First vacation of 2024 (sorry, I have been super busy and forgot to post this trip), the kids’ first long-distance trip to Japan and China! We flew Japan Airlines’s 12-hour nonstop flight from Boston to Tokyo and then a connecting flight to Osaka. My daughter did very well on the flight; the cartoons kept her entertained and she managed to get some sleep. On the other hand, my son took a nap soon after take-off (it aligned with his nap time) but then he was awake the rest of the flight. He hasn’t gotten into watching cartoons yet (he was almost 2.5 years old); he only watches videos of himself lol. After more than 16 hours of traveling, we landed Osaka Itami Airport (the one closer to Osaka city center) and took two taxis via Uber (since we had a total of 7 people) to our hotel – Intercontinential Osaka. It took around 30 minutes to get there and each taxi cost ¥6,670.
I booked 4 nights and 2 rooms with IHG points to take advantage of the 4th night free (one of the many benefits of the IHG credit card), total only 171,000 IHG points per room while the cash price was over $400 USD per night! After we settled down, we walked around 10 minutes to Irchiran and there was a line even at 9:30 PM at night!
The wait was around 30 minutes but well worth it for a bowl of hot and delicious ramen!
My daughter loved the noodle, she said it was yummy and finished half of the bowl! After the late dinner, we walked back to the hotel, took showers, and got ready for bed. The Intercontinental Osaka was super kid-friendly; they provided kids’ size slippers, bath sponges, and toothbrushes!
The bathtub had a sliding shade for privacy.
The closet was big and could fit our 3 big luggage.
The design of the table was very zen style made with granite and glass. However, I was very worried that my kids will bump into it so not a good idea for a family room!
Our room has two double beds, we need to pull over one of the beds to the wall for the kids so they won’t roll off the bed.
Another gift from the hotel, those are super cute that I don’t want to eat them!
I was hoping that the kids would sleep through the night because it was a long, tiring day but my son woke up at 3 AM and didn’t get back to sleep till 5 AM and then woke up at 6 🙁 They couldn’t get back to sleep so we decided to get ready to go out. We walked to Belle-Ville Pancake Cafe for the famous fluffy souffle-style pancake. It was super hard to find because it is located in the underground plaza of a metro station so Google Maps’ direction wasn’t accurate. I had to ask a Japanese who walked by for direction and he pointed us down to the underground level.
There was a map in the underground level with store numbers which made it easier to find. Luckily we got there early and we got a table without any wait. The little store has around 10 tables and is run by two ladies so it could get really busy and require longer waits for food. We ordered the strawberry pancake with a strawberry milkshake, two mango pancakes, and a plain butter pancake. You can pick 2 or 4 pieces with each, we didn’t know the size so we said 4 and it came out way too much food for 5 adults and 2 kids! Look at how thick and fluffy those are!
Those did not disappoint, they were very soft and the strawberry and mango creams were so rich! Our favorite was the strawberry pancake!
After breakfast, we walked to Osaka station to claim the Kansai Area Pass that I ordered online via Klook. This pass covered the areas that we’ll be visiting as well as the Limited Express train to Kansai Airport. I made the calculations and it was a little bit cheaper to purchase the pass and be hassle free to board whatever train than buying ticket via the machine each time.
We took the train to Kyoto and then change to Uji. We didn’t get a chance to visit Uji on our last Kyoto trip so we need to check it out for its famous matcha/green tea! When we arrived, it was time for lunch so we picked a sit down restaurant – Wamucha Cafe; it is hidden inside a souvenir shop! Like other restaurants in Uji, many of the sides are made of matcha in one way or the other! I ordered a matcha udon noodle set with dim sum as a side. Can you believe it…matcha udon? It actually tasted very good and the matcha taste is light, the broth taste reminded me of Chinese fermented bean curd! The dim sum, on the other hand, tasted like the ones you buy in frozen packaging.
Since my son doesn’t like noodle, he only eats rice, I ordered a rice plate – the Tianjin (a city in China) Rice. It tasted so weird with fishy taste!
Fortunately, I ordered a fried rice as side so my kids can share.
Fried chicken set:
Dry matcha udon noodle set, it served cold. The gyoza were okay.
The dan-dan noodle set, it was different than the dan-dan noodles that I have at home but it tasted good and spicy.
A side order of the shrimp dumplings, frozen food quality.
For dessert, we got the almond pudding with matcha sauce, it was good but not as good as the ones we had at Ichiran!
Matcha with red beans and mochi inside, this was good too.
The matcha dishes and desserts did not disappoint and lived up to its name from the famous Uji! The total cost of the meal for 5 adults and 2 kids was 11100 JPY very affordable!
Next, we walked to Uji’s most famous attraction – Byodoin Temple. Doesn’t this look familiar? Yes, the Byodoin Temple in Oahu, Hawaii is a replica of this one!
The design concept is wood stacked on wood without a single nail like putting all the pieces of a puzzle together.
The rocky rock made it hard for stroller so the kids got off the stroller and walk 😀 It was so hard to get them looking at the camera at the same time so it was a lucky click!
The cherry blossoms were just pasted peak 🙁 We walked around the path looking for different angles to photograph the temple.
There’s also a bell but the area is fenced that you can’t get in.
Surrounding the temple, here’s also an indoor museum and shrines.
It was a good hour or so to stroll around the temple and to take photos. At the entrance of the temple is the beautiful wisteria trees and one is in bloom!
The main street leading to the temple was filled with shops selling matcha goodies and restaurants. We did some shopping to get matcha powder and snacks! The street wasn’t long so it didn’t take much time to walk from one end to another. The start of the street is this statue.
On the wooden bridge, you can see two other bridges along the river, the temple is on the right side of the river.
Uji is a cute and small town that you only need half a day to check it out so it was a good choice on our first day in case we need to sleep in due to the time zone difference. We got back to the hotel, use the restroom, put down our stuff, rest a little bit and then headed back out for our dinner. I made a restaurant at Matsusaka M Umeda Fukushima Branch and ordered the premium A5 Matsusaka wagyu set menu. It was quite a long walk from our hotel to the restaurant but it helped with burning those calories after dinner.
The restaurant is located in this narrow building on the 1st and 2nd floor. Our table was on the 2nd floor and the staircase is super narrow. We stored our stroller downstairs and carried our kids up. The kids were definitely jetlagging, my son felt asleep and skipped dinner while my daughter, with the help of YouTube videos, made it through dinner.
The first course was the cold dish – the beef was so tender!
The grill was ready for the short rib!
Jason did most of the grilling 😀 My daughter was super sleepy.
Wagyu sushi?? Oh yea!
The top lean beef was definitely great quality but the marinate sauce made it a little bit too salty for us. I think without marinating would be the best, its original flavor!
The grill was firing up by all those beef fatty.
Included with the set course is the garlic rice with wagyu cubes, that was really flavorful.
I love the texture of the sirloin steak.
Once again, the sauce made it a little bit too salty!
Look at the color of that egg yolk from free-range chicken! That was the dipping sauce for one of the grill beef. It was the first time my mom and aunt have wagyu beef and their reactions were priceless! It was that good that the beef melted in their mouth!
The dessert was the ice cream (I forgot the flavor but it’s one that’s not common) and the sticky rice ball.
The meal was totally awesome of the amazing quality of the Matsusaka wagyu. It was also one of the most expensive meal we had in the entire trip – 66660 JPY but well worth it for the quality! We made it through the first day and everyone was enjoying Japan!
