Cafe crepes

Any cafe or restaurant you would like to suggest to take the family for desserts? I'm getting tired of eating the same baskin robins ice cream. Crepes and waffles are so 2018.

It’s our first trip with my mom and dad if y’all got any tips of things to point out lemme know
Edit: I know it’s packed we plan on cutting some things out it’s just a plan
Tokyo: 4 nights
Day 1:
-Toyosu fish market (World’s largest-food and souvenirs) and Tsukiji (older one but more open) -Imperial Palace -Yurakucho neighborhood, 700 m stretch if pubs, casual restaurants for lunch -Tokyo tower (main obs deck) -Relax at Meiji Jingu (shrine and forest) -Yoyogi park (paths, ponds, snacks) -Harajuku -Golden Gai (alleyways with bars that are unique)
Day 2: Asakusa -Senso-ji temple (7th century) and Asakusa Shrine (try to go early-crowded) -Ueno park (cherry trees, art, shrine, museums, vendor stalls, and zoo) and Tosho-gu shrine -Akihabara Electric Town (electronics, music, manga, anime, weird maid cafes, arcades) -back streets in Asakusa for food -Go karting if we get licenses -Samurai ninja museum Tokyo
Day 3: -shinjuku Gyoen national garden (ponds, bridges, cherry trees) Shibuya (go to Ringram store for matching rings, go to Takeshita st. (harajuku area) For shops and crepes) -Shibuya crossing -Tea ceremony -book True Japan -Quirky cafe (kawaii monster, vampire, harry, ninja)
Day 4: -Rainbow Bridge -Meguro river or any of these: Yokohama Chinatown Baseball game Volcano Tokyo National Museum Restaurant you can fish for meal
**Train to Hakone: 2 hours by train (1 night) Natural hot springs Fujiya hotel (old, cool gardens, john and yoko stayed there) Lake Ashi Hike to Mt sengen Yumoto hot springs
Kyoto: (4 nights) *rent bikes, eat curry, ramen, and donburi (sushi more expensive here)
Day 1: -Arashiyama bamboo forest (go early), Tenryu Temple, Okochi Sanso Garden (not crowded) -Temple of the Golden Pavilion -Ryoan-Ji rock garden and temple -Toji temple (tallest, 8th century) -Daitoku-ji temple
Day 2: -Fushimi inari Taisha -Higashiyama (tea ceremony, philosopher’s path, shops/restaurants, nanzen-ji temple) -Kiyomizu-dera -Nishiki market and Teramachi stree(food stalls, maybe do food tour here) -Gion district (shopping, geishas, art, performances, antiques)-walking tour, nighttime Get Your Guide -Pontocho Row (night scene)
Day 3: Nara -deer park -Todai-ji buddha and temple (8th century) -Daubitsuden -Kofukuji pagoda -Walking tour?
Maruyama park (k)* Arashiyama monkey park (k)* Nijo Castle (170 acres, zen gardens, moat) and Ninomaru palace* Heian shrine* Shimogamo shrine (6th century)* Samurai ninja museum kyoto Onsen- bath houses (must cover tattoos or can’t come in)
Hiroshima: day trip -Fudoin temple -Eat oysters, okonomiyaki, Okonomi village food hall, curry, ramen -Hiroshima castle -Bitchu matsuyama castle (1240 AD) -Peace Memorial Museum* -Peace Park* -Shukkeien Garden* -Ferry to Miyajima: Itsukushima Shrine on island, Tori gate, ride ropeway to highest point**
Osaka: (1 night) -take a food tour Get Your Guide -Osaka Castle* -Dotonbori (night life)* -Shitennoji temple -Minoh Park* -Universal studios?* -Shinsaibashisuji district for shopping* -Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park -Kuromon ichiba food market*

Oh my gosh they just opened and I am in love. The owner, Eli (pronounced Ellie) is just so sweet and really took care of us. I had the Mediterranean crepe-- feta, olives, arugula, mozz, swiss, peppers. I will be returning (most likely later on today) for one of her dessert crepes!

