Japan Trip 2023

By Green Snake

Introduction

I'm not much of a travel person. There's too much to do these days regarding studying and working. But it's been 10+ years since I've been out of the country (USA), so I decided to make a trip to Japan. Japan has great entertainment in Anime, manga, games, and also great food.

After some lengthy planning, I planned to just visit Tokyo since the city is absolutely massive. I also went with some buddies.

I'll be talking about my itinerary here and post some pictures.

Day 0 & 1, Flight

I went on Delta Airlines which is pretty good. I went on a flight from NYC to Atlanta, Georgia (a few hours). I met up with my buddy. Then we went on a flight from Atlanta to Haneda Airport (Japan).

The flight attendants were courteous and I enjoyed the mid-flight meals and entertainment. I watched "The Last Samurai", "Lost in Translation" and "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish." Then I read some of my books on finance and Japanese.

After 14 hours, we all landed in Haneda, went through customs. The flight made me deaf in both ears. If this "airplane ear" happens to you, you can yawn or swallow. But what helped me was standing, turning my head upside down, and then point my ear to the ground. After about a minute, this helped. There are similar methods with "scuba ear." Using the "Valsalva maneuver," pinch your nose, blow your nose gently and very briefly.

We met with more of our buddies. Got our pocket wifis. I got a pocket wifi through Ninja Wifi. The Ninja Wifi place was behind the right side of the PASMO machines on the same floor as the customs exit. I recommend you carry your own battery pack. I stood in line for about 15 minutes and bought everyone PASMO cards. These are the IC (integrated circuit) cards which are used to pay for travel in the inner city.

The airport is a little far from the city so it was 500 Yen. Inside the city, the fare is like 100 - 300 Yen. The exchange rate is pretty good. It's around 1 USD to 141 Yen today. I should note that if you don't have enough money, you can do a "fare adjustment" at the station. So, don't worry too much.

I actually used the exit station turnstile wrong and a station worker helped me out 🥴. I think they tolerated me since I was carrying a lot of luggage. You're supposed to use your PASMO card when you enter the station and again when you exit the station. That's when your fare is calculated and your card charged.

I recommended we eat at Coco Ichibanya Curry House. So we did. Reading the menu was confusing since we're all mostly illiterate 🥴. I really should study more Kanji. We did end up using the translator. The youtube channel, Japananalysis rates this chain as S-rank and I agree.(youtube: japananalysis, Japanese fast food tier list)I normally get chicken, cheese, reduced rice, level 4 spicy, default sweetness, mini naan bread. Then I use the house black sauce, and the pickled Fukujinzuke vegetables. It truly is great curry. They have branches all over the world including the USA (only California 🥴). The Japanese word for cheese and map is chi-zu.

We were all tired from the massive time difference (+13 or +14 hours from NYC) so we all passed out. I dealt with jet lag by napping throughout this day.

Day 2, Asakusa day

We all woke up after 6 hours of sleep. We all felt groggy. We went to Mcdonalds for breakfast. These fast food chains have extra stuff in Japan (and other foreign places). I ordered something that wasn't in the states. The taste is consistent with that of America.

My friends were drinking coffee outside. After some time, they realized that there are almost no trash cans anywhere 🥴.

We headed to the Kaminarimon Gate 雷門 to see the Sanja Matsuri Festival.(source: japan-guide)(wiki: Sanja Matsuri)We were pretty early and everything was closed 🥴. We walked through a residential area to Ueno Park 上野恩賜公園. We did see a lot of Kappa statues, a familiar sight from Final Fantasy 6. We went into a Don Quixote store and bought some oddities.

I was able to ask for directions in my limited Japanese to the Ueno Park. The people were very friendly and were happy to help. At Ueno Park, we went to the giant Whale Statue, then went to then we went to the Starbucks to get a Strawberry Frappuccino and interesting donuts not found in the States. The park was a ghost town before 9 am.



We went to Shinobazunoike Benten-do Buddhist Temple (不忍池辯天堂). I paid a small amount of Yen to get a fortune which said "uncertain luck" 🥴. I talked to the monk briefly, prayed, and then breathed in some incense. We went to the nearby lake which was just packed with lotus plants.

My friend and I raced up the nearby stairs to the top. It was a very sweaty tie. I saw some large crows and pigeons, like the ones we see in NYC.

The Tokyo National Museum opened up and we stood in line for 15 minutes. Some things you can take pictures of, some you can't. For lunch, we got some food from the food carts. I got "Mapo Tofu", which is a really strange thing to buy from a food cart. It was very good. I especially enjoyed their addition of roasted peanuts, something I haven't ever seen before. Other friends got fried chicken and fries.



We continued our tour of the Museum since they have several buildings. My favorite section was the section on the weapons and the gold and silver.



