Day 1 (August 30) – Arrival in Tokyo, Japan
David made it almost the entire way without getting sick, but the last 30 minutes of the flight ruined that streak. We finally made it to Tokyo, landing at Haneda airport. On the descent we caught a view of Mt. Fuji which was really cool to see.
We took our time getting off the plane, as we had to fill out customs forms and david needed a couple minutes to let his stomach settle. We ended up being the last people on the plane and held up the crew who jokingly asked if we were aware the plane landed. To be fair, its was BY far the quickest we have seen people depart a plane, with it being cleared in under 5 minutes. We made our way through the airport, clearing inmigration and getting our bags, letting David work off his nausea. We grabbed some cold drinks and sim cards and made our way to the pasmo card counter to get our rail pass.
We navigated the easy rail stop at the airport, taking the train to Shinagawa station to transfer to take it to our final destination, shinjuku station. The train was decently crowded, and with our big bags, it was a bit cumbersome. Not to mention, we were sufficiently sweaty at this point. After arriving at shinjuku, we stepped outside for the first time in tokyo and took in the sights. This was short lived, as we were desperate to get to our hotel due to the intense exhaustion from a long travel day that was preceeded by a week of moving all of our belongings out of our townhouse. We took the most exhausting 10 minute walk to our hotel with our heavy bags, but still tried our best to take in our surroundings through the small side streets filled with restaurants and bars.
Finally, we made it to our APA hotel. It is VERY small, but cozy and has everything we need including a small fridge, a clean bathroom with great water pressure, and great A/C. We tried to motivate ourselves to get out and grab some dinner but we were way too tired and passed out at 7:30.
David thoughts of the day – I love that all the trains have amazing air conditioning fully pumped up at all times. Also, I’m not sure if its just this hotel or Japan, but the bed has no sheets and just a comforter.
Caitlyns thoughts of the day– why did we walk past so many massage parlors and places advertising “time with girls” on the way to our hotel? Because it is one of tokyos red light districts, unbeknownst to us before arriving. Second, the pillows in our hotel is not what I would call a pillow. It’s more of a compact foam- like box. And not the good memory foam kind, the kind we would have used to pad our belongings during our move.
Day 2 (August 31) – First full day in Tokyo
We started the day off nice and early around 6:45 and started getting our clothes and bags ready for the day to walk around Tokyo. We also had to get our Japanese sim cards working, which was a little trickier than advertised. We finally got out around 8:00 and hit up the nearest Family Mart just a block away for a quick grab and go breakfast with some drinks. David chose the cold oolong tea and a cold shrimp cutlet sandwich, ehike caitlyn chose a cold roasted green tea and a hamburger steak sushi bun. Both teas were good, but without any sweetness while both food items were shockingly tasty. We also grabbed a cold pre-made coffee to drink on the go.
From here we started making our way to the Tokyo Government Metropolitan building, while immediately feeling the full affects of the 95 dog heat wave. After a sweaty 20 minute walk, we arrived just at opening around 9. David grabbed a vending machine iced lemonade which was delicious. From here we went up the the 45th floor to see the observation deck which provided near 360 degrees view of the city. We were lucky enough that the day was clear enough to see Mt fuji in the distance, which was surreal and so big in person. We met a woman who informed us that many of the popular destinations have free stamps that you can collect in a booklet, so we purchased a booklet to start collecting our own stamps!
Next up we made the 15 minute walk to the Yoyogi park which holds the Meiji Shrine. We learned that the shrine was dedicated for Emperor Meiji who was the emperor to turn Japan from their old Edo isolationist regime to a more modern globalized Japan. The shrine was built for him and the empress in the early 1900s after his death. The park was planted ~100 years ago and turned into a large forest with many rare plants and animals. Prior to entering the shrine, we went through a cleansing ritual which involved washing your hands, then mouth, then hands again.
In the shrine we payed our respects by providing a small donation, bowing twice, clapping twice, then bowing one final time. They had a beautiful pair of trees known as “Meoto Kusu” (husband and wife) which is a symbol or happy marriage and harmonious life within the family.
After walking around the shrine for about an hour, we started marking our way to Shinjuku Gyeon National Garden, which we were planning on walking through to get to a nearby rail station. We were unaware that there was a few to enter, and while it wasn’t pricey, we opted to go to a different station due to being so hot and we had already spent so much time in the sun in Yoyogi Park. We took the rail to hotel new Otani to walk through a beautiful and traditional Japanese garden. Here they had several bridges, a koi pond, and multiple water falls.
We decided it would be a good time to grab some lunch following the gardens. We walked through a bustling side street that seemed to have very low tourism and high amounts of locals, and found a great sushi spot. We shared a sushi platter which came with 12 assorted prices of sushi, miso soup, and an egg custard along with chilled genmaimatcha. The sushi was DELICIOUS and an absolute steal considering it came out to less than 8 USD. We explored this street a bit before hopping on the ginza line to head to shibuya district.
