Friday, June 27, 2025

The Japan-Taiwan Travel Adventure 2025

Chris Barsam is at Ginza Tokyo.

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Hello from Tokyo. Why? Because Ben said we should grab a coffee. Here I am navigating the Ginza neighborhood. Hotel has to be here somewhere.
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Chris Barsam is at Ginza Tokyo.

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Grand Restaurant. First snack - Eel Risotto. For dessert - Mont Blanc. Go big or go home.


Chris Barsam is at GINZA SIX.

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Ginza street scene and the atrium at Ginza 6 high-end mall. The many shops, cafes and restaurants, the traffic and hustle and hustle makes this feel a little like New York. But it's too quiet and clean.


Chris Barsam is at Tsukiji Fish Market（築地魚河岸）.

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Finding breakfast sushi


Chris Barsam is at Ameyoko Market, Ueno, Toyko.

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How about some Ramen for lunch?
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Chris Barsam is in Sensoji Temple, Asakusa.

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From what I understand, THE most visited religious site in the world. And huge streets of shopping!
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Chris Barsam is at Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo.

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Imperial Palace! The moat, anyway 😉


Chris Barsam is at Tokyo Station.

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Long walk from Imperial Palace back to Ginza


Chris Barsam is at Tsujki Tokyo Fish Market.

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Time for a late night sushi snack because why not? The nice man sitting next to us said - you speak Japanese very well. LOL
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Chris Barsam is in Taipei, Taiwan.

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Hello from Taipei City, Taiwan! Bet you didn't see that coming!
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Chris Barsam is at 饒河街歡光夜巿 Raohe Street Night Market.

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Food tourism at the Night Market. That's some sort of peppery beef scallion bun. Holy mackerel!


Chris Barsam is at Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel 台北喜來登大飯店.

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Hotel breakfast buffet. Fish roe dumpling? Tofu casserole? Bacon? Well now!
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Bobby Wasabi, Frances Trujillo Janowich and 17 others

Chris Barsam is at 中正紀念堂 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

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Extra points if you know this guy.


Chris Barsam is at Taipei 101.

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Aerial view of Taipei. Looks a little like New York I think.

Chris Barsam is at TAIPEI 101 MALL 台北 101 購物中心.

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It's another high end mall. I'm more of a medium end mall guy myself.
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Chris Barsam is at Bullet Train To Kaohsiung.

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Yep. It's fast.
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Chris Barsam is at 高雄萬豪酒店 Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel.

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Next stop, world travelers. Kaohsiung is Taiwan's largest port and biggest city in the South. Do Kaohsiungites speak with a Southern dialect? I'm not sure I would be able to tell.
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Chris Barsam is at 韓月食堂 大順店.

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Some Chinese-named dumpling place in Kaohsiung. That's my sesame oil noodle dish and some scallion pancake with and without beef. Dumplings on the way. We're gonna need a bigger stomach.
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Chris Barsam is in Tokyo Ginza.

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Ginza Tonkatsu Saito. Yes, we're back in Tokyo! For some fried pork tenderloin. But that's not the only reason.
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Chris Barsam is at Tokyo Shinjuku.

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The night life hot spot of Tokyo. OK, but I may be more of a Times Square guy.
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Chris Barsam is at 高雄萬豪酒店 Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel.

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Sunrise in Kaohsiung.
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Bobby Wasabi, Frances Trujillo Janowich and 10 others

Chris Barsam is at Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo.

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The fish market of Ginza. You want fish and seafood right off the boat? Ramen? Beer and wine? Knives? Tea products? Grilled meats? Ice cream? There are a dozen stalls of each - and much more - at your disposal. This may be my favorite spot in Tokyo.
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Chris Barsam is at Nishiki Tenmanju Shrine.

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Nishiki Market extends for half-a-dozen blocks. Attached to the end is an out-of-place seeming shrine. Actually, the shrine must have been there first. One of the features were little wooden plates hung on one of the side walls with prayer requests, many in English. Thank you for the gift of visiting beautiful places like Kyoto... Please help me get into medical school this cycle... Please help me to feel happiness again. OK, wow.
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Chris Barsam is at Kyoto Century Hotel.

