My parents had optimistically booked a flight from Oahu to Haneda for late September 2022 - hoping the restrictions would be lifted by then. They were a few weeks too early, but they were still able to get family member (of foreign resident) visas and make it over here to Japan before the country officially opened up to tourism.
7 day trip itinerary overview:
My parents have visited Japan with me several times previously (Summer 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Winter 2017 and Summer 2018), visiting Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Sapporo, Hakodate, Nagano, Izu, climbing Mt Fuji and a bunch of places in between. This was their first time staying/anchoring the trip in Kanagawa (staying in the house with us) and with full access to a car, and we wanted to share some of our "living in Japan" favorites and experiences with them.
Day 0 - arrival
Fortunately, Hawaiian Airlines finally started consistently flying in Haneda Airport again which is so much closer for us than Narita. We were able to drive over and meet them after they exited customs for an easy pick up just around 18:30.
We all piled into the car with the luggage and made our way back towards home, stopping at Tanzo for a quick ramen dinner. This was my husband's suggestion as their tantan ramen is his absolute favorite. We haven't had it in a while and wanted to be sure to introduce it to my parents.
Niboshi shoyu ramen for me, tantan ramen (spice level 1 & 2) for my parents and a special tantan ramen for my husband
Apparently this ended up being one of my father's favorite meals of the whole trip - he really enjoyed it! We also stopped for some desserts on the way back to the house and settled in for the night after their long flight. Arrival and brief house tour a success!Day 1 - get familiar with the local area, dinner in Yokohama
Still supposedly the best pudding he's ever had. We got one box of chocolate and one box of the plain/original pudding (reorganized in the box for the picture as it needs to stay frozen until 6-7 hours before consumption). Original is the best!
My husband and I opted to work this day and give my parents the opportunity to wake up at whatever time suited them and explore the area around our house a little bit which they didn't explicitly need us to help with. We had them use our bikes to get around after walking to get a conbini breakfast.
Not too many pictures to share because they were basically just shopping and doing some exploring. They found their way to a Uniqlo, Don Quixote, a grocery store and 2-100yen stores (Daiso and Seria) before meeting up with us when our work day was through.
We got ready to go out to dinner and then headed for the train station.
I made a phone reservation for the Yokohama Minatomirai location of Garlic Jo's after we had heard a lot about it from our friends. This restaurant is reasonably big and wasn't very busy on a Wednesday night. We would have been okay walking in!
The waitress was very patient with us as we ordered 8 different items before getting dessert. All heavily topped or seasoned with garlic as the restaurant name would imply!
Spinach & Bacon salad, Spanish style octopus
Garlic bread, Original garlic pizza
Roasted garlic & mozzarella spaghetti in tomato sauce, Vampire killer (baked garlic w/anchovy)
Mixed garlic fried rice w/beef, Jo's famous garlic steak
Garlic tiramisu
My favorite was probably the garlic bread and my husband's favorite was the Vampire Killer. We were both also surprised about the garlic steak which was nice but came out near the end so we were already so full. Garlic tiramisu was not a winner for us though - very sour tasting!
We did a little shopping around Yokohama station, looking at a few different stores, getting some Krispy Kreme donuts and just browsing a bit before returning home for my father's much anticipated pudding dessert. He had initially tried this Frantz pudding from Kobe back in like 2016 from a pop-up at Shinagawa station and hasn't forgotten about it since. There aren't any retail stores much outside of the Kansai/Hyogo area, but I was able to order them by mail (they come frozen!) and made sure to have them when he arrived.
Day 2 - Nanbu Market and Costco in Kanazawa, shopping in Yokosuka-Chuo
My husband and I took off this day from work, and it was also my birthday!
We all got into the car and drive to the Kanazawa area to first take a look at BRANCH Yokohama Nanbu Market. My husband and I had visited once before and thought there was a decent selection while not being too far away from our home. It's a lot easier to get to compared to Tsukiji in Tokyo (which I was more used to), and parking can be free if you spend a certain amount.