After arriving in Shibuya, we took an impromptu trip to the mall right across the train station exit. This was a massive ~15 floor mall full of luxury goods and multiple floors of food halls. We obviously skipped the luxury goods (balling on a budget) and went straight to the foods. We walked around looking at all of the interesting food offerings which all looked and smelled AMAZING. Stalls ranged from yakitori to fried cutlets and tempura, soups and bistros. We settled on a mochi dessert called Warabi mochi that was highly recommended (pretty good, strong tea flavor) and a big water bottle to rehydrate. We explored more of the mall and eventually left to walk outside towards Shibuya crossing and all of the stores and restaurants in the area.
We braved the shibuya scramble, known for being the worlds largest crossing. We then wandered through one of the side streets and checked out stores like a giant capsule-toy store and decided to take a break to grab a beer and start working on our daily blog. We also decided to get 2 yakitori sticks as they were like 70 cents a piece. David got plain and caitlyn got super spicy. The plain was AMAZING and so tender. The super spicy lived up to the spicy name, although our training leading up to our trip payed off being it was very tolerable.
We decided to continue on with our exploring at this point, and walked through more of the shibuya side streets, popping into fun stores including more claw machine shops and took in the culture. We walked all around Central Shibuya and decided we needed a break from the intense heat. We stopped by a locals Izakaya restaurant (alcoholic beverages and cheap drinking/street food like skewers). We grabbed a sapporo and shared 3 skewers: pork neck, belly, and cheek. Skewers were pretty good and the beer was literally ice cold. After the Sapporo we shared an cold saki “izumibashi” and worked on the blog to kill some time before sunset.
After we went to the Shibuya Crossing View which charges a hefty $5 cover charge which includes either a large beer or large sake to spend all the time you want looking at the overlook directly over Shibuya Crossing. We stayed here to enjoy watching the sun set over the Shibuya Crossing as the district lit up with all of its colorful neon lights and signages.
After dusk, we made our way to the Hachiko statue, and wandered the lively side streets of Shibuya, making our way into a bar called The Whales of August. We were a bit uncertain at first, due to them informing us there was a 500 yen cover charge (< $3.50), however, we decided to stay. We are glad we did because it was an amazing bar with delicious movie themed cocktails, tasty bar snacks, and friendly bartenders. It was a bit of a toss up of what cocktail to order, because the only information provided was the name, base liquor, and if it was a long or short drink. We were incredibly impressed with our first round of drinks that we ended up ordering a second round and left our fate up to chance by just selecting a movie title we enjoyed. We were shocked that with the craftmanship of the cocktails, they only came out to ~ $5.50 each.
After our second round, we made our way back to the Shibuya Station to take the rail back to Shinjuku. We were getting pretty tired by this point, but decided to walk through some of the small side alleys in Shinjuku known for their small Izakayas. It’s a good thing we did, because smelling the delicious scent of Yakitori and seeing all of the quint eateries gave us a second wind to grab one more bite to eat. We selected an eatery that seemed to have mainly locals, although it was slightly larger than most of the other establishments, whose seating caps out around 8 seats. We were informed that this was a “pork only” establishment, and that ordering at least one beer per person was required. Well, twist our arms! We got our beers and selected the stir-fry pork tripe and harami skewers with leek and ponzu sauce. We aren’t quite sure what harami is, but why not give it a try! The skewers were tasty but the real winning dish was the tripe. It seemed to be a mix of liver and intestines (an maybe a slice or two of pork rectum thrown in there. This is very much a thing here apparently). We finished our food, and headed home exhausted and full!
David thoughts of the day – there are almost no trash cans or recycling in all of tokyo. I carried 2 empty water bottles around for over 2 hours until I finally found a place to dispose of them. Also caitlyn speaks AMAZING Japanese learned via duolingo. She has ordered everything in Japanese and keeps pulling things out that I didn’t know she knew. Also also, Japanese people love American music. Every restaurant plays almost exclusively throwback American music. Also also also, there is English on almost everything. The police cars even have “Police” written in English larger than the Japanese spelling.
Caitlyns thoughts of the day- it is hard to know if a restaurant is open walking by it, and many restaurants do not show up on Google maps. Also, 90% of our day while the sun was up was spent in a pretty sweaty state. I could tell that our bodies were decently dehydrated, because we both drank multiple bottles of water and cold tea without needing to use the bathroom even once. Also also, we were sweaty Betty’s most of the day. I don’t think Japanese people sweat. Everyone is wearing long pants or suits and looks crisp and clean. And we are here during a heat wave.
Total miles walked: 14.23
Total steps: 29,363
Day 3 (September 1)
We set a lofty goal of waking up at 6:30 to hit the Tsukiji Market. We didn’t hit our goal, however, we weren’t far off. We got up around 7:15, but being in such a small room is proving to make getting ready in the morning more challenging, and we didn’t leave until close to 8:30. While gettin ready, we drank the coffees we had picked up from the night prior. We made the walk to the Rail station, while making our stop at the mart 1 block away for some cold waters and a cold tea for Caitlyn (David is boycotting until he can find one that is sweetened). We walked a new street one block over from our usual, however this seemed to be a hard-partying street, as we saw many people stumbling out of night clubs and sitting/laying throughout the sidewalk. We made the mental note to take another street in the future.
