This Is The Best City In Japan for Travelers 🇯🇵 | Hidden Gems & Delicious Eats!

Foreign.

Hey, everyone, and welcome back. Today we're leaving the snow covered wonderland of Ginseng Onsen and heading to Kyoto. But as always, the real adventure happens along the way. There are gonna be a few surprises, some hidden gems, and of course, plenty of food. So stick around and let's get. We started the day early, leaving behind the cozy warmth of Ginson onsen. And as soon as we hit the road, it felt like we were driving through a snow globe. Snow covered mountains surrounded us on every side, and the trees were so heavy with snow that they almost looked like they were from another world. It's hard to explain just how much snow this part of Japan gets. You have to experience it to believe it. While on our way, we started to get hungry. About halfway to the Sendai airport, we stumbled upon this gem. This bustling small restaurant on the side of the road. You know, the kind of place packed with locals and every table is already taken. When you find a spot like this, you know you're in for something special. Luckily, we managed to grab one of the last tables, and what we saw was promising a team of grandmas in the kitchen. Throwing it down, whipping up fried chicken like absolute pros.

Found this quirky place. Review said they have good fried chicken and ramen, so gonna stop here to eat some. And they're growing their own kale. Let's eat some food. Shout out to Google Translate. Chandler got the miso ramen. I got the 5Pmeal set. So super busy. Very busy during lunchtime. A lot of workers here. Should be good.

Dollars for 50 cents.

11 bucks. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to finish this. It's a lot of food.

Okay.

This place is amazing and it's super busy.

And you've only had the soup so far.

Yeah, and the spaghetti.

I had the miso soup. That's good. The rice is good. Chicken's big. Yep. And it's so busy that he's running around.

All right, back to eating. Now, I'm not exaggerating when I say this was some of the best fried chicken I've ever had. Crunchy, flaky, packed with flavor, and the portions were massive. Chen ordered this giant bowl of ramen, and she still won't stop talking about it. And it wasn't just the food that made this place so memorable. The walls were covered with handwritten notes and letters from customers. This little spot clearly had a special place in people's hearts. Everyone from salarymen to factory workers were in there eating.

Delicious, very good, delicious food. Highly recommend it. Very cheap. It was at this place right here across from the 7 11.

With full stomachs and big smiles. We hopped back into the car and continued our drive to Sendai Airport. Quick travel tip for anyone renting a car in Japan. Always make sure to fill up your gas right before returning it and keep the receipt. Trust me, it'll save you a lot of time and hassle when you're dropping off the car as a lot of the places will want to see that receipt.

Easy drop off process. Dropped off the car, ask some questions about the ETC card. I'm not sure. And then got our luggage. So we're ready to go. Dropping us off at the airport. Hey, that's me. That's the airport. We're flying out of some mountains over there. Chandler back there showing our bed.

Saka.

You wave your hair back and forth, forth. You wave your hair back and forth. We did it. We got to Osaka.

Now we need to find a train.

Now we need to find a train to get to Kyoto.

Let's go. After a short and smooth flight, we finally touched down in Kyoto. Now I have to admit we got a little lost at first. It's almost become a theme of this trip. But honestly, getting lost is all part of the adventure, right?

I guess we're taking the monorail to a station and then from that station we're going to a different station. So let's see how that goes. Our favorite game to play is Meet the lost foreigner and just ask for help. They usually end up helping us out. All fair information will be displayed in English. Oh, nice. Two people, one white ticket.

200.

Then we stick 400 yen in there. I think we have some quarters.

Let's just start throwing it.

Start throwing them in.

Throwing it out there.

Oh, those were 10 yen ones. I got a lot of them. Oh, 40. 50 and 60 and 70 and getting close.

90. Getting.

Oh, didn't like that one? Okay, we got a hundred one Eternity lately. So we forgot to buy a ticket at the last station. We didn't know where to buy a ticket and the little machine wouldn't let us out. So now we have to pay. We are free now.

Hooray.

