Spread Some Awesome

More than two months has already passed since my trip in Japan. It feels like it was only yesterday that I was exploring and discovering first-hand a lot of things in the Land of the Rising Sun but who would have known it has already been that long. How quickly time passed is almost similar to how it felt like speeding through the tracks while riding atop the Shinkansen.

When I was in Japan, I ended my 10-day vacation with an overnight trip to Kyoto. I went from Yokohoma (Shin-Yokohama station) to Kyoto to Yokohama (Shin-Yokohama station) in roughly 24 hours. And mind you, the distance from Yokohama to Kyoto, one-way, is approximately 450 kilometers. You can probably say there is some sort of teleportation happening there.

Shinkansen or Bullet Trains (Image Source: www.japan-guide.com)

Since the Shinkansen can travel to a maximum of 300km/hr, it can go from Shin-Yokohama to Kyoto in about two hours, covering the 450-kilometer distance between them. Without the Shinkansen, this super short land travel will not be possible.

Shinkansen Tickets

Showing Off the Shinkansen Passes

Riding the Shinkansen to travel in different vastly separated locations in Japan definitely cuts down the travel time but it does not come cheaply. One-way Shinkansen ride from Shin-Yokohama to Kyoto has a fare price of at least JPY 12,000 (~PhP 6,000). But it was a price I was willing to pay in exchange of comfort (2-hour travel time) and to compensate for my time in Japan, which was quickly running out then.

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Tags: bullet train, fuji-san, japan, kyoto, mt. fuji, osaka, shin-yokohama, shinkansen

Shabu-shabu is commonplace in Japan. Just like tempura, sushi, maki, ramen, udon, soba, katsu, (and the list goes on..) this dish is something you should not miss when visiting this country. With autumn kicking in, having shabu-shabu is second to perfect to a steaming bowl of ramen. The boiling soup on the hot pot shared with good friends make it awesome though.

Different soup base can be used for shabu-shabu. What we had that night is a creamy soup base (left) and basic herbed soup base (right).

Soup Base of Shabu-Shabu

Shabu-shabu normally comes with thinly sliced beef but through time, different types of meat and seafoods were also used. Our shabu-shabu came with thinly sliced beef and two types of pork – one similar to the meat used for pork chop dishes while the other looks like the meat used for bacon. The meat given to us are neatly cut and it is extremely thin that you can see right through them.

Thin Slices of Beef

Thin Slices of Pork

Thin Slices of Pork

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Tags: illumination, japan, minato mirai 21, osanbashi pier, red brick warehouses, sakuragicho, shabu-shabu, yokohama