We had an easy ride to the Tsukiji market with only one transfer. We exited the rail at the Giza Station, and made the hot yet short walk to the market. We weren’t sure exactly what to expect, but it blew away all of our non-existent expectations. There were hundreds of stalls ranging from selling dried fish, seaweed, nuts, pottery, chopsticks, knives, tea, cooking ware, sweets, and of course, FRESH FISH.
We made our first stop at Tsukijiro, which had an assortment of fresh donbori bowls to get our first sushi fix. We went with their most popular bowl to share, which included medium fatty tuna, lean tuna, sea bream, flounder, amberjack, squid, sweet shrimp, crab, salmon roe, and egg omelet. The price tag was slightly higher than these types of bowls in other parts of the city, but the freshness of the fish couldn’t be beat. It was absolutely delicious, with Caitlyn’s favorite bite being the sweet shrimp and Davids ALSO being the sweet shrimp. We have to say, prior to this trip, we weren’t a fan of shrimp sushi, but we have been converted! We’ve never tried shrimp that tastes quite like the sushi shrimp in Tokyo.
After splitting our breakfast sushi bowl, we went on to explore the different side streets of the market. Next up on our taste around the market was a whole sautéed squid, which you cut into slices with communal tongs and scissors (david found this out the hard way by trying to bite into the squid whole, and having the vendor laugh and point to the scissors while gesturing a cutting motion). It was unbelieveably tasty and tender, with absolutely no ruberiness.
Next, we walked by a stall that was selling various fruit and mochi. Caitlyn spotted candied strawberries, which she has seen on a few “must try” lists of food in Tokyo, so of course we had to get it. They are essentially skewered strawberries, dipped in melted sugar and allowed to harden. You bite into the strawberry with a sweet, crunchy exterior and the inside explodes into pure delicious concentrated strawberry juice. It was far better than we were expecting, given the simplicity of the dish.
After walking around more, we scouted out a good deal on a trio of grilled skewers- eel (unagi), scallops, and eel liver. We both agreed that the eel was our favorite followed by the scallops, and while the liver was good, it could have used a bit more sauce and carmelization.
At this point, Caitlyn made it her mission to scout out the best uni, at a modest price. While doing laps throughout the market to compare vendors, we stumbled across an unbeatable deal on grilled king crab, with it being half the price of the stalls found in the busier sections. We sat down at the small table adjacent to the stall, and next to the street, as the woman cut and grilled a whole king crab leg. We were also thirsty at this point, and thought we would cool down by sharing a bottles Asahi. The crab was incredible, and required no sauce or seasoning, as the sweet yet salty natural flavors were able to shine. The woman selling crab was so sweet after we talked up the crab to some potential customers that ended up purchasing some grilled legs, that she brought over a raw piece of crab, telling us that we needed to try this because it is delicious. We definitely agreed!
At this point, we had been wondering around for about an hour fifteen, and we were starting to get exhausted from the heat. We double backed on a vendor we saw earlier that sold uni out of the sea urchin shell, which provided the perfect portion to end our food tour on. The uni was buttery and delicious, with a couple drops of soy sauce added, and wasabi for Caitlyn.
We ended our tour of the market walking through the indoor section that seemed to be predominantly whole sale vendors, soaking up the AC. Here, we saw how MASSIVE king crabs really are, and the BIGGEST oysters we have ever seen (probably 4x the size of a medium to large east coast oyster). After calling it a day at the market, just over two hours after arriving, we talked through our favorite dishes of the market. To our surprise, the winning dish was the candied strawberries.
Next on our hit list was to walk by the Kabuki-za building while making our way to the Gina’s rail station. We stopped by a Family Mart for more water to hydrate. After hopping on the rail, we made our way to sumida city, walking across the Azuma Bridge over the Sumida River to the Asahi beer headquarter building. Here, they have a 22nd floor sky bar, with breathtaking views of the city that went on for miles in all direction. We were lucky enough to get yet another view of Mt. Fuji towering above the clouds. Here, we got a beer, and got to work on finishing yesterday’s blog, and allowing Caitlyns blistered heels to rest a bit. It was a welcome down time, and after about two hours of blogging and making our Tokyo to Kyoto bullet train purchase, we took our last look at the stunning view and made our way out to walk over to the historic Asakusa region, yet again crossing over the sumida river’s bridge that connects the two districts.
We took a quick stop within the visitor center to grab a few maps of Tokyo’s regions, and quickly popped up to the 8th floors free observation deck for a free view of the Tokyo sky tree and the Asahi building that we were just sitting in.
We then departed to make our way down Nakamise-dori street towards Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo. Nakamise-dori is lined with lots of vendors selling food and souvenir items. This was a quick walk for us, as it was very crowded and the sun was beating down on us. Once we made it to the end, we decided to grab a fortune at the base of the temple. This involved making a small donation, shaking a numbered stick out of a can while making a wish, finding the corresponding box, and taking the fortune inside. Caitlyn went first, and received the “99th best” top fortune. David went next, receiving a “22nd best” mediocre fortune, but don’t worry, he forgot to even make a wish during the process so no harm no foul.
We made our way up into the temple, which was stunning, and walked throughout the temple grounds and gardens while grabbing some vending machine coffees to keep our energy up. The grounds features koi ponds, small waterfalls, statues, and tributes to historically important people to Tokyo and the temple. There were surprisingly few people taking the opportunity to wander this area, despite Senso-Ji and Nakamise-dori being so crowded.