Hi all, first time posting in this sub but found some of the advice really helpful planning for our trip, so thought I'd post our trip report.
A bit about us: Two late 20's Brits, husband and wife team. Mixed levels of fitness - we lift weights in the gym 5 days a week, and my wife additionally plays rugby with training/games 2-3 times a week (I coach). We both work 9-5 deskjobs. Interests include food, videogames, anime and history.
The trip: 10th April: Flew business class with JAL from LHR to HND. Flying business class was a bucket list thing for us, and we'd saved up a lot of money during Covid even with a marriage and a house move. Overall it was a great experience, but I'm a light sleeper and couldn't sleep a wink on the plane. Watched season 1 of SpyxFamily which became the anime of the trip, as we'd watch Seasons 2 and 3 before getting to bed most nights.
11th April: Landed at 7:40am at HND and set up our Ubigi eSims. My advice would be to set it up before you fly, as connecting to the Wifi at HND was a bit troublesome. On the whole, though, Ubigi was great - decent connection throughout and only lost connection in some tunnels, or in a couple of spots in Akihabara.
Got Suica cards at Terminal 3 and dropped luggage off at our hotel (Hotel Gracery Shinjuku). Was cool being in the Godzilla hotel on the Godzilla floor - room was pretty big and you get some good views from the 30th floor. Loved the iconography on the walls of various kaiju's in the Godzilla franchise (King Ghidorah, Rodan etc.), the iconography on the lift doors, and there's a panorama in the hotel lobby, too.
Went for a walk around Shinjuku and Shinjuku Gyoen garden whilst we waited to check in and were lucky enough to see the various cherry/plum (I think?) blossoms in the park. We had planned the trip knowing we were missing the blossom season, so to see some in full bloom was great. We'd grabbed some onigiri from a 7-11 and had a picnic on a bench under the trees. Grabbed Shinkansen tickets for a couple of days time in the Green Car from Shinjuku station, which was hassle-free. Checked into hotel, then went to find some food. Booked online at Teppanyaki Hama which was literally down the street, and what an experience that was. Only 12 seats in total at the restaurant, and we were treated to the chef cooking right in front of us a variety of 9 courses from roe, to oyster, lobster, snail and the best grilled veg I've had. Cost about £216 from memory, but it set the tone of the trip really well.
12th April: woke up early and got to Meiji Jingu for about 7am. We enjoyed how quiet it was, with only a handful of tourists at this time. We then went to a Family Mart and came back to Meiji Jingu (with the intention to eat breakfast in the park) at 8:30am, but all the tourists had arrived by then and we could see no food/drink signs so we moved on to Yoyogi Park which was also lovely.
Next we did Harajuku and I visited the Asics store there. Was disappointed at how touristy the area seemed even at 10/11am. At this time, it started to rain and, with not much appealing to us, we moved on to Shibuya. Did Shibuya scramble a few times for the fun of it, then grabbed lunch at Ichiran. Decent ramen, better than the chain ramen we get in the UK (I'm looking at you, Wagamama's) but not the best of the trip. Explored Shibuya and saw the Pokemon Centre there with Mewtwo, and then the One Piece and Jump stores too. We went to Sushiro for dinner. Ate about 15 plates between us for roughly £26 with drinks. First ever conveyor belt sushi experience and had to wait about 30 mins for a seat. Was pretty cool. Rounded off the day wandering Golden Gai and Kabukicho near the hotel.
13th April: had planned to explore Nakano Broadway and Ikebukuro this day but...
I was ill all day and after being up and down during the night, spent all day in bed. My wife was fine, so I either overate, felt jetlagged, stressed from overplanning, ate something my wife didn't (likely sea urchin at Sushiro), or a bit of everything. My wife went to Gotokuji temple in the afternoon and explored some of the neighbourhoods to find an Airbnb which a Youtuber she follows, owns. My illness put me off of seafood for most of the trip, which is unfortunate as I love seafood, but the smell of it just put me off on this trip.
14th April: took the 6:33am Shinkansen to Kyoto. This was awesome, and watching the Japanese countryside go by with the mountains in the background was something I'll never forget - it's so much more picturesque than from UK trains. We were lucky to see Mt. Fuji from the train as well, as we knew she was usually shy, but that morning she looked majestic.
Popped by the hotel so they knew we were in the neighbourhood (Yoin Hotel Kyoto Gion). Hotel was a bit disappointing. Largest hotel room of the trip (save for the ryokan) but it was only 4/5 storeys high so had a lot of noise from the road below from loud tourists at 1am.
We explored Gion district. Visited Chion-in which was brilliant, saw different delegations of monks and even a bit of their ceremonies when we were there. Also did Yasaka Shrine, Yasaka Pagoda, and Kiyomizu-dera (too crowded by the time we did it), and grabbed some lunch at Smile Burger. Smile burger was great, a small burger joint which did simple burgers that tasted good for a great price. We then took a break at Ryozen Kannon temple. Ate dinner in our room with some of the ekiben boxes I didn't eat for brekfast as I still felt iffy.
15th April: originally planned to do Fushimi Inari this day but instead took a trip to Nara as I wasn't feeling a 5am wakeup after being unwell. Nara was lovely, but again loads of tourists by 8am. Fed the deer, and loved how the vendors all charged the same and how part of the money goes towards conservation. We went to Kofuku-ji and then grabbed breakfast at a conbini next to the famous TikTok mocchi making place, then sat at Sarusawa-ike watching the Terrapins to eat. It was so peaceful here, away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist parts. Then visited Todaiji Temple and explored Nara park. Then, we hopped on a train to visit the old Imperial Palace of Nara with the intention of seeing all Imperial Palaces in the cities on our trip. Admittedly not much at the site but it was cool seeing the old buildings and some of the conservation work being done. Then, on a whim, we went to Uji at 3:30pm and again, it was away from the hustle and bustle of tourists. I dislike green tea and matcha, but my wife likes it so thought it'd be good to try. We found a cafe overlooking the river and got there at last orders. Admittedly, I didn't like anything on the menu but that's just my taste and dislike of matcha. We left Uji and found a Wagyu steak yakiniku place in Kyoto called Douraku Kyotorokkakudoriten. Had a whole board of Wagyu fillet, tongue, cheek, rib etc. for about £89 and we got to cook it ourselves. This was a treat, and I've never tasted beef so good - it literally melted in our mouths. We left very satisfied after getting a side order of rice and bimbap, too.
16th April: Tackled Fushimi Inari this day as I was getting my groove back. Got to the foot of Fushimi Inari at 7:30am and it was already packed with wannabe influencers - I could tell this was going to be fun...my wife and I like hillwalking and occasionally walk Bennau Brycheniog or the Lake District, so we can hike at a good pace. We passed many people getting irate over the number of people getting in their shots (what did you expect?) and even one woman walking in a dress and stilettos with her partner carrying a tripod!! Madness. The crowds did thin considerably once we hit the part where the path splits in two, and we got all the way to the top in 55 mins. We bought a tori gate from one of the stalls neat the top after waiting around for 25 mins for it to open, and we had our names and date painted on it in kanji. Certainly take some time to see the various shrines in the small paths off the main track, as they're so picturesque and peaceful. Shoutout to Pocari Sweat, which kept me fuelled this entire time whilst recovering from the lurgies.
We walked down the mountain pass at the back, past a small bamboo grove, and here I jumped with glee as I heard a school bell go which had exactly the same tone and tune as the one from the 'Izekai Quartet' anime. From here, we did Tofuku-ji as it was on the way back into town along the path. What was really nice was seeing the backstreets of Japanese society, so tranquil and well-kept (like it was straight out of an anime). We then grabbed some lunch at a Korean hotpot place in Kyoto station, and did Kyoto tower on a whim. I suffer from vertigo and 'call of the void' (where I want to jump off of high places just to know what the sensation is like) and they were pretty bad at the top of Kyoto Tower as I felt like the tower was shaking in the wind. Still, the views were great and I'm glad I did it. They had a stand/vending machines of 'Sound Euphonium!' merch, which is an anime I love as a former brass band player, so got some photos next to Kumiko and Reina. We then went on an hours detour just so my wife could find another Pokelid and ended up in a park watching the Shinkansen go by. We grabbed dinner in an udon place called Udon Shiogama round the corner from the hotel which did curry udon. My goodness it tasted so good! The rich, spicy sauce went so well with the juicy udon I can still taste it. It's about on par with a Jalfrezi or a hot tikka spicewise, so if you can't do spice it may not be for you, but my wife had tempura udon ramen which she said was also as excellent.
