Tag: Free Time

Wandering Oshiage -> Ueno -> Tokyo eki ☀️Day 1

05/18/2023

Last night, our little group had originally planned to visit Ueno together to karaoke, but upon waking up I had realized half the group had left to grab breakfast and so I dragged Cam along with me to Ueno to explore instead! It was our first time actually traversing the transit system and we were quite nervous/scared/anxious/confused, but we got the hang of it by the end of the day.

We are closest to Oshiage station and made our way to Ueno, where we walked through a lovely little district of very affordable products! (not the picture below, I forgot to photograph it)

I grabbed a cute little matcha latte boba (not pictured bc i forgot) as we walked around. We were stopped by a kind old lady who was conducting user research for a foreigner-friendly touch screen nearby and I was compensated with a guidebook and a panda eraser after the interview was completed.

We stopped in a building with the aim of popping in Daiso on 7F and I momentarily got distracted by a cute windbreaker that was on sale for only 1,000 jpy!!! I’m still thinking about it now as I write this, hopefully it’ll still be there by the time I go back.

Within the Daiso, we came across a Sweets Paradise collab cafe with Sixfonia. While I’m not a fan, it was really neat to see a collab cafe in person after seeing them everywhere on social media!

After our quick Ueno trip, we headed to Tokyo eki in order to finally pick up a suica card. They are only available for purchase in specific areas so it was our mission of the day to secure a card.

We must have emerged on the wrong side of the large station, because we were very clearly out of place with all the salarymen bustling around the area. We wandered the area for a short while before grabbing some food from 7-11 and a スーパー and then headed back in the station to Oshiage station.

On our way home, we happened to walk past a Detective Conan cafe! I had originally planned to go to the Ikebukuro location and didn’t realize there was one so close to my accommodation! Unfortunately, the wait for a seat was very long, and we were both tired after a day of running around so we headed home.

After a day and a half in Japan, we have still yet to eat a ‘proper’ meal. The gyudon (picture above) from 7-11 was still delicious though! Here’s hoping that I’ll be able to eat more than one meal a day tomorrow.

Traveling to & arriving ✈ Japan Day 0

05/16/2023

Arrived at my hometown’s airport at around 6:20am after having slept a maximum of 2.5 hours to meet up with Cam. After a short 2 hour flight to Chicago, we met up with Belle to board our flight to Japan via ANA together!

On our flight, I ended up swapping my aisle seat with the man behind me, who had just wanted to sit with his family (which was the seat I was in). This actually turned out amazingly for me because the seats behind me only sat 2 people, so I just had one other person to let out to use the restroom.

We were fed well on the flights, and I was so thankful for the mild yet yummy airline food since I am notoriously awful at keeping myself fed on travel days.

First meal came 2 hours into the 12 hour flight. Consisted of edamame, small salad, chicken & rice, soba(?) and we even had a small Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream as dessert.

Second meal came a few hours before our arrival, meant to be breakfast (make sure to eat the in-flight meals, as they are meant to help you adjust to the new timezone!) and consisted of ravioli, ham & corn(?) salad, and a blueberry muffin.

Arrival: 2:56pm JST

Once we arrived & got past the final security gates, the three of us met up with Megan & Esther and we set off to get our IC cards & train tickets to make our way into Tokyo. I couldn’t find where to purchase a suica card in the airport so I opted to save it for later (big mistake on my part) and instead purchased a ticket for the Narita Sky Express (Access Express) to take us to Oshiage Station, where our hostel was a 5 minute walk away.

We took a wrong turn on our way to our accommodation and ended up walking right through Skytree (which I had originally planned to properly visit a few days from now).

Once we settled into our rooms, Belle, Megan, Cam and I went out to the nearby Family Mart to grab some quick food for our first night. There, I had my first taste of extremely affordable merch in Japan as well as my first taste of giving kujis all my money.

I pulled a C tier Kanae acrylic panel (he was the only one I wanted out of everyone that was available, so my gambling had thankfully come to an end immediately) to my surprise! Out of slight embarrassment at being so excited to pull my first kuji, I made small talk with the cashier by asking “にじさんじが 人気 です か,” since they are nowhere near as known in the states.

Honorable mention to seeing そらるさん on the first magazine I laid eyes on in Japan! As someone who’s been listening to him since 2012 as an indie musician, this was so surreal and exciting to see.

I had my first Bigプッチンプリン and it was delicious! Much softer than other purin brands I’m used to, and the flavor was wonderfully light and refreshing. They forgot to give me a spoon and I spent a few minutes contemplating my existence and gathering the courage to go back in the store and ask if I could have a spoon, but I got one in the end. After this, we all went back to our rooms and slept early!

My First 36 Hours in Japan

My first two days of Japan mode have been quite the adventure! From spending 15 hours in a plane to walking four and a half miles today, it’s certainly been a lot of exploration and new experiences.

I first flew from Atlanta to Chicago, waking up at around 3:45 AM to give myself enough time at the airport for security (I sat in the airport for two hours because I got through security in fifteen minutes. Oh how I wish I had the extra hour of sleep!) Then, I met up with Jasmine and Cameron at the Chicago airport to take our 13 hour flight to Narita. While the flight was comfortable, sitting in one place for that period of time has never been good for anyone’s body, and it certainly did a number on mine. Once we were through immigration and customs in Japan, we met up with Megan and Esther to make our way to our hostel.

I’ve never stayed in a hostel before, but this is definitely a great introductory experience to them! Me and Megan are staying in a room with two twin beds (not a dormitory setting, my social battery definitely couldn’t handle it) and they are very comfortable for the price! We have a sink in our room for brushing our teeth and washing our hands, but toilets and showers are shared down the hall. The showers are very nice, but the heated toilet seats are a bit off-putting for me. Maybe with time I’d come to enjoy them…

I thoroughly enjoyed the Nintendo photo op in the visitors center at the Narita airport!

After going to bed at 8:30 PM with my brain stuck in 7:30 AM mode, I woke up at 5 AM today ready to take on the world. Megan, Jessica and I set out around 7:30 AM, excited to explore before it got too hot. While almost nothing was open, I was able to get a very delicious strawberry frappuccino from Starbucks and take in the sights while we waited for the Tokyo Skytree to open.

We spent the day shopping for cute merchandise and gifts for friends and family at the Skytree, visiting the Pokemon Store, the Kirby Cafe Store, and many other iconic character shops. Personally, I picked up a handful of stickers, a couple of blind bag figurines, and some assorted Pokemon-themed gifts. We ate lunch in the Food Marche (essentially just the most overwhelming food court I’ve ever experienced, that was also a grocery store?) where I got some chicken nuggets and a chicken skewer that had whole cloves of garlic on it, which I wasn’t aware of before buying it. As a picky eater, the food scene in Japan is somewhat terrifying, so I feel like I am justified in easing myself into it. For dessert (because how could we not get dessert with so many options) I got a strawberry skewer that was coated in sugar and some small butter castella balls. The strawberries here are delicious, and I would love to go back and get some more that aren’t lathered in sugar as it was a little overwhelming.

After a quick power nap at the hostel, we finished the day by heading back to the Skytree and going up the tower to “watch the sunset”. Unfortunately it was very overcast by the time that sunset arrived so we weren’t able to see anything, but it is a super pretty view at night! It was very crowded though.

Overall, my first 36 hours in Japan have been quite the ride! I’m constantly left in awe by how different the culture is, which I’ll likely cover in another post as I could write paragraphs about that alone and this is already a bit long. I’m exhausted by 8:30 PM once again, but so excited to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again!

Some more assorted photos from my first two days.