From here, we wandered the side streets of the historic Asakusa, before settling down at the Izakaya Totoya to grab a sake with some small bites, including chilled potato salad with corn and Tarako (cod fish roe) which were included with the sake, and ordered two small plates; cucumber and minced chicken with miso and garlic, and deep fried Chikuwa isobe (tempura fried fish cake). All items were tasty, but david enjoyed the roe best (basically a neutral-flavored casing similar to a sausage casing in bite, full to the brim with salty roe), while caitlyn enjoyed the potato salad best. We sat for a while enjoying our food and drinks, while the host directed the A/C hoses right at us.
We set off to explore more of Asakusa and stumbled upon a giant building adorned with a huge neon sign “ASAKUSA DON QUIJOTE”. The lights did their trick and pulled us inside. We quickly realized that it was a large convenient store with everything you could imagine inside. We each selected a beverage that piqued our interest – Caitlyn a sparkling lychee drink and David grabbed a drink that we are not quite sure what to call (the flavored soda that you have to pop the ball in and create the carbonation). We explored more and drank our beverages, venturing into Taito City, noticing that this district seems to be more a more quaint area for locals. It also seemed to slow down earlier in the day than other districts we have been to, with some streets almost cleared out by 6:30pm.
We made our way back to the Don Quijote and discovered a large shopping street nearby. We ducked into “Asakusa ROX” shopping mall to admire the wares of the vendors inside. We checked out a hobby shop and found lots of cute stuffed Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro characters and exhausted the first floor before deciding to go back outside and see what else there is in store for us. We felt that it was still too early to venture back towards the Shinjuku area where our hotel is, so we checked google maps and found a place called the Kamiya Bar that attracted us as the oldest “western style bar” in Tokyo, having opened in 1880 and established as Kamiya Bar in 1912. It was full of people eating, drinking beer/cocktails/sake and socializing. Japan often has interesting differences in their bars and restaurants. For example, at this bar and other places we’ve visited, when you check in to the host stand, they often make you purchase and pay for your drinks before even finding a table. We chose a sake and a hachi wine cocktail and were handed two tiny tickets and told to sit anywhere. Almost the second our butts hit the seat, our tickets were swept up and just as quickly, our drinks landed on our table.
While we sat in the restaurant sipping on our drinks, working on our blog, we noticed an old Japanese man across the room that continued to gesture cheersing at us and dancing and smiling at us. We reciprocated and enjoyed the interaction, and soon he came over and gestured if he could sit with us. We said of course and proceeded to have 10 minutes of having a full blown conversation mostly through body language, facial expressions, and broken English and Japanese. We think we talked about America, baseball, and how to stay young…but we can’t be sure. He did say that “natto”, which turns out to be fermented soy beans, is how he feels so young at 74 years old. We really enjoyed our interaction, but we realized the conversation would never end if we weren’t the first to say goodbye, so we typed out a goodbye on Google translate and headed off. We decided to finish checking out the greayter Senso-ji temple area and stopped by one last place to see if they had any good food or drink to enjoy the area a little more. We found a small place called Torasuzu and decided to suck up yet another cover charge (though it did cover an appetizer) and grabbed a beer. We unfortunately were seated next to the most annoying group of 4 Americans and one Japanese man clearly with the Americans part of some food tour. In overhearing their conversation, we couldn’t help but be horrifically embarrassed for the impression they were offering of Americans. Their conversations were incredibly superficial (spent the day taking a photo shoot at shibuya crossing and shopping for “shades” and a hat for “my bro”) and asking the food tour guide (we’re assuming) to order them beef (“definitely kobe beef dude”) with rice, after ordering French fries and saying they were the best they’ve ever tasted. They seemed to not want to try any of the local cuisine, attempt to learn or speak any Japanese, and did not appear to want to learn about the culture. Needless to say, 5 minutes into our time sitting next to them we couldn’t take it anymore and quickly finished our beers and small appetizer (chilled green beans and eggplant in some kind of clear viscous sauce with chillis and sesame seeds which caitlyn enjoyed, although David was concerned it may elicit an allergic reaction after trying g a bite and abstained from eating more).
We left to continue to explore the greater sensoji temple region and asakusa, walking through the side streets and admiring the quaint nature. We admired some of the day-time sights we saw including the Tokyo Skytree and Senso-ji Temple entrance lit up at night with far fewer crowds.
Exhaustion quickly set over us, so we proceeded to the nearest rail station to make the 30ish minute trip back to shinjuku. On the train, caitlyn decided she wanted to put her keen sense of direction to the test, and try to make it out of the rail station, and the 10 minute walk back to the hotel without using a map or directions. She was succesful, making no wrong turns through the busy shinjuku streets on the 16 minute walk back. We grabbed two new coffees for the morning from our usual convenience store and called it a night.
Davids thoughts of the day: the soy sauce you get in Japan is way better than that which you can get in the US, even at the international markets. Japan knows how to do drinks. Also, every water is not only ice cold, but the cups they provide are all clearly frosted. Most beers are in frosted mugs as well. Also also, there is a strange cover charge at many restaurants here. Some include appetizers to make up for the cover, but most do not. The cover is usually very small ($2-3), but when trying to be on a budget we avoid these places unless we are each getting at least 2 items.
