My day started with brunch with my Dad, who was on a layover, at Denny’s. At Denny’s, I was taking to my Dad about the trip when the person at the table next to us caught our attention and introduced himself as a employee at Gamefreak. We talked for a while and connected on LinkedIn.
At noon, we all met to go to the Imperial Palace and walk around the gardens. Toshi explained the respect that people have for the Imperial family and thus it was a crime to take anything from there. The gardens were really pretty and one area had different species of trees from all over Japan.
After that, we went to Harujuku where we had a lunch at a cafe at the top of a mall. The mall was really fancy looking and had an escalator that looked as if it could be straight out of Doctor Strange.
The next stop was the Meiji Shrine where we walked through a forest to get inside. The shrine itself was impressive but the forest surrounding it was more impressive, in my opinion.
After the shrine was our free time where some of Jessica, Chloe and I went to Shibuya to shop at the One Piece store. We also stopped by the Jump Store and saw the Mewtwo tank at the Pokemon Center.
Last, we ended the day celebrating Fabian’s 21st birthday at the Monster Hunter cafe. The food was extremely mid but I got a delicious drink.
An early morning trip out to the Tokyo port area brought the group to the Gundam mall! This mall featured a life-sized Gundam statue that even moved and played audio every once in a while. Although I am not a Gundam fan and know basically nothing about the franchise, it was still a fascinating landmark to see.
Not far from the mall was the Miraikan Museum of Science and Innovation. We were able to split up and spend some time in the museum and there were some really cool exhibits. Almost all exhibits were interactive in some manner, with some examples being a robot that mimicked viewer movement, modern health science exhibit, and a game in which you can see the trajectory of a hypothetically future.
Finally, we reached our last destination do the day — TeamLab Planets!
TeamLabs is a series of interactive art exhibits that immerses viewers completely in the art. Upon entering, visitors must take off their shoes and socks and wade through cleansing water. This is because the exhibits are barefoot and involve mirror floors, water, and textured surfaces. My favorite exhibits were the first room with pillow-like flooring, the maze of crystalline sparking LED lights, and this pond of virtual colorful fish.
Honorable mention was the hanging flower garden 🙂
Today we visited the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo! While we weren’t able to get actual tickets inside the palace, we spent the morning exploring the beautiful imperial gardens. The most memorial portion of the gardens was the koi pond. It was serenely calm, had a small waterfall and various flowers and plants scattered on its banks. Hence the name, there was also koi fish in the pond! I’m continuously awed by their vibrant colors and spent a while just sitting on the bridge watching them. I also made a pill bug friend!
After exploring the gardens for a while, we then headed over to Harajuku to grab lunch. We found a food court that had a really cool decora-themed interior. I got a korean corn-dog and fried seaweed 🙂 I will also never stop talking about the street fashion in Harajuku and I could easily spend all day people watching to observe the fits.
The group then headed to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, known for its large Torii gates. We spent some time at the shrine observing the gorgeous scenery and paying respects to the local deities.
After the shrine,Vincent, Brody, Esther, and I decided to hang around the Shibuya area since we were already here. Esther and I were told about Shibuya 109 (a shopping complex specifically for women’s clothing), and we’re immediately eager to check it out. In Shibuya 109 I found my dream store :0. The store was a blend of goth, punk, and skater styles and definitely embodied my dream style. Sadly, everything was so insanely expensive else I could have easily bought out the entire store. I followed them on Instagram though and I will be back someday with more money. Shibuya 109 was still a successful venture and I ended the day with a few new articles of clothing I was super excited about.
June 3rd: Finally it’s time to go home. Liam and I were on the same flight so we planned the whole day out. We both checked out around 10:30am and left our luggage at the hotel for a bit to do some final shopping.
After BookOff we walked to 2 other stores where Liam was looking for gifts. We ended up walking to Ueno and walking through a popular street so that was cool! After shopping it was about 12 and we took the train back to Akihabara. This is where we found out our JR passes as well weren’t working through the scanner.
We also saw some ads for the new Spiderverse movie on the trains! We grabbed our luggage and headed back to the station to head to Narita airport. We took the train to Nippori then transferred to the Skyliner straight to Narita Airport. It was about an hour train ride.
Once we arrived at the airport we took a walk around. This airport is crazy it’s like a mall plus an airport. We saw a Marvel pop up store, Lego store, Gucci, Versace, Chanel, and many other high end stores plus souvenir stores. We went to McDonalds for our last meal in Japan. I got some nuggets and Liam got a shrimp burger.
We sat at the gate for about an hour before boarding the plane. We were lucky that the storm was south of Narita so we had no delays. I was surprised that the bathroom in the airport ( I only know the women’s room) had a little holder in the stall for a baby and a sink with handrails. It was really interesting to see that.
We got on the plane and while Liam and I weren’t next to each other, we were the same row at least. The flight was about 12 hours so we got a couple meals. Most of the flight I watched movies like Le Mis, Soul, and Spiderverse. Meal 1 was some chicken and rice with chocolate chip mochi as a dessert. I skipped the middle meal as I was trying to nap, and breakfast was an omelet with tomato sauce, a sausage, and hashbrown. Meals were overall ok.
We landed in the states to see Newark NJ, what a grey city. We deplaned and headed to customs with took FOREVER. I don’t understand how you can have 9 booths to move people through and only have 3 open for a couple planes worth of people. It took probably an hour to get through customs and to get our bags. It was about 5pm EST and we left Japan at 5pm JST which was fun.
Liam and I split at baggage check as my parents were in the airport looking for me. I grabbed my bags ( all safe and sound ) and headed to meet my parents. I gave them a hug and we headed back to my hometown.
I got home, had a pork roll and egg on an English muffin, took a quick shower, and passed out. Since then my sleep schedule has been messed up and I’ve been trying to fix it. I’ve also been telling stories of my trip to my friends and parents.
Overall this trip has been a life changing experience for me and I’m so happy to have been able to experience everything with a fantastic group of people. I will always look back on this trip with pride, joy, and happiness. It has even inspired me to apply to the Fullbright program and have to chance to live in Japan for 10 months for research.
Thank you everyone for making this trip amazing. Love you all!!!