17th April: trip to Osaka. I originally wanted to go to Himeji castle given the advice on this sub, but my wife didn't want to go too far astray so instead we went to Osaka castle at 9am. It was nice to see the museum inside of it and was very informative. From there, we went to Dotonbori and tried the best Takoyaki from a place right outside Osaka-Namba station with a massive crab on top. Also tried melonpan with vanilla ice cream inside it (a game changer) and Okonomiyaki at Mizuno Okonomiyaki which was brilliant. Went for the seafood option (risky given recent events) but it was so tasteful. Top tip would be to get here early at 5pm to avoid much of a queue, as only a limited number of seats and they cook it up in front of you. Then went to find the Osaka Pokemon Centre as my wife wanted to see that. Eventually headed back to Kyoto at about 9pm.
18th-19th April: Kinosaki Onsen
We wanted to do a ryokan/onsen experience as part of the trip but I wanted to get away from the crowds, so avoided Hakone. A friend had gone to Kinosaki so I decided to as well. Took us 3 hours to get there from Kyoto so set off at about 9am and the scenery out the window as the local trains go through the mountains was beautiful. Got to Kinosakionsen at midday and grabbed lunch at Kinosaki Burger by the station. Best burger of the holiday, hands down. Japan does simple burgers, but it does them well. It doesn't overcomplicate them by adding in more ingredients/foods, they're just a solid good burger. This is no different, but their chips were the best chips I've tasted. Cooked to order, cripsy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and seasoned generously with salt. At 2pm we checked into the ryokan (Nishimuraya Honkan Ryokan) and got changed into our Yukatas and getas. We had the suite room so we had the highest room in the ryokan. Went to Kouno-ko onsen to try it out and didn't get weirded out by the amount of people there and being completely naked around them. Top tip - if you wear glasses, take them off as it can help with an 'if I can't see them, they can't see me' mentality. Had fun walking in getas - how anime characters run, fight and kick in those things will remain a wonder to me (looking at you, Elfman from Fairy Tail).
Had kaiseki dinner in the ryokan which was so good! Fresh crab, cold sakura noodles, sashimi, grilled salmon...divine. Went for a late walk in the town as it was lit by lanterns and it was so picturesque. I estimate maybe 50 tourists in total within the town on this Thursday evening? It was great. Went for a dip in the onsen within the Ryokan - it has two onsens, one male and one female, which alternate each morning. Both onsens are done in different styles, too, one Japanese and one Greco-Roman. Learning the history of Kinosakionsen was also cool, with healing storks and praying monks with a history spanning over 1400 years.
The next morning we ate breakfast in our room and after another dip in the ryokan onsen, again on a whim, did the Kinosaki ropeway. You could see the Sea of Japan at the top along with shrines to crabs and other Buddhist deities. We stopped halfway down to see the Onsen temple which I believe had nightingale flooring. The monk there was brilliant with even very broken English, gave us a leaflet with info on it, and let us roam. We missed the 12:10pm gondola down so were stranded midway until 12:50pm, but it was nice to take the time to smell the flowers as we heard more Isekai Quarter schoolbells ring, trains zip along the valley below us, birds singing their song as the gentle breeze tickled us. I'll never forget that moment.
Upon getting down from the ropeway, we stopped off at Kinosaki Burger again before getting the train to Kyoto. We went to Pontocho alley for some grub and along a backstreet, stumbled upon Restaurant Muni which is a French/Japanese place. Looks to be a father and son operation and we were the first ones there ar 6pm. They recommend 2-3 plates per person for 2 people. I started with the Japanese beef curry which was just right, and the wife had omurice. I then had grilled duck which was cooked to perfection, before I ended with omurice whilst my wife had a pork cutlet sandwich. All meals were divine and tasted good, think the bill was near enough £100 but in our minds, it was worth it. Reminded me of Yokihira Soma's restaurant in 'Shokugeki no Soma' (Food Wars) a bit with the dynamic of the chefs and the menu, but it gets 5 stars from me. From there, we sauntered along the river and took in the atmosphere, seeing the buildings all lit up.
20th April: Decided to skip Arashiyama bamboo forest as I was tired of tourists by this point (yes, I realise the irony that I am myself a tourist) so instead we hopped on a bus and headed straight to Kinkaku-ji. Even at 9:05am there's so many tourists and we were herded through narrow paths. Was nice for a quick photo op but it suffered from overtourism. We then went to Heian shrine on a whim which was so quiet! I loved the red wood and the green roofs of the buildings. We also did the gardens which were my favourite gardens of the trip. We fed the koi carp (and a turtle) for 200 yen and even saw a Japanese wedding on the bridge - the groom was a handsome young man in his attire and the bride looked beautiful in hers. We did some shopping before getting dinner at CoCo curry. I was hungry, so went for extra pork cutlet, extra mushrooms, and spice level 5 and I struggled with the spice. It was one of the hottest dishes I've tasted, so if I were to go again I'd pick a milder level.
21st April: Took the bus to Nijo Castle and walked around the grounds. The grounds were lovely and the castle was cool too. Then hit up Kyoto Imperial Palace. Went to the Kyoto Pokemon Centre and then hit up Gyoza Dokoro Sukemasa. Got their Gyoza Set B menu which was 6 gyozas, miso soup, rice, string beans and chicken mayo salad for...880 yen. Bargain! The gyoza had hints of ginger in them which made them bright and freshing. So good! We then walked through Gion at night and took pictures of Nannenzaka, Sinnenzaka, and Yasaka Pagoda in darkness when illuminated by lights. Beautiful.
22nd April: Bullet train to Tokyo where we hit up Nakano Broadway and Ikebukuro. We were disappointed by both - Nakano Broadway just felt like multiple Mandarake stores, and Ikebukuro didn't have much aside from Sunshine City. We then hit up Akihabara in the afternoon and loved it. We went for dinner at Kanda Matsuya which was a lovely pre-war building serving ramen. Loads of locals in here and the place was bustling which was great to see. Some great food too, at decent prices. Afterwards I stopped by the local MacDonalds to try their double Big Mac burger (4 burgers in a Big Mac bun) as it's such a novelty. Checked into our hotel (The Gate Hotel Kaminarimon) in Asakusa. Hotel was great, some lovely views on the 10th floor and a 2 min walk from Sennsoji Temple and Akihabara station. Our room was huge. Would recommend.
23rd April: did Sennsoji-Temple as it was right across the street from our hotel. It was pretty cool to see in the morning at 8am with barely any tourists around, though did get busy at 9am. Wandered the old streets of Akihabara and reflected at the shrines/memorials around Sennsoji. Had Tokyo Tower booked in the afternoon and almost died at being 350m up due to the vertigo, but managed to get my shit together for a photo on the green screen floor at 450m high (though did politely ask my wife to hurry up as I could sense the tower wobbling and I was freaking out). Grabbed curry udon by Skytree which was underwhelming compared to the one I had in Gion, then got some fresh Taiyaki in Asakusa and then some cute mango sorbet ice cream with eyes and biscuits by Canelé Créme Glacée. They donate 3 yen to a good cause for each ice cream bought, which was nice, especially as you get to choose which of the charities to donate it to.
24th April: Was going to do the Tokyo Imperial Palace but couldn't be bothered with the hassle of getting tickets. Did Ueno Park and the National History Museum instead and enjoyed a morning there, before hitting up Akihabara in the afternoon/evening. Did some crane games and played a Kantai Collection arcade game which was cool. Then played the Taiko(?) drumming game with the SpyxFamily and other anime tunes blaring out - awesome!
25th April - Akihabara. Enough said.
26th April - Had a reservation at a michelin star restaurant (another bucket list item for us) in Ginza so headed into Ginza for the morning. It was an interesting insight as to the other half of society lives, as we'd never been into any of the shops that surrounded the station. The michelin star experience at Ginza Toyoda was exceptional. Several courses at 30,250 yen each and had crab mince with ginger jelly served on a crab shell, tiger prawns, sashimi, sea urchin and abalone...sublime! We spoke a bit of Japanese with the chef, who said we spoke good Japanese for first-timers (albeit this was said over trusty ol' Google Translate). Just made the experience so much better! Spent the evening in Akihabara and had Pork tonkatsu ramen in Yaro Ramen Akihabara. We then had a frozen strawberry crepe out of the nearby vending machine for the fun of it.
27th April: flew from HND business class with JAL.
Things to note:

