joy in this meal was just watching Jiro do his thing and knowing that he’s been honing his skill and working his craft for something like 75 years, since he started apprenticing at a sushi restaurant at just 9 years old! I’m not a huge rice fan and when I kept reading and hearing about how this rice was different than other sushi rice you’ve ever had, I was sort of “whatever,” but I must say I was totally shocked when I took my first bite and tasted that rice. It’s definitely the best sushi rice I ever had. You could really taste how it was more vinegary, but not so much that it overwhelmed the fish. And also, it is not cold. It’s somewhere around body temperature, which really did make a difference.

At the end of our meal we were asked if we wanted more of anything. I got one more piece of the semi-fat tuna and Dallas got both the semi-fat tuna and the fatty tuna. So, all together we had 20-21 pieces of sushi each. Filling!!!

When we were done, we were lead away from the counter to some booths on the side, where we were served hot green tea and a slice of super juicy musk melon. You might be like “melon, whatever!” but I read that melon is Japan is super expensive and that a single melon can go for anywhere between $50 – 400! And, of course, it was really good melon. Only the best for Jiro! As we were eating our dessert we heard another customer ask if they could get their photo taken with Jiro. An apprentice called out to the back and Jiro came out and obliged. So, when we were done, we did the same.

Funny story – We were lined up Jiro, Dallas, me and Jiro made me switch with Dallas so that I was standing in the middle. He looked back, behind us, to make sure that you could see the sign for the restaurant, and then he signaled for the apprentice to take the photo. Then he bowed and thanked us, we bowed and thanked him. And that was it.

Overall, I would say that Sukiyabashi Jiro lives up to the hype. What a great experience and great meal we had!! Definitely something we will remember for the rest of our lives. Yes, it was very expensive, but when you have a once in a lifetime chance to eat at the best sushi restaurant in the world, you should do it. Even if we ever go back to Japan, chances are that Jiro may not be around. Also, the bill was a little easier to swallow since we flew to Japan using miles, not money! Our meal was way less than two flights to Japan and back would have been. We are definitely grateful for this experience and do not regret it one bit!

One of the places we knew we for sure wanted to visit while in Tokyo is the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is a huge, bustling market that sells all kinds of fish and seafood. Not just that, but the market turns over 2,000 TONS of “marine products” every single day, making it the world’s larget wholesale fish market! And if you get up super early .. like 4am… you can get to the market in time to see the live tuna auction. Earlier this year one of the tuna set a record when it sold for $1.76 million. For one fish! The auction seems like it can be really exciting, but the number allowed in is very limited and you have to get up so early.. we were fine with skipping it and just visiting the markets.

The way Tsukiji Market is set up does not really accomodate all of the visitors that come every day to see the action. We read that it will be moving in the spring of 2016 and that it will be designed to have “viewing areas” for visitors. So, we for sure wanted to see the market before it moved and changed so drastically.

As we exited the subway and walked over to the market, we first encountered the “outer market.” The outer market is catered towards the public and has a ton of stalls with things for sale and even a few small restaurants… if you count 4 stools at a counter as a “restaurant.” haha. You can also buy a ton of food-related goods like knives and dishes. All of these stands are crowded along narrow walkways and jammed into just a few blocks of space.

You have to go to Tsukiji Fish Market early in the morning or you will miss all of the action. The fish sells out and the shops close up. Since everyone’s there so early, and the fish is so fresh, one popular thing to do is have sushi breakfast. We read about some of the most popular sushi restaurants at Tsukiji Market (like Sushi Dai and Daiwa Sushi) and how they already have a line of an hour or two at 6 a.m.!! Um. Not happening. We stumbled up on Sushi Zanmai and decided to give it a try. I think this is actually a chain, but the Tsukiji Market location is the original. It was conveyer belt style, so you just pulled off what you wanted and paid by the plate at the end. I think we had 11 plates total and it was only $30! And everything, of course, was so fresh!

View Large Map.

The inner market is where the wholesale business and the tuna auctions occur. We got there a little late in the morning and a lot of stalls were packing up, but still go to see some really interesting things. It’s kind of crazy inside the inner market. So many people are running around and on motorized dollies zooming around.. you have to be careful not to get run over and not to get in anyone’s way! Remember, this area is not catering towards the public. These people are trying to get their fish sold or trying to get their fish for the day to sell in their stores and restaurants.

Outside the Hachiko exit at Shibuya Station is a statue of Hachiko, who is a dog. Hachiko used to wait at Shibuya train station for his master, a professor. Even after the professor died in 1925, the dog would go to the station and wait every afternoon. He did this for another 9 years until Hachiko finally died too. The people of Tokyo were so moved, that they built a statue of Hachiko at the station. Today it is a common meeting place.

Hachiko and Rachelle

We were so tired from walking around all day, that we stumbled into the closest pub to have a seat. Nevermind that it was an Irish pub called Dubliners!

