Sonali does Tokyo 1

Writing these travel blogs has made me nostalgic! When I was younger, we would go on family vacations and my dad would insist on us(my sister and I) writing about our trip. In fact, my sister and I would take notes and compete with each other on churning out the best written essay. And now I'm writing them without being forced to. I guess I've come a long way. I've been spending most of my longish train rides writing. The trip from Kyoto to Tokyo is best done via the Shinkansen ( Japan's bullet trains). The fastest ones go 300kmph and the slightly slow ones at 270kmph. Traveling on the JR pass gives you the flexibility of getting on any of the 270kmph shinkansens with reserved seating. We took the Hikari Shinkansen, about 2.5 hours to Tokyo Station. The ride was super convenient. I was impressed by the amount of leg space and seat reclining available on board. We armed ourselves with ekiben ( packed lunches to eat on the train ride) for those hunger pangs. 

Once at the Tokyo station we made a mad dash for rokurinsha, one of Japan's famous tsukeman ramen places made popular by David Chang's Mind of the Chef. As expected, people had already started lining up. After a 45 minute wait, we were treated to some delicious spicy miso tsukeman ramen and soy marinated egg. I only wish I had a bigger appetite to do justice to the huge portions they served. 

Next stop: Grand Hyatt. After slumming it out at airbnbs for the first half of the trip, we were going to Hyatt it up for the rest of the trip. Thanks to Apple and my boyfriends numerous work trips, we were going to be ballers! And I mean some serious diamond member treatment. We were taken to special 10 floor checkin and greeted with a good old bottle of merlot! The first thing I noticed about the room was the view overlooking Mt. Fuji. 

After relaxing for a bit we headed out to Tokyo's shinjuku district for the Robot Restaurant. Oh man, that place was a sensory overload! The actual show takes place in the 2nd level basement of a rather tiny restaurant. The decor leading up to the show area was bedazzled with bright neon and white lights, pictures of scantily clad women(of course) and the robots. The 90 minute performance starts with traditional, folk style dancing by the dancers of the company. They throw in some geisha dancing, erotic dancing, you get the picture. They then moved on to a play style item where through storytelling and live action, we saw some pretty neat robots. The most impressive part was to see how the robots maneuvered the really tiny space we were in. This was followed by a robot dance/light show. The finale included a huge parade of all of their robots: rabbits, terminator style dancing robots, robots that look like women, etc. The entire audience was made of foreigners, so you can tell it's a tourist trap. But it was a weirdly entertaining contrast to the subtlety that Japan usually exudes. 

We made it in time for the complimentary happy hour at the Grand Hyatt and headed out to dinner. Following my friend's recommendation, we visited Kushimura Yakitori for dinner. Yakitori is basically skewered meat typically made with all kinds of chicken parts, bacon, beef, and veggies that are grilled over charcoal. In my opinion, it's one of their healthier non-carb options. See pics below.

We finally got to check out the spa at the hotel. Couple of things you need to know about Japanese spas. 1. Men and women are segregated. 2. You have to be completely naked and if you're not someone is going to ask you to remove your clothes. As an added bonus, I used their fancy massage chair to give my self a full body massage. This spa was still different from your typical Japanese onsen, but more on that later!

  

Sonali does Universal Studios

Technically we experienced our first earthquake in Japan. But we were out and about when it happened and hardly felt it. I only realized when my airbnb landlord messaged me to check if I was doing okay!

But moving on, here's a good story! When my boyfriend and I were planning this trip, we figured we would be all shrined out and would need a break to do something different. We decided on a day trip to Osaka from Kyoto to visit the Universal Studios Japan. As you can imagine, getting tickets on the day of, was going to be a shit show and so we wanted to get tickets in advance. However just to make our life a little more interesting, the website for purchasing advanced tickets was entirely in Japanese (google translate does not work on it). Having no qualms whatsoever (being shameless and all), I crowdsourced my friends on facebook with the task of finding me a Japanese person who can help. As luck would have it, one of my coworkers did a study abroad year in Japan and had friends in Kyoto who could help. After a 30min Skype session with her friend in Kyoto which involved sharing screens and her instructing me to click various button in kanji, we had two tickets to USJ along with a express pass to skip the long lines. I highly recommend the express pass btw, especially for the Harry Potter exhibit. It took us 10 mins in a line that would have been 90 mins otherwise! But more on that later. 

