Japan 2022 Part 2

Welcome back, this is part 2 of my Japan trip in 2022. I am really enjoying blogging again, there is a beauty in written out, “longer form” content vs short, cut to the chase medium of today. You’re gonna see some food content here, touristy shit, not just car stuff. Since I was with my wife I had to keep her entertained. Don’t worry there is a still a sprinkling of car stuff. I will continue where I left off in Osaka….

Short compilation of clips that summarize this trip….spoilers for part 3 and maybe 4….

I booked a michelin star tempura spot in some hotel. Yeah fancy. Yes, I was driving with my wallet on the dash. After driving for a moment, something red and wide caught my eye.

Behind this damn thing

Rad, a red na1 nsx!

As this is Japan, I’m sure this car is automatic.

We finally arrived at the Ritz Carlton in Osaka, We ate at TEMPURA HANAGATAMI. At that time of eating they had 1 michelin star. Like anywhere fancy they start you off with some champagne.

We were first presented what was going to be tempura’d and some fucking fresh uni.

I’m pretty sure this is fancy beef….. It’s been years so I won’t manage to recall everything I had.

Fancy Uni

fancy palate cleanser

After selecting some chopsticks that suited our style… yeah that’s a thing. We were presented something to grate as our sauce, I told you my memory is fuzzy.

You might think of tempura as some basic ass fried food. It seems greasy and crunchy, like Japanese carnival food. But no, proper tempura is super lightly fried. It retains the flavor of the main ingredient. It’s incredibly light and very delicate. The frying elevates the food, not take a cheap cut of meat and make it passable. Even the shell of the shrimp was fried and it was fucking mind blowing.

fucking amazing

That uni from before, I don’t remember much, but it was also fucking delicious.

And that was the meal…… I didn’t take pictures of everything… sorry guys.

After my wallet was a few hundred bucks lighter…. I decided to look at this rad f1 book at bought earlier that morning.

After our fancy lunch. We decided to get dessert. Harbs is a Japanese chain in Japanese with amazing cakes and tea. They have a location in NYC, I went to that location years ago……

Yeah we got some slices of cake and ate it…..

I went with a fancy milk tea pretty much….. can’t take the 626 out of the boy.

Later that day we walked around Namba looking at random stuff… like this Pokemon store

I found another Honda Gatchapon, won this EK9 keychain.

For dinner I stopped by this super super super touristy crab place, I don’t recommend.

It was pretty mid.

We topped off the night with some matcha + ice cream.

After eating we decided to browse the closest Donki.

Somehow always get lost and end up in this section :p

my “friends” from home are super into these things

I did a few other things in Osaka, meet with vendors etc….. but after we had to go back to Tokyo. I saw this cool Levorg STi on the road. I want to say this is mainly an appearance package, not a full blown STi.

Another Service area….. mainly because I wanna check it out with a slight bathroom break.

These SAs are for passing travelers. They each offer random Omiyage (souvenir gifts) for people to give to friends and family. This one in particular had omiyage toilet paper….

Japan is so aesthetic, their packaging is amazing….. even this basic toilet paper looked aesthetic as fuck.

Sweet Hilux

Sweet Nissan R32 GTR Gatchapon

A favorite snack I buy at the Japanese Grocery stores back in LA, which is a 3rd the price.

Cat cookies.

I got some Hello Kitty stuff for my daughter. Japan is really good at extracting all the money from my wallet.

On the road again!

I spy a sweet benz on the back of this trailer.

Back in Tokyo, we went to another tourist trap… Kyubei in Ginza. A popular sushi restaurant on trip advisor….. that was a red flag.

Sushi chef demonstrated how fresh the shrimp is.

Of course in my typical fashion I didn’t take pictures of every single dish. Overall it was OKAY, we’ve had better sushi in Japan.

Oh yeah at Suzuka SA, I copped these cool wrench spoon and forks….

Next day we had a trip planned to Disney…. Somehow we decided to eat egg slut for breakfast. I’ve only eaten at the LA location a handful of times.

We went to Disney by the sea. This amusement park is actually owned by a 3rd party, so the vibe is completely different compared to Disney land.

JDM AF

popcorn flavors are wild!

My wife is super into Duffy and friends. It’s a line of characters they have at Asian Disney properties. We bought all the food items that give you complimentary themed items…. Food at Japan Disney beats USDM Disney all day! Besides this one sandwhich I had, it was ass.

I got a sweet soy churro

It was not good, pretty much sweet Soy Sauce Churro….

I really wanted this popcorn, but I had to go.

They take their cosplay extremely serious… You would think an amusement park you would see a bunch of kids, nope, it was mainly adults… the population problem in Japan is very evident…. Or the kids are at school.

I copped a Disney “healthy tea”

Next morning we decided to eat O cha Zuke, pretty much a rice dish you pour tea into with salmon…. it looks better than my description. Please see above Youtube video…..