I missed a day while traveling saw 200+ posts in the baseball thread. Came running to my safe place.
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I spent five nights in Murren and didnât get everything done on my list, but I got lucky with great weather. The one rainy day in the mountains, I dropped down and spent the day boating around Lake Thun seeing the castles, caves, etc. Never even made it to the sites around Lake Brienz. Just means Iâll have to go back.
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Itâs great.
Extra bonus: I met a fellow diehard uva hoops fan in the tiny Wengen grocery store. It was a few months post-title. Got to shoot the shit for a while and talk about our natty watching experiences
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Best sushi and ramen Iâve ever had was in Tokyo (most would say obviously), but for the quality of food and service, it was far less expensive than in LA or NYC.
Lunch at an upscale sushi counter was great food at great value.
If you canât make it to the fish market for the tuna auction, you can still line up for breakfast sushi at any of a dozen sushi counters at the fish market for about the freshest fish possible at very low prices.
Get ramen from one of the vending machine places. You pick what you want, put in your money, it generates a ticket that you hand to the chefs and 5 minutes later you have your bowl. Now that I type that out, it sounds like a computer screen order system at Wawa or something, but I promise itâs way cooler than that.
Check out the fruit section at a grocery store and be amazed at how something like 10 grapes or 4 strawberries can cost 30 bucks.
Hit up an izakaya for beer and snacks. Yakitori skewers are a personal favorite. Back when I went, most of these places allowed smoking. Not sure if thatâs changed, but something to be aware of.
You usually have to make restaurant reservations through your hotel.
Taxis are very efficient and wonât try to rip you off or take random detours. The subway is also very efficient, very clean and very safe. Uber and other app based transportation options are not very popular.
Japan is not a tipping culture. Donât try to tip. For some service workers, itâs actually offensive to offer a tip. The reasoning is that these workers take pride in their work and are paid to always put forth their best effort, so a tip implies that theyâre giving more effort to you than at other times. I donât know or really agree with that, but thatâs what people have told me.
Fewer people speak English than in Europe, but most tourist facing people do. Many signs are in Japanese only, but public transit and touristy stuff has English signs. Something to keep in mind.
Tokyo has almost no street crime. Itâs extremely safe and you can walk around almost anywhere at any time of day or night without worry of getting mugged or pickpocketed.
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Is that with or without a crik?
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Not all criks have hollers but most hollers have criks agree
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Just one thing to note here: in 2018 they moved a good chunk of the fish market away from Tsukiji to Toyosu. The auctions and such happen at the latter, while apparently thereâs still food stalls and such at the former. I went just before the switch and had a fun experience but donât know anything about how it is now that theyâve been split up.
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Best thing about travel is saving something to go back for. My advice is always: donât try to do everything, just try to do and see a few things well. But also save time for a few unexpected delights.
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Is the music festival in Tokyo as well?
I defer to others on Tokyo recs cause when I went with a buddy, we actually werenât there for too long. But have some Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima recs if you end up out that way.
As a general note though, will say that Japanese chefs do a wonderful job of executing all kinds of cuisine. Obviously would first and foremost recommend enjoying Japanese food while there, but if youâre feeling a little burnt out on it by the end or something, we also had some really great French pastries and Italian food, and some great Thai-inspired ramen.
Also, random aside, but their 7-11s are really nice and have some great snack options. So many three dimensional corn snacks that are tragically not sold in the US and of course the wild KitKat flavors. Is fun to grab a few snacks in there if youâre in a hurry. Also most of the ones we were in had ATMs which was useful.
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Great point, when I was there we ate a vast array of world cuisines. Everything was ichiban!
In addition to 7-11 (which I completely agree) it is fun to check out the Tokyo adaptation of McDonalds.
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Japanese McDonaldâs is great to try once. I had it at the airport as we were leaving. But the absolute best American fast food tradition in Tokyo is KFC for Christmas.
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I still have like 160 unread there, but itâs basically become the Carla Williams debate thread now
Nah itâs Fuji rock which is in Naeba. Thanks for the recs! We are not planning this as our only Japan trip so will focus this time on Tokyo and do other places next time
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Admittedly a threadjack, but I finally made the pilgrimage with the kiddos and didnât have to fly through LAX (bonus!) to do it.
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Okay, which one of you guys is this? We fly to Rome next Sunday. We will be in Atrani for a few days, but we have decided not to go to Capri for a day.
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I think youâre looking for @ekandado
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Looking for Mr Ripley?
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Coming to Charlottesville for a week next week who wants to buy me dinner, babysit my kids, or go train with me?
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Trip to Florence / Tuscany in October - anyone have suggestions other than what we are looking at below?
10/7 - Tuesday. Visit Santa Croce (10euro), visit Bargello (12euro), Walking Food Tour (80euro).
10/8 - Wednesday. Day trip to Cinque Terra (160euro).
10/9 - Thursday. Academia (18 euro), San Marco (9 euro), Santissima Annunziata (free), Ognissanti (free). Opera in the evening (50 euro)
10/10 - Friday. Uffizi Gallery (28euro) Palazzo Vechio (14euro), Casa Buonarroti (9 euro), San Miniato & Piazzale Michelangelo sunset (free).
10/11 - Saturday. -Trip 1/2 day to Tuscany Wine tour w/lunch (130euro) 6 hr
10/12 - Sunday. Santa Maria Novello (9euro), San Lorenzo (10euro), Mercato Centrale (free).
10/13 - Monday. Italian cooking class 4 hrs (76euro).
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Are you planning on trying to hit all 5 villages in one day? Your feet will not thank you. 
If you are flying into Pisa⌠are you going to run by there as well?
Iâll be 4-hours away from you on the East Coast in a conference room for a few overlapping days. Enjoy!
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