Universal Studios was super American and awesome at the same time. The entire place was decked up for Christmas which always makes me happy. The sprawling grounds covers many attractions including Hollywood dream, space fantasy, Sesame Street, Shrek, Spider-Man, Back to the Future, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Snoopy world, Terminator, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Coney Island and of course Harry Potter Wizarding world. As soon as we got there we hopped on the Hollywood backdrop super roller coaster(the craziest one in the park) with a 5 min wait thanks to the express pass. It was crazy! I was screaming the entire time lol. I was just glad to have kept my food down for the ride. We made our way through the space fantasy ride, which was super cool.. You really had to be there. The terminator 3D was so-so; I would skip it if pressed for time. Spider-Man 4D was well executed giving you the experience of hanging precariously off a building. Jaws was a fairly disappointing water ride with fake sharks popping up over the water lol. 

The star attraction was clearly Harry Potter world! The sets from the books and movies were recreated to perfection. This was exactly what I was expecting and I was hooked. On one end was the Hogwarts castle overlooking the water. On the other was Hogsmeade with all the stores we've read about. Ollivander's was beautifully recreated. The actor (British I presume) enacted the scene from sorcerers stone (both in Japanese and English) with an unsuspecting boy in the crowd. I know I'm old for this but I could not stop grinning! Honeyduke's had every type of candy: chocolate frogs, every flavored jelly beans! There were stalls along the way selling butterbeer (it's non alcoholic, sweet, buttery and hot). Considering it was pouring hippogriphs outside, I was surprised by the number of people willing to brave the rain. Devils and Bangles carried all sorts of souvenirs, house pins, scarfs, ties, cloaks, trinkets, charms, wands, brooms, owls you name it. And then there was the recreation of the Hogwarts express, Weasley's Magic car, Zonkos, mandrakes..Honestly I didn't want to leave. I was transported to the world I dreamed of. Sigh!

After waiting our turn with the timed ticket for the Harry Potter ride, we entered the Hogwarts castle. The pictures on the walls were moving. Dumbledore's study was recreated accurately. The ride was a 4D journey through the Harry Potter books and oh my, it was brilliant! We participated in Quidditch, were attacked by death eaters, spiders, whomping willow, dragons, ..it was exhilarating!

My boyfriend had to literally drag me out of the park. I highly recommend adding this to your itinerary.

Sonali does Kyoto 2

By day 2 we successfully conquered the train/subway system and ticket machines! But we did learn something new: if the entire train is full and there happens to be an empty coach, it's because it's a "women only" exclusive coach! 

Kyoto is the land of shrines; it was like being a part of Old Macdonalds Rhyme, here a shrine there a shrine everywhere a shrine shrine. We started our day with Tofuku-ji boasting by far the most spectacular gardens with vibrant fall foliage. Clearly a lot of people had the same idea as us because that place was packed! It was ironic that a place that was meant to be zen was chaotic and noisy what with the guards yelling at us to move on. But in the midst of all the madness we did catch some beautiful sights of autumn in all its glory.

Next stop: Honke Owariya, a fancy shmancy soba place in central Kyoto. We managed to get there just in time to beat the lunch crowd. The udon version of the dish I tried was satisfactory. Was it the best? Not really. Making our way to the Kyoto International Manga Museum we satisfied our sweet tooth with a delicious mocha doughnut( Japanese doughnuts look about the same as regular ones but are more chewy). 

But yes, the manga museum is really more of a library of every manga published from the early 1950s. Manga is just the Japanese word for comic book. Artists created drawings and stories to create these comic books and when these were published, they wee called T. Although most of them were in Japanese, a select section carried Manga in other languages, i.e. based on the country they originated from. I'm by no means a manga fan, but I was fascinated by the plethora of manga at the museum. I was especially happy to see some familiar ones: Naruto, Dragon Ballz, Pokemon.. 

