We had two goals for today: attend the Gion Matsuri parade and pick up my new prescription glasses.

Gion Matsuri is a large annual festival that takes place over the entire month of July. We learned from our Free Walking Tour guide that this festival originated as a way to pray to the gods to ease the suffering from a plague, and ironically it was not held in 2020. Aside from a civil war in the late 15th/early 16th centuries and COVID, this festival has been an annual event since at least 1000 CE.

One of the largest events of the festival – the parade of 34 yamaboko floats – was happening today from 9AM-1PM. We dragged our butts out of the hotel about 11AM and caught a bus to get close to the route. Luckily we found a decent viewing spot despite our tardiness – on a corner where the floats turned, about 4 people deep from the curb. I saw a fair amount and Scott was able to get decent photos and videos. It was fascinating to watch the teams of men pull these very tall floats with nothing but their own strength. And when they got to the corner to make their turn they had a routine using wood planks and impressive teamwork to make it happen despite the restrictive construction of the historic floats.

As fun as it was we were done after watching two floats make this turn. It was crowded and hot, and we were ready for a snack.

We used the underground train station to find our way into the Takashimaya Department Store that was kitty corner from our parade viewing location. On the basement level there were many displays of food for takeaway. We failed to get a photo but here’s one from the internet to give an idea. Imagine around two dozen of these with a wide variety of options.

But this is Japan and they like to make eating outside of your home or a restaurant awkward, so of course there were no seating options in what in America we would consider a fancy food court. We made our way over to the banks of the Kamo River to eat our spoils on a bench. I had some tempura and croquettes – tasty and recommended!

Afterward we decided we wanted more snacks some A/C so we did the thing where you go into a McDonalds to see how it’s different in a foreign country. We tried a sugary melon drink and some macrons. Meh. Of course it was meh, it was McDonalds.

We decided to walk back towards our hotel along the Kamo to enjoy the view and the slight breeze off of the water. Look at that – almost no one and so peaceful.

When we transitioned street-side we came across a fun shop dedicated to rubber ducks. Despite having two life reasons to buy ducks (#jeeplife and cruising), I controlled myself and just bought a commemorative sticker.

Next we went back to the JINS store to pick up my new eyeglasses that I had ordered on the 12th. We each got a pair at this store for $130 total and we love them.

We decided to call it early and chill back at the hotel. The next day we had a physically active day trip planned. Goodnight, Kyoto.

Today the goal was to travel to Kyoto. We slept in and took our time packing up since our hotel checkout time wasn’t until 11:00. We ended up leaving around 10:30, with the addition of a large shopping bag that I needed to carry since they were not lying about the shopping temptation in Japan. Even for quasi-minimalists like us.

It was raining so we splurged on a cab to Tokyo Station. The ride was about a mile (maybe less) and cost $7.61. Kind of a silly expense but it was pissing so it is what it is.

At Tokyo Station the plan was to go to a counter and buy our shinkansen tickets from a real person because some of the online advice said the machines were confusing. But online advice also said you needed cash everywhere and that it can be difficult as an English-speaker in Japan – both WRONG. The line for a real person was long so we gave the machine a try and guess what? It worked out. You can toggle to English instructions, and I’ve used computers my whole life. Why do some people try to make travel seem harder than it is?

We ended up buying tickets for a later 12:24 pm train that still had seats together on the right side (increased chance of seeing Mt. Fuji and only 2 seats in the row). It was no problem wasting the time in the station looking for a bakery and buying our ekiben. The ride to Kyoto was smooth and easy as expected. A very pleasant way to eat unagi, journal, and knit. Alas, Mt. Fuji continued to elude me thanks to overcast weather.

The walk from Kyoto Station to the Tune Stay hotel was less than 10 minutes and the initial impression was fantastic. The room was small of course (kind of like a college dorm room), but clean and efficient. In addition to a vanity area with sink just outside the bathroom, there was one of those very cool handwashing sinks built into the top of the toilet. Brilliant for water conservation! (Kind of like this. Not my photo.)