We made a bunch of small purchases from various shops, including like 5kg of koshihikari brown rice that my husband was looking forward to buying, and dropped them off in the car before lunch. We also briefly visited the Seria since my mom loves shopping at 100yen stores.
My pick for lunch this day was 札幌海老麺舎 えん 横浜店 (located at BRANCH Yokohama) for their stone pot shrimp tsukemen. My father and I ordered the tsukemen (his was a set), my mom ordered the miso ramen and my husband ordered the tonkotsu ramen.
We had a little trouble navigating the touch screen ordering machine, but the staff was patient and very helpful! Food also came out pretty fast and was delicious!
Next stop, nearby Costco!
We did our browsing/shopping first to give us some buffer from lunch and then got some snacks from the food court before leaving. My husband particularly enjoyed the hokkaido soft cream (we've already gone back since to get another!)
We returned home with all of our purchases and took a small break before going over to the Yokosuka-Chuo area where we thought there might be some fun touristy/omiyage-ish shops that are a bit more unique to the area due to the Navy base. We also stopped at the big Coaska mall for the Daiso and Nitori and to look for a specific salad dressing my mom had liked from Aeon (grocery store).
My husband had gone home with the car and our purchases, while my parents and I continued through Blue Street stopping at whatever looked interesting along the way. We finally made our way to Kawashima stationary store where my mom wanted to buy some a lot of copic markers! It took about an hour, but she walked out with 72 pens haha.
My husband ended up picking us back up in the car, and we drove together to get a simple and quick dinner at Kura Sushi. We've eaten at Uobei in Shibuya and countless Genki Sushi locations in Hawaii, but this was their first time at Kura!
Despite the somewhat large number of plates for 4 people, we only got the gatcha prize once, but it was a pretty good one! (A little Kura sushi plate charm which serves as a cute memento.)
We returned home for dessert. My husband and I had preordered a chocolate cake with strawberries from Chateraise, and he picked it up while we were shopping.
Lastly, some awkward photos to close out my birthday with our favorites from that day. My husband's brown rice, croissants from Costco for me, copic markers for my mom and ofc the pudding for my dad again lol.
Day 3 - Toyosu Fish Market, Tsukiji Outer Market, Takano Fruit Parlor, Harajuku Kiddyland and Kuma-chan onsen in Tokyo
We woke up bright and early and got on the train with a bunch of commuters, heading towards Tokyo. It took a few transfers, but we made it to Odaiba's Shijo-mae station to check out the new Fish Market at Toyosu. We purposefully skipped the tuna auction (would have needed to be there before 5am and we're about 2 hours away by train), but still wanted to see the new facilities.
First stop, restaurants for our first meal of the day. There were a decent amount of choices and a number that weren't even fish related (like tonkatsu, chinese food, etc). My dad and husband picked a sushi restaurant.
My mom and I opted for curry lol.
Then we went on to explore the intermediate wholesale area. You're not allowed on the ground/market floor but we were able to see some glimpses from the 2nd floor, check out some displays and browse through some of the stores/vendors - everything indoors, new and somewhat sterile feeling.
There's certainly not as many vendors or a 1:1 from the Tsukiji outer market and the walkways are quite wide to also accommodate the little turret trucks. There's a slightly higher end feeling, but it could just be that everything feels a bit cleaner and newer, especially with AC flowing through the area compared to the congestion at Tsukiji.
We didn't buy very much here but it was interesting to see how it was different than the other market space.
My dad also wanted to check out the wholesale/tuna auction building even though it wouldn't be live. They had more displays and visitor information here as well as a few additional restaurants, seemingly for easy access for people working in the office spaces.
My parents still wanted to revisit the old Tsukiji outer market area. It's not very far as the crow flies, but the most direct route is by bus rather than train (due to transfers). We had some confusion because Google Maps wanted us to go to bus stop that was reserved for Toyosu Market employees only *face palm*. We ended up catching a taxi which was just as cost effective for 4 people anyway and took us right to where we wanted to go.