Caitlyns thoughts of the day: While Japanese public toilets have MANY amazing features (“privacy” status with noise cancellation, bidets, automatic sprays to reduce scents) they do have an uncomfortable feature of automatic seat warming, which makes you feel as though someone before you spent way too long on the toilet seat. To me, I like my car seats warmed in the winter, not my toilet seated warmed in the summer during a heat wave. Also, while I knew how much Tokyo enjoys cute cartoons, anime, and animal figurines, I didn’t realize how much it would be engrained into 90% of all aspects of life. Commercials, billboards, menus, toilet instructions, food packaging, pretty much everything has some degree of “cutesy-ness” to it. Also also, 99% of business men have the same dress code; dark pants with a white or very light blue shirt, no patterns, and no ties. Also also also, standard beer can be found cheap and reasonably priced (Asahi, Sapporo, etc for ~ $3 USD). Craft beer is served in SMALL quantities and at a relatively high price (> $8 for a small glass which is probably 8-10 oz).
Total miles walked: 9.89
Total steps: 20,476
Day 4 (September 2)
We both woke up naturally super early (around 5:15) feeling well-rested and decided to get a start to our day. Today was cleaning day for our hotel so we had to lock up all of our belongings to be safe. We spent a long time preparing the bags for someone to be in our room, folding and tucking away our dirty laundry which we had left hanging to dry, and also to get our day ready. We got out around 7:30 and hopped on the train to make the hour-long ride to Toyosu market (including 2 transfers).
We worked our way to the Toyosu market, not sure what to expect as it seems like a massive indoor complex. The side we came in on had a few rows of restaurants (mostly sushi) and eventually led to an overlook over the morning tuna market. We looked down at the market, which opened at 430 and was definitely closed by the time we got here at 830, but we did get to see a few huge tuna still sitting on tarps on the ground. Throughout the observation deck above the wholesale region, they had video displays that showed the chaos and hustle and bustle of a normal selling day, which closely resembled a stock market exchange. They also had photos that displayed the progression of the tuna market from the conception during the Edo era to where it stands today. We took our time puttering around and enjoying the information they provided, as we did spend an hour on the commute here.
As we made our way back towards the entrance lined with small establishments, we decided to grab a sushi breakfast at a highly rated restaurant Sushi Dokoro Yamasaki. It only had 9 seats and the staff was kind, funny, and welcoming. We decided to share a nigiri and maki platter which came with 3 pieces of tuna roll, 2 pieces of egg, and 7 nigiri pieces; scallop, mackerel, squid, 3 white fish, and of course, tuna. The sushi was absolutely fantastic, and we had friendly conversation with the waitress, who talked to us about how some Japanese words are “spin offs” of English words. Caitlyn decided to get a single piece of uni nigiri, which was amazing. We said our goodbyes to our new friends, and made our way to the other section of the Toyosu market, over a pedestrian bridge across a highway.
Here, we noted more small eateries, most famous of which being Sushi Dai. Typically, it is recommended that you arrive early in the morning (5am-ish) to try and get a ticket with a time stamp to come back later in the day to eat. When we arrived around 9:30ish to this side of the market, we of course saw a sign saying “all booked” for today. We were expecting that the market would take longer and be more similar to Tsukiji, so we had budgeted around 2-2.5 hours to spend here before making our way to Team Labs in the same area. While the sushi platter was a good start to our day, we still were feeling a bit hungry, and decided to grab another Japanese famous dish; tonkatsu. We popped into the restaurant stall Odayasu to share a lunch tonkatsu platter which included pork cutlet, crab, and shrimp. The food was tasty, and the breading was crispy yet light. We spent some time here working on yesterday;’s blog until we noticed an early lunch rush hitting, and felt that we should surrender our bar seats. Unfortunately, all of our work on the blog ended up being for nothing, as the website wouldn’t save our progress and it was all lost. Oh well, lesson learned!
At this point, it was around 11 and our timed tickets to TeamLab were for 11:30, so we decided to make the 15 minute walk over and arrive early. It was a pretty miserable walk, as the sun was beating down on us with blistering heat, and there was no shade to rescue us along the way. We noted that this area of Tokyo was very different from the sections we had visited previously. There were large buildings with very few stores or restaurants, and it felt as if we could have been in an US based city without any distinguishing features.
We finally got to Team Labs, a bit early, and clamored for any shade we could find while we waited for our 11:30 time slot. When the time finally came, we were directed into a covered room with a brief presentation describing what to expect, including; being barefoot throughout the experience, expecting wading in knee high water, having mirrors on the floor meaning that underwear would be visible for skirt and dress wearing individuals, and for a completely immersive experience. We stowed our belongings munis our phones in the provided lockers, and set off barefoot to the experience. First up was an uphill ramp with water flowing down from a waterfall at the top of the landing. We dried our feet in the next room over, then proceeded to the following room which involved large bean bag pillows as the floor and walls. The room was filled with a cacophony of laughter and thuds as people tried to make their way across the room, many falling in the process (Caitlyn included, to which David laughed at, before she took her revenge and pushed him over). Next up was a room with floor, wall, and ceiling mirrors, that were filled with icicle-like LED lights that changed colors, brightness, and pattern. We walked along the designated pathways and took in all of the beautiful scenery.
