Tokyo Japan.

JAPAN! My sister and I have been talking about going to Japan for years now and we finally made it. Honestly, the time change and schedules was the issue with why it took so long. We finally arranged the days to go and made the far trek across the Pacific Ocean to Japan; beginning our trip in Tokyo.

https://youtu.be/VR-eLMfvFPg

Route.

Plane:

Going over we opted for direct into Narita (NRT), an airport located about an hour from Tokyo’s city center.

Coming back since we spent some days in Kyoto we flew out of Haneda (HND) an airport located in Tokyo.

ORD-NRT

HND-LAX-ORD

Where to stay.

I am not going to suggest any specific places because while we loved the place we stayed the location was not our favorite. We stayed in between the east and west neighborhoods that we explored, but it wasn’t the best located. If I were to do it againI would book a hotel in Shinjuku or Tokyo City. These neighborhoods were my favorite locations and I think would be an enjoyable stay.

Also, our hotel room was a tiny city hotel and I loved the feel. We came home a day early otherwise we would have stayed in a pod hotel for 1 night.

Day 1.

Shibuya City.

We started our day out super early at about 6 AM on the west side of Tokyo. First stop was Meiju Jingu. Besides the main temple area there is a wall of sake bottles beautifully decorated. The empty barrels are stacked as a wall and the meaning behind them has some cool cultural context.

Sake bottle at Meiju Jingu Temple in tokyo japan

Meiju Jingu temple located near Yoyogi Park

Harajuku.

Located on the west side of Tokyo this fun neighborhood was a place we got stuck in because we just fell in love. One of the main streets is a great place to begin your Harajuku experience. This street is filled with funky and colorful shops and places to grab a treat.

While in Harajuku you will come across pet cafes. You can pay money to enter a cafe and hang out with the animals inside. Options include: dogs, cats, owls, and hedgehogs.

We picked Harry’s Hedgehog cafe because it felt well maintained and was very cute. For 1300 Yen you can spend 30 minutes playing with a few little hedgies and get a free drink. If you want to purchase some snacks to feed while playing that is an additional cost.

Harry's hedgehog cafe in Harajuku Tokyo Japan

Shibuya.

Located just South of Harajuku this transition is a great way to end your day. In the Shibuya neighborhood you will find Shibuya Crossing; a famous intersection with 5 crosswalks that all run at the same time. If you didn’t know what this was called you will definitely recognize it.

I would recommend coming to this area around evening. You will watch it transform as the signs light up all around.

Shibuya crossing tokyo japan the lost dog waiting for his owner

The little dog statue in the middle image above is the Hachiko statue. Story goes that the dog met his owner every day after work in that spot. Even after his owner passed he would show up each evening and wait for him. Now this popular tourist spot is one where people line up to snap a picture with the statue.

Day 2.

Asakusa.

Woke up again and hit the rode at 6 AM to see the East side of Tokyo. We started off at Sensoji Temple and arrived via train on a rainy morning to beat the crowds. This temple is in the neighborhood Asakusa, a few of the main attractions are the shrines with red green and block accents.

The shrine also has three large lanterns that just complete it. If you look closely in the photograph above you will notice two large sandals hanging from the temple

From here you can opt to walk over Kappabashi Utensil Street. Here you will find stores that sell tons of kitchenware. If you wake up early like up just keep in mind most shops here do not open until 10 or 11 AM.

Shopping for chopsticks on Kappabashi Utensil Street Tokyo Japan

If you’re roaming this neighborhood you’ve got to make a few food stops. First, Don Quijote is an interesting store, with the product mix of Target or CVS with the novelty of speciality stores like Trader Joe’s. Here we purchases cool Japanese candies and a few cool Japanese cosmetics.

Second, we ate one of my favorite Japanese food finds. Mitarashi Dango, sweet dumplings on a skewer in a soy sauce glaze.

Lastly, this item I have been looking forward to eating was Taiyaki. These fish shaped treats, similar to pancakes, are cooking in an iron mold and stuffed with a sweet filling. We chose the bean jelly filling. You can watch my initial reaction in my YouTube video. The filling was really interesting, even though it was sweet it had a strong bean undertone and my pallet was not used to that.

Ueno Park/ Nezu Shrine.

Next stop we accessed via the metro; a large park in the middle of the city where you will find more shrines. Here you will find some different shrines gates and pagodas that are free to enter and view.

You can also walk farther up and past the park to Nezu Shrine. It is a little bit out of the way, maybe a 20 minute walk. This shrine has a long path of small shrine gates you can walk under.

Akihabara.

We ended our evening in this dreamworld neighborhood. This Tokyo electric town is full of anime stores, gashapons and UFO catcher shops. I would highly recommend following out path of coming here before sunset and staying until after sunset.

The gashapons are stores with those coin operated machines that dispense little trinkets. Some of them can be found out and about on the street, but there are the fully decked out stores with walls lines with gasha machines.

The UFO catchers are claw machines. Stores are completely filled with them and people are playing them to try and score a prize. Some of them are also filled with arcade games.

We also tried udon noodles in this neighborhood. These are served with a soy sauce side, which you use to drip your noodles before you eat them.

There are a few different buildings out here that We found fascinating. I am dropping some pictures below.

Check out my YouTube Channel to see the lights radiating at night.

Day 3.

Imperial Palace.

We started our day out early again and headed to the Imperial Palace located very central in the Tokyo. It opened at 9:30 AM promptly, but unfortunately a portion of it was closed due to construction. We walked around the gorgeous gardens and the exited the park to view the famous bridge that is the entrance to the actual palace.

This bridge is iconic to the palace and is referred to as Nijubashi Bridge (Double Bridge) but is correctly named Seimon Ishibashi. There is a stone bridge and an iron bridge you can view there. If you are interested in the history of it check out this blog.

Tokyo Station/ Character Aisle.

We took a nice long stroll to Tokyo Station with is a main hub for the Tokyo metro. You can get all over the city and the country out of here. There are so many layers to it, and on one of the bottom floors there is a special area called Character Aisle.

Here there are tons of shops filled with character themed shops. You will find ones like Snoopy Town, Hello Kitty, Line Friends and so many more.

I will not we had a tough time finding this because you have to go downstairs (we really didn’t realize just how big this station was). But as confused as we looked a very kind local came to our rescue and showed us the way.

Ginza.

Located in the center of Tokyo this area is home to luxury shopping and some good food. At night this areas is lit up gorgeously like most other neighborhoods, but in the day time you can stroll the main streets and see beautifully designed storefronts.

On Sundays they close down the main street to vehicle traffic; pedestrians are able to roam freely. Here we also ate lunch at a restaurant that serves Misokatsu, deep fried pork cutlet with miso sauce. I do not eat prok, but my sister loved the food as well as my parents who gave us the recommendation.

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Hamarikyu.

Yet another garden located inside of the city, this is one that has beautiful flower blooms throughout the year. The cost for entrance was ¥3oo. Inside you will find flowers in bloom depending on season and a traditional teahouse.

Shinjuku.

Located on the northwest corner of Tokyo our last neighborhood was one that we ran through really quickly because we had limited time left on our metro pass. This is another area dominated by bright night lights.

There is a large Godzilla also located on top of a building here. It was so cool to hear about and then see in person. We wish we could have had an entire evening here because the architecture and lights were the best.