Tokyo (5 days)
The start of our journey kicked off with a flight from Melbourne to Tokyo aboard Philippine Airlines, the flight itself is about 12 hours long, but including the 8 hour layover in Manila we spent closer to 20 hours neither in Melbourne or Tokyo, hooray for the airport lounge we managed to book! ๐ซ I don't think I would have survived without the buffet and a comfortable chair to have a snooze in. ๐ด
After the very long layover and "short" 4-hour flight, we finally arrived at Haneda Airport and took a taxi to a hotel which we could recharge at, about 10 minutes away. Although let me tell you, it took us a good 20 minutes to figure out which one of the many levels of the airport we actually needed to be at so we could get a taxi (without being ripped off). ๐
Once we arrived at our overnight hotel, we checked in and caught up on some much-needed sleep โ light outs!
The next day, we woke up early to catch a shuttle bus back to Haneda Airport to catch a train, despite expecting warm Spring weather, we were instead greeted with a brief snowy morning and grey skies all around. ๐จ๏ธ
Akihabara
After being dropped off at Haneda Airport, we took some time to get our Suica cards (a prepaid card for public transport) and then hopped on the train to Akihabara, the famous district known for its electronics shops, anime, manga culture, and maid cafes... ๐ณ๐
Akihabara Male Maid Cafe
Getting to Akihabara was a breeze, the train system in Tokyo is very efficient and easy to navigate (with a bit of a helping hand from Google Maps). We arrived at Akihabara station, and with our luggage in hand, we set off to venture around and find a storage shop to drop off our bags.
Akihabara Station
We search for a good 30 minutes, walking around circles with our heads buried into Google maps before finally spotting a tiny opening in a shopping strip just across from the local starbucks, it was random tech repair shops and other weird gizmos... But there it was, a storage shop! We hand over our bags to the old Japanese man and hope they're still there when we get back... Arigato gozaimasu! ๐๐
Of course, now being nearly 1:30PM, we had to cross the street and check into Starbucks after only living off airplane coffee and airplane food for the 24 hours โ WE NEEDED COFFEE! ๐คฏโ๏ธ
Now refuled and our veins pumped with caffeine, we head off into search of a place to eat lunch. After a bit of searching on Google Maps, and walking around, we find a small Gyukatsu restaraunt located down some stairs which lead us into the basement level of a building, it was called Gyukatsu Motomura (็ใซใ ใใจๆ).
Gyukatsu Motomura
We order a Gyukatsu set, which is a breaded and deep-fried beef cutlet served with:
- A side of rice
- Red miso soup (slightly stronger than your typical miso soup)
- Shredded cabbage
- Grated yam (Tororo)
- Warabimochi (sweet Mochi like dessert from the Kansai region)
- Various sauces and conidements
One of the best things about Japan is that you get wasabi with (almost) everything, given I'm always getting like 3 extra packets of wasabi whenever ording sushing In Australia, I was a happy boy. ๐
The Gyukatsu we had provided prepared raw, so you could cook it the way god intended (medium-rare) on a hot stone until mouth wateringly juicy โ what a great way to start our trip! ๐
After our lunch we set out to adventure around Akihabara electric town, where we admired the unique architecture, neon lights and bustling atmopshere โ this is the central hub for anime, manga and gaming culture in Japan, we made sure to make the most of it and stop along the endless rows of manga, retro gaming & anime shops along the way.
The weather was finally starting to clear up, and even the sun was coming out to say hello, so I did what any good tourist would do and I took some photos of unique streets and buildings around me โ I even managed to snap a photo of some little tiny Uber cars driving around.
I didn't know it at the time, but these little cars are actually fully licensed taxis in Japan. They are called "JPN Taxi" and are designed to be compact, accessible (for its aging population) as-well as efficient for navigating the narrow streets of Japan โ fun fact, they were also designed after London's black cabs. ๐๐ฌ๐ง
GiGO Akihabara 4
While making our way towards Don Quiijote, we stumbled spot one of the many GiGO around Akihabara, this one was GiGO Akihabara no. 4. It's a known popular arcade chain in Japan filled with arcade games and claw machines โ claw machines being the main speciality of this particular store, ever since it was sold off by SEGA in 2020.
Don Quijote Akihabara
Finally we arrive at the main destination for the day, the famous Don Quijote store in Akihabara. We're greeted by the iconic yellow and red sign, and the store's mascots, a penguin named "Donpen" (ใใณใใณ) with his pink companion "Donko" (ใใณใญใงใณ) ๐ง โ they're both symbols of the store's quirky and playful atmosphere.
We have a bit of a browse around the store, and I manage to find a few things that look pretty interesting, HEAPS, of anime anod manga merchandise across the eight total floors in the store. Ultimately though, we leave empty handed as we didn't want to get too crazy on the first day of our trip, and we still had so much more to see! (Spoiler alert โ we load up on goodies in Osaka anyway ๐๏ธ๐)...
