Table of contents:
Diary
What does a USA trip have to do with Japan? A lot! I made the trip to experience Japanese culture in the USA, especially on the west coast. Below I have written a diary. In addition, I have linked the other contributions that we made on the trip below. We visited many Japanese restaurants, Izakayas and JapanTowns. You can find contributions to everything. Have fun reading.
Day 1 - August 21st Wednesday - Flight from Frankfurt to Phoenix
The flight was from 3:30 pm -> 6:00 pm, but you have to factor in the time difference of -8 hours. So I was on the plane for about 11 hours. Was that a long time. But since I know this from the Japan flights, I could at least adjust. Unfortunately, Condor, which I flew with, didn't have very good service. 1 movie and food that wasn't that good. Well, I didn't go to the USA to experience luxury on the flight, but to experience Japanese culture in the USA, so what's the point.
After arriving in the USA, I was picked up and slept the first night at friends' place in Phoenix. Are the houses in the USA, especially a little bit outside, big! It was also very, very hot in Phoenix, even though it was already 7 pm, because it can get over 45 degrees Celsius in the afternoon...
Day 2 - August 22nd Thursday - Start in Phoenix via Salton Sea
We woke up early, packed the car and went straight to the car rental to add my driver's license so I would be insured. By the way, I had just received my driver's license 5 days ago. I was already very nervous during the exam, as I also wanted to drive in the USA. On the way to the rental, we realized that there was a nail in the tire and we had to exchange the whole car, luckily nothing happened. Why a nail could end up in our tire is still a mystery to us. After some delay, we were able to continue our trip and finally reached the Salton Sea. (Left at 9 am). Upon arriving at the Salton Sea, a stench of dead fish and algae met us. There were many skeletons of the then dead fish to be seen at the lake. After some photos and a short walk by the lake, which we couldn't enjoy, who would have thought, we continued our journey to San Diego. We drove through the mountains which gave us a great view of the lake. As we moved away from the mountains, you could see more and more trees, as Phoenix, where we started, is almost completely desert. From desert to forest in just a few minutes drive, which was very surprising for us.
Day 3 - August 23rd Friday - Our first fish dish in San Diego
We woke up in the morning and left our motel in San Diego at 8 am and went in search of a local fish place to have brunch. Since we weren't in Los Angeles yet, I wanted to eat local fish first. The first places were closed because it was too early, so we spent the time by the sea and planned our further trip. Around 11 am we went to the very popular and award-winning fish place . Here is the contribution: Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill in San Diego . It was a mix of snack bar and restaurant, the prices were a bit above average, but there was a lot of fish on offer. It was mostly local fish from the San Diego / California area. We had a salad with salmon and a moonfish with rice. It was super delicious. If I'm ever in San Diego again, I'll definitely go back there.
On the way to Los Angelos, we took a short break in San Juan. We had to rest briefly there, as there was a lot of traffic on the way, as many people are driving to Los Angeles. After arriving in Los Angeles, we checked into the hotel first. It was a Japanese hotel, right in the middle of Little Tokyo (Japantown). This also allowed us to reach all the shops in Japantown within 2-3 minutes, which made things a lot easier for us. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't have air conditioning, so we had to leave the window open at night. The shower and toilet were outside, which wasn't a big deal for us. For about $110 per night for two beds, it was ok. Especially since we lived in the middle of the city. However, I would have liked air conditioning at 30 degrees.
Day 4 - August 24th Saturday - Japantown Little Tokyo
Our second day in Los Angeles, actually our first real day, since we arrived late the day before, we first went to get Japanese rolls and sandwiches for breakfast. There is a Japanese bakery in Japantown Los Angeles, which I thought was very nice.
Then we explored Japantown. We saved a few restaurants to our favorites list so we could eat there in the following days. After the short tour of about 45 minutes, we walked briefly to Downtown and looked at Los Angeles in general. But since we were mainly in the USA for the blog and wanted to show Japanese food / culture, we also walked back to JapanTown relatively quickly to write and edit the first contributions, pictures, etc.
In the evening, we then visited one of the restaurants we had spotted. It was the Shabu Shabu House in Los Angeles. You can find a detailed report here: Shabu Shabu house in Los Angeles. There we ate, as the name already suggests, Shabu Shabu . We first had to wait for over half an hour for a place, as many people had already been waiting and the places were also limited, but the wait was worth it. So we ate Shabu Shabu there and also had to leave quickly, as many people were waiting. Unfortunately, that's the case with some Japanese restaurants. Well, what's the point.
Day 5 - August 25th Sunday - The ready meal from the supermarket and Chinese food in China town
Since we had prepared many contributions the night before and the room was extremely hot, since we didn't have air conditioning, we slept in until 12 noon. To get us going, we went to the "Nijiya Market in Little Tokio in Los Angeles". This is a Japanese supermarket in Los Angeles in JapanTown. I was very surprised because the setup was exactly like in Japan and the products were all imported from Japan. We bought a few Bentos and sandwiches there, which is also common in Japan.
So that we could continue to edit the photos and contributions and it was too hot in the hotel room, we rode e-scooters to a cafe in Downtown Los Angeles. It was small, but nice. The service was also very nice. The name of the cafe was "Verve coffee roasters LA".
In the evening, we then drove to ChinaTown to take a look, but above all to eat something. We ordered Wantan soup, stir-fried beef with broccoli and dumplings. It was super delicious, but also not quite cheap. It was also a little creepy, because at the entrance it said that the restaurant is monitored by video and audio.
Before we walked back to the hotel, we picked up a Kakigori, Japanese shaved ice with Matcha and Anko, in JapanTown. On the way to the hotel, however, it had already melted quite a bit. Since it was so hot in the hotel, even at night, the ice was a great cool-down.
