Category: Tokyo

Exploring Tokyo

5/18 – Shibuya

Our first full day in Tokyo, Esther and I explored Shibuya since that’s where our hotel was. We crossed the Shibuya Scramble, saw Hachiko, and wandered the streets. My wallet hurt a bit after going to the Once Piece store, Nintendo Tokyo, Shibuya Parco, and many other stores.

5/19 – Harajuku

The day after, we went to Harajuku! This was my personal favorite place I have visited so far, and has been a lifelong bucket list item of mine. The most fascinating thing about Harajuku (and all of Tokyo so far) was the street fashion. It does not even compare to clothing in America, with almost everyone you see being well dressed, classy, and with an amazing fashion sense. I could people watch and admire outfits here for hours. We did some shopping and visited the iconic Takeshita street. It was a gorgeous district and I would love to visit again.

5/20 – Shimokitazawa

Then, we visited Shimokitazawa! Before heading there, we made a quick stop at FromSoftware’s head office in Tokyo. As a huge soulsborne fan it was so cool to see where some of my favorite games were conceived, even if the studio itself was closed to the public. Next, we took a quick train ride to Shimokitazawa, the vintage shopping district. The fashion here was also insane, and I purchased a really cool semi-designer piece for a good price! That night, we also visited Shinjuku and got to experience the nightlife scene in Tokyo.

Overall, these early days were filled with exploration and wandering, and I had a great time doing my own thing and experience the city for myself.

Arriving in Japan

I arrived in Japan midday on Thursday the 18th. I didn’t even have to leave the airport before noticing how different it was. Besides the bidet, I didn’t know the toilets would run water to cover up any sounds and would spray perfume when they sensed you. The toilet almost had its own remote control. I also didn’t know that this would be the last water fountain I would ever see in Japan.

After getting briefly stuck in the airport due to a currency exchange issue, I had to figure out how to navigate the subway system since I hardly use them. To my surprise, all of the subway signs were in Japanese as well as in English. I was also taken back by the heat and humidity there, which was 90° with 75% humidity. I got to the hotel eventually and tried to sleep off my jet lag before sightseeing the next day.

The next day, I wanted to get acquainted with the city a bit more so I decided to go to Tokyo tower to get an almost birds eye view of the city. In order to get an achievement card from the tower, I made my way up 600 steps to the top. The next day I visited the park next to my hotel, which seemed to have some sort of festival going on. In the park there were also some shrines and a pond that I walked around before getting dinner at a food truck and heading back to the room.

Journey begins: Japan Arrival Day 1

https://youtu.be/shui-qXgseE

I am excited to share my journey traveling to Japan over the next two weeks.

I will be documenting my experiences here for both this page and personal reflection. Joining me on this adventure is my good friend Fabian Sanchez.

Our trip began in North Jersey at around 9:30 am, and we arrived at the airport at approximately 11:30 am.

After obtaining our boarding passes, we eagerly waited for our departure. As someone who enjoys flying, I found the trip quite comfortable.

The in-flight meals were excellent, and I managed to get a few hours of decent sleep.

At around 5 pm JST, we landed at Haneda airport, where we were greeted by a breathtaking view of Mount Fuji. Our first task was to acquire our rail passes. However, we underestimated the time it would take, and it ended up taking us two hours.

Eventually, we made it to the monorail that took us to our desired station. Unfortunately, we initially boarded the JS train in the wrong direction but quickly corrected ourselves and eventually arrived at Shinagawa.

It was around 9 pm when we reached our hotel, where we enjoyed a lovely view and rested for the night.

The following morning, we woke up at around 5 am and set out in search of our first meal in Japan. As many places were still closed, we opted for a visit to 7/11. After having our breakfast, we took the opportunity to explore the Shinagawa area, which had numerous picturesque locations worth capturing.

Later in the day, after a brief break at our hotel, Fabian and I met up with Meagan and Belle, who were also traveling with us. Together, we visited the Pokemon cafe in Nihonbashi, which turned out to be a delightful and delicious experience. And am honored and thankful to be invited, a childhood dream being lived out.

Our next stop was Asakusa, where the Sanja Matsuri festival was taking place. The atmosphere was bustling with people, enticing food stalls, and a wide array of items to purchase. We made our way to the temple and eventually headed back to the hotel.

In the evening, we reunited with the rest of our travel group for a group dinner, during which we shared our experiences and discussed the events of the day. Afterwards, we returned to our respective rooms, where I am currently staying.

More updates on our journey through Japan are to come!

