abmj-jr

Ok, I've eaten a lot of gyoza in my time but can't even imagine what might be in that many varieties.

kapooncha

Anyone have suggestions for really good (affordable!) places to eat in Kyoto and/or Tokyo? I will do Ramen Kubota agains in Kyoto which was mind blowing. And also sushi dai which I guess has now moved to the Toyosu market.

Also gotta do Soba Tsuta ramen in Tokyo. Going early this time. Last time I went, I got there after 11am and they had already sold out.

nutwpinut

If you already have been around a lot of monkeys then yeah it's not worth it.

The monkeys are there year round now because the park rangers throw out food everyday. It used to be only in the winter they would be there because of the hot springs. The best times are winter to get the picture with snow on their heads while they are relaxing in a steaming hot spring, mid-late Spring for babies and late Summer to get pictures of the toddlers playing with each other. I've already been there in the summer for the toddlers and I'm hoping either this year or next year to get the snow pictures.

nutwpinut

I've been wanting to try this Ramen Restaurant ever since I watched the movie Ramen Heads. It's been the highest awarded Ramen shop several times. https://en.japantravel.com/chiba/tomita-ramen/19489

angra

I've been - it's quite good but my palate is not refined enough to tell the difference between it, and various places closer to downtown with nearly as well regarded tsukemen. I went in August '18, and this was the setup then: To go there for lunch, get there first thing in the morning, or as early as you can manage, and buy your ticket. There will be an attendant outside supervising the ticket machine, and, I think, taking your ticket right then. He will tell you what time your seating will be. Go do whatever you feel like until your seating time, and show up at the time the attendant tells you. Rather than continually turning over each seat, they bring in a person for every seat together, feed everyone, and then wait until everyone in that group is done to bring in the next group.

if you're comfortable dealing with machine translation, you can get a ton of insight on well regarded ramen at https://ramendb.supleks.jp/ . I have never had a bowl at a 90+ rated place that was less than amazing, and Tomita is its top rated shop.

Pureboy

You could go further south and spend a week in Kyushu. When I did it I hopped around a lot, but you could probably spend half the week based out of Nagasaki and half the week out of Kagoshima and take some day trips. I went to Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Beppu, and Kagoshima in less than that, but wouldn't recommend that pace. Nagasaki is really special and oft ignored because it is so far south, but worth 2 days at a minimum.

Agneisse

You could go west from Kyoto - Himeji, Kurashiki, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Takamatsu (and the rest of Shikoku) etc. All lovely and well-connected by train.

A fun thing to do is riding a bike from Onomichi to Imabari.

kapooncha

Thanks for this, I'll check this out. Would be interesting to check out the far end of Japan.

I did get to Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima last time. I did a day trip from Kyoto, and did Hiroshima and Miyajima in the same day. Caught the last ferry and train back. Very long day but extremely awesome. Definitely a great experience.

Agneisse