Dallas was psyched to see they still had Zima, a favorite college drink that has not been available in the United States for years! We met some people and sat and talked for an hour or two until it was time to meet for dinner.

We met Tandy, Chris, Kai and Kanoa for dinner in Akasaka. The place we planned to go was closed so we walked around a bit and found this kind of yakitori place on like the 3rd floor of a building. It turned out to be a very good choice. We ordered about a million small plates and shared. Chris ordered sake and there was only a bit left in the bottle, so they just gave him the bottle!! It was just a little bit big!

Also, I took this photo of our waiter. I noticed a lot of service staff in bars and restaurants in Japan use tablets to take orders. Wonder when this will catch on in the US!

Meiji Jingu is located in the middle of Tokyo, but its in a huge (175 acre!), beautiful dense evergreen forest with walking paths. It was such a change, once you walked in the first torii!

The main torii at the entrance to Meiji Jingu. A torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at th eentrance of or within a Shinto shrine.

This was on a nearby sign in both Japanese and English -

Barrels of Sake Wrapped in Straw:

During the Meiji Era, Emperor Meiji, whose divine soul is enshrined here at Meiji Jingu, led the industrial growth and modernization of Japan by encouraging various industries and supporting technical development.

Due to their grace and virtue, Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken, the beloved mother of our nation whose would is also enshrined here, are held in the highest esteem by the Japanese people.

These sake barrels are offered every year to the enshrined deities by members of the Meiji Jingu Zenkoku Shuzo Keishinkai (Meiji Jingu Nationwide Sake Brewers Association) including Kotokai, which has made offerings of sake for generations, as well as other sake brewers around Japan wishing to show their deep respect for the souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

In addition to stating our humble gratitude to all of the brewers who have so graciously donated their sake, we also pray for the continuous prosperity of the sake brewing industry and all the other industries maintaining Japan’s traditional culture.

This was on a nearby sign in both Japanese and English -

Provenance of the Bourgogne Wine for Consecration at Meiji Jingu

By gaining the good and rejecting what is wrong,
It is our desire that we’ll compare favourably
With other lands abroad.
- Poem by Emperor Meiji

The Meiji period was an enlightened period during which a policy of “Japanese Spirit and Western Knowledge” was adopted, to learn from the best of Western culture and civilization while keeping Japan’s age-old spirited revered traditions. Emperor Meiji led the way in promoting modernization by embracing many features of western culture in his personal life, such as shearing his topknot and donning western attire, and in many other aspects of daily living. Among these departures, His Majesty set an example by taking western food and in particular by enjoying wine with it.

The barrels of wine to be consecrated at Meiji Jingu have been offered by the celebrated wineries of Bourgogne in France on the initiative of Mr. Yasuhiko Sata, Representative, House of Burgandy in Tokyo, Honorary Citizen of Bourgogne and owner of the Chateau de Chaillly Hotel-Golf. Profound gratitude is due to the winemakers who have so generously contributed to this precious gift to be consecrated here to the spirit of world peace and amity, with the earnest prayer that France and Japan will enjoy many more fruitful years of friendship.

This was on a nearby sign in both Japanese and English -

Otorii (The Grand Shrine Gate)

This is the biggest wooden torii of the myojin style in Japan, rebuilt and dedicated by a pious benefactor on December 23, 1975, and modeled both in form and size exactly after the original built in 1920. The material wood used is “hinoki” (=Japan cypress) 1,500 years old from Mt. Tandai-san Taiwan.

Height: 12m
Diameter of each piller: 1.2m
Distance between the two pillers: 9.1m
Length of crosspiece: 17m
Length of undercrosspiece: 15.5m

Walking up to the main shrine square entrance.

The main shrine square. They don’t like you to take photos by the main building where people are praying and priests were present, so I was respectful and didn’t.

Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

So many crepes stands around Harajuku! Soft serve must not be cool enough!

Harajuku Street

Harajuku

Harajuku is an area around the Harajuku Station in Tokyo and is the center of Japan’s teenage culture and fashion. Many go so far as to say it’s the fashion capital of the world, since many prominent designers and fashion ideas have sprung out of this area and incorporated themselves into other fashions around the world. The main focus is a 400-meter-long street called Takeshita Dori (dori means street) that is jammed with people and lined with super trendy shops and boutiques, crepe stands and fast food restaurants.

Harajuku is most known for the kids that gather around the station and dress in crazy costumes that are anything from gothic to lolita to cosplay to anime characters. I read a bunch of places online, that the day to go to Harajuku and see this is Sunday, since that’s when kids have off. So, we headed to Harajuku on Sunday, but did not see any of this! Super trendy people, yes, but not dressed in costumes, for sure! We still had fun walking around Harajuku, though. Here is what we were looking for (but did not see).