From here we made our way down a slope, into knee-high water that took you into a large dimly lit room. Here, we waded through water that transitioned lights from colorful fish, to flowers, to an array of water colors.
Making our way out of the water, we dried off once again. The next room held giant inflatable balls with vividly changing colors that shined down on the room.
The final room of this section of the exhibit was an entirely mirrored room with mirrored floors and a domed mirrored ceiling in which you were instructed to lay down in the center. Projections of flowers and butterflies moved throughout the room, growing and shrinking, transitioning from blooming to dispersing their petals, providing an ever changing astroscape of flora which kept us and our instagram stories captivated. We then moved on to the “garden” aspect of the exhibit, which we admit was a bit of a let down. The first of the two rooms brought you outdoors into a greenhouse full of large reflective metal orbs. After stepping two paces into the room, we quickly decided that the heat alone would preclude us from engaging in this exhibit, however, heat aside there didn’t seem to be much going on here. Apparently at night, there are light displays which make it a beautiful sight, and tolerable temperature wise.
The final room was stunning, as it involved floor, wall, and ceiling mirrors with dynamically rising and falling flower displays that responded and moved corresponding to your proximity to them. This meant you had to be quick to snap photos with them, as they would rise out of photo range or drop in front of your lens. We wrapped up our tea labs experience after an hour 45 minutes, overall very happy with the exhibit. Davids favorite part was the initial water ascend to the small waterfall, which Caitlyn’s was the icicle LED lights.
In order to head back to central Tokyo we had to make another hot walk, 12 minutes to a rail station with only sparse shade from the occasional tree. We decided to take the rail to Rappongi district and check out the Mori Hills Tower. They say it is like a whole city inside of a building – shopping, entertainment, food, housing. While the rail line dropped us off right around the tower, we were pretty tired and needed a rest break so we checked David’s guide to Tokyo and decided to try a very highly rated craft beer spot called Brew Dog. Inside, it looked just like any western craft beer spot and had 20 beers on tap. David decided to get a flight of 4 IPAs while Caitlyn got an English pint. We spent about 90 minutes here slowly sipping away and resting while working on our blog.
After we finished our beers, we were feeling some hunger set in, and luckily there was a highly rated ramen shop just a few blocks away called “Ippudo”. We shared their house special ramen and a plate of 5 small gyoza. The ramen was delicious and we practiced on our loud sipping.
We wrapped up our meal and proceeded back towards Rappongi tower. We explored the tower a little, but it was mostly luxury goods and restaurants. Caitlyn did get a chestnut pastry, which caught her eye due to a sign saying “Saturday only”.
We took the train back towards Shinjuku to rest a bit in the hotel before setting out for dinner. Along the way back we stopped along Godzilla Street where on the hour every hour from noon until 8:00pm, the giant Godzilla head will roar, light up, and smoke will come out of his mouth. It was a little bit of a letdown, but still fun and maybe not worth the 10 minute wait we spent waiting for 7:00pm.
We shared a small sake in the room and watched some Japanese game shows. Today’s game was walking through an obstacle course while keeping a plastic bowl afloat via air from a hairdryer. Knowing that tonight would be our last later evening, we decided to head back towards Omoide Yokocho izakaya to pop into a few eateries and try some street food. First up were chicken and pork skewers in a 8-person bar. It was so cramped that David had to stick one of his legs out into the alley to even fit. While the skewers were good, they weren’t memorable.
We walked around and ventured to the adjacent street where we found an eatery packed with locals called “Shimonya”. They seated us upstairs and we felt a happy and playful vibe from all of the diners. They had an extensive menu with some unfamiliar dishes. We felt brave so we got 1 pork heart skewer (DELICIOUS), 1 pork head skewer(also delicious – a little more tender and a little fattier), Caitlyn got the garlic stems and David got a chicken wing skewer, 1 chicken skin skewer, a rare wagyu beef skewer, and finally horse sashimi. We were nervous about the horse, but it was actually delicious. David felt it tasted a bit like rare Shaba-Shaba beef and we were happy that we tried it. Some places around here actually sell whale meat which we figured we should try while we’re here, but they said they do not have it on their menu.
We moved on from here to our final stop to grab a nightcap and shared a large Sapporo. While sitting at the counter, a young Italian man sat next to us and we got to chatting with him. We learned his name is Andrew (at least that’s the English pronunciation). We stayed for quite some time enjoying our conversation before deciding that it was time to make the walk back home.
Per our usual, we stopped by our local convenience store (seeing the same woman we have at the register every single night) and grabbed 2 more new coffees for the morning. This was by far our latest night, getting home around midnight. We were not up for more than 5 minutes before falling asleep.