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An overview of our Kyoto neighborhood. Kyoto is an intimate village of 1.5 million people. We're right next to Kyoto station. There's bus, metro, bullet train. Good location!



Chris Barsam is at Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Kyoto, Japan.

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This serene forest is 30 minutes outside downtown Kyoto. The loudest noises are of birds chirping and tourist feet walking. Then you can divert to the Katsura River and watch the pole boats and the little fish. Terrific. But this is what happens when you let bamboo get out of hand.





Bullet Train Travel survival kit. 7-11 half egg sandwich, half tuna. A rice ball (rice triangle stuffed with tuna salad, wrapped in crispy seaweed), a custard-filled cream puff, and a Craft Boss chilled latte. Farewell Kyoto. Hope to visit you again someday.
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Thoughts on travel to Japan and Taiwan.

My goals for travel these days are to become a more educated, more perceptive, better citizen of the world, to try to understand and fit in with the culture and local customs as much as is possible in just a paltry few days. My gratitude for my week there and the sorrow I felt leaving makes me feel as though I may have been on the right track.
A few key Japanese phrases:
Domo - Thanks. Arrigato - Thank you. Arrigato goozymus - Thank you very much (and farewell). Domo arrigato goozymus - A million times thank you (and farewell).
Coor uh sy - please
Sumimassen - Excuse me (I am an idiot)
For Taiwan, Shyay shyay - Thank you
These phrases will get you through 90% of tourist situations.
Complicated communication like:
Is this fish or crustacean? How do you feel about your work life balance? Did I accidentally trigger that alarm? - require some pantomime.
Jacob was trying to explain the varieties of "thank you" to me on a sparsly occupied subway car and a young man sitting across chuckled at us and struck up a conversation in unsteady English. He kept tapping his forehead to encourage the English words to come out. He asked where we were from and we settled on "near Washington, DC". We talked about comparisons of Tokyo with New York, and he said he wants to visit someday. And that he would be pleased to teach us Japanese. The ride and the encounter ended too soon. Arrigato goozymus!
Topics for exposition. Included in every civic project: How do we make this beautiful? Elaborate and robust infrastructure. Peace and serenity in the midst of the biggest city on Earth. The coddling of English-speaking tourists. Philosophies of travel: Best of, checklists, the guidebook, and the vibe. Our travel - what went well and the other stuff.
I will try for as long as possible to hold on to the wonderful memories and experiences this trip has gifted me. Was it a Once in a Lifetime?
We shall see.
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Chris Barsam
Kyoto Station. Drug store basically combined with Five Below. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.