Our next stop was Fushimi District, also known as the sake district! A quaint little town with rustic architecture, Fushimi houses the major sake breweries in Kyoto. We made our way to Gekkeihan Okura Sake Museum to learn about sake making lol. Nope, it was really for the sake tasting and the complimentary sake to take home! Gekkeihan originally founded in the 1620s is one of the oldest sake breweries. A quick self tour of the museum gave us all we needed to know about tools and techniques they used. The best part was obviously the free tasting of their premium sake and plum wine. 

Having worked up an appetite by now we made a pit stop at Toriseihonten, in my opinion the tastiest yakitori place I've been to. The thing to get is green pepper stuffed with minced chicken and chicken legs. 

Tripadvisor's number one attraction in Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Taisha is a series of shrines interleaved with tori gates all the way up to the top of Mt. Inari. The orange tori made from bamboo inscribed in Japanese make for some amazing photo opps. After paying our respects at the shrine, we made our way to the Kyoto train station for some good old conveyor belt sushi.  The concept is pretty straight forward. They charge by the plate ( special price plates for fatty tuna: toro) and so they come by and tally up what you've eaten. 

We wrapped up with another foot massage at the same place from the previous night lol. And of course some last minute shoyu and Kara-miso ramen because why not?

Sonali does Kyoto 1

So we found the grocery store- it's called Lawson: a chain of grocery stores all over Japan for all your fruit and vegetable needs. 

Day 2 in Kyoto started with a stop in the Kyoto station for some hot soba! On the way to platforms 31-33, there is a cute little soba place. It's the same drill: use the kiosk outside the store to pay for your meal, show the ticket to the chef, they prepare your meal and you eat some delicious hot noodle soup!

Here's what we did:

1. Tenryu-ji shrine- the shrine itself is not very impressive but the Sogenchi Gardens surrounding the shrine looks beautiful. It has your typical Japanese style water pond filled with fish set against a backdrop of brilliant fall foliage.

2. Arashiyama Bamboo Forest - The long, massive bamboo forest did not disappoint! As you walk along the "path of the bamboo" you begin to notice the cooling effect it provides. The place was crowded which I think took away from the experience, but oh well! There is a tiny shrine along the way where you can stop to offer some money in the donation box and ring the temple bells. It's fascinating to see the commonalities in eastern religions! The concepts of idols, donation offerings to the God, ringing of bells to bring good luck, praying for something specific to be fulfilled by hanging trinkets on a tree or wire reminds me a lot of Hindu temples and customs.

3. Kinkaku-ji- The golden pavilion is a golden foil covered shrine set against a lush background of red, orange, yellow and green! The original pavilion burnt down in the fire but the current one was reconstructed in the 1950s. If I didn't mention this before, November is the time to visit Japan in all its glorious fall foliage. So yes, all the shrines with gardens are more beautiful than ever. One last tip, if you like green tea there is a dessert place outside the shrine which sells a matcha ice cream sundae with warabi mochi, rice dumplings, red bean paste on a bed of corn flakes! It was amazing:)

4. Nishiki Market - This is where you go to try picked vegetables! Japan is huge on pickling stuff and at Nishiki you can try every conceivable type. My boyfriend was like a kid in a candy store zigzagging along the market in search of tasty nom noms. The market also carries a lot of souvenir stores, shoe stores, alcohol stores- you get the gist! My feet were killing me from the super sexy but super uncomfortable boots I was wearing so after some initial hesitation, my boyfriend convinced me to buy some shoes. As I had predicted, they didn't have my size( what with Japanese women having small feet and me with my gigantic feet). So I did the only thing left to be done. I bought men's shoes and have been totally pulling them off! My favorite: you take a grapefruit, dig a straw through it, add some Japanese spirits and voila- alcoholic grapefruit without breaking a sweat.

5. Uniqlo - Japan's version of H&M for men and women. It happened to be Labor Thanksgiving, a holiday in Japan and so the entire store was on sale. So we shopped real good and made good use of Japan's tax free shopping for foreigners. 

6. Foot massage near Uniqlo - after a day of walking around we stopped by to thank our feet. So worth it! 

7. Ganko Sushi - Located a 5 min walk from Uniqlo, Ganko in the Gion-Shijo area serves decent nigiri. Although not the best I've had, the sushi here did the trick. You see after a long day all I wanted was some sushi in my mouth. The added bonus was that we got to sit at the bar and watch the chef make our food!