Not very exciting without the main attraction (the auction) going on, but still cool to see once.
We were back in familiar territory and my mom quickly scooped up some of her old favorites (like a particular konbu) and did some shopping for her sister as well.
And then we stopped to eat again at one of the many Sushi Zanmai locations in the market.
To continue the non-stop eating, we got back on the train and made our way to Shinjuku because my dad was interested in Takano Fruit Parlor. It was actually essentially connected to the station (we arrived through Shinjuku Nishiguchi) - we just had to navigate to the right exit. There's a sales floor for merchandise and some bakery goods on the basement floor but the fruit parlor is on 5F.
After my parents finished up their shopping, we made our way to Tsukijishijo station and caught the subway a few stops to Tsukishima. My husband and I have been here twice, but this was the first time for my parents, and we wanted to introduce them to the best melon pan (from Kyuei Melon Pan).
There was a little bit of a line (3-4 small groups ahead of us), but we only had to wait about 15 minutes before we were seated. It's full service, so there is wait staff who take your order.
Cream mitsumame with bean jam for my mom, banana chocolate parfait for me, Shizuoka musk melon parfait for my father and a grape trifle for my husband which came your choice of tea or coffee.
It was quite a lot of food actually, especially since we had brunch meals and another snack just prior. I'd say it was cool to experience, but unless you particularly like these fruits, I wouldn't go more than once.
Having to kill some time before our dinner reservation, we caught the Yamanote line 2 stops over to Harajuku, skipped Takeshita doori and made a beeline for Kiddyland where my mom was looking for some specific items for my cousin's son. I took that opportunity to browse quickly in EATME as well. 
After a bunch of back and forth about how to get to dinner, almost catching an Uber/taxi, almost taking the train, we actually ended up walking from the Omotesando area to Shibuya. It was less than 3km but after the full day, it did take a bit of effort lol.
After a bunch of back and forth about how to get to dinner, almost catching an Uber/taxi, almost taking the train, we actually ended up walking from the Omotesando area to Shibuya. It was less than 3km but after the full day, it did take a bit of effort lol.
Finally arrived at 北海道めんこい鍋くま ちゃん温泉渋谷宮益坂 Kuma-chan onsen!
We have a reservation, so we head straight up to the second floor.
We had a standalone 4-person table and luckily the staff was patient with our limited Japanese understanding and explained the ordering system to us.
First, pick your broth. Our options on this day were chicken collagen (my pick), junmai ginjo miso, tantan (dad's pick), soy milk, gochujang (my husband's pick), katsuodashi and the bonus flavor - mushroom (my mom's pick).
Then pick your meat/protein from beef tongue, pork, lamb, chicken, beef or a combination. We all ordered the combo. Every order already comes with a vegetable set, and you can order additional ala carte items if you want.
Third step is picking a starch from gyoza (my husband & mom's choice), ramen (my choice) or tteobokki (my dad's choice). There's also a mandatory drink order.
Vegetable sets were delivered right away and the sauces are self-service from a bar on the side. There was about 6 choices. From what I remember, there was a mayonnaise (supposedly tasted like ranch), curry, goma, shoyu ponzu, Asian sauce (?) and honey lemon.
Then the (bear) broth is delivered alongside the meats. So freaking cute??
We had to take as many pictures as possible! Each person also gets their own burner that's perfectly sized for the bowl.
We were instructed to only use the 2 or 3 level heat (range was 1-5), and the bears started falling over and melting pretty quickly!
We started adding in our veggies and meats and started eating! Bear eventually dissolves completely.
It's really great to have an individual bowl/pot, especially so we could each try our preferred broth flavor and cook and eat at our own rate without loosing food in a bigger vessel. My chicken collagen broth was way better than I was expecting, and I drank a lot of it by itself!