Half-a-Day in Shinagawa

I woke up around 9:00, hopped in the shower, and got ready for my first lunch in Japan. After using the hotel’s very convenient express check-out, I checked in my bags and went to the food court to look at the many options of Japanese cuisine. I ordered a pork and leek udon and a salty pork ramen, both dishes costing a lot less than they would in the US.

After grabbing some lunch, I decided to make my way towards the Aqua Park, where there was a diverse range of animals, from basic fish, to jellyfish, reptiles, and, even, capybaras. I also watched the mini-otter performance, which was extremely adorable.

By this time it was around 12:45, so I decided to make one last stop at a 7/11 to prepare some snacks for the road, and grab a popsicle to deal with the humid weather.Our time in Shinagawa was short, but very enjoyable. Can’t wait for Kyoto!

The Busiest of First Days

Brody and I boarded our plane at around 12:15pm in Los Angeles and prepared for our long flight, which happened to be an hour shorter than planned, giving us a landing time of 3:30pm in Japan instead of 4:30. After a comfortable flight with some of the best airplane food I’ve ever had, we finally landed at Narita Airport.

We planned on getting to dinner on time, but our fatigue from the plane combined with our extreme lack of knowledge for the Japanese rail system would prove to be a great enemy. We got onto Narita Rail 38 towards Ofuna, as Google Maps told us to, and we were already a little panicked because our cards were not working with the rail system, so we had to pay on the train. We then learned that, unlike what Google Maps had told us, our train would not be going to Shinagawa Station, meaning we had to find another way from Tokyo Station to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. After getting off at Tokyo Station, we decided to take a cab, but ran into many issues in payment for trying to leave the metro – our enemy of the rail system striking back once again. Finally, we mare it out onto the street and waved down a cab, only to run into a little bit of traffic, turning our 15 minute drive into a 22 minute drive.

After all the trials and tribulations of Tokyo traffic, we finally arrived at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel and met with Professor Jacobs. Because the JRPass closed at 7, and it was close to 6:30, we didn’t have a chance to set down our bags, so Brody and I lugged our heavy bags over to Shinagawa Station to meet with everyone else. Exhausted and encumbered, Brody and I made our way back to the hotel by ourselves to check in while everyone else went to eat, and after a long line, we missed the final call for food at 7:30. Instead, we went to 7/11 to get some food and ice cream, which we would then eat while walking around Tokyo.

After a long day of travel, Brody and I went back to our room, showered, and passed out like no other. However, our first day of travel did not de-motivate us in any way, but was a good primer for the adventures to come!

Traveling to Japan

My trip from the US to Japan was a chaotic and anxious time, but was fun nonetheless. The trip started in Sacramento, CA at 5am PST, when I left my house to go to the airport. My flight began boarding around 7am and took off at 7:30am, bound for LAX. I arrived in LAX at 9:00am in the American Airlines terminal and no clue how to get to the international terminal. After asking one of the staff at the terminal how to get to the terminal I boarded a shuttle and arrived within a few minutes. Then I scurried off to Starbucks for breakfast and then metup with Vincent, who would be flying with me, at our gate. The 10hr flight straight over the ocean to Japan took off at 12:45pm on ANA.

This was by far the best airline experience I have ever had. Not only was the staff insanely nice and helpful, but they also offered us water and tea on a regular basis. The flight included 2 free meals that were so delicious. For the first meal, I chose the seafood option, which was a mix of various fish topped with rice. There was a salad on the side, as well as some meat and a piece of bread with butter. For the second meal, I chose the beef pasta option, which was a thick tube pasta topped with really yummy beef sauce. The sides for this one were a mayonnaise pasta salad and some seaweed. For desert we got a Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. The rest of the flight consisted of either sleeping or playing Tears of the Kingdom. The seats were comfortable and there was a flipable table to eat on. They even gave us a blanket and pillow! Overall 10/10 plane experience.

Upon arriving in Japan we had to get through customs, which was a mess. I have never been out of the US so I didn’t know how customs worked. This caused some confusion when one of the airport staff asked me if I needed immigration documentation, which I took as documents for moving to Japan, so I said I didn’t need them. As it turns out I did. They were just the documents required for entering the country. This meant that I had to leave the line and fill out the docs, then re-enter and get everything checked. After getting through customs, which took longer than it should have, we made our way to the train station. This is were the chaos really ensued. We didn’t know how to get tickets into the train station or for our train, but we eventually figured it out. Unfortunately the train that should have taken us directly into shinagawa stopped for some reason or another, meaning we had to take the train to Tokyo Station and then cab to our hotel. This caused us to arrive at the hotel later than the intended time of 6pm JST, so we had to hurry to the Shinagawa station to get out JR rail pass for the trip.