Tokyo is fantastic, so I want to keep posting about it.
Not sure how to present this in a logical way, so let’s call this half-baked tips, observations and lessons. If it’s any good maybe I can make it into a guide.
Money exchange is a lot easier if you sign up for a currency exchange card. I used Revolut, transferred money in from my regular bank account, and used their app to convert it to Yen as needed. Then I simply withdrew Yen from Japanese ATMs (which have a button you can press for ENGLISH).
The international roaming plan on my phone provided internet (and the lifeline Google Maps), and calls to the USA were solid. You can rent a portable Wifi device at the airport, but I didn't want an extra thing to have to carry. My way cost $50 total.
The web-guides recommend finding lodging in the tourist-popular Shibuya or Shinjuku (West Side) neighborhoods. I tried, but hotel rooms in Tokyo are compact. A lot of properties want to put two guests in one twin bed. Pretty cozy, especially for a father-son team. I could find two beds in the less popular Ginza (Central South) and Asakusa (East Side) neighborhoods for less than a million dollars (excuse me, Yen), and we ended up in Ginza. Ginza turns out to be fantastic! It is home to the Tsujiki Fish Market, which we visited every morning and are sorry we had to stop because we flew home. Ginza is centrally positioned, has a good mix of restaurants and retail, and still feels quiet and neighborhoodly. Asakusa, home of Senso-ji Temple, would also have been a good choice but a little off the beaten path. When we did venture to visit Shibuya and Shinjuku, we found them hectic and crowded and dirty!
So happy to have accidentally found the right place for us. In fact, after Taiwan our second hotel in Tokyo was also in Ginza. Hysterically, it felt nice to be back in the old neighborhood. We had stayed there two nights.
Remind me to tell you about chatting up strangers, things that made us feel stupid, and ways in which I am infuriating.
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Chris Barsam
That is matcha ice cream I'm holding. Sadly, it was gone before anyone else could sample it.
Trains in Japan.
It doesn't seem to matter where we go, every place is fantastic! (Jacob, Tokyo Day One).
Tokyo has an extensive subway network https://www.tokyometro.jp/en/subwaymap/index.html with bilingual electronic Japanese/English signage and ticketing machines. It’s clean, forgiving, and easy to use. On the map you can see a number of the places I have mentioned. Haneda Airport is at the bottom center. You can also see Ginza between Tokyo Station and Shimbashi.
At our initial arrival in Japan we got off our 11-hour flight, went through immigration, and walked through the terminal to the metro station. After a brief investigation we figured out how to buy a Passmo card (one for each of us) and load it with 2000 yen (about $14). This was similar to buying and loading the metro cards in NYC, except that in technologically advanced Japan for some reason you cannot load a Passmo card with electronic payment (except sometimes. It seems like my daughter-in-law was somehow able to). You have to use physical Yen. I was prepared for this and my Revolut card worked like a champ in the ATM.
Now, let’s figure out the route. It looks like this next train out of the airport turns into a red train that drops us right in Ginza. Is that possible? It was! We kept a close eye on the bilingual electronic Upcoming Stations sign in the train car, and in about 20 minutes we were there.
You can see other places we visited on the map. Shinjuku and Shibuya to the left of center. Ueno and Asakusa in the upper right. Narita Airport in the far upper right.
We weren’t always train bosses. A couple of times we got on the train the wrong direction. We usually figured it out quickly, detrained, and caught the other-direction train within 5 minutes. One time we intended to head for Asakusa and rode 20 minutes before realizing the station names didn’t look familiar. It turns out we were heading for Asakasa (not Asakusa) on the other side of the city. Dumb! Another time I chatted up two Australian couples on a month-long cruise tour of Asia. They were from Canberra, said I probably never heard of it. The capital of Australia? They were impressed I knew. Distracted, I got us on the entirely wrong train. As Jacob says, that’s what you get for flirting with Australians.
And then there is the Shinkansen Bullet Train. Bullet trains go 177mph which is great, but the tickets are unnecessarily confusing. You go to the kiosk to buy tickets after pressing the ENGLISH button. Tokyo to Kyoto 10,000 yen ($69). Done? Not exactly. You have purchased a Tokyo to Kyoto Basic Fare (or Zone) ticket. Now you have to purchase, from the same kiosk or from a live agent, a seat (or a non-reserved space) on a specific train. Also 10,000 yen. Really? We were sure we did not understand this correctly even though the web guides mention it AND we encountered a sign explaining it (not much better than I have here). And here’s another wrinkle. When we exited the Bullet train, surrendered our two tickets to the exit turnstile (it retained the tickets), and walked across the station to the local trains (following the helpful red stripe on the floor), the entry turnstile would not let us pass with our pre-paid metro cards. Apparently we were supposed to retain the Bullet train zone ticket to make the in-station transfer. Why? Because Japan Rail wants to know, and you can avoid paying the 500 yen local metro fee. How could we possibly have known this, and what do we do now since we are trying to get to the airport immediately to catch an international flight home?
Luckily, there is a lovely English-speaking lady whose job title should be Station Angel. She said we should have kept one of the Bullet tickets (would the exit turnstile have allowed it?), and offered the other ticket to the local train entry turnstile. We should go to back and wait in line for the Bullet people (who don’t speak English) and convince them to mock up Bullet tickets for us to use for entry (could we convince them in a foreign language to do this?). OR the other solution.
The other solution was to leave the station entirely and re-enter as virgin passengers. And that WORKED!
My description sounds much more straightforward than the reality. We spent 10 or 15 minutes floundering, speaking to multiple people in a foreign language, trying to figure out how to make the situation work. But we finally did, and our Station Angel thanked us for being so patient through the process. I hope we really were.
The other, other solution would be to have purchased a 7-day JR Rail Pass. Would it have decreased complications? Maybe. With a round trip to Kyoto and a round trip to Narita Airport, it probably would have made sense cost-wise as well.
Maybe we’ll try that next time.
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Yard at Kyoto Station. Bullet Train in the background (Kyoto to Tokyo four times an hou
Yard at Kyoto Station. Bullet Train in the background (Kyoto to Tokyo four times an hour!). Freight train in the foreground, a local commuter minutes away.
Yard at Kyoto Station. Bullet Train in the background (Kyoto to Tokyo four times an hour!). Freight train in the foreground, a local commuter minutes away.