I included a note about a birthday occasion when I made the reservation online, so the staff brought out a dessert at the end of the meal! They even included a sparkler candle, dimmed the lights when they brought it out and played a recorded birthday song which I wasn't expecting at all :O
There is a 1500yen charge for the dessert, and you don't get to pick what it is, but we really enjoyed it and it's definitely nice for the occasion.
We all had a really good time at the restaurant. My husband and parents didn't really know what to expect, so it was a nice surprise for them and the food was actually quite good. I'd say it's not a ton of food that comes with the set, but you can add on ala carte items, so there are options if you have a bigger appetite. If you don't have a birthday occasion, you can also order your own dessert from the first floor cafe that are all bear themed as well! I believe this will be served at your table at the end of your meal depending on how you order.
The dinner closed out our long day in Tokyo and we just caught the JR Yamanote line back to Shinagawa and then got on a Keikyu line train all the way back to Kanagawa!
Day 4 - Chichibu Fruit Farm, Gyoda rice field art, Baffi dairy farm, Kinchakuda spider lillies
We got into the car at around 06:30 and followed Google Maps' instructions as we headed towards Saitama! We ended up taking less expressways than I had initially anticipated, supposedly due to trying to avoid traffic congestion. I was anxious all the way over to Chichibu as we tried to make it in time for our 10:00 grape picking reservation at Chichibu Fruit Farm.
There is limited parking on site, but a parking attendant will guide you if there's space and luckily we didn't have any issues there. We checked in and then told we would need to be on the next bus at 10:30, so we had about 20 minutes to chill. The grapes available for picking this day were shine muscat.
Back in the car for another 90ish minutes, we made our way to Gyoda/s Kodai Hasu no Sato which is known for the lotus park.
There was a COVID protocol sheet to fill out with our contact information which I wasn't expecting, but after that, we easily paid for admission and followed the route to the lotus museum. Lots of exhibits about the lotus life cycle and some other agricultural notes as well.
And then we ascended the tower via elevator to see the main attraction we came for - rice field art! Since it was October, there really weren't any lotus to see (it's typically more in summer), but at least the rice art was still thriving.
Admittedly, I had expected to be able to see a few different pieces from the 360degree view from the tower, but in this area, it's just one art piece in these three field panels. It's still extremely impressive, but the multiple pieces I had seen people post about must have been from multiple years or just some place different entirely!
The rest of the tower has an interesting view in the other directions as well. I'm sure that when the flower are blooming, the park is quite beautiful from the tower!
Once fed, we continued on our way to Hidaka for Baffi / Kato Farm where the dairy products are highly recommended!
We all ordered some sort of frozen treat. Chocolate gelato for me, fresh squeezed milk flavored soft cream for my husband, the fresh squeezed milk in the gelato version for my mom and my dad ended up with a scoop of the milk and a scoop of the mille feuille.
We also visited the retail store where they were selling a multitude of other cheese, yogurt and other dairy products. A popular item is the pudding, so my father and husband each got one.
We did a little browsing and checking out the different exhibits and food booths.
First purchase for my dad and husband was this maguro don for 500yen. Good value and really fresh!
And there were a bunch of vendors outside as well. This fried fish line was at least 100 people deep and all in the sun.
They also ended up trying a soba dish and a seafood (Indian) curry. Some of the more popular vendors were already sold out of their items before we even arrived.
Something that seemed particularly interesting was this transparent fish exhibition 冨田伊織 新世界『透明標本』on the third floor, supposedly its debut at the fish festival. It seemed very reminiscent of the display we had seen in Numazu Aquarium and I do think they were done by the same artist/group!
These are definitely more interesting to see from all angles in person, but they had quite a variety of not only common reef fish but even a turtle, chameleon, eel, seahorse and others! There was also an informative video which showed the process.
We then had good timing for the tuna dancing show マグロの踊る解体ショー where a large tuna was cut up to music and given away to people who had submitted guesses closest to its weight earlier in the day.
