Hello! It’s been an embarrassingly long time since we last wrote something, hasn’t it? Just under 7 months if the date on the post below is to be believed.
7 months…
I can remember a time not too long ago where Mrs. Selfish and I were cranking out a post a day. Now I’m lucky if I get two done a year. That’s life with a busy toddler, I suppose.
Toddler Selfish loving life at the playground.
Toddler Selfish has kept us so busy, that we’ve only managed 3 trips this year! One to Napa, one to San Diego to visit the zoo, and one to the East Coast to visit family.
Hippo!! Also, Toddler Selfish.
So when my parents offered to watch Toddler Selfish over the Winter holiday, I immediately jumped at the offer and booked a trip to Japan.
Yes, Japan.
For the fifth time.
Tokyo in the Winter and Snow Monkeys
Truth be told, while I’m a bit of a Japanophile (we’ve spent over 2 months in the country over the last 6 years) I was actually trying to convince Mrs. Selfish to try the Seychelles.
After a period of heavy research, we settled on Japan for a few reasons:
- 1) We are loathe to leave Toddler Selfish with my parents for more than a week, and we’d burn more than 2 days just traveling back and forth from the Seychelles.
- Japan, by contrast, is “only” an 11 hour flight.
- 2) JAPANESE FOOD.
- 3) Japanese toilets.
- 4) #($*&#$# Snow Monkeys!
Yes, snow monkeys!
We’ve had a bit of a mixed run with monkeys in the past (especially after cousin Selfish was nearly mauled by a monkey in Bali), but I expect the Japanese snow monkeys to be a bit more… civilized.
That or really, really, REALLY used to tourists since visiting the monkeys ACTUALLY looks something like this:
Kudos to National Geographic for editing out all the tourists.
Yes, it’s going to be crowded, and yes we’ll have to push (politely) past Japanese tourists and push (less politely) past Chinese tourists, but it should be good fun nonetheless.
…and loads easier than dealing with a cranky 2 year old. Just sayin’.
Booking the Flights
The easiest routing ever!
Mrs. Selfish and I are flying Japan Airlines from San Francisco to Haneda in first class on the way over, and business class on the return flight.
I booked the tickets pre-devaluation, which came to 62,500 AA miles for first class, and 50,000 for business class for a grand total of 225,000 AA miles + taxes for both of us.
JAL First Class looks mighty comfortable without a toddler.
I normally book our trips around award availability, but since my parents were doing us a solid I needed to book tickets for exact dates during the holidays, which is a different and altogether terrifying prospect.
This involved calling American Airlines exactly 330 days ahead of our travel date at exactly 5 minutes before the hour Japan Airlines releases award seats. Surprisingly AA hold times were short, which meant I either had to hang up and call back once I got a representative, or stall them as long as possible (“How’s the weather over there?”).
This process is highly competitive. So much so, our return flight booked up one minute after Japan Airlines released the award seats – zounds!
Fortunately, I managed to snag two business class seats home a day later. Should first open I intend to upgrade Mrs. Selfish and I since we’re sitting on a nice stockpile of AA miles with no future trips in sight.
Booking the Hotels
Since it had been over 3 years since Mrs. Selfish and I received the bonus for the Chase Hyatt card, I decided to apply for both of us once again. After immediately hitting the $1000 spend, we both had 2 free nights at any Hyatt in the world.
Japan Airline changed flight times for the SFO-HND route, so instead of arriving at 5am, we will be landing around 7:30pm. So instead of booking us somewhere new, I booked us in our old stand by – the Park Hyatt Tokyo.
The View Room!
Mrs. Selfish and I both have Hyatt Diamond status, thanks to Hyatt’s short lived and extremely lucrative diamond status match last November.
While diamond status entitles us to the best non-suite room, upgrades are based on availability and since we’re arriving near New Year’s I expect the hotel will be at full capacity. As a result, I decided to pre-book us into the View Room, which is my personal favorite at the PHT. The difference between a normal room and the View Room is 20,000 yen a night, which is a bit stiff, but totally worth it.
After nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, we’ll head by bullet train, then local train to Shibu where we’ll spend two nights at a local ryokan. I booked the room with cash (ouch!) which was pretty pricey.
If you’ve never stayed at a ryokan, the price is partially due to the fact they serve kaiseki meals for both breakfast and dinner, which are pretty expensive in their own right. Fortunately I booked the room before the yen soared against the USD, so we enjoyed a slight discount.
Shibu is a quaint town with several public hot springs where one can soak the day away. The last onsen town we visited was a pretty awesome, so I’m definitely looking forward to unwinding in an onsen or two after a busy morning jostling for monkey photos.
From there, we head back to Tokyo where we’ll use our remaining two free Hyatt nights at the Andaz Tokyo. I’m pretty excited to check it out, since reports on Flyertalk indicate the Andaz Tokyo is just as good, if not better, than the Park Hyatt Tokyo.
Andaz Tokyo Large Tower Room
Just like the Park Hyatt Tokyo, I confirmed an upgrade when booking the room. Unfortunately, this room was quite a bit pricier than the upgrade at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, but since this is our only childless trip in the foreseeable future I decided to go all in on our accommodations.
Help Us Figure Out What To Do!
So here’s the big question – with over 3.5 days in Tokyo what do we do?
At this point we’ve spent over 3 weeks in Tokyo so we’ve already done most of the obvious tourist things: the Meiji Shrine, Asakusa, sumo wrestling, DisneySea, the Ghibli Museum, stalking goth lolita girls in Harajuku, Shibuya, Akihabara, The Robot Show in Shinjuku, the Royal Palace, the Toto Showroom, visiting a maid café, etc.
Since we’re going without Toddler Selfish I am determined to do things we can’t do with Toddler Selfish. But what that is exactly I can’t figure out for the life of me.
Certainly sleeping and doing nothing are both pretty high up there, but we’ll be in the amazing city that is Tokyo. To do nothing but stay in seems wasteful to say the least.
Eating – duh!
One thing Mrs. Selfish and I enjoy is eating.
While we normally go for cheap to midrange restaurants, part of me is really, really tempted to try a whole lotta fancy meals. Not Jiru-Dreams-of-$u$hi fancy, but certainly something memorable.
As to where to eat… I’m not so sure. Tokyo has more Michelin star restaurants than any other city in the world by a large, LARGE margin – 226 vs. Paris’s 94, as of last year. What’s more, there are a ton of amazing local restaurants that are reputed to be even better (and are rumored to have turned away Michelin reviewers), so I have no idea where to even start.
To complicate things even further, we’ll be in Tokyo in the days immediately around New Years, a time when Japan historically shuts down. Other than a few temples, shops, and chain restaurants a lot of attractions and food options will be closed for the holiday.
So what do you guys think? Should we just spend our time sleeping and relaxing at the hotel? Make a manic rush for all of Tokyo’s finest restaurants? Something else?
We’re open to just about anything (provided we come home somewhat rested), so hit me back with any recommendations of crazy things to do in Tokyo!
I second the recommendations for visiting Golden Gai and Kamakura — a friend and I went to both during a week in Tokyo last fall. They were highlights of the trip partially because the discovery process is fun (even though millions of others have been through the same paths).
During that trip we encountered an unusual amount of food being offered to us for tasting in the food halls of the department stores. After declining the first five samples, we wised up and figured it must be incredibly rude not to accept. 🙂 (The steak and sake samples at Takashimaya were delicious!) We also got a few picnics to go which helped provide some variety to our ramen-sushi-ramen-sushi pattern.
Thanks for seconding Golden Gai! It sounds like it’s worth battling through jetlag and laziness to check it out.