• a bit of Japanese goes a long way. Simple phrases like 'hai', 'iie', 'sumimasen', 'gomenasai' and 'daijoubou' go a long way. Locals love it when you try to speak the language, and most of the time what they infer can be interpreted through their hand movements.
  
• carry around a plastic bag for your rubbish, as has been said plenty of times on the forum.
  
• the weather for the first week was about 20-26ºC, which did not help my wife or I whp had packed jeans, sweaters and down jackets. A trip to Uniqlo later had us buying shorts and Activism tshirts which were a godsend on the trip.
  
• Japanese public transport is second to none. It's clean, efficient, and usually on-time. Even the buses were well-labelled (we took the number 12 bus from Gion-in to Kinkaku-ji and Nijo Castle in Kyoto).
  
• be mindful of the Japanese culture, don't be loud, don't be a dick, always be humble and apologise if you think you're in the wrong. We did apologise plenty of times on the trip.
  
• Japanese schoolkids are adorable. They're young but behave so well, and take themselves to/from school alone. They navigate busy train stations solo, and do schoolwork on the train. They wear hats, and the lads wear shorts with high socks. Made my wife (a former teaching assistant) so happy seeing well-behaved kids. We saw some schoolkids on a trip at Osaka Castle and they were well behaved, lined up in single file, talking quietly and not getting in the way of tourists.
  
• We asked the hotels to forward our luggage between Tokyo-Kyoto and Kyoto-Tokyo. Cost us about £35 each time for 3 suitcases, with one of those days being on a Sunday. Arrived next day. We had Apple AirTags in each suitcase so we knew where they were.
  
• Google Maps on Android worked better than Maps on iOS, often with better signal and pathfinding.
  
• food was as expensive or inexpensive as we wanted it to be. Sure, we splashed out on several meals, but we tried to balance them with cheaper meals. I got addicted to Melonpan for breakfast when I was ill, and would double that up with pizza and fami-chicki for breakfast. Drinks-wise, Minute Maid was basically melted orange Calippo, Pocari Sweat was a mild lucozade original, and Calpis soda a muted lemonade. All were my top 3 drinks from vending machines/combinis. My wife loved the oolong green tea.
  
• the last few days in Tokyo we did have stuff planned, but we decided to focus on Akihabara to buy merch. Arguably taking these days at a slower pace was much nicer and enjoyable to what we had done in Kyoto.
  
• we averaged about 24,000 steps per day, with the highest being roughly 29,500 steps and the lowest about 12,000 steps. I wore New Balance 880 v12's and my feet were still sore after each day!
  
• Pokemon Centres personally became a bore after the second one as they sell the same merch more or less, with a few exclusives in certain stores. If you're a Pokénerd like my wife, you'll love it, but if you have no interest like me then you won't. We spent about 4 hours total in Pokemon stores across Japan, and a further couple of hours looking for Pokelids. All stores were out of stock of my favourite Pokemon (Alakazam - because he has spoons and is Gen 1).
  
• we only booked Tokyo Skytree and Ginza Toyoda before we flew. We booked a couple of restaurants the day of, after quickly browsing Google Maps or TripAdvisor.
  

Helpful Youtubers who provided insightful videos for the trip include AbroadinJapan, Cakes With Faces, CDawgVA, Tokyo Lens, Sharmelion to name but a few.
We're now looking to do another trip to Japan, maybe doing the Northern prefectures of Tohoku and Aomori, and Hokkaido. We'd love to go back to Kinosaki Onsen again, and spend more time in Tokyo. We're going to double-down on the Japanese language learning, too, as we can barely read Hiragana and Katakana to a worse extent.
Thanks for reading, I hope other first-timers found this insightful and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Got offered a promotion at my customer service job. Went through training, realized it's not for me (physically more challenging, less flexibility in terms of work tasks, longer shifts). Manager says he can't give me my role back even though I didn't sign anything yet. Was promised salary increase but without a specific date.
Looking for a new job urgently cause the new role exhausts me both physically and mentally and it's only been a week and a half.
I'm fluent in English, don't need a visa to work here, have PPSN and Irish bank account, been living in Dublin for almost 5 years now. I can work full-time and available literally any time (mornings/evenings/weekends). Know how to close/open till, make crepes/coffees/waffles. Also got a music degree, so would love to work in music or CD store, but that's just a small preference, cafe or store would be fine.
If anyone's aware of somewhere hiring, please let me know. My experience has been that everyone's hiring through references and I couldn't even get one rejection e-mail. I tried going to places in person but it didn't help much either.