The hotel common areas as pictured online were what sold me on this hotel to begin with and they did not disappoint in person. There’s a bookstore with primarily Japanese language books but also some in English. The bookstore area has amphitheater type seating that is great for the international short films they play every night. The hotel also has a large communal kitchen with table/chair seating, and there’s a gin bar with tables and chairs as well. The craft gin cocktails were great and were only around $6 USD each. Large coin-operated laundry machines are available for a fair price that automatically dispensed the detergent. Each floor of rooms had shelving with spare towels at the elevators to grab as needed. We paid $852.20 for our 9 nights here booking through Expedia. I failed at taking photos of the hotel, but their website has a lot of good, accurate images.

Scott found us a great spot nearby for an early dinner: 100K Craft Beer & Pizza. I had a nice, fresh salad and realized I hadn’t had much fresh produce on this trip. The camembert cheese fries were like upgraded mozzarella sticks.

Afterwards we went in search of the JINS store so I could get my own pair of eyeglasses. I selected a pair with thickish black frames and got in immediately for an exam. A couple of quick steps and the salesperson recommended +2.25s. Geez perimenopause has decimated my eyesight. They didn’t have the right lens size in stock and asked cautiously if it would possibly be OK if I waited for a few days for them to come in. Otherwise I could pick another frame and could have them in an hour. I was OK waiting a few days since we weren’t leaving Kyoto until the 21st!

The mall with the JINS store – Yodobashi – also had a Uniqlo, so of course we had to buy more things. Scott got another color of his new favorite shorts and I grabbed three colors of a “new release” simple crewneck sweater. I’m going to need to purge some stuff from our tiny closet when we get home. Oh, and I also felt compelled to buy these pajama pants covered in a print of a melancholy kitten in a shark costume. WHY?

Also in this mall was a store called Ishii Sports. OMG, so good. Since I literally couldn’t stop buying all of the things every day in Japan I knew I would need to buy a suitcase to get it home. But when we came across this store it occurred to me that I could go ahead and just buy the new pack I’ll need for our July 2025 trip. I picked the Lowe Alpine Airzone ND28. I love her.

We spent so much money today. Mr. Budget said we’re doing fine. We ended the day back at our hotel in the gin bar.

We had planned on this being a slow morning since we knew we would have a later evening, but Scott was restless so he took off for one of his signature “long walks”. He took the opportunity to scout where he would need to meet his transportation for tomorrow morning.

Around 11:00 am we headed to Shibuya to do some more neighborhood exploring and check an item off our planned to do list before meeting our tour. I had heard in a YouTube video that buying prescription glasses in Japan was affordable, quick, and easy so we had been planning all along for each of us to get a pair or two on this trip. I had picked the JINS location in Shibuya as our primary target as online reviews indicated people had shortest turnaround time at that store. On this day I found frames at JINS that I liked, but their wait time for an exam was a couple of hours and we had that tour later that would interfere with that timeline. We went into another eyeglass shop nearby called Zoff and Scott found a good pair of glasses that were a nice blend of modern and classic. He got in for an exam immediately and he said it was the most thorough exam he had ever had. His glasses were ready to pick up about an hour later. And only $50 for exam, frames, lenses, and their standard fast service!

For lunch we wandered a bit and came across Ojori, a tiny Korean restaurant up one of those narrow staircases. We both got bulgogi, got some traditional starters, and a couple of beverages. It was super yummy and we paid less than $20.

Early in our planning for this trip some friends of ours had told us about Street Kart and highly recommended it. Based on their verbal description alone we were decided, but researching it further online just got us more excited about the idea. I researched their locations and settled on the Shibuya tour because it included driving through one of the busiest intersections in the world. People consider walking across Shibuya Scramble a bucket list experience, but how about driving a Mario Kart type vehicle through it while wearing a costume??? Level up! When we would talk to people about our plans for Japan, this was easily in the top two things we were excited about.

The tour was originally planned for Saturday, but rains had made us reschedule for today. Weather was all good, no rain in sight. But it was just too hot to put on one of the costumes. Bummer. We joined the 6 other people from our tour to watch the short safety and how-to video and then it was time to get going. Scott and I both started to feel a little apprehensive after the video for some reason, but I just used my old mental trick: thousands of people have done this before me successfully – I’m not dumber than all of them – I’m not smarter than all of them, but I’m definitely not dumber than all of them – I can do this.