Any good sushi recommendations? At this point I’m eyeing Sushi Sho…
Hi guys, good to see you back posting again. I have two daughters under 3 yo, so I know how it is. If you have the time, try catching a train out to Nikko and see the Tokugawa burial site. Walking up the wide avenue with tall, tall pine trees along the side while the snow is falling is one of my favourite memories of Japan. You come to the original 3 Wise monkeys temple and then ascend to Tokugawa’s burial mound. Nikko is a bit of a way outside the city though so not sure if this eats into your time there.
Otherwise, have you done the Golden Gai? If you love Japanese Food, You. Must. Go. Here. (drops mike)
Nikko sounds amazing and has been on our list for a long time, so maybe it’s time to go.
Oh man, I forgot about Golden Gai! I’ve been reading about it for years, but we’ve never been. I forgot it was in the midst of Shinjuku. Any restaurants you would recommend or is it a “just walk around until you smell something good” kind of place?
I would never know the names of the places we go and my wife would never tell me. She hates me using her as a translator..enthusiastic guide she is not.. it interferes with her eating. Let your nose be your guide (I am sure there is a cool french way to say that). For mine, its yakitori and beer until they have to roll me out of there.
Nikko, yeah, check the timings as its pretty much a complete day gone. I remember for lunch, we went into this suburban ramen shop. All these local workers throwing me the side-eye when I kept the door open too long but friendly nonetheless. And the ramen…well you guys are foodies so you know how it is. Yum!!
I guess we’ll just have to see what we stumble into. Hopefully I’ll have time afterward to write up a little trip report for Golden Gai. Thanks again for the recommendation!
Hi, there. I’ve just found your post when I was checking Tokyo hush tag. Although I like that time of a year, it is hard to recommend any places to visit without knowing your exact schedule, because as you said many places are closed on New Year. Many restaurants are closed for the first three days of the new year, but if you go to touristy places like famous temples and shrines, many places will be open. If you are talking about New Year period, I suppose you can visit Kamakura for Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, where is the largest shrine in that area, so many places will be open and they are not that far. You can also visit Narita mountain where is close to where the Narita airport is. All of the shops and the restaurants will be open on the main street. Likewise other areas around the famous temples and shrines will be open and I like visiting these areas. Famous restaurants like Jiro sushi will be closed on New Years for the first three days at least. If you are talking about the end of year period, it is different story, because many places will be open till 31st. I personally prefer spending the end of year and new year at Onsen ryokan, where they normally have special events on offer.
Thanks for the detailed response! We’re in Tokyo a little before New Years, but also the first three days of the year.
At this point I’m thinking of hitting all the famous restaurants at the end of the year, which means we probably only have really touristy options for the early days of the New Year.
That being said, going to Kamakura like you suggest sounds like a wonderful option!
Are there any must-eat restaurants you would recommend?
Ukaitei shiba serves very tasty tofu kaideki and you’ll enjoy the garden as well
http://www.ukai.co.jp/english/shiba/
Inshotei in Ueno park is also recommended. I went there during New Year period and they served special menus during that time. Nice garden and relaxing atmosphere.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2009/04/03/food/innsyoutei-fleeting-beauty-timeless-dining-2/#.V6p6a-xKOnM
Yokoi Asakusa is also highly recommended. Small place, but you would have to pay more at similar restaurants in Ginza.
https://s.tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131102/13058018/
Kikunoi Akasaka serves authentic Kaiseki in Kyoto style. http://kikunoi.jp/english/store/akasaka/
These are relatively expensive side, but not outrageous.
Ryugin is very expensive but their menus are all inspirational and they have been highly regarded. http://www.nihonryori-ryugin.com/en/
If you are looking for reasonable place, Asakusa mutsumi serves nice Japanese Kamameshi. Although it is in Asakusa, the location is a bit away from the touristy place. It is a bit like Izakaya. Nothing fancy, but good food. http://www.timeout.com/tokyo/restaurants/kamameshi-mutsumi
Wow, thanks! There are a lot of good places on here. I look forward to checking them out.