Crossing the street on an elevated sidewalk, looking down.

This is the National Yoyogi Gymnasium, which was built for the 1964 Olympics.

Omotesando

We spotted a Garrett popcorn!

Keeping on the Chicago theme… do they know we don’t have palm trees here!?

Condomania: It is what you think it is.

These people were all in line for something. Even when we came back another day… still in line!

We laughed that there was a line at Shakey’s!

We spent some time at Kiddy Land.

Not too much, though, or you’ll go crazy. There’s about 6 floors of this!

Monchichi!!!

Omantesando is the name of 1) a street just south of Harajuku, 2) a subway station, and 3) the surrounding area. It, too, is a famous fashion district, but the stores here are way more high-end than in Harajuku. Harajuku is geared towards teens with not a ton of money and Omantesando is more towards an older crowd with more money to spend. Omantesando Street is sometimes referred to as “Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées.”

View Larger

For lunch we went to Spice Curry and Cafe, which turned out to be like Indian curry and not Japanese curry and was only ok.

By the time we got home from Kamakura it was kind of late. Well, not that late, but Kai and Kanoa were both sleeping soundly. We had planned to go out for dinner, but not wanting to wake the kids, Tandy decided to stay home and sent Chris, Dallas and me out for dinner. Chris took us to a really good ramen spot called Ippudo in nearby Roppongi. At the time, we didn’t realize that there were a lot of Ippudo locations in Japan. Or that there’s even one in New York! Seems like Ippudo is spreading across the globe. Now when’s my next trip to NY? Interestingly, the ramen in NY is priced a lot higher than the ramen in Japan. We noticed this in Chicago too. As Dallas pointed out, it’s like a novelty here so they can price it high. It’s something different. In Japan it’s like a hotdog or a hamburger! I looked at the menus and the ramen I had in Japan was $800 yen ($8.00 USD). The same ramen on the NYC menu was $15! Still, I would pay it to have this tasty ramen again!

This is what I had: Ramen and gyoza. I copied the descriptions from the English-translated menu. It’s kind of funny.

Akamaru New
Combination of refined flavours
Pursuing “Tonkotsu” (Pork-based soup) to its perfection, this ramen is a combination of powerful yet refined flavors, accentuating the essence of pork. Please enjoy the different levels of sophistication by slowing mixing in “Koyu” (fragrant oil) and “Umami-dama” (savory ball).

Hakata bite dumplings
Bite dumplings juicy baked and crispy. Equipment and skin also original Ippudo all.

Chris helping Kai with the hand washing ritual.

Kai, having a little too much fun with the water!

Kannon-do Hall

A view of Kamakura Bay.

Rachelle & Dallas

Tandy, Kanoa, Chris & Kai.=

Inside of a pretty umbrella.

Dallas photobombing through the bushes, in front of Kyozo Sutra Archive.

My new love, this ume (plum) drink, was discovered at a vending machine at Hase-dera in Kamakura. Chris told me it was his favorite, so I gave it a try. YUM!!! I was forever on the lookout for the ume drink after this.

A view as we climbed the hill.

Kamakura Bay.

Kamakura Bay.

View large panoramic of Kamakura Bay.

This kannon statue was on the walking trail.

An old stone statue. There were a bunch here.

These ema are prayer boards, or wish boards. People write down they’re prayers or wishes and hang them up here where the gods will receive them.

This one was in English….

…. but there were so many different languages represented.

More ema.

Cute!

Kai.

After our okonomiyaki lunch, we walked up the road to Hase-dera temple. We didn’t spend too much time taking part inside the temple or doing temple rituals. The grounds here are so beautiful, we mostly just walked around. There were a lot of beautiful Japanese gardens with all kinds of peonies growing. The temple is known more for its hydrangea, but it was not the right season. Hase-dera is built along a big hill. The gardens are at the bottom and the buildings are a little farther up. You can climb a trail to the top – I kept telling Dallas there better be monkeys at the top, after all that climbing. When we got to the top, no monkeys. But there was an amazing view of Kamakura Bay, which was pretty cool. I mean, I know Japan is an island, but I never really thought about beaches!

Jizo-do Hall

Hase-dera has hundreds of small Jizo statues. I’d venture to say thousands, even. These are left by parents mourning the loss of mizuko, or children lost to miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion. I read that the statues remain in place for about a year before being removed to make space for more statues. They estimate that since WWII, there have been about 50,000 Jizo statues placed at Hase-dera.

The entrance to Benen-do Hall and Benten-kutusu Cave.

Dallas in Benten-do Hall.

Hase-dera also has a cave, Benten-kutsu Cave. Inside are a bunch of really old carved statues and the whole place is dimly lit by candlelight. It’s a little bit creepy! Of course, this was one of Kai’s favorite things!