Sonali does Japan

First impressions of Japan: it's awesome! But let me elaborate. Here are my favorite takeaways.

1. The food is so good! You can walk into any place and you'll be assured a delicious meal. That being said you prolly want to stay away from the pricey establishments because you're never going to feel like you've got your money's worth. 

2. They've got transportation down. We thought it would be hard to navigate the system but thankfully signage in English exists. 

3. People are friendly and I mean really friendly. They go out of their way to help you. Also waiters at restaurants do a bang up job considering Japanese don't believe in tipping.

4. I'm loving the tatami mat/futon bed situation going on at the airbnb were staying at. It feels simple, humbling and wholesome. 

5. Most train stations have delicious food and drinks aka these are actually places people want to eat at unlike the U.S. 

Here are some recommendations so far.

1. Although we completely chanced upon it on our way to the bunraku theater, the Kuromon Ichiba Market in Osaka is amazing. The hustle and bustle really only lasts for a couple of hours( 10:30-12:30), but it was well worth it. My boyfriend and I basically ate our way through the market: takoyaki( octopus fried balls), fresh sushi, scallops torched with soy sauce, toro sushi( fatty tuna), picked cucumber and green tea red beans mochi. 

2. Naniwa Curry serves delicious pork cutlet curry and curry udon! They actually use garam masala, what? The husband wife team were so nice and this had nothing to do with him complimenting me on my excellent Japanese lol

3. For ramen lovers out there, Ippudo is a must. The wait wasn't long (20mins). The service was so quick and of course the waiters were über nice. They had a little basket under each seat to store your stuff- genius! But coming back to the food, get the akamaru ramen special( pork in tonkatsu broth and a coop of red "umami dama" miso paste with mushrooms, eggs and all the good stuff). The Gyoza was actually mouth sized and melted in my mouth! 

4. I'm not a fan of green tea but green tea ice cream is the bomb.

5. Carry a coin purse! You'll be dealing with a lot of change(yen being weak and all).

Other things.

1. You'd be hard pressed to find public trash cans in Japan. So we ended up carrying our trash for miles before finding one! To quote my boyfriend, "Japan has made a trash can out of me". What's interesting is that the city is super clean! How do they do that? Who are these trash removing fairies? 

2. The cyclists drive with a vengeance to take you out. So watch out for them.

3. Yes. bidets are in every Japanese home. While the old me(living in India) would have loved it growing up, present me doesn't care too much for it. 

4. Local bars and restaurants don't have English menus and don't really know English. An app might help you out but be prepared for some surprises :)

5. Japanese women sure love their makeup(and this coming from me). Exaggerated eyes, false eye lashes and of course red lipstick. I saw a girl take 20 mins on the train to apply her makeup. It made the train ride interesting for sure. 

6. There are drug stores at every corner carrying your essential toiletries, snacks, mess, cosmetics etc. These are brightly lit and every item in the store is crazy bright and colorful. However we are yet to find a grocery store hmmm.

  

Sonali does Last Day in Peru

There were still a few things left to do before I left Peru.

Peruvian Cooking Class: This was a fun and rewarding experience. My sis and I learnt so much about the local produce and how they are used in peruvian dishes. Our instructor took us to the San Pedro Market, a huge local market that sells everything from cheese, potatoes, chocolate, maca to dried llamas, llama snouts & hooves & intestines! We did our shopping here to source ingredients for our lunch menu: Stuffed Rocotos Peppers, Creme de Quinoa, Arroz Con Leche and of course Pisco Sour. Rocotos are the third spiciest peppers after Ghost and Habanero. We had to boil them thrice to reduce the heat!Arroz Con leche or "Rice with Milk" is not complete without 4 spoons of Pisco.  We started with quinoa grains and actually ground it down to a powder with this "ammi kal" contraption to form the base of the soup. In my enthusiasm to excel, I doubled the quantity of pisco in my drink and so ended up with two servings of Pisco. Can't complain! Here's a link to their website:  http://www.peruviancookingclasses.pe/#_=_

Mailing postcards to the US: I'm not saying who I mailed it to, but you'll know soon enough!

