Tokyo in 5 days
Updated: Jul 2
Day one we arrived after a ten hour flight from Seattle but with the 16 hour time change, we were about one day ahead. Generally the goal on the first day is to try to defeat jet lag by staying up until a normal bedtime. On our last trip, to Portugal we had the benefit of landing on the biggest party of the year which makes it pretty easy. We were staying in an Airbnb in the area between Shibuya and Shinjuku: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18110817?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=2428e9c5-b25a-4429-a749-3606d69a2e95
The place was not too fancy but was the right size for our group and a little off the beaten path. We hopped a train to the busiest train station in the world: Shinjuku Station. Most will advise committing a whole day to a neighborhood in Tokyo because it is so huge: Shinjuku was the ideal spot to fight fatigue.
After dropping our bags we headed to memory lane -Omoide Yokocho. We had our first adventure with the Japanese trains which are impressive but contrary to what you read, you can get confused and miss a train (or jump turnstiles for a couple of days when your SUICA card doesn’t reset properly). Omoide Yokocho is a couple of alleys right next to the station that are a time capsule to the post war period. We were starving after the flight and popped into the first izakaya that looked good.
Izakayas are places known for cheap skewers of grilled meats and beers. Omoide Yokocho did have some very cool looking tiny restaurants of 6-10 seats where you could soak up the cooking process and the crowd. Some of the crowd is tourists but not all. We planned on touring the rest of Shinjuku and possibly having a drink in Golden Gai which sounds similar to memory lane but with a higher percentage of bars than restaurants. We didn't make it.
After a hour of so of strolling around Shinjuku, the travel fatigue caught up with us and we headed back. Shinjuku supposedly features ‘radical youth' culture/ fashion. The Japanese women were somewhat fascinating in their style so it made for fun people watching. We spotted the famous Godzilla Head but skipped the love hotels- this is a family outing. We did not stay out long enough to see the neighborhood in all its glory.
Our day 2 plan was Shibuya.
I like to get up early on vacation and take pictures when the light is best and all the reasonable tourists (and my family) sleep in. I walked over to Yoyogi Park to stroll up to Meiji Jingu Temple. At that hour the temple was pretty empty. It is a quick stop and well worth it when visiting this part of Tokyo which is otherwise full of crowds.
I went back and collected the family and we headed back to Meiji Jingu before hitting Harajuku.
My goal in Harajuku was to have some street eats which they call kawaii or cute food that this area is famous for. It was a little too early to find many food places open but Takeshita Street was still fun. We went into one of three malls that were suggested: Yokyu Plaza. This place is famous for the mirrored ceiling on its entrance and an outdoor rooftop area which sits outside Starbucks. Neither of these impressed me much but we had a good brunch at Bills Omotesando, adjacent to that rooftop.
We continued strolling down Takeshita for shopping and definitely found some fun shops but $50 tee shirts were a little rich. In general Japan had great deals on accommodations and food (we had a very favorable exchange rate) but clothes seemed pricey. Omotesando is an area well known for architecture and some of the stores were very cool looking. We went into Omotesando Hills which won architectural awards, but to me it is just a mall.
I much preferred Takeshita and Cat street for the smaller shops compared with the malls. We walked to the end of Cat street and we briefly went into Shibuya 109, which is another famous mall but I couldn’t tell you why. We finished the day with some excellent ramen at Wagyu Ramen Goku, and before heading back, took part in the famous Shibuya Scramble. I think you may have to see it from above to really appreciate it. Many gawk from the adjacent Starbucks.
I think the famous efficiency of Japanese pedestrian crossing has been overtaken by tourists taking selfies in the middle of the intersection. Shibuya is sensory overload, like 5 Times Squares stuck together. I never go to Times Square when in New York, so I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan of the Shibuya vibe but all of the teenagers seemed to be having a helluva good time. With a day and a half in the books, our trip was about to shift to Kyoto. We came back to Tokyo for the last 3 days.
Next stop: Kyoto
For our second Tokyo adventure we had another Airbnb in outskirts of Shibuya, this time in Daikanyamacho. It was similar to our first place in that it felt a world away from the ritzy center of action but was fairly walkable. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1178842451977084389?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=eaf215e8-be7e-4633-b35c-30497d322ef0
We had a ton of fun at González Natsura Chopsticks Craft Experience. The crew guided us through the fine art of chopstick design and the whole family enjoyed it. The kids picked the activity, which always helps win over hearts and minds. The chopsticks end result was beautiful.
After this we strolled to Roppongi for dinner and shopping around Roppongi Hills. It’s a mall, so how fun can it be? There are two huge ones in this
neighborhood. The other is Tokyo Midtown. Luxury retail, museums, green spaces, and art all crammed into huge skyscrapers. Before heading home we stopped at 7/11 for late night drinks and early morning snacks and ice coffee. This was the one of many 7/11 stops- you have heard about Japanese 7/11 I trust? I don't like egg salad but was eating famous 7/11 egg salad on the regular.
Day 4 in Tokyo was a side trip to Hakone to see Mount Fuji. Did we see Mt. Fuji? Barely. This is the problem with this type of trip is odds are less than 50% of seeing the mountain. Winter gives best odds: 50-60%. June-September supposedly 20% or less.
Our trip on Get Your Guide was a pretty standard day trip from Tokyo: 5th station on Mt Fuji (highest point you can drive to), then lunch at one of those places that needs tour bus business (not too bad), then Fuji Heiwa (or peace arch) Park (surprise highlight), then Hakone Ropeway (also pretty cool with no need to see Fuji to enjoy), followed by a cruise in an authentic fake pirate ship on Lake Ashi (utterly forgettable since no visibility at all), and lastly bullet train back.