We took a look at a few more of the exhibits and then headed out at around 11:15.
The staff showed to where our bikes were waiting and provided a short brief about how to use the ebikes. My husband and I have ridden ebikes before during a bike tour in Tokyo in December 2019, but this was a first for my parents.
Each bike had its own lock, a basket and even a phone holder. Seats were easily adjusted and then we were off with my husband leading the way and navigating on this phone.
First, crossing Jogashima bridge. We encountered a few other rental bikers stopping to enjoy the view here as well too.
We parked the bikes and made our way down a narrow street, stopping for a kakigori break because it was quite hot!
Near the end of the street is Jogashima Lighthouse. The landscaping is quite overgrown but it's got some interesting design choices in the vicinity, and we even saw a couple doing some sort of wedding shoot there.
We continued towards the sea to the Nishizaki's Beach area. It's mostly dark colored rock rather than the sand I'm used to seeing in Hawaii haha.
My father was particularly intrigued with this area, especially the people fishing (wondering what type of fish they were catching), so my husband and I tried to find some shade
There's Awazaki lighthouse on this side!
We were running a bit low on time, so we enjoyed the view, walked back through the park and immediately hopped back on the back on the bikes to return them.
A successful 3 hour excursion riding around Miura. There's definitely lots more to explore in the area, especially at the markets or restaurants if you're interested in fresh tuna. I believe the bikes can be rented from the morning and used all day with a few different return ports. The electric assist makes getting around really easy!
We drove back home and made our way over to Yakiniku King for dinner. Since it was Sunday night, I knew it would be best to make a reservation for dinner if we wanted to eat at a reasonable time with less of a wait. Fortunately, I was able to figure out the ePark system and got a 17:00 slot for Yakiniku King. Upon our arrival to the restaurant, we were able to be seated right away. My dad picked the Premium course for all of us and we just go straight to ordering because it's AYCE!
My parents particularly liked the sides (especially the rice dishes), and it was a good end to the day after riding around on the bikes in the sun all afternoon.
They had lunch at a nearby Gyukatsu Motomura (one of my dad's Japan favorites)
And then did some shopping in Shibuya which is a familiar and comfortable area for them. They went to stores like Ikea, Loft and Tokyu Hands. My mom ended up buying more Copic pens too lol.
After work for us, we met back up and had dinner at Udonkoubou Sanuki. When we first entered, there were only 2 seats and 2 standing stalls available, but since they were next to each other, that worked for us. Butter chicken curry udon for my dad, tempura sets for my mom and husband and curry tsukeudon for me.
The design for 2022 includes characters from the Aoashi manga/anime series. None of us are/were familiar with this anime, but you can tell that the rice art is super accurate to what they look like in all the displays and the looping video they were playing at the ground floor. They seem to design it specifically to be viewed from the tower which is really cool. When we were driving off, you really can't tell there's a design on it at all at ground level!
We were hungry again by this time but didn't have any specific plans for lunch since we didn't have a specific timeline for the day. On our way to our next destination, we saw this soba shop and stopped for a quick bite to eat.
This was a bit of a mess and a bunch of confusion because the vending machine that distributes the tickets for the meals/items was being reset when we visited but I didn't quite understand that. We followed what other people were doing and ordered through the staff at the front, but she didn't end up giving the kitchen all of our orders (although we were charged for all 4 meals). Our minor hardship was mostly because we were having trouble communicating in general. Honestly I usually prefer vending machine ticket restaurants for their simplicity (especially when the menu and sets can get a little complicated), but apparently it sucks a bit when the machine isn't functional, and you can't speak Japanese well enough to understand an order wasn't submitted correctly.
They both enjoyed it but the Frantz Kobe pudding is still #1 for my dad!