David’s thoughts of the day: It is a good idea to plan how to eat something ahead of time when your only utensils are chopsticks. When we ordered the tempura meal for lunch, it arrived and we realized that we didn’t know how to pick up/cut/eat such large pieces of food. It turns out that you are supposed to pick up the entire piece with your chopsticks and take a bite. This proved a little difficult with the giant shrimp larger than the chopsticks we were picking it up with.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: everything in Japan is 1/2 to 1/4 ply- toilet paper, tissues, paper towels. They disintegrate almost instantly. Also, almost all public bathrooms have signs to SIT on the toilet, and to NOT stand on the toilet and squat. Interesting.
Total miles walked: 10.46 miles
Total steps: 21,772 steps
Day 5 (September 3) – Goodbye, Tokyo!
We slept in a little bit, until around 7:20, knowing that our plan was to take it easy and check out the hotel’s onsen (public bath) in the morning. Onsens are traditional Japanese bath houses, and we were lucky that our hotel offered one for guests to use for free. The onsen is available to use between 6am-10am, and in order to use it, you must wear provided robes, provided bath shoes, and cannot have any tattoos. We got in our robes, grabbed a towel each, and made our way to the second floor where we believed the entrance was. We exited the elevators to find out that in fact, it was not on this floor. After going down to the first floor and still not finding it, we realized that we actually had to head outside the hotel to the adjacent building to their 2nd floor where the spa was located. We parted ways towards the gender-specfic locker rooms, as onsens are nude bath houses, and have separate men and womens. David checked it out quickly and then chickened out and went back to the room. Caitlyn decided to check the experience off of her list and fully participated. She enjoyed the experience but doesn’t feel the need to do it again.
We got ready for our day and headed out to the Ueno area via rail. David found a cool google map AI called Bard which allows you to ask it for any travel tips, and asked for what we should do near Ueno today. He recommended the Ameya Yokocho market, which was already on our list of possible things in the area, and cemented our plans to go there. We took an easy train ride over and while coming out of the rail station, we happened to be directly across from another tall department store. Caitlyn of course wanted to pop in to the food market levels to check out their offerings. She had been looking for a Dango vendor over the past few days, and luckily was able to spot one here. Dango is a rice dumpling on a stick that is smothered with a sweet soy glaze (traditionally) or alternatively, matcha or black sesame. She selected the matcha dango, and snacked on this as we wandered through the store.
Once we did a lap, we made our way back out to Ameya Yokocho, which was just a couple blocks from the department store. We were so happy that we chose to come here, as this was by far the most local spot we had seen. There were fewer tourists than anywhere else we have been in Tokyo, and the food and vibe seemed very authentic. The market was mostly non-food items (bags, shoes, clothing, souvenirs) mixed with some food stalls (barbecued pork, fruit, fish) restaurants, with a few grocery stalls in some sections.
We walked for a bit, exploring the options to grab some food, and eventually Caitlyn found a very popular takoyaki (“octopus balls” – balls of fried batter with octopus inside, but only cooked enough to be crispy on the outside but still mushy and gooey on the inside) spot bustling with locals. The price was unbeatable, with 200 yen for 4 pieces as well as 200 yen for a canned beverage. We arrived at the perfect time and managed to grab our takoyaki with almost no line and settled on sharing a drink together to beat the heat. They make the takoyaki right in front of you, pouring batter into a mould and rapidly flipping it with two small sticks until it is prepared. They serve it to you steaming hot, and you step to their small table to the side for the condiments. They had a mayonnaise (very popular condiment for most things in japan), a sweet/salty thicker sauce similar to an eel sauce, a small bottle of finely chopped herbs, and Bonita flakes. We put a little bit of everything on ours and stepped to the side to let it cool before we eat. In Japan, it is rude to walk with your food, so people either get it to-go in a special container, or most people will stand near the stall holding their food and eat everything, disposing of the trash in the can next to the stall. We had only had takoyaki once in America, and were blown away with how tasty it was and very happy that we had a nice lunch and beverage for ~$2.70 USD.
We walked around the market more, quickly finding a temple up some stairs near the takoyaki stand. We decided to make some donations and fill out a board that they recommend writing a wish/dream/hope on and hanging it on a wooden holder. We then made another small donation for a fortune, which was very good for travel, marriage/love, and health (how fortunate!!).
We kept walking and explored all around the area until we got a bit thirsty and grabbed some coffees, a lemon drink, and a soda from a convenience store to keep us awake and quench our thirst. We exhausted the entire market and the outer areas and decided to go to Ueno Park, which is a massive area full of multiple bodies of water, beautiful greenery, a zoo, and parts of the local university. We walked for a while, explored multiple temples on the grounds, and eventually sat down for a few minutes to rest and let David’s sweaty shirt dry off (it felt like the shirt went through a water park due to taking the backpack with us today). Luckily enough, we happened to be in the right place at the right time. All of a sudden, we hear chanting and noise, and see a huge structure make its way towards us. We quickly packed our bags back up, and sprinted towards the commotion. Across the street we see a huge sculpture of a dragon being towed by dozens of young people in traditional garb holding ancient-looking instruments and flags while one person shouted “ya sho!” And the rest chanted back “Ya sho!”. The police/security helped them get it across the intersection and they happened to turn exactly where we were for a close-up view. We followed them for a little, both impressed and perplexed with what was happening. Luckily, we found two volunteer guides who both translated the chanting and filled us in on what is happening. The chants of “Ya sho” mean “we are coming”/ “we are here” to both call people to see them and to warn them to get out of the way. The group turns out to be art students at the university, displaying their massive piece of art they have been working on. It was very powerful sight to see and experience.