With that out of our system, we head on back to pick up our luggage from the storage shop, and make our way back towards Akihabara station to get one last coffee fix, and a quick snack before heading to our hotel in Asakusa.
Our coffee shop of choice this time was Sarutahiko Coffee, a popular coffee shop in Akihabara right beside Akihabara station.
The final stop! We couldn't resist grabbing one of Cow Cow Kitchen's famous โMilk Piesโ โ a creamy Hokkaido milk-filled pastry wrapped in golden, flaky crust. ๐ While it's a bit of a cult favorite in Japan (especially among dessert lovers and tourists), it's still a hidden gem outside the country.
Safe to say... worth... every... bite. ๐ฎ
Senso-ji
We finally hop onto the train and make our way to Asakusa after a long day, on the way we see the Tokyo Skytree in the distance โ we never do make it there,
but it's still a landmark to admire and take in, plus I've got proof I was (nearly) there! ๐
We make our way towards our hotel in Asakusa, a quaint little place called T-Hotel tucked away in a quiet seemingly residential area with plenty of non-descript little traditional Japanese restaraunts hidden away. Many of these restaraunts often do not take reversations or accept foreigners, as we were soon to find out! But more on that later... ๐
Asakusa Backstreets
Coming face-to-face with our hotel, we see just how small things can really get in Tokyo. Even though it's 6 stories tall, the building looks like it's only about 5 meters wide.
The entire room was extremely narrow, with 2 rooms on each of the 6 floors, it was giving me the same vibes we had in Hong Kong with how compact everything was, albeit slightly more spacious when taking into account the bathroom... ๐
Once we finish checking into our hotel, and taking a moment to rest our little feet, we throw our luggage into the corner and head out to Senso-ji Temple to have a look around the markets, and take some pictures before nightfall settles in.
Our hotel was conveniently about a 10 minute walk from Senso-ji Temple, making our first attraction of the trip super easy to get to.
Making our way across the road, we get our first glimpse of the main temple, it's referred to as Kannon-dล (่ฆณ้ณๅ ) or Hลjล (ๅฎ่ต) and it is the main hall of Senso-ji Temple, which is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon (่ฆณ้ณ), the goddess of mercy and compassion.
Hondล (ๆฌๅ )
A short walk from the main hall, we also stumble to a very small shrine called Asakusa Shrine (ๆต ่็ฅ็คพ), which is a Shinto shrine located within the Senso-ji Temple complex.
Our first night of looking for a restaraunt in Asakusa was a bit of a challenge though, we got the "Gaijin" (foreigner) treatment at a few places, where they either didn't want to serve us or were fully booked out. So we fallback to Plan B as the sun had well and truly headed to sleep by this point... ๐
The late-night Lawson's haul!
Ya'll already know I'm about that konbini life, in the end, we headed over to the nearest Lawson for some staples... Fried chicken and onigiri (rice balls), with a special super creamy pudding for desert. This put me into a coma, and it was lights out after that, we were exhausted from the long day of travel and exploring. ๐ค
Team Lab Borderless
Day 2
-
Negishi (ใญใใ)
- Negishi Shibuya 3-Chome
- Gyลซtan set meal
- Beef tongue slices
- Barley rice
- Curry side dish
-
Team Lab Borderlessn
-
Yakitori Torikizoku Hatchobori (Diner)
- Yakitori
- Mochi ice-cream (mine: Soy)
- Mochi ice-cream (Yuki: Strawberry)
Tokyo Tower
- Top Deck tour
Shibuya
Day 3
- Shibuya Scramble Square
- Hachikล statue
- Meiji Shrine
Shinjuku
- Lumine Est shopping mall
- Lunch ??? (hot broth w/ fish bowl)
Kamakura
Day 4
- Great Buddha of Kamakura
- Enoshima Island
- Enoshima Shrine
- Crispy octopus cracker
- Hokkaido milk & soda ice-cream
- Local squirrel resident
- Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (Shinto Shrine)
Kyoto (3 days)
Kiyomizu-dera
- Kimono rental
- Sanju-no-to (Three-story pagoda)
- Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Heian-Jingu Shrine & Garden
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Arashiyama
- Togetsu Bridge
- Bamboo Forest
- Lunch
Osaka (3 days)
Tsutenkaku & Dotonbori
- Tsutenkaku & Shinsenkai "New World" District
- Fukutaro (Okonomiyaki)
- Osaka Wonder Loop cruise
Nara
- Nara Deer Park
- Kasuga Taisha
Universal Studios Japan
- Harry Potter
- Jurassic Park
- Hollywood
- Jaws
- Minions & New York area
Kawaguchiko (2 days)
- Kawaguchiko Station
- Ryokan (Hotel Asafuji)
- Lake Kawaguchi
- Fujisan Pudding
- Lawson Konbini Photo Spot
Tokyo โ Heading Home!
- ...?
- Stayed at a hotel near Haneda Airport
- Flight home with Philippine Airlines
- Another layover in Manila, this time only with a 3 hour wait before our flight back to Melbourne ๐
...