This article is reposted from a reader in our WeChat group, from the WeChat public account Lazybones 33’s Food, Drinks, and Fun. Original link.

About This Series

Before we start, a few random thoughts. I originally wanted to write about each day’s dinner separately, but sorting photos into individual posts was more trouble than it was worth, so I decided to just do a running travel diary and let everyone follow along.

A coworker once asked whether I wanted to turn this into a more formal guide. The truth is, I started this account for two reasons. First, it’s for my own memories. I often go back and reread older posts and relive how I felt at the time. Second, friends ask me for travel tips all the time, so I figured I might as well write things down and just send them the link.

These days, platforms like Xiaohongshu and vlogs are more mainstream. I use them too, but if I want something systematic, Xiaohongshu feels too fragmented. With a 1,000-word limit per post, it’s not a great fit for a slower-paced travel journal. So I’m still going to write the way I want, and I appreciate everyone’s patience.

There will also be one more guide-style post in this Japan series. Since WeChat posts can’t really be edited after publishing, I often realize later that I wrote something wrong or left something out and can’t fix it. This time, I plan to draft the pre-trip guide while publishing the trip reports, which should help reduce the odds of missing topics.

I’ve mentioned before that I wanted to visit Japan for many years. I started planning this trip a long time in advance too, but as departure got closer, I actually started worrying: what if it’s not as good as I imagined? What if I go once and don’t want to go back? I usually don’t think this way, so I guess I was genuinely very excited this time. Maybe it was kind of like pre-wedding jitters?

Here are the posts in this Japan series:

Arriving in Japan

A lot of people went to Japan this spring break. My kid’s preschool teacher went too, and we even ran into the teacher at the airport. I already wrote about the flight experience in An Amazing Spring Break Trip to Japan - ANA Business Class Award Booking Strategy and Review. After a long flight of more than 10 hours, we finally arrived. Learning from our Paris trip the year before, we brought the stroller on board this time. As soon as we got off the plane, we could put our child in it and keep moving, and if the little one got sleepy, there was a place to nap instead of getting fussy.

Even though we were seated at the very front in business class, our child kept complaining about leg pain during landing, so getting off the plane took a little longer and we weren’t among the first out. But because we had a stroller, immigration staff sent us straight to the fast-track line, and there was no line at all. They checked our passports, but not the Visit Japan Web QR codes. After baggage claim, there was another checkpoint, and that was when they looked at the QR codes. The whole process only took a few minutes.

I had seen posts on Xiaohongshu saying some people waited four or five hours in line. If you’re traveling with kids, I’d strongly recommend bringing the stroller off the plane with you. It can save a lot of time at immigration.

This time we had 2 large suitcases, 1 small suitcase, 2 backpacks, and a stroller bag, so not exactly light. Once we got out, my partner asked whether we should take a taxi or the subway. I said, didn’t you want to experience public transportation? Let’s take the subway!

Haneda Airport is very close to the city, and the airport itself isn’t that big. Once you walk out, the subway is right there. At first we were pretty confused because each platform had multiple trains. We used the train times in Google Maps to figure out which one we needed.

We had to transfer once, and when I saw the ATM in the station, I realized I had completely forgotten to withdraw cash. So we quickly took out some, a little under $1,000 USD. For the card I use to get cash overseas, see The One Card I Always Bring for International Travel. This was also the only time we withdrew cash on the entire trip. By the time we returned to the U.S., we had used almost all of it, with only some coins left.

This transfer station was pretty confusing. The elevators were only available if you exited the station, while in-system transfers required stairs only, which cost us a few hundred extra yen for no reason.

Conrad Tokyo

After transferring to Shiodome Station, we were very close to the first hotel of the trip: Conrad Tokyo. Once you get to Shiodome, don’t go outside. Take the second-floor skybridge, cross to the other side of the road, then go downstairs and you’ll be right at the hotel entrance.

It sounds simple, but we still had to stop and check the map several times along the way. After that, whenever we were dragging luggage around, we mostly just took taxis.

We used a Hilton Aspire Annual Free Night for this stay, which was a decent redemption. The cash rate on our check-in date was $700 to $800 a night. Hotel prices in Japan during spring break were absolutely insane. Hopefully this doesn’t become the new normal.

The bell desk was on the ground floor, but the front desk was upstairs on one of the 30-something or 40-something floors. Both hotels we stayed at in Tokyo, plus the hotel in Osaka, were set up this way. Maybe that’s just common in Japan?

The front desk staff’s English was a little halting too. Even as a top-tier Hilton Diamond member, I asked about an upgrade and was told the hotel was completely full that day, so there was no way to upgrade. Given the crowds during Japan’s spring break season, I had already expected not to get any upgrades on this trip, so I didn’t push it.

This hotel still felt quite new, with an overall modern style. Small touches like the cherry blossom carpet really won me over.

The welcome gift was puzzle-shaped chocolates. They were extremely sweet.

The Conrad duck is one of the signature touches across the Conrad brand, and each property has its own unique design.

The Citi View outside the window.

This is what the chocolate puzzle looked like.

It happened to be strawberry season, so they were offering a strawberry-themed high tea.

We booked 2 twin room, but the beds were actually larger than standard twins, roughly full-size. An extra bed cost extra; in the U.S., many hotels add a rollaway for free.

At check-in, a staff member came over and gave our kid a small bag with kids’ slippers, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a bath sponge, and other items.

The hotel curtains were electric. Most of the hotels on this trip had motorized curtains. Our kid loves novel switches and buttons; at home he never bothers with the electric curtains in his room, but at the hotel he opened the curtains himself every morning.