Chapter One: Tamera I pushed a lock of long brown hair out of my face as I climbed out of my van in the parking lot of the cafe. The more bodies that piled up in the morgue, the more stressed the whole town got. And seeing as none of the six bodies found in the three week span had any real connections other than being found in our tiny town, Bronston, New Hampshire, I couldn’t start compiling a real list of suspects. I had no real clues, aside from the bodies and the calling card. An overlapping set of initials. CRW, artistically positioned next to, or on, each body. I'd looked at all the locals, and no one fit the initial sets. The medium used to leave the letters changed each time, and seemed like it was usually means of convenience. Markers taken from the families fridge, condiments, spices, fridge magnets. I made a mental note to call Gabby Sandford, the lead detective in Pittsburgh's homicide division. We were old friends, after all me leaving had opened the spot for her. She might have some murders with a similar pattern, I hoped.
I don't know why these people were killed, as there's no connection between them, not status or age or even gender. Take the first victim, Sally Jennings, 24, female, firmly middle class. Dead, in her car. Randall, her neighbor, had found her, the poor guy. But then our most recent victim, Jasper King, was the owner of a big company in the city, King's Investments. He'd been found dead in his secretaries' bed, by his secretary, and on top of mourning, his poor wife was devastated. Victim number four, Eden Fleury, had been a divorcee and a mother. She lived with her two teenagers, when they weren’t with their dad. Thankfully they hadn’t found her, she’d been found by her maid service. But she came from old money, and had no ties to anyone else on the quickly growing list of deceased. The killings just did not make sense when lined up together. The timing was random too, no apparent trigger.
All six bodies had been given thallium; a slow acting poison commonly used on rats, and found in trace amounts in certain vegetables. It's also found in the manufacture of electronic components, optical lenses, semiconductor materials, alloys, gamma radiation detection equipment, imitation jewelry, artist's paints, low temperature thermometers, and green fireworks. It’s incredibly easy to access and is even harder to trace to a manufacturer. Who murders someone with what is basically rat poison? It's rather slow acting and has symptoms that can be dismissed as typical illnesses. I was on my lunch break, but the murders never took a break from repeating in my mind 24/7.
I sighed as I walked into Huggamug Café. I glanced around to see my usual waitress, Vanessa, sitting alone at a table with a grilled cheese and a glass of milk. She's still pretty new to Bronston. She has quite the story attached to her. Her daughter died suddenly, about five years ago, then her lawyer husband suddenly left her, about a year later he passed away mysteriously. Right now she looks particularly sad, although normally her round face and large hazel eyes, coupled with full pink lips, and a smile that lights up a room give her a happy, innocent appearance. I know what makes her lips pull into a frown, and her eyes appear misty even from here. Today is the fifth anniversary of her daughter's passing. I wander over and sit across from her. She looks up as I sit and flashes me a polite, small smile. I return it, and pat her hand. We sit in silence as she finishes her sandwich and then she stands, wipes the table with a napkin, and smiles again.
"I'll go put in your order, Tamera" She says quickly, as she gathers her plate and cup.
She's gone before I can respond. I sit back and wait, thinking over the last kill. Jasper King had been found alone in his secretary's bed, naked, with two bruised ribs, a broken wrist and a nasty bruise on his jaw. Cause of death is the same as the other victims, thallium. I notice Vanessa approaching my table, and glance down at my watch. That was fast.
"You needn't have rushed it Nessa. I didn't mind." I say as she stops at the edge of the table. She shakes her head, and sighs.
"I shouldn't have been sitting there sulking, I'm sorry. Here you go, just how you like it. Vanilla crepes with whipped cream and strawberries, and hot cocoa." She says as she sets down the plate. I smile and thank her. I reach for my cup, my hands locking around it and feel the warmth seep through the warm ceramic mug into my clasped fingers.
After she leaves my brain goes back to the case. These murders felt like a message, but to who? And what is the message? I have no clue, so I decide to take a break to just eat and relax. Of course, relaxation is easier said than done. I shake my head, and then have a small heart attack as someone pops up at my elbow.
"Is there something wrong with your food?" Vanessa asked from beside me, "you were shaking your head, and also you haven't touched it." She added helpfully, looking at me curiously.
"No, no the food is fabulous as always hon. I was just thinking about these damn murders. We found another body early this morning." I was hoping she might have some sort of input. I had learned, sometimes, the breaks in the case came from fresh eyes.
She took a seat across from me. She sighed and stared at her fingers. I had a feeling she had something to say, but what was it? Whatever it was, my gut was telling me it would be important. I leaned closer, as she opened her mouth and sucked in a breath before saying.
"These murders, what exactly is it that seems off about them? I mean besides, the whole killing part. Clearly something isn’t adding up, you don’t seem like the type of detective to ask strangers for input if you have a good idea on what’s going on. What is the biggest connection, not between the people but between the scenes?" She asked it like a good lawyer, which wasn't shocking. After all, being married to a lawyer had to rub off on a person a bit didn't it? I decided to dodge that question, because we hadn't released the calling card to the public at all yet.
Instead I asked a new question, one that had crept to the front of my mind as she spoke. I still hadn’t brought up that I knew what today was for her, I wanted to see if maybe she needed to talk about it. Being a cop had taught me sometimes, the best way to hang the guilty was to convince them to tie themselves up and jump.
"Say, Vanessa, what's your last name? I know that must seem random, but I just realized I never learned it. Did you keep your husband's name?" I was only asking because I had indeed just realized I didn't know, and therefore hadn't checked her name off my suspects list.
"No, I kept my maiden name, Winters. Why would I have wanted a name like Driscoll? That's ridiculous, Vanessa Driscoll? No thank you ma'am." She gave a breathless laugh and shook her head. Winters, Vanessa Winters.
As I was pondering it, it hit me, the urge to make sure she was okay. I felt a weirdly fierce need to make sure she was alright, and to somehow make it better if she wasn’t.
"Isn't today the anniversary of your daughter's passing? What was her name?" I ask softly, not wanting to upset her.
"Yes, today is the fourth year since she passed. My little Cynthia Rose, you know she had my maiden name too? Cynthia Rose Winters. Such a pretty baby." Tears welled in her eyes, and I felt bad, for upsetting her by asking. I had wanted to comfort her, but what could I even say to her that would offer any comfort to the wound of losing her only child in a brutal drive-by?
I pondered over the tragedy, and how awful that much loss must be to carry around. And then I realized the initials. Cynthia Rose Winters, C.R.W, what were the odds? The murders had begun three weeks ago, and Miss Vanessa had moved here 2 weeks before they started. The timing was a little too perfect to be coincidental. Not that meant she was a murderer, I hoped, I was beginning to really like her. But I liked my neighbors and friends too much to be blinded by budding feelings and not investigate this new path of information.
"Oh, how cute. I love that." I say, as I stuff crepe into my mouth.
Given the timing and the initials she may be the one, but she may not. And that's a jump I don’t want to take without more evidence. And I intend to get some, even if I have to never let her out of my sight again. I will not allow another death in my town. I need to stop this now. Right now. We chat for a few more minutes, and then she glances at the clock and snaps to her feet. I watch as she walks away, she runs a few more plates and then goes into the back, hangs up her apron and walks outside to her truck. That's my cue, time to leave.
I get up, leaving the cash on my table, along with a tip and wander out to my car. I follow her out onto the main road, and keep a healthy distance behind as she heads to her house. I park across the street, up a few houses. About 30 minutes later, she comes out and leaves. She’s changed her entire outfit, her pretty black slacks and white blouse, with practical black flats topped with little satin bows gone in exchange for a black hoodie, black leggings and running shoes. She takes off down the block at a slow jogging pace. I wait with bated breath as she jogs past, and as soon as she’s about a block ahead, I go to open the door, to follow. As my hand meets the cold metal of the handle, my phone rings. It's the Medical Examiner, Evelyn Moore. I scoop up the phone, my eyes on Vanessa’s quickly retreating figure as it fades into the fast falling twilight. I listen as the voice on the other end greets me, and cuts right to the chase.
Crap. Well, I guess I'll have to follow her more later. The autopsy report is ready. I tell Evelyn I’m on my way and start the car, carefully pulling into the street and turning away from the path Vanessa had just vanished on.

