Osaka & Tokyo
Japan, 2025

Japan can overwhelm you. That was the feeling I got back in 2008. In 2016 Mai and I traveled back together and had a lot of fun visiting the Hiroshima, Onomichi, Kyoto, and Tokyo. This would be our third time visiting Japan and I still got overwhelmed. It could be the long flight followed by a long airport transfer. It could be the maze like train stations and the sea of people flooding the streets. It could be the language and the customs. The chaos melts away in quiet moments when we wander into back alleys (a.k.a yokocho) where locals carry on with their daily lives.

On this trip, we decided to focus on Osaka and Tokyo visiting different neighborhoods, exploring old and new shops, and eating all the foods that we’ve bookmarked. Some highlights include yuzu ramen, sushi, and Pizza Muramo, a Tokyo-style pizzeria making pies reminiscent of the Neapolitan style. Muramo was recently ranked no. 3 in the world by TimeOut and lived up to its ranking. I neatly packed away two Marinara pizzas and some of Mai’s loaded Bismarck pie. And of course, we got a peek of the early season cherry blossoms. A stroll down the Meguro River with the cherry blossoms cascading over the riverbank was a pleasant discovery.

I specifically had two things I wanted to make sure I did on this trip. I wanted to do some nighttime street photography and I wanted counter service at Tonki – a legendary tonkatsu restaurant in Meguro, Tokyo. I ran across a photo of Tonki over 15 years ago and since then, I wanted to experience the ambience in person. The tonkatsu was very good, but the the midcentury interior was what I wanted to see and photograph. Aside from this, we did quite a bit of shopping – visiting thrift shops (which were more high end and better kept than expected) and making sure we hit the flagship stores for Beams and Muji.