Leaving Hase-dera. We stopped at Kamakura Gelato before heading home.

Here are some more great photos of Hase-dera that I found online.

Oishii Okonomiyaki!!

The menu had a bunch of okonomiyaki to choose from, but said that each included “diced cabbage, bean sprouts, crispy bits, egg and a pancake-like batter.” Dallas and I had the menus translated into English, but Chris had a Japanese menu. Funny thing was that they weren’t the same! It made us wonder what we’d been missing out on with the English menus. If they not only translated them to English, but also edited them to include only the things they thought would be appealing to English speakers!

The restaurant had a basket of toys that kids could pick from to play with. This helped distract Kai from touching the grill!

We ended up ordering three okonomiyaki – Gomoku-ten (mix of beef, pork, and shrimp), natto-ten (fermented soybeans), and kimchi. Chris and Dallas were way into the natto, which kind of grosses me out. I still had a bite, but it was not my favorite. And not Tandy’s either! the mixed one was probably my favorite, but I also liked the okonomiyaki with the kimchi, which was everyone else’s favorite, so we ended up ordering an extra one of those!

Raw okonomiyaki ingredients in a bowl.

Chris showing us how to mix up the batter.

Dallas, mixing.

Dumping the okonomiyaki batters on the griddle.

Cooking okonomiyaki.

When the okonomiyaki was cooked, Chris spread some kind of okonomiyaki sauce on top.

Chris showed us the procedure for making the okonomiyaki. The waitress brought each one to the table with just the raw ingredients in a bowl. The first thing to do is to mix the ingredients to make a kind of batter. Then you pour the contents of the bowl onto the griddle in the table. When the cooking is done, you can top the okonomiyaki with different sauces, shoyu, Japanese mayonnaise, aonori, fish flakes, etc. Oh, and we also had the gomoku-ten (mixed beef, pork, and shrimp) yakisoba. This was cooked kind of the same as the okonomiyaki, but it wasn’t the pancake/omelette. It was just soba noodles with different ingredients mixed in.

Yakisoba on the grill.

Ramune

Ramune

I saw something to drink on the menu called ramune. It said it was lemonade, but when it arrived it was so odd! It was a carbonated lemon-lime drink served in a really distinctive bottle. The bottle is made of glass and has a marble that rolls around inside the pinched neck. The drink was fine, but I think it was the novelty of the bottle that I enjoyed more!

Tandy in front of the restaurant.

The front of the restaurant – go up the stairs to the second floor.

What a fun and interactive lunch! And it was great to try something totally new that was SO delicious!

As a side note: I’d like to recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Kamakura, but I have no idea what it is called! I think we took a right on a road that lead to Hase-dera, where we headed after lunch. I was messing around in Google Maps and found it in street view. So, here’s where it is and what the storefront looks like:

View Larger Map

After lunch, we were on our way!

Walking over to Hase-dera.

Rachelle & Dallas

Tandy & Kai making an offering.

Dallas & Kai

Dallas & Kai going inside the statue.

Purple sweet potato soft serve!

On the weekend we could finally spend some time with Tandy and Chris (and Kai and Kanoa). We decided to take a day trip down to Kamakura, a city about 30 miles south of Tokyo. Tandy and Chris usually take the JR there, but decided to just drive this time. Probably the last time they’ll do that, since the traffic was terrible!

Kamakura is known for its many historically significant temples and shrines. The most famous is Kotoku-in, with its huge buddha statue (daibutsu), The Great Buddha of Kamakura. This huge statue is thought to have been completed around 1252. It was originally inside of a temple, which was destroyed and rebuilt a couple times. In 1498, a tsunami destroyed the temple again, but the statue survived and has been outside ever since. I can barely even get my head around these dates! Nothing you see in the U.S. is near this old. It was definitely cool to see.

Oh, and you could even go inside the Great Buddha. Dallas had been giving Kai his change all week, so Kai paid for the three of us to go inside the statue. I think it was about $0.20 USD each! It was kind of underwhelming. You can’t see out or anything. You just walk up these steep steps and then are in a dark room. Ok. Then climb back down. I guess it’s interesting to know that the whole thing is hollow. Kai was really excited to go inside and show us anyway. I should say, excited to show Dallas! Dallas was his buddy the whole time we were there, I was just the third wheel!

Our friend, and Dallas’s coworker, Chris happened to be travelling around Japan at the same time we were. His last two days, in Tokyo, overlapped with us so we met up with him. He was living out a Lost in Translation dream by staying at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. We met up with Chris at the New York Bar, which is located in the hotel, and where several scenes from Lost in Translation were filmed.

The New York Bar is definitely upscale and spendy, but the views of Tokyo are amazing! And it was so cool to sit at the same bar where Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray sat in the movie. Dallas would like you to know that the band “was no Sausalito!”

Budweiser is more than Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory.