We're locals! This isn't everything to do in our great spot in the USA, but we add our activities as we do them. If you will be in the area, feel free to contact us for more ideas. Some must-do items in our opinion: Eat local sourdough (Semifreddis or Acme) and cheese (Cowgirl creamery, Chanel goat, Sonoma jack or pepper jack, and/or other local cheeses), drink local wine, and visit Peet's Coffee. Hike with Redwoods, see the ocean and the mountains Where to base yourself? Th

1) Asakusa and Senso-ji Asakusa is a mostly pedestrian section of Tokyo with various stores, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc. At the northern end of Asakusa is the Senso-ji temple, a large complex with food stands, cherry trees and various buildings. As with any significant shrine, there are aisles of vendors geared toward tourists. We stayed in Asakusa and found it to be a very good neighborhood to base ourselves. Above, bottom left, the pagoda and main hall of the shrine.

Ise Sueyoshi Meal Type: Traditional Kaiseki Though we had the traditional, we were excited to see that this restaurant actively welcomes gluten free, vegan, vegetarian and Muslim meals. They also had a section on the reservation form to describe a dietary need that didn’t fit neatly in those categories. Phone: 03-6427-2314 Email: info.sueyoshi@gmail.com Website: http://isesueyoshi.blog.fc2.com/ Address: 4-2-15 Nishiazabu, Mizuno Bldg. 3F, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031 (Note the 3

There are many types of food to explore in Kyoto and we love all of it. We had the gift of time, which allowed us to scope out many restaurants and make reservations for later dates. If you don’t have the time for that, you can either plan a day early in your visit where you go to these places and make reservations for later in your visit, or ask your hotel to reserve for you. You may want to be more spontaneous. We certainly found some great places by just walking in and ge