We continued our ventures through Ueno park, exploring several temples, shrines, and statues. Along the way we stumbled across a street vendor glazing and grilling what was advertised as a crab leg over a small open fire. We decided to get one to share. After taking our first bite, we realized it was likely imitation crab, however, it was still a tasty snack.
By this point, the heat started getting to us again, and we decided to make our way out of the park and to a local brewery for a beer and re-charge. We worked on our blog while we sipped on the beer and let the sting from the sun fade away.
After our drinks were finished and we were caught up on our blog, we left the brewery to make the 18 minute walk to the Akihabara region of Tokyo. This is known for being anime-central, and we of course couldn’t leave Tokyo without at least seeing the hub for this popular culture, despite neither of us being familiar with anime. When we finally arrived, we were a bit confused at first, because it seemed like there wasn’t much going on. However, in following with the foot traffic, we went under a bridge for a rail station, which opened on the opposite side into the thick of things. This was a congested area with huge buildings donned with anime characters and popular gaming brands. The Tokyo police department had even shut down the busy street that intersected the buildings, so pedestrians were able to wander around without being concerned about vehicles. We wandered into an arcade tower, which had 8 floors, each dedicated to different types of entertainment (claw machines, photo booths, music games, racing games, retro games, etc).
After taking our time exploring this area, we decided it was time to head back to Shinjuku for an early dinner and early night. We took the rail stop for the final time in Tokyo, enjoying the beautiful sunset views along the way.
We arrived in Shinjuku around 7pm, and made our way to a highly rated Gyukatsu restaurant. We wandered the street corner for a few minutes trying to figure out where exactly the restaurant was, until we realized it was actually just a doorway with descending steps that led to the restaurant. We walked down, to find one family in front of us waiting to be seated. The hostess asked how many were in our party, and we were quickly sat in a corner counter. Looking around, we realized just how small the restaurant was; about 3 counter spots, and only 5 tables. We thought we had the perfect location, as we were able to watch the 2 chefs prepare the food, and we were able to enjoy more privacy. The menu was easy enough to order from, as your only options were 1, 1.5, or 2 cutlets, and with a soda or a beer. No other options available. We were told that sharing was not allowed, so we each ordered the single cutlet meal. Within 60 seconds of placing our order, a tray was placed in front of both of us with an array of food and sauces. Each meal came with a freshly fried cutlet of beef, cooked rare, a pile of thinly sliced cabbage, a small dollop of potato salad, miso soup, rice, roe, a kind of tapioca porridge, 2 sauces (a soy sauce and a sweet but savory garlicky sauce) wasabi and scallion toppings, and warabi mochi. We were provided with the Gyukatsu for dummies manual which included English step-by-step instructions of how to eat this dish. This included laying the rare flash fried beef on a hot stone to continue to cook, allowing the fat to melt, as the slices were heavily marbled. You then proceeded to top the meat as you liked (wasabi, sea salt, or seasoned scallions) and dip it in the provided sauces. The beef was absolutely incredible, and melted in your mouth. Caitlyn personally enjoyed a combination of the sweet/salty garlic sauce with some wasabi, while David enjoyed dipping his in both provided sauces and eating it with some rice. Caitlyn thoroughly enjoyed the thinly slices cabbage, which you were able to dress with a delicious salad dressing provided on the table. We both agreed that the single cutlet was the perfect amount of food, and were stuffed leaving.
We made our walk back towards the hotel, taking in the final sights of the Shinjuku region, which really comes alive at night.
For the last time, we stopped into our convenience store to grab two more new chilled coffees (our favorite routine we’ve developed and look forward to!), and a small sake to enjoy while we packed our bags that night. We were back to our room by 7:45, and spent the next hourly carefully playing the game of Tetris arranging our bags. We quickly realized the needed to ditch the idea of a “Caitlyn bag” and a “David bag”, as we had just as many (if not more) dirty clothing as we had clean clothing. We also realized that our mentality had already shifted towards survival mode from just spending 5 days backpacking; we were finding use with pretty much any and everything that we came across along our travels. Plastic bag from convenience store? Perfect to carry with us as a mini trash bag since trash and recycle bins are hard to come across. Rubber band? Great to use to secure cords. Plastic sleeves with taped ends? Perfect to store tissues from the hotel in when we go out during the day. After spending an hour or so getting things perfectly packed, we hopped into bed to watch another Japanese game show (a man eating spaghetti in front of people) and to doze off on our final night in Tokyo.
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: the Tokyo rail system is not as difficult as people make it out to be. If you have navigated any city-based rail system (metro, tube, subway, etc) then you will be just fine.
David’s thoughts of the day: There are so many Germans in Tokyo, as far as foreign travelers. Also, I love that all of the cars, trucks, and vans are so small here. Whenever I see an American car, even a “small sedan”, it looks so large and out of place. For some reason I love all of the small Suzuki vans I keep seeing everywhere, and I want one now.
Total miles walked: 8.67 miles
Total steps: 18,321
Bluming Travelers 