The park became more lively and crowded at this time. We headed to the nearby Ueno Park festival and ate some Takoyaki (ball-shaped octopus dish). This thing is like eating napalm. I tried a shooting carnival game but that thing was totally rigged 🥴.

We went to Ueno Zoo and saw a bunch of wacky animals. I was able to see: meerkats, pandas, red pandas, a tiny mouse, a Canada Goose lookalike, a giant bear. I also saw a grape vine in the zoo, which I thought was whimsical.



After we got out, we saw a Georgian Festival (the country), which was out-of-place and interesting. We checked out the nearby Kiyomizu Kannon-dō Temple (清水観音堂). I saw the Statue of Saigo Takamori 西郷隆盛像. He has an excellent campaign in the video game, "Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai". This strategy game is one of the best strategy games of all time. We headed back to the Matsuri festival in the Asakusa area.



When we arrived there, it was very crowded. And this was just as we planned and expected. However, this was the last day to see the festival and also, this is the only festival on the plan.

We saw the golden poo (Asahi Beer Hall) and the Tokyo Skytree 東京スカイツリー, the largest tower. We ate at the Funachu 浅草花川戸鮒忠 restaurant. I only got a beer since I wasn't hungry. The Nakamise-dori Street 仲見世商店街 nearby has a lot of interesting things and food.

We walked back to the Sensō-ji buddhist temple 浅草寺. We all got our fortunes. I got a bad fortune 🥴. If this happens, you have to tie it up in the designated area in the temple. None of my friends got bad fortunes for the entire trip. We prayed and then headed to the Skytree area by train.



We didn't go up the skytree since we already have 1 observatory planned. We went to the Donguri Republic (Ghibli Store in Tokyo Skytree Town Solamachi) ジブリがいっぱい どんぐり共和国 東京スカイツリータウン・ソラマチ店. I kind of wanted the cat from "Kiki's delivery service" but I already have a zoo's worth of stuffed animals from my local Round 1 arcade. I noticed a Kirby Cafe in the area but I wasn't hungry. I wish I had more stomachs (a common problem during this trip).



We went back to our hotel and showered since we were all really sweaty from walking. I had a lot of salt on my shirt. The group ended up splitting for the day.

I went with some buddies to Akihabara. It's a place with electronics, anime, manga, arcades, and maids. It is a lively and interesting place. We checked out a few arcades. We headed towards the Bunny’s Guild バニーズギルド .It's a cafe where the girls dress in a bunny girl costume serve you food, and talk to you. We weren't hungry so we drank a bunch, talked in limited Japanese and some English, and got a polaroid. We paid with 2000 Yen notes, which made them exclaim how rare these were. I guess it's like paying with a 2 dollar bill in America. It was a goofy fun time.



~16.56 miles walked.

Day 3, Koto Day

We woke up early and went on the train to Tsukiji Outer Fish Market.

I tried asking an Asian lady in Japanese where the sign on the restaurant was. She said that she didn’t know any Japanese and was from Taiwan 🥴.

I ended up getting some Tamago (egg) on a stick at Marutake, Tamagoyaki, which was pretty good. I got a tuna bowl which had no line until after I finished my bowl. When you buy stuff, you can give the same shop your trash.



I saw a long line for a specific tuna shop called Maguroya Kurogin Tsukiji まぐろや黒銀 築地本店.Long lines = good food. So my friend and I stood in it for 30 minutes. We got cuts of tuna that I didn’t know existed, such as Kamatoro. It was very interesting.(instagram: Maguro Kurogin Tsukiji)



Matcha Ice cream was sold out so I got some other ice cream. My friends got some Cremia ice cream.

We went to Hamarikyu Gardens 浜離宮恩賜庭園 and walked around. There were nice statues, birds, and fruit trees. I actually picked up a ripe fruit from the ground and bit into it. It was really sour. There were a lot of dropped fruit. I saw a 300 year old pine tree growing sideways.



We headed to Round 1 Stadium in Odaiba / Koto city. We were stopped by people who were part of the Fuji Tv building. The Fuji Television building had some incredibly long stairs. I imagine they would be great for training.

We explored the two malls in the area along with the Round 1 Stadium in Diver City Tokyo. The Round 1 here was pretty large. I’ve never seen so many prize games in one place. We played some Taiko drum game, which I kind of want at home. There's a big Gundam Store here. Also, there's a massive Gundam statue outside. It also moves on the hour, which we were fortunate enough to witness. Also there was a crowd of people there.



I won 1 cactus Rilakkuma which was very goofy. I ate an Unagi (eel) bowl at the Kaisendon Saraudon (Tsukiji Shimetora Diver City Tokyo Plaza). The melon soda made me thirstier. It was pretty good. It was an unusually hot day, the hottest actually. I’m glad there were vending machines everywhere.

