A Whole Lotta Swiss Cheese

The Japanese Heidi cartoon was one of my favorite TV shows as a child. I traveled to my imaginary Switzerland (as portrayed by the Japanese anime industry) by asking my Mom for bread and cheese, and milk served in a wooden bowl. My father would travel to Switzerland frequently for work, but I never got the chance to go with him. His regular supply of Swiss chocolate, and photos of beautiful mountains kept Switzerland on the top of my list of places to visit. Now I wonder what took me so long.

Switzerland isn't one of the easier places to visit from Japan. There are no direct flights, and connections are generally through London, Frankfurt, and Istanbul. It may be a long trip, but it's worth it! The great thing about a small country, is the ease of traveling to different cities in a short amount of time. We only had a few days, so we wandered around Zurich, and took a short trip to Luzern.

I had heard that Zurich was expensive, but it was shockingly so - even for someone who spends most of her time in Tokyo, Moscow and London! I highly recommend getting a Zurich Card. You can buy a  card that is valid for 24 or 72 hours.  We went with the 72 hour card for 40 EUR.  The card covers unlimited second-class travel by tram, bus, rail, boat and cable car in Zurich and the surrounding area.

Zurich

We used the card for the train to Uetliberg, the highest point in Zurich with a view over the city.  We went early in the morning, so the sun was glaring over the mountains.  I'm sure the afternoon would have been a better time to take photos.  We also took advantage of a two our boat ride on Lake Zurich, although I miscalculated sunset, and ended up taking a nighttime cruise.  We couldn't see the Alps at night, but the lights and moon were beautiful. The card also covers all city museums.  When you purchase the card, you are given an updated list of stores and restaurants that offer discounts for card holders.

View from Uetliberg

View from Uetliberg

Sunset from the Pier, Lake Zurich

Evening Cruise, Lake Zurich

Reflections of the Moon, Lake Zurich

Zurich is a very walkable city, and we spend hours wandering the hilly streets of Niederdorf  and Löwenstrasse, in the old town.  The Christmas lights were magical.  Particularly on Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping street, the lights looked like gems suspended in mid-air above the street.  

Bahnhofstrasse

Löwenstrasse

View of Löwenstrasse from Niederdorf

Since it was my first trip to Zurich, I really wanted to try both fondue and racelette.  Racellete is a type of cheese, but also the name of a dish of the cheese is heated, and the melted part scrapped off and served with potatoes or meat, and pickled onions and gherkins.  We had fondue at Zunfthaus-Zimmerleuten.  Although the restaurant has beautiful historic dining rooms, we decided to try to Zunfthaus open air fondue to enjoy the view of Löwenstrasse.  The restaurant offered warm blankets and hand warmers to keep us warm until the fondue arrived.  Our raclette experience was at the Restaurant Swiss Chuchi in the Hotel Adler in Niederdorf.  The restaurant offers free dessert with the Zurich card.  Although I had read about the restaurant, we were mainly drawn in by the colorful paint and unique holiday decorations of the Hotel.  In retrospect, two cheese based meals in three days was probably too much. . .

Zunfthaus Open Air Fondue

Restaurant Swiss Chuchi in the Hotel Adler

Luzern is only about 45 minutes by train from Zurich, and there are about two trains every hour.  We made a last minute decision to visit and forgot our guidebook!  Luckily the train station is in close proximity to the old town and the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower.  As soon as we exited the train station, we crossed the street at took a 2 hour ferry trip.  The view was incredible, even on a cloudy day.  We also wandered around old town, although many restaurants and all stores are closed in Switzerland on Sunday. 

View of Luzern from the Ferry

View of the Alps from Lake Luzern

Mt. Pilate from Lake Luzern

Chapel Bridge, Water Tower, and Mt. Pilate

Illumination, Tokyo Style

The lights of Tokyo always glitter at night, but particularly during the winter months when most of the key sites in town light up withs millions of LED lights. Most of the displays go up in Novembers, with some lasting past Valentine's Day.

Baccarat Eternal Lights, Yebisu Garden Palace

Baccarat Eternal Lights, Yebisu Garden Palace

Baccarat Chandelier, Yebisu Garden Palace

Christmas Tree at Ginza Mitsukoshi

Christmas by Mikimoto

Nakadori, Marunouchi

Nakadori, Marunouchi

Marunouchi

Keyakizaka Street, Roppongi Hills

66 Plaza, Roppongi Hills

Mori Garden, Roppongi Hills

Light Show at Venus Fort, Odaiba

Holiday Dining at Venus Fort

Sushi to Dai for at Tsukiji Market

When I was a little girl, my father would occasionally wake me up around 4am and take me to Tsukiji Fish Market, usually when we had out of town guests.  Today Tsukiji still serves as one of the main tourist attractions in Tokyo, although it is expected to move from it's current location near Ginza to a less central location by 2014.  I was fascinated by the early morning bustle of the market with unusual sea creatures that I have yet to encounter anywhere else in the world.  I never tire of the seemingly secret language of the auctioneers at the Tuna auction.  These days, the market limits the number of observers for the auctions to 120 a day, and you need to register at 5am to get in.  My favorite part of the fish market is the sushi restaurants with the freshest fish you will ever find.  These restaurants originally catered to the Tsukiji market workers and generally open from 5am-2pm. Two of the most famous are Sushi Dai and Daiwa Sushi.  Both have been featured on international travel shows and countless blogs. Sushi Dai is generally known for a friendlier atmosphere and has the longer lines of the two, and happens to be my favorite.  For around 4,000 yen, you can get an Omakase set - it comes with tea, a really rich fish based miso soup, tamago, and 11 pieces of sushi and one roll.  On a recent chilly morning, I arrived at 4:30am and made the first seating.  It is well worth the early wake up, the wait is known to be longer than 3 hours!

The amazing sushi chefs at Sushi Dai

The Tamago is warm and more savory than most

The best O-toro (fatty tuna) I have ever had

Hirame (flounder)

Tai (red snapper)

Aji (mackerel)

Uni (sea urchin)

Buri (yellowtail) 

Akagai (red clam) it was still moving!

Magurozuke (marinated tuna)

Roll, and Shiraebi (baby shrimp)

Anago (sea eel)

The final piece is customer choice.  For me it was O-toro

Don't be fooled, the line continues around the corner (50 deep when we left)

A Tale of Two Churches

In the center of historic Kyiv, there are two beautiful churches that directly face each other battling for attention in an otherwise nondescript area. St. Sophia, named after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, is Kyiv's oldest standing church and dates back to 1037. St. Sophia currently serves as a museum, and houses an incredible Virgin Mary mosaic icon made of 15,000 eggs by artist Oksana Mas. St. Michaels is the flashier of the two, having been reconstructed in 2000 after the original from 1108 was destroyed by the Soviets. The reconstructed St. Michaels is a working monastery.

St. Sophia

St. Sophia at Sunset

St. Sophia in the Fog 

St. Michael's at Sunrise

View of St. Michael's from the Hyatt Kyiv

St. Michaels at Night