We made it to Kyoto. So now we know what happens when we don't buy the right ticket. It's raining. We got a 15 minute walk that way. Look, it's Kyoto. Wow, it's so beautiful.

So many people.

A lot more people. Yeah, Yakushima didn't have this many people, all right.

It had more monkeys than people.

More monkeys than people. All right, now let's start our walk.

What really surprised us, though, was just how much English we heard and saw around us. After spending so much time in rural Japan, where communicating was a bit more challenging, Kyoto felt like walk in the park. It was refreshing in some ways, but I'll have to admit I missed those little moments of trying to get by with hand gestures and broken Japanese back with her harmonica.

Except in Kyoto. Now.

Stop.

They're looking at you. Oh, goodness. You're welcome. All right, we gotta keep going.

On our walk to the hotel, we had this cool little encounter. There was this old gentleman, probably in his 60s, just casually strolling down the street, decked out in a leather patch jacket. He had this effortless, laid back swag. The kind of style you can't fake. It's these small moments that really make traveling feel special. Little unexpected encounters that stick with you.

This old dude got swag busting out his raw denim. His patch dude. I want a jacket like that.

Me too.

My raw denim.

Dude.

Yeah, dude has some swagger. I want some Japanese swagger.

He speaks English. He can hear his hook.

I probably asked him where he got his pants. That's why I get up here too. Onward we go. I miss the happy streets. You think they have happy streets? Yeah, the love streets. You think they have love streets in Kyoto? Yeah. We'll have to find some love streets. For scientific purposes only.

Show you the love street.

No, no. Not with the people. Watch Knickknack store. We're not in the locals area anymore. Half the people here are foreigners.

Rude.

Rude. How dare they come to Kyoto as well? So right now, I think I like Yakushima better. Yakushima for life. Sankara forever. All right, now we gotta walk down this dark alley.

You wanted a love stream.

Are you sure we're not going to the love hotels? We're going to the luxury love hotel. No, no love hotels. Regular hotels, please. Oh, goodness.

Yeah.

Freaking hot, these uphills. These streets were not made for walking. They're uphill both ways. Walking down dark street, trying to find a hotel. Oh, don't take your pants off now. Preferably in the room. No, no, not here.

I can't take another block.

Oh, no. It's starting. Everyone.

Let me pull my pants back up quick.

Yeah.

We'Re almost there. On the right. This place right here. I feel like I'm being too loud with my bag.

After a long day of travel, we finally checked into our hotel Suaka. Review coming up on it later. This place was absolutely stunning. A perfect blend of Traditional Kyoto style with modern touches. We dropped off our bags, took a deep breath and didn't waste time before heading back out and exploring the city. But here's where the timing got a little tricky. We were out during the awkward in between time where some restaurants were already closed and others hadn't opened yet. Luckily, the staff at Suaka were amazing and gave us some solid recommendations.

We are headed to Ramen Miyako. A lot of places are closed right now.

It is.

Some haven't opened yet.

8:05. Some haven't even opened yet. But gonna get some ramen in our tummies. Taxi's coming in hot. Oh, nope.

No, no.

Can't go anymore. Now we gotta wait. We made it to Ramen Miyako. It's the one Gyoza. All right. Let's go eat some ramen.

Wow.

Hooray. I'm alive.

We ended up at Ramen Meat Yako, a cozy spot with good food at really reasonable prices. The ramen was comforting, hearty, and exactly what we needed after a long day of travel.

Tasty little spot.

They've won a few awards.

What was it like? 1600 yen?

$16.60.

1600 yen.

Two people. Not bad. Tried an umbrella sprinkling a little bit.

I guess that's why they have umbrella stores here, but. Oh, we're gonna.

I don't think so.

The Common Room. We're gonna go.

The Common One.

The Common One. All right, let's go. Apparently, finding this place might be a little tricky as it's in one of these side streets. But hopefully our trusty good Google Maps will be able to help us out.

If you know me, you know I can't resist a good whiskey bar. One of the recommendations we got was for a place called the Common One.

People that look at us for a long time. I just need to start waving at them. Oh, look, a river.

Do we go this way or this way?