Shopping: Peruvian sweaters made out of 100% baby alpaca wool es muy caro, something like $150. But I did buy random ponchos, chocolate and other trinkets because, why not!

ammi kal

stuffing those rocotos real good

pisco sour!

creme de quinoa

arroz con leche

rocotos peppers stuffed with carrots, peas, minced beef

Sonali does Macchu Picchu!

This was clearly the highlight of our trip! The views were spectacular; you could keep looking at it all day.

Things I learnt:

1. The iconic picture that features the mountain is actually Wayna Picchu(8000ft) or "Young Mountain". This is limited to 400 climbers a day. 2. Bang opposite Wayna is the actual Macchu Picchu or "Old Mountain" which has a Peruvian Flag at its summit (10,000ft). 3. There is a third mountain called Phutuq K'usi(8400ft) or "little zucchini" that is considered pretty hard to climb. 4. The Incas built a university/elite settlement/royal retreat (Macchu Picchu) which they abandoned just in time so the Spaniards never actually found it! 5. The Incans were super hardworking and built these amazingly polished dry stone wall constructions. 6. Celebratory Pisco Sours that the three of us imbibed in, is the way to go. 7. You can stamp Macchu Picchu on your passport as a souvenir. 8. When I asked the guide he said the Govt. of Peru will eventually close down the site but when that'll happen is anyone's guess. For now, they've restricted it to 3000 visitors a day. All I'm saying is that if this is on your bucket list, DO IT ASAP!

Here are some pics that prolly do not do it any justice! 

The mountain you see is Wayna Picchu

The one on the left is Phutuq K'usi

Sonali does The Inca Trail

It all culminated in this: A full day hike along the inca trail to get to Macchu Picchu. 

At 9:30 in the morning, we were literally dropped off the train tracks at km 104 to begin a day long hike on the famous inca trail. The trail is about 9 miles to Sun Gate (a view point from which you can see MP from a distance). This is followed by about an hour long hike down to MP. Most of the 9 miles was uphill, consisting of the infamous steps and the rest is what they call "Andean Flats". That just means a string of camel backs one after another. For someone like me, hiking with a backpack for the first time I did pretty well (mid pace: enough to only warrant small breaks and still catch up with the trailblazers). I was surprisingly quite fast downhill when a lot of the trailblazers seemed to have knee issues! 

The trail carved along the edge of the mountains provides breathtaking views! You could literally throw the camera up in the air and click a picture and it would be brilliant. We passed bridges and waterfalls along the way. Shortly around 1:30pm we arrived at Winay Wayna, one of the ruins along the way to Macchu Picchu. We  finally broke for lunch around 2:00pm. You prolly guessed, but yes, we had boxed lunch provided by the tour company. Let's just say, we were too hungry to care if the food tasted good. The little pineapple juice box hit the spot though!

Continuing our hike along the andean flats we reached the Sun Gate a little before 4:00pm. You could already see the clouds settling in. We had time for a few quick shots before it started drizzling. That was our cue. We readied ourselves with rain jackets, ponchos and other rainwear we had. I was totally not prepared for the torrential rain that followed. My rain jacket managed to keep my top half dry, but my pants and shoes were soaked to the bone. The worst part: my non-water proof backpack was taking a hit for the worse. 

After a slippery downhill descent in the downpour for an hour, we made it to MP. Even in the rain the view was spectacular. But alas, we had to keep going to catch the bus to aguas calientes, a small town at the foothills of MP which primarily serves as a tourist rest-stop. When the rain finally stopped, the double rainbow showed up as a nice surprise!

