East & Southeast Asia Trip 2019 (Part 3)

We spent some time walking around Ubud Market where we spotted quite a few amazing and intricate building entrances. We also found amazing art being sold in shops around the area. Juan got to spend some time in this basement shop playing with souvenir items and seeing if they make cool sounds. We actually found a thing that would make sound not so different from the sound of thunder. Juan got so excited it was hard for me to get the lady to lower the price. Oh well, anything for my sound crazed husband. haha.

Our last full day in Bali was filed with exploring Kuta Bali. It has been a little while since I’ve been back, but the memory of walking down Kuta Beach is clear as day to me. Juan and I got to spend some time just walking around the touristy spots. They built so many things around Kuta Bali it was a bit crazy to see so many little malls pops up around the area. My parents kept telling me that Kuta isn’t the same anymore. There are so many people visiting that there’s littering all over the beach. I am saddened by this fact. Also, I recently hope that, as bad as it is for Bali’s economy, maybe the 2020 pandemic is giving the beach a bit of a needed rest from overcrowding. We can only hope.

We also happen to be in Bali at the same time as my highschool friend, Calista. She’s known me since I was 11 and she was 13. Over 2 decades. Everytime I come home to visit, she always makes time to meet up with me. It was so lovely to see her again. Also, Juan got to meet one of my high school friends, which is a rare and special occasion as most of them either live in Jakarta, Malaysia or Australia. We hung out at this chic little spot called Cafe Del Mar.

This portion concludes our time in Bali. If you are still following along, we will be headed back to Jakarta for a day before flying back to Tokyo. Yep, we are gonna be back in Tokyo for a few days before finally headed back to Seattle. There are tons of new things we got to experience in Tokyo this time around, that includes hanging out with my dear friend Noriko and her family!

Our last night in Jakarta, I finally got to eat fresh durian* again. Y’all probably know durian from the fact that it smells bad, but, they are one of my favorite fruits growing up. They are so sweet, creamy and soft inside. I always miss eating durian when I’m back in the US. Mostly because they are hard to find and also because everyone seems to think they smell like stinky feet. Y’all are missing out!

*Named in some regions as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and thorn-covered rind. (wikipedia)

Back to Tokyo and it was raining! This is the first time it ever rains when we visit Tokyo. It is a little bit like preparing us for PNW weather. Anyway, we found a highly rated tonkatsu spot around the corner from our hotel in Ueno, Nohga Hotel Ueno. This tonkatsu spot was so delicious, but we had a hard time getting into the shop. Not sure why we just thought the main door was around the corner. It was silly really. Rain and jetlag was making me extra hangry and we were also rushing to get to another spot after. But, back to the Tonkatsu, it was really really worth it!

Ponta Honke, Ueno

Teamlab Planets!

Teamlab Planets were really really rad. I got this official description from the website: TeamLab Planets is a museum where you walk through water. It consists of four vast exhibition spaces containing seven indoor artworks, plus one outdoor piece at the entrance for a total of seven works created by art collective teamLab. By immersing the entire body with other people in these massive “Body Immersive” artworks, the boundary between the body and the artwork dissolves, the boundaries between the self, others, and the world become something continuous, and we explore a new relationship without boundaries between ourselves and the world. Visitors enter the museum barefoot, and become completely immersed with other visitors in the vast artwork spaces.

For me, it was really lovely to wade into water and such a special experience. What is also great is that everytime we leave the water section they have a staff member passing towels for us to dry off. Really thoughtful. We were walking around barefoot so there were lots more stimulation as they do switch out ground textures when we enter new installation. It is a strange and wonderful feeling to be running around exploring a public space with strangers barefoot.

It was a bit too rainy to be outside so we decided we’d walk around Tokyo Skytree (from our honeymoon trip) again. On the hunt for soft-serve for Juan. We wanted to take some time to also purchase some souvenirs to bring back to Seattle for our friends. So we got that done pretty swiftly at Tokyo Skytree while we figure out what to eat for dinner. hehe. We found a spot near our hotel on our way back that serves halal chicken ramen. The name of the Ramen shop is Ayam-ya Halal Ramen. Ayam in Indonesian means Chicken. So, I was excited to find out for real that the shop is Malaysian/Indonesian. It was cool to speak bahasa with one of the the workers in the shop. Also, ramen was really delicious!