Part 1/6: General Thoughts & Arrival Day in France
We're back from our trip! This is going to be super long, sorry. I'll come back tonight & link some pics for each day too.

• I thought the metro was very easy to use. Coming from the US (and especially a city with poor public transit) I was nervous, but after using it once I felt very confident and we didn't have any issues. We bought the Navigo Decouverte passes for ease of use and they were excellent.
• I speak a little French and my husband speaks decent French (because he works for a French company). I always tried in French, which was a great experience in Amboise and okay in Paris. The vast majority of people we interacted with were kind and helpful, so I don't know what folks are doing to encounter the "everyone is rude in France" kind of people but that was not our experience at all. Were there miscommunications? Sure. Did people answer me in English? Oh yes, especially in Paris. But I knew how to say "I'd like to try in French please" or "I'm sorry my French isn't the best, thank you for helping me" which I felt made a huge difference, especially if I was struggling.
• Next time we will stay somewhere other than Le Marais. I didn't find it as interesting or "happening" as other areas we visited (like Les Halles or Canal St Martin). That being said, there was a bus stop right across from our hotel (Les Tournelles, which was lovely) and we used that bus quite a lot. I just wanted an area that was a little more "throw a stone and hit a cool cafe" and I was surprised that wasn't the case where we were. Maybe we were in the wrong section of Le Marais (on Rue de Turenne, near Place des Vosges) or it was more dead at night than I was expecting.
• My husband didn't want to make dinner reservations, but he's a "3 sit-down meals a day" kind of person. I'm a "grab a crepe and walk" kind of person. So he kept trying to find formal sit-downs, which to me is a trip-killer, especially when they take a long time like they can in France. The times we couldn't find a spot he kept walking around until 11pm and we would eventually find somewhere that could fit us in. All I have to say about that is, I didn't care to spend peak hours sitting & eating so by that late at night I was fine with it. ;) If doing a formal sit-down meal is important to you, consider making reservations.
• I followed this sub's advice on not planning too much for each day and I think I hit the perfect balance. Thank you all! Now for what we did:

Arrival Day (Day 0): We flew into CDG on Saturday morning and it took us about 2 hours from landing to when we were through passport control. I guess the self-service lanes weren't an option that morning, or we weren't directed to them at least. Either way I'm glad I planned on us needing plenty of time for that.
We were taking a train to Tours from CDG a little over 3 hours after landing. After getting through passport control, we went to the Billets Paris et Ile de France ticket window to buy our metro passes for when we returned to Paris (Tuesday). The Paris By Train website made this sound easier than it was. After waiting in line for about 30 minutes, the man told us we couldn't buy Navigo Decouverte passes there. This was disappointing because...well, we'd been told this was the best place to do so since there are stations in the city that sell them, but they often run out of the cards and we'd have to go out of our way to buy them. After kind of going back and forth with him asking where else we could buy them, he sent us to the next window.
This man also said (at first) that we couldn't buy them. He then said "You can't use these to go to Paris now". Aha - it's not that we can't buy them, it's that they thought we thought we could use them today. We explained that we weren't going to Paris today and we didn't need the passes until Tuesday. It wasn't until I showed him our train tickets that he would sell us the passes. I think they were trying to avoid an "omg I didn't realize I couldn't use this now" incident, but I'm a better planner than that! Passes in hand we ran off to catch our train to Tours. I'll skip that part of the trip since this is the Paris sub. :P

It’s my birthday coming up soon, and I adore black sesame desserts/baked goods, so want to find somewhere new to try for my bday. Would love any suggestions! Here are the spots I’ve already tried:
Seed & Mill halva
Bibble & Sip cream puff
Ando Patisserie crepe roll
Soft Swerve ice cream
Spongies Cafe sponge cake
Grace Street shaved snow
Alimama mochi donut
Mochi Mochi donut
Lady Wong black sesame passion fruit cake
Butterdose cream puff
Pink Lady cheese tart
Lady M crepe cake

Thanks to everyone here for helping me figure this all out. We just got back from five days in Paris and it was amazing.