So far so good. When we got to AC, our trip started to unravel. You see, we were supposed to have had 2 guides to help us with the hike. Only one of them showed up because the other was sick. This meant that the single guide had to take care of all 9 of us going at different speeds.  When we got to AC, he didn't know where the hotel was. This was disconcerting to say the least, especially after a solid day hiking and rain-soaking. Eventually we found the hotel and checked in. The hotel, very spartan and tiny was what I had expected but not what I wanted at that moment. This is also where I discovered that the contents of my backpack were wet! My presence of mind kicked in and I grabbed a few of my wet clothes and took it to a laundry service a couple of blocks outside the hotel. Best 6 Soles I've spent! The guide had also organized dinner at a local restaurant. As we followed him into the sketchy alley ways, we quickly realized that we wanted to make our own arrangements for dinner and so we did.  In the meantime, extreme paranoia began to set in for some of my friends. In this scenario, they thought that the guide had brought us to this hotel to get his friends to kidnap us ALL! I on the other hand just figured he was incompetent at his job, prolly because he was always second in command. Today with the main guide being sick, he had to step up to the challenge, which he clearly failed at. While we were dinnering, the guide decided that he needed help and reported back to the tour company to call for backup. So when we got back to the hotel, we had a new guide assigned to help us with the logistics of the next day. The day we REALLY see MP!

All set for the hike at Km. 104

Hiking Selfie

The Inca Trail

Winay Wayna

Sun Gate

Sonali does Peru

This day will always be remembered as the day my bro-in-law forgot his wallet. We were taking an early morning flight from La Paz to Cusco. Even before we headed out he had a feeling he didn't have his wallet with him. But of course instead of checking we made our way to the airport only to confirm that! My friend's dad was kind enough to go over to the house and confirm that the wallet was in fact in the house. But it was too late to surpass the traffic and get to the airport on time. So we did the only thing we could: the rest of us checked in and were on our way while my sis and her husband stayed back an extra day to take the flight the next morning. What really sucked? The flight was delayed by an hour and 15 mins. 

I loved Cusco! The architecture was unique and quite pleasing to the eye. The ground floor of all buildings were made out of stone (preserved from the ancient Incan empire). The first floor built mush after of course was made in the traditional colonial style(bricks). The main plaza, Plaza de Armas was charming surrounded by cathedrals, shops, restaurants and a million tour/travel agencies. For lunch, i gave the alpaca medium rare a try and to be honest, it was quite good! With almost 0 cholesterol, this lean meat is preferred over beef (also, they have more alpacas than cows in peru). 

One of my favorite places: Choco Museo (Chocolate Museum). It really wasn't that much of a museum in that it had a very brief history of coco beans starting from the Mayans all the way to Nestle. But the most awesome part was the cafe inside the museum that served hot melted chocolate. I tried the Mayan Style: Melted Bitter Chocolate + Chilli + Honey + Milk = YUM! I could have stayed all day but the awesome hotel beckoned. Casa Andina Private Collection, a beautiful 4-star hotel about 2 blocks from the main plaza was just perfect. The courtyard style architecture and unique Cusqenian decor was refreshing!

This is also where two of my friends(A & R) joined us for the next 3 days before they carried on with the rest of their vacation.

The next day was a day trip to the Sacred Valley: a valley in the Andes of Peru. It formed the heartland of the Inca Empire where most of the terrace agriculture was done. The valley consists several towns along the way, the most significant of which are Pisac, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. But first, we made a pit stop at the Ccochahuasi Animal Sanctuary. It was quite easily the highlight of the day.We saw rescued llamas, alpacas, picunyas, pumas, wild cats, condors, macaws and monkeys! Did you know that Condors mate for life and when one dies, sometimes the other commits suicide? 

After walking around the terrace farms of Pisac and listening to stories of how the incans protected their granaries, we made another pit stop for empanadas at Horno Tipico Restuarant (Typical Oven Restaurant). One word: delicious! My sis and BIL who had reached Cusco by now, cabbed it to the next meeting place: Urubamba for an organized lunch buffet. Even though they had a massive spread of local, traditional dishes, I was kind of underwhelmed. Our final stop in SV (not to be confused with the Silicon Valley) was a little town called Ollantaytambo. The primary attraction is the huge fortress built by the incans to protect well, their granaries! The temple area at the top of the steep terracing also provided excellent protection. The huge stones used for the buildings were brought from a quarry on the other side of the Urubamba river which runs through the Sacred valley. 

Next stop, Macchu Picchu, but first here are some pics:

Plaza de Armas

Mayan Melted Chocolate

Alpaca Meat

Baby Llama

On our way to Sacred Valley

Condor

Picunya

Ollantaytambo

Pisac