Celebrating my Inner Child

Today was by far my most anticipated day of the entire trip, and I can confidently say that it was 100% worth the hype.

After taking a quick pit stop in Asakusa to visit a retro game store we had managed to miss yesterday, me and Megan headed to Nihombashi to meet up with Fabian and Pavel for our Pokemon Cafe reservation. After spending an embarrassing amount of time (and money) at the Pokemon Center Tokyo DX, which was connected to the Cafe, we were able to check in for our reservation at 12:30 and get seated.

Honestly, the food in my opinion was REALLY good. I got the Pikachu themed meal, which featured an omurice shaped like Pikachu’s head, with an egg tail, a pokeball topped mac and cheese, and a hamburger patty on the side. There was also a salad (which I didn’t try) and a fried shrimp (which I did try and really like), but I think my most favorite part was the mac n cheese. The shells were shaped like Pikachu although it was hard to tell under all of the cheese, but it was super cute!!

Pavel ordered the Eevee themed dish, which I believe was a bread bun with clam chowder and something else with shrimp in it. Megan opted for the Pikachu soufflé pancake, which I ordered later in the meal and fell in love with. Fabian decided to order one of the special sets, which was a Pikachu themed ramen bowl that came with this cute Pancham steamed bun. We also all got our own themed drinks, which included a latte with a picture of Rayquaza drawn on it, Sprigatito and Fuecoco soda floats (melon and apple themed respectively), hot chocolate, and this cute drink set where you mix your own chocolate milk. But the best part about the entire experience was hands down the show.

Right after making their last call for orders, a large Pikachu comes out from behind the kitchen and puts on a show for all of the diners. Typically he’s wearing Pokemon Cafe attire, but because of the special event he was wearing a Chinese-themed outfit that was still super cute. Remember how I said that the seats we had been given were important? We ended up being right next to a majority of the show, which meant that the experience was AWESOME and felt super personal for me.

After a lot of speaking in Japanese that I didn’t understand, a lot of cute running and dancing around the cafe, and a performance of ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ (a true classic), he scurried back to the staff room so we could finish eating and make our way to the ever-looming merchandise wall.

I am not ashamed to say that this was, and likely will always be, the most expensive day of my trip in terms of merchandise. While it wasn’t outrageous, I did purchase quite a handful of small goodies and trinkets that I certainly don’t need, but definitely wanted. The picture shown is not just of the Pokemon Cafe merchandise (the Pikachu ditto plate, the small chef pikachu keychain, and the gengar silverware), but also of some things I got from the Pokemon Center next door (gachapon figurines, a very fluffy pastel Rowlet, and a hefty hoard of charms and stickers). Some other small wins from today were a Korok keychain that I won from an LoZ ichiban kuji (a lottery with a set number of prizes) and a Mega Lucario keychain that I found on the ground very far from any Pokemon Center or other merchandise store. There’s also some small things that are not pictured because I had forgotten to include them, which are a canvas tote bag and a pair of wooden chopsticks themed after grass types in Paldea.

In a daze from the heaven that I had experienced for the first half of the day, Megan and I worked our way back to our hostel to pick up our lugggage and then turn around and jump on another train to head to the first planned event of our trip by the school at the Grand Price Hotel Shinagawa. By this point, my brain was in a fog and my feet were killing me, so after heading to exchange our JR rail passes and grabbing dinner as a group I was ready to crash. My inner child has been fully satisfied by this experience, and I am so grateful that I was able to live it with my friends and fulfill it to its fullest potential.

Tomorrow we will head to Kyoto to meet up with the KCG students that we’ll be doing the game jam with. I’m very nervous, but also pretty excited to see how different the vibe is in Kyoto compared to Tokyo. I think we are also going to the aquarium attached to our hotel tomorrow (if my feet can handle it). I am quite literally fighting the urge to nod off as I write this, but as always, I’ll end with some extra photos.

The Glory of Asakusa

Ever stumbled into one of the largest festivals in the city you’re visiting by pure chance? It’s pretty incredible.

We started Day 3 with another visit to the Tokyo Skytree, both to visit a small coffee shop that we wanted to eat breakfast at and to clean up any loose ends we might have missed in the massive mall. After we had our fill of expensive boutiques and character stores, we decided to explore the other side of Japan: the traditional shrines.

