Having researched and formulated the itinerary mentioned in the previous post we need to make sure all the other preparations were in order. This included:
- obtain an international drivers permit (which was relatively easy at local AAA office)
- book our airline tickets with our reward points
- rent a car
- purchase the 7 day JR pass
- book foreigners air tickets from Haneda to Asahikawa on ANA
- rent a mi-fi
- plot out the best driving routes on google maps
- book accommodations
The toughest part of the prep was the accommodations as I would have to book some 4-6 months in advance, and even then with the larger rooms being booked quickly. The DisneySea hotel, the MiraCosta, in particular had to be booked 6 months in advance when the website opened, as it is extremely popular with both locals and foreigners.
A side note on the mi-fi, being that we’re going to remote places in the mountains and coast in Hokkaido, we opted for the wide coverage mi-fi. Additionally, the mi-fi is great with the kids to keep them busy during our long drives or even on long train rides while they connect on iPads and phones. I’ve used, for the past three years with great success, the following company:
http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/pocketwifi.html.
I like that they will ship to your hotel and will contain a self address envelope to put the mi-fi unit in to drop off at the post office in the airport when your done. With all these preparations done, it was time of to wait for our journey.
Flying from San Francisco to Narita was straight forward, with the exception of the terrible airline food (which i turned down to eat after a bite). Since we were staying at the MiraCosta, we took the limo bus which dropped us off directly from the airport to the hotel. As mentioned, my wife and kids loved Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea last time we were here and wanted to make sure we found a way to get back to, at least DisneySea as it’s unique only to Japan. I was not as enthusiastic about going back as I am not fond of the long lines, which was bad last year for us as the schools in Japan had their spring break. However, this time around the lines were much shorter as most of the Japan schools were still in session. Additionally, the perfect compromise was to make this our first spot during our vacation, which meant we can get over the time zone difference while at Disney.
We arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon and the hotel was impressive. For a Disney hotel, it had a very elegant and upscale feel. We took various pics of the hotel and rooms below:
After unpacking and settling in, I wanted to grab a bite in the Ginza area and hit the ground running with great food. My wife however had other ideas, as she read about the R2D2 popcorn bucket that they were selling at Tokyo Disneyland. We actually planned on skipping Tokyo Disneyland as previously mentioned, it’s just a replica of what’s in the states. Unfortunately only Tokyo Disneyland in the Star Wars area was selling the bucket, and she got addicted to collecting the various popcorn buckets on our last trip. We agreed to split up as I would take my older daughter with me and she would take our other three children with her to Disneyland. She went ahead and took advantage of the night pass that starts at 6pm…although we booked reservations to the hotel’s Oceanic set dinner at 8:30pm. In my mind, 2 hrs and 30 minutes of time at Disneyland just for the buckets makes for some expensive popcorn and buckets…but who am I to argue as there is an old saying, “Happy Wife, Happy Life”.
My older daughter and I took the monorail then took the subway to the Ginza district of Tokyo. There we just walked around to absorb the sights and sounds of being back in Tokyo. We then hit up a random department building to have
first sushi (really just a random place that i didn’t bother to take pictures), and then some unagi. My daughter loves unagi after eating the one at Unagi Hirokawa in Kyoto and also at Nodaiwa in the Ginza District of Tokyo. This time we tried Unagi Miyagawa which is also in the Nihonbashi/Ginza area and you can just walk in without reservations. The restaurant warned us that it will take 40 minutes to prepare from the time of order, and this was consistent with our previous experiences at other unagi restaurants in Japan. You can’t rush quality…and the unagi in Japan is just amazing.
Good unagi takes a lot of preparation with different techniques used between eastern and western Japan. The eastern style which Tokyo is part of starts first with preparing live eel in the morning and then skewing the meat which then is placed on hot binchotan coals to lock in the juices. It is then steamed which not only further softens the fish but also removes the excess fat and hence the muddy like taste of the eel. As a last step it is then again grilled over binchotan coals and dressed with the house sauce called kabayaki until it caramelizes onto to eel giving a slight crisp to the outer portion of the flesh. The chef can literally spend all morning preparing the eel. It is high in fat content, and with expert preparation it is soft and moist. The sauce is unique to each restaurant and a closely guarded secret. Knowing we had dinner in 3 hours, we went for a small bowl each of Una-don, and it was delicious. The bowls of steamy rice with the soft grilled eel dipped in the house sauce that is salty and sweet is just pure heaven in the mouth. I would rank them 3rd compared to Hirokawa (which mainly uses a pure grilling technique) and Nodaiwa, but still not something you can get even remotely close in the states, where we get the eels that are frozen and pre-made in a mass produced way. Unagi is just one of many dishes that is a must eat in Japan to experience. For reference, the western style like the one we had in Hirokawa uses a pure grilling technique.
After finishing our meal, my daughter and I took the train and monorail back to the MiraCosta where we would have our fixed course meal at the Oceano. To be continued in the next post…