Japan

Whenever we visit a major city, we’ve been getting in the habit of booking a Culinary Backstreets tour to get off the beaten track and explore areas we otherwise wouldn’t have visited (and with a particular emphasis on eating, of course).

In Tokyo, we jumped on their tour focusing on the Monzen-Nakacho region of Koto City on the eastern side of Tokyo, and absolutely fell in love with the area- so much so that we’ve even returned to explore more on future visits to the city!

But, as with all of the Culinary Backstreets tours we’ve been on, we have one recommendation we suggest you heed- go hungry. This tour will leave you stuffed for quite some time.

Note: As with most guided tours, your mileage may vary on where you visit on any given day. Please reconfirm all tour details prior to booking as stops may change. But for this one, you aren’t covering a big area, so if your particular tour doesn’t hit every spot we visited, you can always go back to the ones mentioned in this article after the tour is over!

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Whenever we get home from a vacation, we often find ourselves in a bit of a mental funk. This is, naturally, to be expected- going back to your daily routine after a vacation is always somewhat painful.

But once the laundry is put away, you hit a favorite bar or restaurant for some comfort food, and hang out with friends, you start to slip back into your usual routine just fine.

Unless you’re coming home from Japan.

Every time we come home from Japan, we find that the post-travel blues last much, much longer. The laundry feels like a bigger chore. The restaurant doesn’t hit quite the same. And we need many, many hangouts with friends along the way. Days turn to weeks, and the severity of the depression is on a scale that has never quite come as close anywhere else we have been.

Why is that? Well, let’s count the ways Japan depresses us about having to return home!

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When you think of Japan, you may think of megacities, technological marvels, and more. But have you ever stopped to think about how modern-day Japan came to be?

There are, of course, many history museums across the country that showcase Japan’s long and storied history. But at the Takayama Showa-kan museum in Takayama, you get a chance to look back at the Showa Era- particularly the rebuilding period post-war that helped Japan become the country that it is today.

There are trips back in time, and then there is a trip back in time at Takayama Showa-kan.

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Whenever we visit Japan, we almost always make it to visit a town or city that is known for sake brewing. We’ve become big fans of sake over the years, and Angie has even went on to study intensive coursework for the beverage as well (WSET Sake Level 3).

This naturally led us to the town of Takayama, just a few hours west of Tokyo, which is home to six delicious sake breweries in a quaint old quarter. History, sake, and a wonderful ambiance? We are in.

After visiting all of the sake breweries in Takayama, we thought it’d be fun to share a breakdown of the styles of tastings you can experience, and give you a gameplan of what breweries to hit first if you are new to sake and want to do it right.

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