Day 6 - August 26th Monday - Hollywood and Lobster Lifestyle
On Monday, we then took a day off, since we wanted to see Hollywood while we were in Los Angeles. Since we didn't have much time, we drove on the famous street and walked for a few minutes.
In the evening, we then drove to Santa Monica, where we cooled off in the sea a little bit. To top it all off, we went to a good restaurant where we ate oysters and other shellfish. In the end, I ordered a large lobster with garlic sauce. Man, that was delicious, but also expensive...
Before going to sleep, we then planned our further trip, wrote a few contributions and edited pictures.
Day 7 - August 27th Tuesday - Our Japanese breakfast by the sea
Since we had now spent a few days in Los Angeles and had eaten one thing or another, we made our way to San Francisco.
In the morning, we bought a few things in the Japanese supermarket. Mainly Bentos, Mochis and something to drink.
On the way to San Francisco, we ate breakfast by the sea. It was so beautiful, listening to the waves and at 25 degrees and Japanese food. Since the drive to San Francisco is too long for one drive, we stayed overnight in San Simeon. The weather there was not as good. Rain, 15-20 degrees. In the evening, we then had fish and chips at an American restaurant. Nice and hearty and delicious. It was time for a change! The restaurant was called: "Hungry Fisherman".
Day 8 - August 28th Wednesday - San Jose & San Fransisco
Since there was hardly anything in the little town, especially nothing Japanese, we drove on quickly in the morning. Since San Jose is before San Francisco, we made a short stopover to take a look at San Jose. Before that, we were at an abalone farm. These are shellfish that are relatively tough, but expensive. Doesn't sound so good, and it's not my opinion either. But it was very interesting how the abalone are raised in tanks with seawater. After the farm, we drove to San Jose to take a look at the small JapanTown and eat there.
Arriving in San Jose, we ate Kaki Fry, Moro Kyuri and Saba Shioyaki at a restaurant. Very delicious and it wasn't expensive either. Since it was already late and we hadn't arrived in San Francisco yet, we quickly made our way there and took a small detour around Silicon Valley. Since we didn't have much time, we drove through Silicon Valley by car.
In the evening, we arrived in San Francisco, checked into the hotel, prepared an abalone we bought from the farm in the bathroom and ate it with soy sauce and wasabi. Yes, it's crazy, but we didn't have a kitchen! Before going to sleep, we prepared a few contributions and planned the next few days.
Day 9 - August 29th Thursday - Contributions & Photos
Since we now had a lot of dirty laundry and experiences, we had to take a whole day to edit the photos and put our impressions into writing. So we decided to drive to the Golden Gate Bridge, and work at a super spot with a killer view. Since we needed a change from Japanese food, we had some Mexican food in the evening. Later in the hotel, we then continued working on the contributions.
Day 10 - August 30th Friday - Experience San Francisco
Since we had a lot of dirty laundry by now, we first drove to a cafe. Yes, you heard that right, a cafe with a laundromat. So we washed our laundry there and while waiting, who would have thought, prepared contributions and edited and uploaded photos.
At noon, we then drove to the largest ChinaTown. There we ordered duck with rice, unfortunately the man couldn't speak English, so it was a bit complicated to show with hand gestures what we wanted, but it worked out in the end. We also visited many markets and saw many unusual ingredients.
After that, we drove briefly to JapanTown and had dinner there. Unfortunately, it didn't taste that good there, we were a bit disappointed.
Late in the evening, we then went to an Izakaya called Rintaro, which was recommended by Michelin, and ate super there with a 2-hour waiting time. It was very expensive, but totally worth it. We ordered rice with Natto, Hanetsuki Gyoza (dumplings filled with meat), Yakitori (grilled chicken), Yuzu & Shiso Shou and much more. You can find our report here: Izakaya Rintaro in San Francisco.
Before going to sleep, we edited a few photos and uploaded them and planned the return trip.
Day 11 - August 31st Saturday - Back to Phoenix
Since we had 1,300 km in front of us and wanted to reach that within a day, we got ready early. Since we were both able to drive, luckily, we took turns. The return trip was very strenuous, because we left around 9 am and arrived at 3 am. We took a small detour via Los Angeles, where we had dinner in JapanTown one last time.
Day 12 - September 1st Sunday - Contributions and preparing for Germany
Since we had driven a lot the day before, we first slept until 2 pm. It was also a bit crazy to do the return trip in one day. We relaxed a bit in a friend's villa, as we had to go back to Germany the next day.
So we wouldn't forget the experience, we wrote down our entire trip, sorted and uploaded the photos, as we couldn't do all that on site.
In the evening, we packed everything and went to sleep.
Day 13 - September 2nd Monday - Back to Germany
That was the last day in the USA. We returned our car and went to the airport.
Conclusion of the USA Japan trip
It was definitely worth it. I've experienced a lot of Japanese culture in the USA. We visited many restaurants, checked out the JapanTowns and also experienced a bit of USA. So if you also want to visit California and experience some authentic Japan in addition, you can definitely do it in the USA. I especially recommend the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco for such a trip, as the JapanTowns there are the largest. I was especially surprised by JapanTown in Los Angeles, because there were so many shops and restaurants that are set up like in Japan and also offer the things that are available in Japan.
Contributions that were created in the USA:
Blog Contributions
Travel Contributions
Basic Contributions
Recipes
Restaurant Contributions
- Izakaya Masa in San Diego
- Japanese Bakery in Japantown in LA
- Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill in San Diego
- Suehiro Café in Los Angeles
- Shabu-Shabu House in Los Angeles
- Kouraku in Los Angeles
- Kazoo in San Jose
Asian Markets
- Nijiya Market in Little Tokio in Los Angeles
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