All right, we keep going to the right. It looks like this way. Oh, look, a willow tree.

Holy. Why is that so dramatic? I don't like these things.

I feel like I'm gonna get that over. They can't see me.

And after some wandering around and a few wrong turns, which has become a theme for us, we finally found it. Class T cocktails.

Oh, yeah, right here. The Common One Bar. Good job, Chandler. We would have made it there eventually.

All right, let's check it out. The place had that classic Kyoto vibe. Dimly lit, intimate and quiet. The whiskey selection was impressive to say the least. And I got to try A special hibiki that I doubt I'd ever find back home. But heads up. One thing to be aware of in Japan is that you often don't see the prices until the bill arrives. So while the experience was incredible, it's always a bit nerve wracking when you're trying some rare whiskey and you don't know how much they cost until you're settling up.

Overall experience at the Common One Bar Me six It was okay.

Wasn't I wasn't feeling it. She wasn't feeling it.

Maybe it's just cuz we're also really tired.

I think cover charge.

Yeah.

What kind of killed the buzz was a thousand one hundred. So essentially eleven bucks. Eleven bucks plus or minus some and then your drinks and then on top of that they don't itemize your ticket.

They just give you a total.

So.

And these did not come back taste like if we wanted more or if we were done.

Yeah.

Was it Wasn't feeling it. Very quiet.

Like if you want a very chill relaxing time, that could be the place.

I didn't like. I didn't like it. But now you know it has some good stuff. It's okay.

But they had your Japanese whiskey that you wanted.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Selection. After wrapping up at the Common one, we were looking for something a little more relaxed. So we turned to the Internet which led us to a little bar called Rocking Bar Ing. The owner, Hako was so welcoming. He greeted us like old friends and even asked what our favorite rock songs were. Then played them for us. The vibe was awesome. Laid back, intimate. And even though it was a bit smoky, the atmosphere more than made up for it. Drinks were reasonably priced too.

That's so cute.

I like it.

He definitely made that atmosphere like a.

Woman out of 10. Yeah, he made the atmosphere. It was a little smoky, but I can definitely put up with the smoke for him.

Yeah.

And his cheap alcohol.

Yeah, that was very good.

So yeah, if you come to Kyoto, definitely come to the Rocking Bar Ing.

That was really cool.

Small quaint bar. My mask smells like smoke now.

You had premium Japanese beer.

Premium Japanese beer.

I had my red wine, she had.

Her red wine, I had some beer. So definitely worth it. Good rock and roll music. Now to air out my mask before I put it on.

And just when we thought the night was winding down, we had one last unexpected encounter. As we were walking back to the hotel, we caught a glimpse of one of Kyoto's famous painted ladies strolling the streets. It was such a surreal feeling and cool moment. Like something out of a dream. But before we called it a night, we made one last stop into a jazz bar called hello Dolly. This place had an impressive whiskey selection again, and though there was a 900 yen cover charge, it was totally worth it for the jazz and cozy atmosphere. I kept it simple with a glass of cognac while Chan went for a colorful cocktail. The soft jazz tunes and dim lighting made for the perfect end to a long, eventful day.

It's raining now. It's really raining, but it's not really raining. It's drizzling a little bit, but these are drops but just came back from Dal Bark.

Hello Dolly.

Hello Dolly.

I liked it.

It was good.

Number two. I rate that. Second of the night.

Second of the night. Not bad. Now to the hotel. To the hotel. Make it back and hopefully not get too wet.

Luis decides he wants to stop at another.

Nope. Back to the hotel we go. We're going back to the hotel.

So that's it for today's adventure. From the snow covered magic of ginseng onsen to the bustling by vibrant streets of Kyoto, this day was full of contrast and surprises. But the best part about traveling is always the unexpected moments like finding random whiskey bars or getting lost on the streets. I'm excited to see what Kyoto has in store for us next. If you enjoyed this video and love discovering hidden gems, hit the like button and subscribe for more travel adventures. And let me know in the comments if you know of any hidden gems spots you love in Kyoto. I'd love to hear about them.