When we were planning our trip to Japan this year, we didn’t intend to go during the annual National Japanese holiday of Golden Week. However when booking tickets this week was a bit cheaper and we found really good deals on tickets. I did a ton of research about traveling to Japan during Golden Week. The majority of the information I came across said that Tokyo was actually less busy this week because people tend to travel to the beaches, or smaller towns and leave Tokyo for the week.
We did find that it wasn’t crazy busy, but remember Tokyo is arguably the largest city in the world, so its not going to be dead by any means. There was still tons of people everywhere.
I was excited to find a local Samurai parade that is held every Golden Week in the town of Kameido. The local Kameido Tenjin Shrine also holds a wisteria festival the same week.
The locals dress up in Samurai gear and parade around town, dancing and marching. Traditional drummers play on large drums and the procession stops every once in awhile so those viewing can take pictures and get a good view. This is one time that taking pictures of the local Japanese isn’t frowned upon because they are promoting their neighborhood in celebration
The costumes were super intricate and detailed. The drumming was incredible and I would 100% recommend going to see this parade if you are able to and happen to be in the area on the day it’s running.
Senso-Ji Temple
Senso-Ji is one of the most famous temples in Tokyo, and arguably one of the most visited temples as well. It is always crowded, unless you go in the evening hours after the shopping stalls have all shut down for the day.
There is a shopping street leading up to the temple selling souveniers, foods and really all kinds of things. I bought a small jar of Yuzu flavored salt to take home. They also have stalls up near the temple where you can buy blessing cards. They have options for all kinds of blessings, money, education, business, work, marriage, pregnancy and happy family. These are really pretty keepsakes to bring home with you.
Pictures of the actual temple up close and inside where members are praying are prohibited. There are signs to remind you not to take photos, but I still saw a ton of foreign tourists totally ignoring this and taking pictures, remember to be respectful of local traditions and rules when you travel.
Fry-Ya Tonkatsu Dinner
This is a restaurant that I found that was awarded a Bibb Gourmand award from the Michelin company. This award is given to restaurants with outstanding food at reasonable prices, so you don’t have to spend several hundred dollars a person to eat incredible food.
Japan has a huge number of Michelin rated restaurants that book out months in advance. Some restaurants you can’t book from a foreign phone number or email address, so if you want to eat at one of these you will likely need to ask your hotel conceirge to get a reservation for you well in advance.
I used the Japanese website Tabelog to book our reservation to Fry-Ya about 2 months in advance of our trip. Tabelog also has tons of restaurant reviews, basically anything rated a 3-4 is pretty incredible food and anything 4+ is out of this world quality. The Japanese are a lot more conservative with restaurant reviews than us here in the USA.
Fry-Ya is located in Shinjuku. We took the train over and walked from there to the restaurant, stopping in a local park to watch the kids play ball. My daughter even joined in and played for awhile. The game was a strange mix of keep away and volleyball. We used google translate to ask the kids if she could play with them, but they did know a tiny bit of English.
Fry-Ya is located down a set of stairs leading from the street to a small cozy dining room. There are about 4 tables inside and maybe 6 barstool counter seats. The staff were incredibly gracious and friendly and tried their best to communicate in english, which I think we as Americans take for granted. We do try to use google translate as much as we can, where possible.
Our dinner was a 13 course meal of different veggies, salad, tonkatsu, fried chicken, rice, noodles, and a dessert. I was more than stuffed at the end, which was so nice. I feel like sometimes fancy restaurants serve small tasting portions and you leave kinda hungry still. That was not the case here!
Each protein could be dipped in a choice of 3 sauces and a lovely powdered salt. I will say that salt was strong but incredibly flavored.
I highly recommend checking out this restaurant if you are in the area and can get a reservation, because it is a tiny little place and only really fits about 20 guests at a time. This meal was definitely one of my top 3 meals ever while traveling! Honestly the only thing I’ve ever tasted that was maybe a bit better than this was some homemade pasta in Paris when I was 17 ( and that could be because I had never really had great food before that )
- Check out my other posts from Japan here and here. Subscribe to my blog to get updates on new posts. I will be doing a full Japan series, so check back for more posts coming soon!
-Beck
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