To celebrate my birthday & our 8 year anniversary, we decided to spend 5 nights in Japan, 2 in Hong Kong, 3 in Xiamen & 4 in Taiwan. That way we could visit places we’ve never been as well as visit family 🙂 We Airbnb’ed most places and took public transportation everywhere.
In terms of what credit card(s) to bring for international use, whoever told me Discover cards were accepted at most places in Japan must have been crazy. Although Discover has no foreign transaction fees (which was the main reason why I brought it), it was only accepted at a handful of places 🙁 So if you have a VISA or MC that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees (such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred), bring those instead! And if you need to withdraw cash without ATM fees, I would recommend opening a Charles Schwab account in advance as they will refund all ATM fees anywhere you go (yes, ANYWHERE)! That way you don’t need to bring cash or deal with conversion fees. It’s one of my favs in addition to my CSP 🙂
Japan
One of the most dreamed of places I’ve always wanted to visit — and we did with Cathay Pacific’s deal: Buy a round trip ticket to Hong Kong and get a free side trip to Japan. I was sold!
My first impression of Japan was that everyone is extremely polite. Though their English was not as strong as expected and the streets were not as clean as imagined, it was truly an amazing place.
One of the 1st things I did in Japan (other than eat!) was get a haircut. I’ve always wanted to try a beauty service in Japan because they’re known for their high quality of service. There wasn’t really a Yelp that I knew of or could understand in Japanese, so I just walked into a salon in Shibuya and took a leap of faith.
The experience was one of the best I’ve had at any hair salon I’ve been to (in the U.S., in Taiwan & in Shanghai) and the price was comparable to U.S. salons. I really miss that scalp massage and if I ever go back, I must do it again!
Food
Food in Japan was our favorite. I was surprised at how many restaurants allowed guests to smoke indoors. Here are a few of the places we went to:
The most delicious pork loin dish I’ve tasted! Service was amazing — the entire restaurant greets you when you come in and when you leave. We had to wait for a bit as it was pretty crowded. Totally worth it!
I still miss this ramen to this day. Hands down the best ramen EVER! There are other Ichiran locations as well so if you’re going to be by one, go! You won’t regret it.
We went to the location in the building right door because the wait for the hole in the wall location was way too long. You take off your shoes to walk around in this restaurant and sit with your legs into the floor below the table. Our waiter grilled the meats for us perfectly in front of us and it was the most amazing experience! We got the wagyu steak and the veggie side dish amongst other things that I don’t currently remember 😛 It is pricey so if you want to do a nice fancy dinner, plan to have it here!
A make your own pancake place in Harajuku! See Tripadvisor for more reviews.
Activities
Shrines
We visited a few shrines during our visit in Japan such as the Meiji Shrine and the Senso-ji Temple.
The Meiji Shrine is surrounded by trees and it’s a light walk to explore the gardens. You can see the famous sake barrels there. Before entering the shrine, the locals would rise their hands and mouth beforehand. We were there just in time to see a Japanese wedding & a performance.
The Senso-ji Temple has a long strip of vendor/stores before arriving at the temple. It’s surrounded by cute little stores & eateries — a much different vibe than the Meiji Shrine.
The Famous Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo
Remember in Fast & Furious where they would speed through the super crowded streets of Tokyo? Well here it is! We got a great view of the crossing from the second floor of Starbucks. It’s pretty mesmerizing and we had fun Hyperlapse-ing this 😀
As part of our 8 year anniversary, Jesse planned this mini getaway in Nikko, which was a 4 hour train ride from Tokyo. Hotel Asaya is a beautiful sauna hotel in the country side and we stayed there for one night. We saw snow monkeys, ate buffet style Japanese dinner & breakfast, enjoyed Japanese style massages, saunas on the rooftop, and slept luxuriously on these Japanese floor beds. Seriously the most comfortable beds EVER! Where can I buy one of these?! Saori, one of the hotel staff, was super helpful, she offered to translate during my Japanese style massage (more like chiro!) and when she learned it was my birthday & our anniversary, she bought us small gifts ❤ We’re now FB friends and she’s happily married in the US 🙂
This was highly recommended to us by many, and it was indeed quite the unique experience! I like to compare this to a Vegas show, where you don’t really know what to expect and just go along with it. Tripadvisor is all over this and if you plan to visit, you can book your tickets online via Viator. It’s around $50/person which includes a light meal, a drink and the show. If you go early, they have live music performances you can enjoy. During the show, beer can be purchased from girls with beer backpacks.
Jesse was super exited to experience living in a Yurt for the 1st time, so we Airbnb’ed this exotic ocean front yurt for 1 night on the east side of Japan. I must say, it was quite the experience 🙂 Per the owner’s suggestion, he took us to a local market where we bought groceries to make our own hot pot dinner inside the Yurt and it turned out to be so delicious!
One of the weirdest & most uncomfortable experience for me was at this Cat Cafe in Shibuya. At first you’d think it’d be pretty cool to play with all these cats at a cafe, but then they give you all these rules: You can’t pick up the cats, can’t touch certain cats, can’t make a lot of noise, etc. HOW BORING!
Some people read a book & while stroking a cat on their lap the entire time. The owners kept watching us to make sure we were complying with all their rules. For 1,000 yen per person for 30 min (fee includes 1 bleh drink), it was not worth it to cat watch. I’d rather play with stray cats outside without all those restrictions and glaring eyes. There are definitely other Cat Cafes with better ratings that you can check out, like this one.
Shopping
There must be so many more places to go shopping that I missed on this trip, but here are a few touristy places:
A bustling street lined with cute little boutiques & eateries. You’ll see people dressed up in Cosmo costumes, cute socks with ears on them, and so much more. A must go! I def bought those cute socks with ears & ate a crepe 😀
Erasable Pens & Markers
If you haven’t heard of or tried these before, be prepared for a life changing moment. These are not like the American made ones where they don’t fully erase — these erase cleanly and come in all these gorgeous colors and super thin sizes! I discovered them at Tokyu Hands in Shibuya where they have around 7 floors, each has floors A, B & C (example floor 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C…) and you can literally find ANYTHING & everything here. I felt like a Pokemon collector where I just had to buy them all…hehehe…
Bring your passport when you go shopping! Places like these will refund your taxes if you have your passport with you….sadly I didn’t have mine at the time 🙁
Japan, it was SO fun meeting you for the 1st time! Can’t wait to come back for more ^.^
Hong Kong
We spent a few days in HK and got to see some cool places. I’ll briefly share some trip highlights. Again, we stayed at an Airbnb and took the public transportation around. It’s cool to see their taxi’s doors open automatically!
Food & Activities
Must. Try. Enough said.
This is a pretty cool day trip to take to check out the Big Buddha. You can take the subway to get to the island and from there we took a glass bottom cable car over the mountain (or you can hike). Have a snack at the monastery (only vegetarian options) 🙂
Similar to The Bund at Shanghai, Hong Kong’s Skyline is a relaxing waterfront stroll — way cooler to see at night time.
One of Jesse’s friends who was living in HK at the time took us to see Occupy Central in action. Despite the rain, there were literally hundreds of tents everywhere; on the streets, blocking highways, etc.
Shopping
In the short few days in HK, I found there were so many cosmetic stores everywhere. Like Sasa, Etude House, several shopping malls and stores you can find in the US. Trip was too short to go too much into detail 😛
On my next visit, I’d like to see the places we didn’t get the chance to check out! And of course, more shopping 🙂
Hong Kong Disneyland
Victoria Peak