Tokyo/Mongolia bucket list

We went to Tokyo and Ulaanbaatar and the steppes of Mongolia. Did I tell you?

Tokyo bucket list

1. Eat all the food in Tokyo.

Oh man. Tokyo knows food. Japan knows food. Every single thing we ate there delighted the senses. Souffle pancakes.

Real wasabi. Egg salad sandwiches from 7/11 every single morning. Onigiri. Sushi. Ramen. Guzman Y Gomez, a burrito place I used to frequent in Sydney, had a chain in Tokyo. We ate and ate and ate. Heaven and bliss and wonderful. I gained weight.

Head spa in Tokyo

We went to a head spa in Tokyo because they were invented there. This is a new thing. They wash your hair and analyze your scalp and massage your neck and noggin. It’s wonderful and something a little different to do than a normal body massage.

Team Labs

Team Labs is this incredible immersive experience with lights and sounds and smells and mirrors and angles. I’m doing a bad job of explaining it, but it was a good way to spend the afternoon. Pictures don’t turn out well. At least mine didn’t.

Walk around as much as possible

We walked tens of thousands of steps each day in Tokyo and it wasn’t awful even though the weather was scorching. They have so much greenery. Shrubs in the buildings and trees in the sidewalks and flowers everywhere you look. It’s a pretty city.

Mongolia Bucket List

See some wrestling at the Naadam festival

We went to Mongolia in July, the best month to visit, weather-wise. We went during the Naadam festival, which is when everyone comes to the capital (Ulaanbaatar), and eats the same street food from different vendors (pounded meat in a crepe like bread). They dress up in their finest garb and watch wrestling, (the favorite won and everyone was so happy), archery, and horse racing.

I did some good people watching. The horses in Mongolia are smaller than the horses I’m used to.

Stay in a yurt

We stayed with a nomadic family out in the middle of nowhere. They had a few camels laying next to the yurts that we saw in the evening, but were gone by the morning. The wild horses came and grazed next to the yurts and were gone in the morning, too. We asked the tour guide what happens with these animals and he said they just kind of wander off and take care of themselves and then wander back when they’re in the mood. They’re indoor/outdoor camels and horses.

Travel is about seeing how other people live. I’m not sure I would call the excursion fun. There was no wifi and no television, only a light bulb powered by a car battery and a small fridge powered by solar panels. The grandmother of the family cooked us a very simple meal of rice and potatoes and some sort of meat. When I said I didn’t eat meat, she made me a dish made of rice, cabbage, and potatoes. She offered us a parmesan-like hard cheese, stale bread, candy, and salted, warm milk. Possibly from a camel.

We didn’t think they gave us pillows and were using our sleeping bags and clothes until the grandmother came in, laughing at us, with bedding.

For breakfast, we had fried eggs, stale bread, and a spam-like meat. People in Mongolia may eat simply, but their portions are absolutely huge.

Ride a camel

I’m always torn about doing something with animals when I’m traveling. I don’t know how they’re treated when I’m not around and I’ve done some things I wish I hadn’t in the past. We rode two-humped camels here.

I’m not sure how to feel. They wander and roam and do pretty much what they want, but they have sticks through their noses. I think that’s their noses.

Massage

We like getting couples massages in foreign countries, but the one we got in Mongolia was odd. The table didn’t have a blanket. There was no music. The masseuse straddled me during the massage and didn’t seem like she was using any technique. She was pressing her hands into my face. My husband’s masseuse took a phone call in the middle of the massage and left. She also used cupping therapy, which was a first for him. She placed heated cups on him to create suction.

Trip goals

Go to the gym every day (except travel days)

There’s an F45 gym, my home gym, in Tokyo, so I thought going there would be an experience. I managed to make exercise my big rock in Japan, doing it every day as the sun came up. The instructors spoke in a mixture of Japanese and English, but the workouts were still intense and felt, you guessed it, wonderful.

I wasn’t as good in Mongolia, never making it to the hotel gym like I planned. I suppose I could have ran or did calisthenics in the steppe, but I did not.

Visit the third Eiffel Tower-like structure this year

In March, we went to see the Vegas Eiffel Tower, and in May, we went to see the original one, the Paris one. In July was the Tokyo one. Here they all are. Can you tell which is which?

Cost

I’m not going to tell you the cost of this trip because I don’t know it. Haha. This was the first time I did not calculate the final price of a trip — or even the components, and just let it ride. Another milestone for me in early retirement. We flew Zip Air and upgraded to a lay flat seat for $600 each. It’s the only economy-class full flat seat in the market. It doesn’t come with food or luggage space or even a blanket.

The hotel rooms in Japan cost us nothing because we used hotel points.

Mongolia was kind of expensive because we went during the Nadaan festival when prices are high for hotels. The yurt stay and tours were pricey, too. I don’t know how much it was, but it was worth every penny.

I know I haven’t been telling you about life lately. It’s largely the same. This is the year of honeymooning. Since getting married last October, we’ve visited Bora Bora, French Polynesia; Puerto Escondido, Mexico; Dublin, Ireland; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Belgrade, Serbia, Paris, France, and some domestic travel. We have plans for parts of Africa soon and I promise I’ll tell you about that trip afterwards.