OK – this experience was DOPE.

We drove around Shibuya for a very full hour. We drove through the Crossing twice. We were zooming around right in the middle of big traffic. Lovely people – locals and tourists alike – gave us big smiles and waved to us as we drove around.

This outfit is either Aussie owned or just Aussie managed or maybe just staffed by a lot of Aussies. Makes sense though, doesn’t it? Our guide was Clinton and he did an absolutely awesome job of taking care of us. He kept us all together, communicated really well throughout the whole excursion. And he took a million photos that he airdropped to us afterward.

After our ATV Tour in Iceland last year we realized the value of a GoPro for capturing adventures. When we booked this experience for this trip we knew this would be the prime opportunity to use one so we purchased a Hero 12. And look at me, I managed to edit together a video of all of the GoPro clips Scott filmed! I’m like a video-logger.

Afterwards we headed to Shinjuku to check out a new neighborhood. It was starting to get dark and we enjoyed the Times Square (but cleaner) vibe. There was cool architecture and bright lights and a million people enjoying their evenings.

And we spent some time gawking at that famous 3D billboard. Honestly it was so crazy in person.

Finally we headed off to the neighborhood of Ikebukuro for our last planned adventure of the day – The Muscle Girls Bar. This was the invite we got yesterday from our new friends. I hadn’t planned any themed cafes/bars for the trip because honestly the ones I knew about made me a bit uncomfortable. The Maid Cafes feel super misogynistic to me – sorry, not sorry. And the animal themed ones – come pet a capybara or a river otter or whatever while you drink a coffee – feel not right from an animal rights perspective. Our new friends felt the same way but had found this bar themed around jacked women and it seemed empowering for females, verdad? Sure, I’m game. Plus – NEW TRAVEL FRIENDS.

OK, so… this place was weird. I felt weird being in there. It kind of felt empowering for the women that worked in there and they seemed happy, but it also felt like a venue for men with… fetishes.

The ticket ($32) bought all you can drink for 80 minutes, plus a kind of show. You sit around a long, oblong bar with the women in the middle. Our group of 4 was assigned a “Muscle Girl”/bartender. At one point during the 80 minutes music came on and the women took off their shirts and did flexing poses in their sports bras. At one point one of the women pole danced wearing her sports bra and spandex shorts. At another point all of the Muscle Girls demonstrated their strength by squeezing citrus into pitchers for drinks. The women were definitely in better shape than me (low bar) but not in any shape that would be considered particularly jacked in America. So the flexing felt… weird.

The part that felt the weirdest was that there was a menu of experiences you could purchase. There were some that were super innocuous and innocent, especially since only women could purchase them. I tried to buy a hug for Scott and that’s when I learned that he’s not a lady that some items could only be purchased for women. But their loss – Scott is a REALLY good hugger. #iykyk But then there were the ones where men could pay to be slapped across the face or get kicked in the ass by one or all of the Muscle Girls. OK anyone could pay for that but let’s be honest only men with red flags are going to pay for that. A guy paid for all of the women to smack him while we were there. I found it… uncomfortable. Our Muscle Girl seemed proud of her ability to hit hard and pulled out a couple of pics on her phone of past injuries she had inflicted.

Loads of people have raved about this experience online. I don’t mean to hate. I’m just being honest about my reaction to it. I am ultimately glad we went since it seemed pretty uniquely Japanese – meaning that even though it felt weird, it wasn’t scary or overtly sketchy in any way. If that makes any sense. It was just in that category of “unhinged Japanese shit” that I kept a little inventory of in my head throughout our time there. You know, those sightings, experiences, etc. that remind you that despite the outward appearance of conformity and control and success there’s a big strong undercurrent of… I don’t know… rebelliousness? sass? perversity? Honestly, I dig it and respect it – it’s just the particular application of it at this Bar wasn’t my jam.

OK that was long. ass. day. We took trains back to the hotel and crashed hard. We both had early mornings planned for tomorrow.