It was a totally totally cloudy day in Tokyo, so my hopes were not that high of seeing Mount Fuji. When we got up to the fifth station, there were a couple brief moments when the clouds moved through and you could actually see the top of the mountain so we supposedly should consider ourselves lucky. From this vantage point, you don’t get that striking view of the whole mountain, just the Apex.
The peace park, officially known as Fuji Heiwa Park was pretty cool as it has a lot of interesting sculptures and monuments and I was able to get some pretty good photos.
Peace Park was established to promote peace amongst several Buddhist majority nations. there’s a huge white pagoda that actually houses some of the ashes of Gautama Buddha. The approach to the pagoda is lined by stone lion statues donated by various Asian countries. When we visited, there were no crowds other than those on our tour and it was a great, short stop. You could spend quite a while here wandering around as there is quite a bit to see and you might catch a stunning view of Mount Fuji in the background.
The next stop on the tour was the Hakone Ropeway.
This is apparently the most popular ropeway in the world. It’s a gondola that runs over the top of an active volcano. I have no idea what makes something a ropeway instead of a gondola, but it was still pretty cool.
The ride is 25 minutes and when you climb over the Owakudani Valley and see the active volcanic activity, everyone in the cable car reacted. The smoke and yellow sulfur were striking. We had a little when while to hang out at the second cable car station: Owakudani Station.
We had some of the famous black eggs of Owakudani. These are eggs cooked in the natural sufur rich geothermal pools in this area. The sufur combines with the iron in the egg shells to make the black color. The legend is that eating one will add seven years to your life. We each had one so we got that going for us, which is nice.
The last part of the tour was a 'pirate boat cruise' on Lake Ashi.
The Lake Ashi cruise is 20-30 minutes but we had to wait a half hour standing in line for the boat and without any Mt. Fuji views, I could have skipped it. Our bus dropped us at a Shinkansen station and we were back in Tokyo a half hour later. Overall, the verdict was positive but it would have been spectacular if you could see the mountain so I would say give it a shot if you’ve got 5 or more days in Tokyo.
From Kyoto station we walked through Ginza to get dinner. This neighborhood is famous for luxury shops and great sushi. We had a great dinner at Oreno Takiniku Ginza. We got a large selection of Wagyu cuts and grilled them ourselves at our table. Our kids ordered some rice dishes and it worked to be a fabulous family style dinner. Half the crew rated it our best meal in Japan. The other half voted for the Okonomiyaki place in Osaka.
Last day was focused around TeamLab Planets which is in Toyosu. This is one of several Team Labs- interactive art museums. Tokyo has another called TeamLab Borderless which is in Shibuya.
These get glowing reviews and I chose to book tickets in advance as it was apparently a risk to sell out. After reading on them, I thought Planets sounded more interesting but Toyosu is a bit of a haul being one of the man made island in Tokyo Harbor.
The way things worked out, I had not been able to get to Asakusa, so I found a cool way to include a few things that sounded interesting: jump from Toyosu to Odaiba (another man made island)
via a monorail called the Yurikamome line, then kid friendly adventures on Odaiba, followed by a ‘spaceship’ boat ride from Odaiba to Asakusa.
TeamLab Planets: it was OK- more in the sweet spot for 8-15 year olds than our group aged 17-56. Probably worth a stop but not worth building a day around. The Yurikamome line might be great if you take it across the rainbow bridge but felt like another train ride when just hopping to Odaiba. We only had a few hours before our boat so we had to pick a couple of things to do on Odaiba: lunch (Zest Cantina Odaiba- pretty good and very inexpensive) and a little mall shopping then to a mini amusement park inside the next mall called Joypolis. It was pretty fun. We had time for one roller coaster and a
hysterical game of laser tag. Odaiba is reportedly the most popular spot in Tokyo for a date. We peeked at the mini Statue of Liberty but did not bother with the Gundam statue in front of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza in Odaiba.
The boat ride was just ok- somehow the spaceship got replaced with a regular boat. The Tokyo Cruise fleet has some ships designed by famous manga artist Leiji Matsumoto. Photos of these boats do look very cool and futuristic but our ship was a regular looking barge. Oh well.
Asakusa is home to our last temple in Japan: Senso-Ji. This is Tokyo’s oldest and most famous Buddhist Temple. It dates from 645 AD and was still pretty crowded on a rainy evening.
The streets around it are crowded with the standard tourist shops but the streets are still pretty atmospheric. I would try to spend a little more time in Asakusa next trip to Tokyo. This might be an ideal spot to stay if you are not into the neon lights and crowds of Shibuya/ Shinjuku.
For dinner we decided to do one more activity similar to our coin rings and chopsticks: ramen making class. We jumped a train back to Shibuya for Ramen Dojo Tokyo. This was a 90 minute class on making ramen. The young women who guided us through the process were informative and cool. We made three types of broth and our own noodles and slurped it all down. Everyone had a good time.
We were sadly accepting the end of the trip. Japan was a great trip. It was fun to soak up a different culture (even if again English language was spoken everywhere). Don't talk on the trains. Order reigns but they will push you out of the way if they need to get off a train. The toilet technology is bonkers. They have a thousand buttons, light projecting to the floor on a motion sensor (incredible), have a fountain that makes the water filling the tank available to wash your hands (artistic and useful) and seat is hot as you want it.
Earthquakes- that's a regular thing. We had an alert on our phones while on the underground train on our second night. None of the locals reacted so we didn't flee the station too fast. On our way home we felt another one while waiting at the airport (6.9 20 miles offshore)- it was the first real quake for my kids. The response of everyone at the airport was nil. The Haneda airport has another showa era themed shopping mall (obviously), so we rapped up the trip with yet more shopping.
Read about our adventures in Kyoto and Osaka.
Comments