After Ramen we decided to get some dessert before bed time at our hotel. They were beautifully presented and also really good. I think it is hard to find a bad place to eat in Tokyo, honestly.

Ayam-Ya Spicy Chicken Ramen.

New Tsukiji Market/Toyosu Fish Market,

The next day we spent some time at the new Tsukiji Market aka Toyosu Fish Market. This was on my list for our honeymoon but we never got to go as they were closed for renovations and move plans. We woke up bright and early to get to the Fish Market because I really don’t enjoy crowds. It was also raining this day, but it didn’t hamper our experience at the market. The food was amazing and we got to eat some fresh eel.

My friend Emily told me that she doesn’t eat eel in the United States and when asked she said “Well, it is just not great compared to japanese eel.” So I made it a real mission to try out japanese eel, and of course she was right. It was miles better. I would still eat eel here in the states, but it is just like eating ramen here in the states. They are really good in the states, don’t get me wrong. But every time we had a Japan trip, we had to wait about 3-4 months before eating Ramen again because we were a bit disappointed when we try to eat a week or two after our honeymoon trip.

After Toyosu Fish Market, we head over to Tokyo Station and then Shibuya. We explored in the bit of rain which was a little relentless that day for, yep, you guessed it, more food. There are a few things I learned about food in Tokyo’s depachikas. They have clear recommendations on what is the best, but they also have second best as a recommendation. When Juan and I first saw the signs “#1” and “#2” we actually chuckled. Juan said “wow, they threw their own product UNDER the bus. I would hate being #2.” haha.

Menhan Shokudo Nakajima's Dan Dan Ramen Spicy nutty wonderful flavors + free bowl of rice if you want it! ❣️🍜

There’s this saying in Seattle that you get to spot transplants in the city quickly because Seattleites don’t use umbrellas. So, with that logic, if one is using umbrella - ahem, ME - they must not be from Seattle. Well, it is the exact opposite of that in Tokyo. Everyone was using umbrellas when it is raining. Even people who are biking around the city! I feel so at home there. They accept my need to protect my head from water. 😉

Whenever we visit Shibuya, we would go to this unique little shop. The shop is called Aldies. Their items are so cool and different from what we usually see. We purchased a few things from this shop, including this extra rad hoodie. Juan and I share custody of this hoodie because we both wanted it and didn’t see a point of purchasing 2. They fit us both really well.

After running around in the rain and had our snack - which is another round of soft serves. We stumble upon this burger restaurant called Goku Burger Tokyo and decided we should try it! Juan really enjoyed his burger, they were huge and we both really really enjoyed that our burgers come with special gloves so we can make a mess without making a mess! It was nice.

Our last full day in Tokyo

consisted of us running around exploring the city. We decided to stay around our hotel vicinity which was in Ueno. It is fun getting to explore the area and walk back to hotel. Ueno park is quite large so we spent the morning walking. Then we head over to one of the Ueno market to get some souvenirs to bring back home. In between getting souvenirs and walking, Juan spent a bit of time recording with his contact mic. Contact mic - as he describe them to me - is a special mic that picks up isolated audio vibration when it is pressed up against a solid object. He wanted me to beep boop and get some drinks from this vending machine so he can listen and record the sound. I happily obliged and got myself a hot cocoa drink, yep that can is hot. It is a bit strange to get a hot drink from a vending machine in that way but hey, Japan for ya!

Also, Juan found mango soft serve, you can see how much he loves soft serve by the way he looked at it.

Dinner is a special one because we got to hang out with my friend Noriko and her family! She is one of my dearest friends and she also loves lotus roots - Renkon 蓮根, れんこん. So she found a restaurant that serves multiple versions of Renkon. I have never gone to a restaurant in Japan where someone else ordered for us. It was such a nice feeling! See below for some of the food we ate.

It was good and a bit surreal getting to see her and her family in Tokyo. They actually live in the PNW and I used to work with Noriko at TPCi. We decided if we ever go back to Tokyo at the same time, we will definitely plan to do this kind of dinner again! It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Noriko & I (2019)

Last Morning in Tokyo 2019

We knew this was going to be the last trip out to Tokyo for a long while for a lot of reasons. Those reasons didn’t include Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020. We are grateful we got to spend a bit of time in Tokyo. I don’t know if we can call this serendipitous, but I recorded a video of the train ride going to Narita I’ll share here.

Tokyo, we miss you and we will be back.