• Monday. Arrived CDG noonish. We were going to buy Navigo Decouverte cards at the train station at CDG but the line was ridiculous. Bought train (RER) tickets at the kiosks next to the ticket office and trained to the Opera station, near our AirBNB. There was a super helpful person at the ticket office at the Opera station and we got our Decouverte cards there. (Bring photos; I got mine printed at my local Walgreens for $2 before I left. You can use regular 2X3 passport type photos but zoom out a little to make yourself a little smaller. The Navajo card pics are a little smaller).
• Monday lunch. Miznon. Got the beef bourguignon pita. Amazing.
• Monday dinner: L'as Du Falafel. Not as great as we'd hoped. Bar Hemingway at the Ritz was fun but the cocktail was 38 euros.
• Tuesday. Lunch: Breizh Cafe for crepes/gallettes. Musee des Arts Decoratifs: amazing museum with a really cool temporary exhibition. Dinner: Aspic (one star Michelin). Mostly great. Great wine pairings. Very expensive. Had a great cocktail at Sister Midnight after.
• Wednesday: Musee De L'Orangeries in the morning. Lunch at Le Rigmarole: Wonderful people and a very special experience. The host conferred with us for ten minutes about our tastes and then we got ten dishes that were in that wheelhouse. Evening Seine cruise and then dinner at Le Relais de L'Entrecote: I was surprised at how delicious the steak was and the fries were excellent.
• Thursday: Musee D'Orsay in the morning. Had lunch in the restaurant on the 5th floor. OK food and great ambience. Got fruit tarts at DesGateauxDuPain that were amaze-balls. Then Catacombs (definitely get the free audio tour). Dinner at L'Assiette for the cassoulet. Very friendly restaurant with VERY heavy food.
• Friday: Incredible e-bike trip to Versailles with InAeri. Look it up on Trip Advisor. Renoud is the leader. We rode high quality e-bikes from Paris all the way to Versailles through beautiful countryside. Had lunch in an incredible market, saw the gardens and had enough time to do the tour through the living quarters/hall of mirrors. Dinner at Verjus back in Paris. Tasting menu. Delicious food with adventurous wine pairing.
• Feel free to ask away.

Just got back after a few day stay and wanted to say thanks to this sub for great recommendations and to give my thoughts on things. Used this sub for a lot of recommendations and also winged things a bit. As I'm typing this out I'm realizing it's getting kinda long winded lol. Hope it might help some others out.
Sunday - Met friends at Bratz Y'all. Really liked it here. Pretty chill spot, good beers and all the food was phenomenal (Nola shnitzel, pork shank, pretzel with Bavarian caraway brie dip). Checked into the Marriott Warehouse Arts District hotel. Nothing too special but it was a nice hotel aside from being a block away from the shooting on Sunday... Walked down Bourbon mostly for the people watching. Grabbed some beignets at Cafe Beignet (really enjoyed the chocolate beignets) and watched the band for a bit. Got a hurricane at the Pat O'Brien's courtyard, man that thing sucked lol, it's like drinking juice with 5lbs of sugar in it. Walked to the casino, won $200 on a slot and then walked back to our hotel which may not have been the smartest idea, in hindsight. But we made it out alive.
Monday - Turkey and the Wolf for lunch. I can see why this place had a long line. The fried bologna sandwich and collard green melt were phenomenal. Portion sizes were huge and we loved the vibes of the restaurant. Stumbled upon Simon's gallery and the attached antiques shop. Really liked his work and after visiting, noticed a bunch of his pieces throughout the city. Did a self guided walking tour through the Garden District. The gardens, landscaping, architecture were all stunning. Went to Potions speakeasy. That was a super fun experience between finding the place and the actual bar itself. Drinks were a little pricey but highly recommend. Mr. B's for dinner was probably the dining highlight of the trip. Fantastic food and great service (Duck springrolls, seafood gumbo, seared scallops, sheepshead and crawfish, bread pudding, raspberry gooey butter cake). Stopped at Lafitte's for one and walked back to the hotel.
Tuesday - Breakfast at Two Chicks by the convention center. Seated right away, served right away and had some good crepes. Went to the WWII museum and was blown away. So much to see and learn, this place was friggin huge. Highly recommend it. Checked into Hotel Monteleone and loved it. I thought the room was pretty reasonable for how opulent the hotel was. Ate at Felix's Oyster Bar but wasn't that impressed. Food was alright but the place smelled like ass and just seemed kinda dirty. Found some great art galleries on Royal St (Leroy's Place - just super wacky stuff but it was our favorite, Rodrigue studio, Harouni gallery, Henderson gallery). Then went to a show at Toulouse Theater. Nice intimate music venue with super cheap drinks. Got back to the hotel and got our Kevin McCallister on and ordered some room service.
Wednesday - Cafe du Monde in city park. There was hardly a line, got our beignets super quick. Would've loved to spend more time in the park but had to start the drive home.
TLDR: went to Nola (can I say that) ate shit ton and had fun. Thanks for the recs

https://www.grubhub.com/restaurant/crispy-crepes-cafe-714-commonwealth-ave-boston/506075