We visited the Statue of Liberty (replica)

We went to the interesting Miraikan Emerging Science museum 日本科学未来館. We went to the upper area and just laid there for over an hour. Everyone was pretty tired from the heat and walking.



We got some ice cream from Diver City Plaza. I ran to win one more cactus Rilakkuma (total now: 2). Then we headed to teamLab Plaza. We had reservations from weeks ago. Sometimes Klook.com doesn’t have times available so you have to go directly on the teamLab site.



I ate some Ramen from Vegan Uzu Ramen (Vegan Ramen UZU Tokyo). I actually took a picture of my receipt and forgot to take a picture of my ramen 🥴. Not sure what I was expecting but it was 9/10.

This art exhibit was like a daydream. It is hard to describe. If you see pictures, the pictures can’t capture the immersive feeling you get here. If you’re in Tokyo, I highly recommend that you do not miss this. Be sure to wear shorts (or roll up your pants) for the water room. And also get reservations at least a few days (or weeks) in advance. This was the best art exhibit I have ever seen. The people behind teamLabs does new stuff every now and then, so you'll have to stay sharp.(instagram: TeamLab)



The day was ending and the group split up. My friend and I went to Akihabara to talk to more maids. We went to the Bacchus bar. I talked to them about Japan and this snake-themed website 🥴.

~11.44 miles walked.

Day 4, Shinjuku Day

It was lightly raining. I went outside and opened my umbrella. It was broken 🥴. So I went back and got my poncho. Wearing a poncho on top of my backpack made me look like a hunch back 🥴.

We headed to the Shinjuku area. We had breakfast at EggSlut. This restaurant is normally in Los Angeles. It was pretty good. I saw a Joel Robuchon restaurant. I was excited to see him since he is the chef who has the most Michelin stars, before his death. Normally, you have to get reservations a few months in advance. But it appeared to be a casual eatery. I took note for later.

We went to the park Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens 新宿御苑. They had a lot of hydrangeas and interesting trees. We had some matcha green tea in a green tea house. There were some interesting temple-like buildings. There was the largest collection of roses I’ve ever seen. There was a small museum about the park's history. There was a green house which was pretty interesting. They had various tropical fruits like avocados, bananas, citrus, trees with massive leaves, and a bunch of succulents.



Tokyo is in the plant hardiness zone 10, which means you can grow some tropical stuff like citrus. I imagine this park would look stunning during cherry blossom season. It was pretty empty due to the light rain.

We tried going to the michelin star ramen place Soba House Konjiki-Hototogisu, SOBA HOUSE 金色不如帰 新宿御苑本店but it was completely full. They take no reservations. There is a ticket machine which is a pseudo-reservation. I wasn't too familiar with it 🥴.

The group split up after this point. My group went to the Hanazono Shrine 花園神社 Shinto Shrine. It’s really cool they have stuff like this in the middle of a city. I did a prayer, and got a fortune. My friends got some charms.



We ate some special stuff from Burger King.

We then made our way to the SODLAND in Kabukicho. It’s a like a maid cafe except that instead of maids, you have Japanese adult actresses. It was sadly closed that day. We went to the new Namco Kabukicho tower and got some Gachapon stuff. We went to starbucks to try to help my friend find a better Japan-themed tumbler. I saw a Snoopy x Starbucks. Japan really likes Snoopy. They have a Snoopy hotel, cafe, museum, store, etc.



We saw the Godzilla head. You can actually go up and see it. My friend ate at Ichiran and remarked that it cost $8 here and $20+ in NYC.



We went to the arcades in the area. My friends and I tried the crane games in the area. We wanted the nice bunny girl figurines. We spent over $60 getting nowhere. It was difficult. I did end up winning a Snoopy later in the day.

I saw a sign selling Mantis Shrimp Sushi. I didn’t know that was a thing. It’s the shrimp that punches.

We all ended up getting more Coco Ichibanya. My friend ended up eating this as his second dinner.

We visited Golden Gai. This has a few streets where it has bars absolutely packed in every nook and cranny. I've never seen anything like this. I hear some of them have some very exotic foods. We entered our first bar named Plug. The bartender looked like Hideo Kojima. Same hair, same glasses, same facial hair. It was his first day. We drank a lot. We enjoyed talking with a Japanese lady that spoke excellent English and Japanese. She also works at the nearby bar named "Miso Soup". If you do meet such a woman, be nice to her and please mention me 🐍.

(instagram: Plug at Golden Gai)
(instagram: Miso Soup at Golden Gai)



I noticed that the school kids walk around at night alone. It’s a really safe and pleasant country. NYC at late night is like something out of Demon Slayer.

~14.12 miles walked.