By the time we got settled, it was 6 pm. We still had some time before dinner, so the whole family crashed for an hour.

King Crab Feast

We booked dinner at Ginza Kitafuku 銀座 きた福, a crab restaurant. After filtering for places that could accommodate a small child, this was one of the top-rated options I found on tabelog. It had a 3.95 rating on tabelog, one Michelin star, and I grabbed the reservation on tablecheck as soon as seats were released three months ahead. Before booking, I asked my partner what time we should choose, and he said 8:30 pm. I said, what if the kid gets too sleepy? He said he’d handle it. Friends, 8:30 on the first day of fighting jet lag was really too late; earlier would have been much better. This place was extremely popular too. I later regretted listening to my partner and tried to change the time, but there was absolutely no availability.

We called a taxi with DiDi, and it took less than ten minutes from the hotel. I had mentally prepared myself for how tiny Japanese restaurant entrances can be, but when I actually saw it, I still thought: wow, that’s small. The restaurant was on the third floor of a building, and it would be easy to miss the sign. We took the elevator up through a narrow entrance, and had to take off our shoes before entering. The restaurant was entirely private rooms, meaning each reservation got its own separate dining room. The soundproofing between rooms wasn’t great; we could clearly hear the Chinese diners in the next room commenting on the food here, word for word. Fortunately, the chef could probably only serve one party at a time, and by the time we arrived, the next room was almost finished.

We ordered a kids’ set for our child, which came with three tuna sushi pieces. We’re fairly conservative and, following our pediatrician’s advice, still don’t let our kid eat raw fish, so we asked the restaurant to lightly sear them. There was also tamago.

The adults’ small appetizer had chilled fish, shrimp, firefly squid, mountain vegetables, and jelly. It was very good: each bite was cool and tangy with a bit of delicate sweetness.

This dish felt a bit like poke rice, and it was great in one bite. Also delicious. Freshly grated wasabi really is wonderful—a little bit of heat cut through the richness of the heavy sauce.

The kid’s set was quite substantial, but our child was extremely sleepy and fell asleep on the tatami after eating less than half. btw, although it was tatami seating, the middle section was recessed, so it was actually comfortable to sit there.

After the appetizers, we waited and waited, and finally the main event was brought out. At one point I even asked the server whether they had counter seats, and she said no, no. The female server here spoke a little English, and communication was actually pretty smooth.

They removed the tags from the two crabs one by one and showed them to us.

They were both still alive and crawling around. The golden one is already red even when raw.

On my side, the shabu broth was boiling, and the steam made my photo a little blurry, so my partner’s angle came out clearer:

By this point, the shabu broth was ready too, and the chef cooked the remaining crab legs to different levels of doneness. Of course, I still liked the barely cooked version best, since it was closest to sashimi.

A small stove was set on the tatami, and the crab legs were grilled in foil.

After grilling in foil, they were seared directly over the flame once more.

This grilled preparation was just okay to me; the shell had a slightly burnt flavor. If you like that charred, torched taste, you’d probably enjoy this more.

Next came the deep-fried crab claw, which was my partner’s favorite dish. It was coated in a very light batter, fried until crisp outside and tender inside—really excellent.

Next was the most substantial dish: two large shells filled with crab meat mixed with crab tomalley, rich, briny, and decadent. As I mentioned earlier, I’d already been dealing with stomach issues before the trip and couldn’t eat very much. By the time this dish arrived, I was running out of steam. My partner single-handedly ate almost 1.75 portions of crab meat, and said he was so satisfied that he wouldn’t need to eat crab again for quite a while.

The last savory course before dessert was crab congee, with side toppings similar to the ones from the kid’s set.

It was a pot with crab meat and egg ribbons, and you could add the other ingredients however you liked.

Also delicious! The pacing and sequence of serving one crab in so many different ways was done perfectly. We just didn’t have enough capacity left; each of us had one bowl, ate all the crab meat, and ultimately had to leave some of the congee because we simply couldn’t finish it.

The final dessert was yuzu jelly and a small rice ball, and I still forced myself to finish it all, hahaha. The jelly echoed the very first course nicely, even though the flavors were completely different. The little rice ball wrapped in shiso leaf was also quite tasty.

When I made the reservation, I really had no concept of the yen exchange rate, so I just booked it. When the bill came, I was honestly shocked. It was really expensive, so definitely pay attention to the price before booking. That said, if you think about it, eating a whole live king crab per person in the U.S. would also be very pricey, so the cost felt reasonable in that context.

When we left, the staff and the head chef were all standing at the door bowing us out. Very Japanese.

Other than the grilled items, which I personally didn’t love, there really weren’t any misses throughout the meal, and there were quite a few pleasant surprises. If your budget allows, I do think it’s worth trying. They also have other branches; according to some random commenter on xhs, the head chef is usually based at another location. If you’re interested, you can search on tabelog.

After the sashimi course, my kid collapsed onto the tatami and slept soundly. I felt bad about the kids’ set meal I ordered. We were seated at 8:30, and by the time we came out it was already 11 PM. Lesson learned: on the first day of fighting jet lag, don’t book such a late dinner. We still called a taxi on DiDi. After such a good meal, both of us were in a great mood while waiting for the car. The little alleys of Ginza were still quiet and serene at night.

While waiting for the taxi, I took a photo of the sign by the entrance. It’s the second one from the bottom on the left.

We rushed back to the hotel, washed up, and went straight to bed. Good night, Tokyo.

About the Author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. The articles there are all original and very well written, so feel free to follow if you’re interested.

Japan Trip Series