Japan – The good, the bad and the ugly
I still recall my initial impression getting out of the subway and walking the streets of Tokyo Ginza. It was a busy city thoroughfare and there was quite a bit of traffic, but the noise level was low. The street was lined with trees and azalea bushes. I didn’t know exactly at the time where I was going but it was a beautiful, tranquil walk.
That first impression remained for pretty much the entire week in Japan. The city is busy, but quiet and clean. There is a certain formality on the street. Dress is casual or better. The wearing of shorts is rare. Don’t Walk signs are obeyed. Riders on mass transit are mostly silent or speak in low, private tones. There is absolutely no sense of danger. I am not the only one who noticed this tranquility. Google Tokyo quiet and you’ll see.
Also, there is the matter of eating. You don’t eat while you walk. You eat at home or in eating establishments. There are no trash cans. If you generate trash you carry it with you until you can dispose of it. But, you see, you’re not eating on the street so… There are, as far as I can tell, unspoken districts. You might turn down a side street and find a dozen after work pubs. Google search for a café or bakery? You won’t find one nearby, because this is the after-work pub district. You need to reposition several blocks to find a café, probably in a café district.
I remember looking at the sky and noticing it was clear of aircraft. In fact, much different from here, I cannot recall seeing any aircraft outside the airports the entire week. This may be because most domestic travel is by train. The first Bullet Train started 130mph service in 1964 in time for the Tokyo Olympics. This became a model for high speed rail in much of the developed world. Not to be outdone, the United States introduced 150mph high speed rail with Northeast Corridor Metroliner Service. However, the legacy rails limited top speed to 120mph.
Not to obsess about trains, but today Japan has 1800 miles of 180mph Bullet Train service, whereas the United States has 450 miles of Acela service. Acela has a top speed of 150mph, but only can only go that fast on a couple of sections of the route totaling 41 miles. California has a maglev train route under construction, but the costs are accelerating much faster than the trains will. I will be lucky to see that service launch in my lifetime.
I spent much of my time in Japan running from place to place. If there is a next time I would like to hike on or near Mount Fuji, see the streams and trails of Nikko, enjoy the beaches of Okinawa, and a dozen other things. I tried to get a sense of Tokyo, but there are articles written by 20-year residents who are still regularly surprised by the discovery of an unknown neighborhood or park or restaurant district.
I, of course, was looking as a tourist. It did not escape my notice that in the crowded neighborhoods in the close outskirts, the bedrooms of some residents’ homes were 10 feet from the metro trains speeding by. Their Tokyo experience would be different than mine. Perhaps my first house in Tokyo will be like one of those.
My Japan trip was something I never could have imagined, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity. It all started with “Hey Dad, you should come out for coffee or something.”


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Location: Tokyo, Japan
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