About 15 minutes away is Kinchakuda Manjushage Park which is famous for its red spider lilies! We were arriving about to 30 minutes before the park was about to close and had some confusion about parking, but ended up getting through and getting a really decent spot. It had also seemed like they stopped parking fees for the day as well.
We were there on the second to last day of the manjushage festival, so it wasn't quite their peak, but the colors were still vibrant and beautiful in real life despite a few dying near the edges.
Since we were there about an hour before full sunset, the sky was quite golden as well which was really nice.
A lot of the festival booths had already closed up since we had arrived so late in the day, but we were happy to see the flowers at all and the time of day was almost perfect.
We didn't end up staying long and only walked through a small portion of the park, but it was still quite magical and worth driving to the area for during this season if you love flowers! There are a TON of huge spiders and spiderwebs through the trees though, so if you have a phobia, something to consider.
We somehow hit traffic/congestion on the roads going home from Saitama, extending on our time on the road by at least 45 min to an hour which really sucked. By the time we made it home, we were all a bit exhausted (despite spending so much time sitting in the car that day), so we opted to eat at home and ordered Pizza-la for dinner!
Spicy susausage pizza and Pizza-la bulgogi pizza. First time trying delivery pizza (not from a full service sit down restaurant) for my parents. They particularly loved the bulgogi pizza which is one of my husband's favorite discoveries from living here as well.
Day 5 - Yokosuka Fish Festival and ebike rental in Miura
As a complete coincidence, the annual Yokosuka Fish Festival just happened to fall during the weekend that my parents were visiting. My dad loves fish lol. And luckily we didn't have big plans for this day prior to learning about the festival! Parking near the entrance was quite full, but luckily there was another lot off-site for parking that we found relatively easily.
We entered just before 09:00 with huge crowds already in attendance.
Soon after, they started the auction sales from the exhibition of rare fish めずらしい魚の展示. We hadn't meant to observe or stay for it but since we were right there, it was exciting to be in the middle!
We took a small break at the grocery store (right next to the fish festival location) and back at home before heading out to Miura by car. My husband and I haven't been too far south of Yokosuka before and not to Miura at all, but I had been looking up some features of the area and thought it might be fun to try the ebike rental!
We parked in the Misaki port area and easily found the rental counter. The forms were all in Japanese, but we were able to figure it out without much issue and luckily they still had bikes available for us at 13:30. Return time was 16:30, so we had 3 hours.
We returned to the bikes and then rode to the other side of the island to Jogashima Park .
One last look from the bridge.
Day 6 & Day 7 - My parents on their own in Tokyo & leaving
Consolidating the last two days because my parents were on their own while my husband and I returned to work! On Day 6, my parents woke up and got ready at their leisure, made sure to avoid the commuter congestion, and then got on a train to Tokyo. They made their way straight to Ikebukuro Sunshine Aquarium. We've been to numerous aquariums in Japan in the past, but somehow never made it this one.
On the last day, Day 7, while we were at work, my parents focused on packing, cleaning up and doing a bit of laundry and then some last minute shopping once they figured out the suitcase space.
They had one last meal at Tanzo before meeting us back at the house ready to go to the airport when we got home from work. Dropped them off at Haneda and they were off!
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Their trip was pretty quick, but we managed to fill it with new experiences and old favorites, just as intended. It was non-stop, all day for the few days and honestly a little exhausting, but we were happy to host them and assist in checking things off their to do list. This was the week right before things really cooled down for autumn (highs of 80F vs highs in the low 70s/high 60sF just the following week), but comfortable for Hawaii people and only one day of rain!
My highlights were the Kuma chan onsen dinner in Shibuya, manjushage park/festival in Hidaka/Saitama and the Miura ebike rental. These were all firsts for me (and everyone else) and all worth repeating, especially during the right season.
I'm glad my parents were able to visit. We tested out our guest room, worked out some other logisitics for future visitors and look forward to hosting them (again) and other family and friends as tourists are welcomed back!
This was such a fun read, i'm glad you and your family had such a good time :)
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