Let's Go! Japan! Eating In Japan! Yum!

I have good news for those of you still thinking about going to Japan with us this summer! We reduced the trip down $100 due to the yen to $ conversion being really good. Also, fuel charges went down...so it is only about $188 for fuel and tax charge instead of the $280 we were estimating before. One other thing to know about Japan is there is no tax on shopping and you don't tip your waiter when you eat out, it is considered rude, so you save a lot of money because of this.

 

 

So, the new price is:
$2295 (plus about $188 fuel and tax charge...please note this changes with the economy, and can increase or decrease at any moment, but it looks like it will stay at this rate).

Dates: August 11 - August 18, 2009 Tokyo and August 17 -20, 2009 for the optional Osaka/Kyoto Trip
Included in the price:
Airfare
Hotel (double occupancy)
Transportation to and from hotel and airport
Local Public Transportation while in Japan, including trains, subways, and charter buses
Admissions to: Puroland, Studio Ghibli Museum, Kingyo (night time show), Comiket Guide Book
Tour Guide (Speaks English and Japanese)

The Osaka Trip is now:
$895 per person because we are adding the Kyoto River Boat Ride into the price. The Osaka trip includes your rail pass (which is about $300), 3 nights at the Osaka Granvia Hotel (very nice hotel), the Kyoto Boat Ride, Kyoto Tour on Chartered Bus, admissions to temples and shrines, local transportation, and your tour guide. This is a really great price for all of those things.

My last blog about Japan gave you a run-down of some of the places we are going, but I didn't talk about food. At night, you will go on your own or in small groups to different restaurants. This is up to you of course, depending on how much money you want to spend on eating out. So, I thought I'd talk about some places you may want to check out!

This is the Lockup Restaurant, in Shibuya.

 

It is a Haunted Prison Themed Restaurant where they take you off in handcuffs and lock you up while you are eating.

 

This is Christon Cafe, a Religious Gothic Themed Restaurant. There are alters, stained glass windows, Virgin Mary statues, and lots of other authentic Christian/Catholic Church items displayed. It looks pretty awesome! You can find more information on these and other restaurants at www.notquitenigella.com . I got these pictures from her website and she has lots of other pictures of the food and menus at these and other places.

In Japan, they have these really cool Ramen places, where you walk in and you are super confused waiting to be seated, until you see the machine behind you where you buy a ticket for the Ramen you would like to eat. This is a picture of my Miso Ramen I bought last time I was in Japan. I didn't know Ramen could look so pretty.

There is also an Alice in Wonderland Restaurant where you can get really cute food. This was a dessert someone got there on our last trip. So, cute, you don't want to mess it up by eating it, but we did. The waitresses are dressed in Alice In Wonderland outfits, and the restaurant has themed food and drinks on the menu.

This was some Hello Kitty Food they had at Puroland. They also have Hello Kitty shaped Cheesecake...yum!

Hello Kitty Pancakes too!

Ice Cream Burgers are really more like ice-cream sandwiches with wafer cones. You can find tofu ice-cream here too.

 

I'm obsessed with sweets, so of course, I would find the Ice-cream claw machine...

And the Hello Kitty Cocoa Krispies claw machine. What? How do you possibly get that with the claw? In Japan, if you try a bunch of times and don't get the prize, after a while, they'll open the machine for you and give you the prize...Nice!

 

My friend, Mayhem, met up with us in Japan this night, (He is on that MTV show Bully Beatdown). Baby Shimmer Shine is one of the performers at Kingyo, the theater/dinner/drinking show we will be going to in Tokyo. It is so fun! She hung out with us after the show and took pictures. We loved her the best.

 

I forgot to mention in the last blog, that we will also be visiting Shibuya. You can find super Japanese Fashion Shopping here. This picture is of the girls who worked at one of the stores. We loved them. They were so cute and nice and helpful.

 

Onto Kyoto! We will be taking the River Boat Ride, and after a while this boat pulls up along side of you and sells you food and drinks. It is so amazing.

 

This is Osaka! You can find all kinds of food on the street and restaurants everywhere! Stephiee and I ducked into this restaurant because some punk rock Osaka kids were following us wanting to hang out with us. They were harmless...but randomly we found Misha, Winsey, and Todd. We cooked our own food at this place. It was super fun!

I hope this gives you a better idea of some of the fun things you can do while you are in Japan. We do go to areas as a group, but we split up into smaller groups or some people go off by themselves to explore. It is really fun to go with people who share your same interest of wacky Japanese pop culture, and having your tour guide so you don't get lost.

Please email me for more info and an application to go on the tour at info@japanla.com

The $300 deposit must be in by June 2, 2009 or before the tour fills up. The final payment must be in by July 6, 2009.

XO,

Jamie

P.S. Check our blog from March 30, 2009 for more pics and details too!