Returned from Paris and thank you for your suggestions. We visited Paris with my 9y.o daughter and my wife after our first trip 10 years ago. First day visited Trocadéro, walked around T.Eiffel. There was a spring fair with international streetfood there. It started raining.We Took bateaux parisien tour. Walked some more and returned hotel. 2. Day Went to montmartre-sacre cour-pl.tertre. Had a portrait of our daughter. Ate a wonderful lunch with Breton crepes and galettes in Breizh cafe near abbesses. Metro to arc de triomphe and had a slow stroll all the way to pl.Concorde. We visited museum of Petit palais on our way, which was also free,not crowded and delightful. Bastille square and Market was lively. Had great food from vendors and it was sunny. Went to Pl.Vosges and visited house of victor Hugo. Also went to Carnavalet museum,which was free,had no queues,and had wonderful paintings,sculptures and relics of city of Paris. Walked in Marais to Ile de la cite. Walked around bridges,Notre Dame,conciergerie and saints chapelle. Returned to hotel We stayed in Newport bay hotel in Disneyland for 3 days. Watched all the shows and had a blast with multiple rides. Food was expensive but mostly tasty. Also Chez Remy restaurant was superb contrary to all recent reviews. Evening back to Paris we walked around canal st.martin and Republique,which was our hotel area. Done some vintage-thrift shopping. We popped in Bouillion republique and it was cheap,simple,tasty French cuisine. There was a queue just as we were leaving the restaurant. Went to Opera,galerie la fayette and Haussmann ave. ate some decent crepes and chanced upon a Chinese patisserie/tea shop. Had a planning mishap so Museum of Natural history was closed. And it was sunny, so we went to invalides,then to champs de mars and had great birthday photos of my daughter with T.Eiffel in the background. Finished the day and our trip around palais royal and louvre museum. We didn’t get inside louvre,Eiffel or Versailles because of our first visit.
Suggestions: Paris before Olympics is basically a construction yard.Everything was obviously more expensive and crowded than a decade ago. Get ready to see construction everywhere. Lots of venues are being built, metro lines constantly closed for renovation. But if you want to visit in 2024, it will only get more crowded and expensive later. We used Navigo-easy with 10 ride loaded. I suggest to use Taxi to-from airport if you have luggage or more than 3 people. This time we only used RER to visit Disneyland. Have a nice trip

• once got known on reddit as 'peg boy'
• cats rlly like me
• probably couldn't recite the alphabet backwards
• looks vaguely like Kurt Cobain according to nirvanacirclejerk
• currently getting into the goth subculture
• fell into a river once
• been to like a bunch of countries (norway was best so far)
• was born extremely premature
• has never even held hands
• currently working in a cafe making crepes

Pando’s Creperie and Cafe just opened near Brower Park! Looks like they’ll be open 7 days a week from 7am - 6pm. They’re having their soft opening this weekend.
I’m not a huge crepe fan, but the (turkey) bacon, egg, and cheese crepe was delicious! They have other items like sandwiches, quiche, pastries on their menu, too.
227 Kingston Ave.

Currency/Cards etc.
• Buy a Suica card online and add it to your wallet. Fill it with about 5000Yen and use it for local transit in Tokyo, at 7/11s etc. you can use it everywhere. Scan it to take trains, kids can buy snacks at convenience stores. Each person will need a Suica to swipe for trains. So you cannot double swipe it. If you don’t have this, you’ll spend time buying tix for each journey.
• Best way to pull local currency is at 7/11. Don’t need a lot of cash once you have Suica and cc’s.
• Tokyo is best seen by train. Kyoto – you can take cabs.
• Shopping: Best place for snacks and cheapish beauty products is this chain called Don Quijote (Don Ki). Kit kat flavors there are insane and loads of Japanese snacks. We brought a whole bag full of snacks back.
Tokyo
Hotel 1: Marounuchi (near Tokyo Station) Shangri La Hotel – connected to Tokyo station, convenient for travel to bullet trains etc. (stayed for work)
Hotel 2: Cerulean Tower Hotel – Shibuya – heart of shopping district – lots of things for kids to do, connected to all trains. (personal)
Hotel 3: Kitano Hotel I liked it but it is far about 1 km from convenience stores and restaurants. No room service. (stayed for work)
Must Do Tokyo: in order

1. Meiji Jingu Shrine – Shinto shrine in the heart of Tokyo and in the greenery of Yoyogi park.
   
2. Asakusa – SensoJi Temple – If not going to Kyoto – great place to buy souvenirs.
   
3. Shibuya – Go to the malls – lots of hip teen stuff, Shibuya Crossing, Great for young people energy.
   
4. Tokyo Station – Massive, great food options (hidden Ramen lane underneath the station), get lost inside it. Also hub for Shinkansen (bullet trains)
   
5. Team Lab Planets Tokyo – Great interactive museum. Loved it.
   
6. Akihabara – Tech mecca. Really cool if your kids are into anime or even games. My kids spend hours playing games here. They have weird things called “maid cafes”. Far more wholesome than the name implies –kiddie birthday party like atmosphere. We did not go.
   
7. Ginza – super high end department stores. We went to the Flagship Uniqlo – 7+ floors. Fabulous. Also, full of tourists.
   
8. Imperial Palace –Walk through nicely manicured spaces. Was boring after a while.
   
9. Harajuku – Overrun with tourists – no cosplayers to be seen anywhere. Viral food location– multi color candy floss, Tanghulu, Crepes etc.
   
10. Shinjuku alleys for food – highly overrated. Full of tourists. You are better off finding nicer places where local families go. Great atmosphere.
    
11. Studio Ghibli – I haven’t done. You’ll have to plan to buy tix and get there. If your kids are into Miyazaki etc. Must Do.
    

Kyoto
Hotel: Stayed in the Shijo district – next time, would stay closer to Nishiki market. Stayed at Mimaru Suites. I would recommend this chain as a nice mid-range option for families.
Must Do Kyoto: in order

1. Took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. There is one every 20 mins or so. Buy a ticket in the office. Online tix are more expensive.
   
2. Nishiki market – Must Do. Opens at 11am. Go hungry. Eat in the various stalls for lunch. Food was fabulous to say the least. The later you go, the more tourists.
   
3. Fushimi Inari shrine – the iconic orange tori gates. Great place. If you have the time, it is a nice 1 hour hike to the top. It rained when we went, so turned back halfway.
   
4. Walk on Hanamikoji dori – preferably dinner and walk. It feels like a period movie set. Loads of restaurants on it.
   
5. Kinkaku Ji – Golden temple – only allowed to take pictures from afar.
   
6. Ginkaku Ji – Sliver temple – nice walk to get a panoramic view of Kyoto. Also in a book my kids read as children. Liked it a lot more.
   
7. Kiyomizu-dera – in the Higashiyama district. Large temple complex. (we got bored with too many temples)
   

• Kyoto overall - Food is fabulous. Souvenir shopping here is better than Tokyo.
• Also we cabbed everywhere in Kyoto. Cabs take 4 people. Common to sit in the front.
Trip to Hakone/Mt Fuji
Did a tour of Hakone/Mt Fuji via tour company
I would suggest that if you have time, you should overnight at a hotel with an onsen (hot spring) and experience it rather than do this trip. I still have not done that and will do the next time.
I got great views of Mt. Fuji (BTW – you will see it if you sit on the right side of the bullet train to Kyoto and left when returning back).