Visiting the shrine was actually an afterthought to the ramen shop that we wanted to visit for dinner, a place that looked like a small local store that turned out to be full of tourists like us. But the food was good! As someone who’s never had real ramen before (and ordered a dipping ramen instead of the more traditional pre-mixed bowl out of a need for control) it was definitely an intimidating experience, but it really was delicious. As we were eating, we heard a group of men chanting outside as they slowly passed the shop… but we didn’t think anything of it.

To end the night, we decided to visit the Senso-Ji temple, a Buddhist temple that was sprawling and breathtaking. It wasn’t super busy because it was so late at night, but there was a drum performance happening which we stopped to watch amongst all of our picture taking. We did notice that there was a banner displaying the dates from May 19th to May 21st, and were surprised by the idea that we had managed to visit the shrine during a festival! We decided to go back tomorrow to see the shrine during the day, and look at what festivities they might have during this celebration.

We could never have been prepared for the gravity of what we had so luckily stumbled into, which turned out to be Asakusa Sanja Matsuri: one of the biggest and greatest festivals that Tokyo had to offer.

To say that there were a lot of people there was an understatement. Towards the beginning of the day (up until 11:30, maybe noon?) we were able to get up close to a lot of the main attraction, which was a parade of shrines being carried throughout various parts of the temple grounds with lots of chanting, deaf-inducing whistle blowing, and good atmosphere. But once we had left the main area and began to wander through the side streets, which were packed with stores and restaurants, the crowd became an ocean. The festival is said to attract over 1.8 million visitors in its 3 day runtime, and I truly believe it now that I’ve been in the middle of it.

Getting to see something so integral to the culture and religion of Japan was truly fascinating, and we are incredibly lucky to have accidentally walked into it on a whim. It was also fun to walk through an area that we had previously seen closed up and ghostly the night before, now alive with people and chock full of goodies to buy (which I obviously partook in). But eventually my social battery had reached its limit of being shoulder to shoulder with strangers, and we hurried back to our respective hotels to recharge as we had on days prior.

For dinner, we decided to head to an American-themed diner for a look at Japan’s perspective of our culture (and also, admittedly, for a bit of familiarity amongst a lot of exhaustion for new foreign food on my part). It felt like being tossed 30 years into the past, and the atmosphere was cozy and fun despite not being something I think I’d ever find in the U.S. today. I had a cheeseburger and fries which was a very enjoyable meal, and we exchanged a conversation with one of the waiters who was curious about why we were in Japan (and probably why we were choosing to eat American food in Japan when we certainly have enough of it back home).

We ended the night by walking along the Sumida River and taking a peek at a couple of smaller shrines, though we could only access one of them as the others were gated off due to the time. It’s nice to experience such a saturated area of culture and then contrast it with the ability to quietly experience the edges of it solo, without the fear of being judged for being unfamiliar with the details.

Tomorrow begins my daily blog posts, which I am praying I will be able to keep up with. I am visiting the Pokemon Cafe tomorrow, which is my most anticipated event, so I’m sure there will be lots of pictures! I’ll end with some more miscellaneous pictures from the festival (I could create a photo album of pictures just from today, seriously.)

5/19 – Travel: Start!

Our voyage to Japan begins! Today marks the first day of my trip to Japan, and our class excursion to a country that’s been on my bucket list for years. I’ve always wanted to visit japan, and now it’s happening! Pavel and I are travel buddies for the trip, and so we arrived at the airport together. 

We arrived at JFK in the late morning, and were able to get through check in without issues. Once we sat down in the waiting area, I went to the currency exchange counter that happened to convenientley be right next to our gate, and exchanged some USD for yen. Our airplane arrived, and once we boarded and sat down, we listened to the cabin announcements and then were off!

The flight itself wasn’t actually so bad, 13 hours long but the first half went by relateviely fast. Pavel and I flew in on All Nippon Airways (ANA), and the flight had so many cool features that honestly really suprised me! First off, the seat monitor had an interactive 3D glove that acted as the map for our flight, live TV that included a Japanese channel, a generous amount of preloaded popular movies (both American AND Japanese!), preloaded Japanese tv program episodes, and even two live feeds of cameras mounted to the bottom and side of the plane! Just this aspect alone was getting me more excited about the trip, as the American airline monitors that I’ve had before haven’t come close to this. 

We were served two in-flight meals complimentary, which was a pleasant surprise, as I had only expected one. Each meal was reminscent of a Japanese-style meal set, with a small main dish accompanied by a few smaller side dishes, which was really interesting! I had never eaten a meal set  like that before, and thought I woudn’t be full afterwards since I was used to bigger dishes at home, but I was indeed full! They followed up each meal with an complimentary drinks like green tea, and offered water or other drinks throughout the flight (which was greatly appreciated!) 

I stayed awake for the first 3 hours of the flight, but was only able to sleep for about 2 hours, after which I committed to just staying awake the rest of the time in hopes of syncing up with Japan time. about 7 hours later, and we were touching down in Japan! 

We got through cutoms relatively easily, and the Visit Japan website pre-check-in made it so easy to advance through everything. At about 5:30pm Japn time, we were in Haneda Airport’s main lobby. We opted to exchange our JR Rail pass vouchers now as opposed to later on Sunday, as we wanted access to the train lines and that was the only way we knew how at the time. The process, however, took about 2 hours, but after a grueling line wait, we finally had our JR passes and were able to board the Tokyo Monorail to get to Tokyo. 

However, one more thing happened before we were able to make it to our hotel; We had to transfer from the monorail to the Yamanote train line to get to our hotel in Shinagawa. Maybe it was the tiredness from the flight or the wait on the line, or the fact that it was now 8:20pm at night, but somehow I managed to get us on the correct train line, but going the wrong direction. I quickly realized this however, and we were able to get off on the next stop and switch platforms to get on the right direction train and arrive at our hotel.

Exhausted, we checked in and got to our hotel room, and opened the curtains to be greeted with a breathtaking view of a nightime Shinagawa skyline. All the trials and tribulations to get here seemed to melt away while taking in this view, and it finally hit us: we were in Japan!

the struggle

i landed in narita airport on the 17th at 3 pm running on approximately 3 hours of sleep over the course of 2 days. the flight was not uneventful, as the two guys sitting next to me were talking for hours on end about one of them starting a charity in indonesia, running for president, and very normal opinions on black people. i got in a surprisingly high amount of tears of the kingdom time in as an effort to silence the homicidal urges.

[this plane had a camera system that let people see outside even if they didn’t have a window. i hadn’t seen that before. i watched this more than the suspiciously limited movie selection.]

i’m staying in a hostel next to a river in sumida with jasmine and a few others. i did a lot of research that led to booking here and i am mainly relieved it wasn’t a disaster. secondarily it is a really cool place and i love being here. the first thing i noticed about the general area is just how quiet and small everything is. the cars are smaller and quieter, buildings are mostly only 2-3 stories tall, and all of the roads in particular are noticeably smaller, normally only 2 lanes with plenty of room for pedestrians. our hostel is directly under a rail line and the noise is barely audible. this is exemplary of the urban planning concept of “design at a human scale,” which broadly refers to a planning ethos that puts the experience of humans in a location at its primary focus. walking down a street here really feels like it’s meant to be walked in. i don’t feel towered over by buildings no person could reasonably scale. i am not sequestered to a minimal stretch of road under threat of a roaring stampede of machines ready to crush me at any given moment. doors to buildings are readily accessible and not distanced by a god awful meticulously maintained and unnecessary turf. as someone who has had serious anxiety about leaving my house my whole life i have taken a grand total of 3 morning walks alone since coming here. it is true; i am no longer mentally ill.

i have noticed more than once that just while having normal conversation with another person i will be the loudest thing in a 10 foot radius. this is because my default speaking volume is adjusted to an “american” level of constant background noise. after a lifetime of being told to speak up because no one can hear me and never being able to hear other people because of background noise i am happily taking this as an excuse to say this is a problem with society for the rest of my life. i have truly never experienced this level of “quiet” i think. especially in the middle of a major urban area. noise pollution is Real.

[this is the road leading to our place. i have yet to see a car go down this road. they are too afraid of its power.]

i will save you a meticulous play-by-play of everything i have been doing the past few days and keep it to the most interesting anecdotes. i have been on a quest to find all of my favorite foods from 11 years ago which has been generally successful but ongoing. i first found cherry juice in a machine with sumo wrestlers painted on it on the same corner i saw two real sumo wrestlers in full costume a day prior. i later learned that the hostel is right next to a sumo dojo which explained a lot honestly. the konbini right next to the hostel is unfortunately not a 7-eleven but it has a lot of the same stuff, most importantly my favorite ice cream.

[this was breakfast yesterday because no laws to prevent me from doing that exist yet. the one i had with my mom was assorted fruit but i have yet to find that kind specifically. good thing the grape was always my favorite anyway.]

i don’t have a lot of pictures because frankly i forgot i was supposed to be taking them. i’m just quirky like that. haha. ok remember to live laugh love everyone more to come :2