So, finally, my SO and I back home after an exciting Japanese Vacation. It was on our bucket list for years and we are so glad we did it and it went smoothly.
We landed at Narita Airport at 7 AM and finished our immigration and customs by 7.45 AM. We bought our Passmo Passport from Keisei Information Centre in literally two mins without a queue and were in the three persons queue at the Limousine Bus stop for our airport transfer to Shinjuku. I highly suggest the Limousine Bus Service as it was the most convenient and comfortable ride from NRT Airport to Shinjuku. The staff speaks English and put your luggage in the storage compartment, without you to have to worry about it. You can buy the tickets of limousine bus on KLOOK or at the arrivals hall of NRT airport.
From Shinjuku stop where the limousine bus dropped us and handed our luggage to us, we took a taxi to our hotel. It costed us 1200 yen and 10 mins to our hotel in Nishi Shinjuku. We had typed the hotel name and address in Japanese and printed it out. That piece of paper proved very useful after a 12 hour flight and 2 hour bus ride. We just handed out the printed paper to our taxi driver and he dropped us off at our hotel without a single word exchanged between us except thank you (arigato gozaimasu). It took away the anxiety of explaining our hotel address to taxi drivers in English and broken Japanese.
Our hotel was APA Hotel & Resort NishiShinjuku Gochome Eki Tower. We had booked an early check in for additional payment of 1000 yen per hour. We reached our double room on higher floor with city view and were shocked by the size of it. NO AMOUNT of research and reading up could mentally prepare us for the size of it. It was TINYYYYYYYY. But, very well appointed with night suits, kimono robes, room slippers, onsen slippers, huge TV, small bath tub, king size bed, working station with a chair, etc. We soon found our groove in the tiny room and found it to be very comfortable once the luggage was under the bed. I would highly recommend this hotel as it has an onsite onsen, swimming pool (payable), speedy WiFi, English speaking staff, vending machines, laundromat, luggage storage and transfer facility. But, its biggest plus point is that it’s 100 mts away from the NishiShinjuku Gochome Station with an elevator exit. That was the most convenient for us.
After relaxing in the tiny room for about 3 hours, we left the hotel at 2 PM for Meiji Jingu Shrine. We used the subway for it and it was very convenient. We thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful zen walk into the forest like atmosphere to reach the shrine. It was completely empty barring three more people about 1 km ahead of us. When we reached the Meiji Jingu Shrine we were greeted by a crowd. We spent maximum of 30 mins in the shrine and then walked to Takeshita Street. It was a 15 min relaxed walk and we enjoyed it. We LOVED the Takeshita Street and the hustle bustle there, spent around two hours, shopping for street wear fits and eating the crepes and tanghulu sweet treats. From there we walked the Cat Street, which was almost deserted and we didn’t even realise that we had already finished walking the iconic Cat Street until we asked a local. From Cat Street we walked to Shibuya, it was a 25 minutes walk and I had started to feel the tiredness by now. We found a Tully’s Cafe about 5 mins away from Shibuya crossing and chilled there for one hour having coffee and smoothies.
We reached the Shibuya Crossing by 6.30 PM and the excitement to see thousands of people crossing the iconic junction had pumped the energy back into me and I was ready for more exploring. We took a look at the Hachiku Statue and made our way up to Shibuya Sky for our entry slot of 7 PM. It was the most magical moment when we took the elevator up to the open observatory deck. The sky was turning red and rust and the Tokyo skyline lights were just firing up. We saw the sunset for about 15 minutes before the sky turned dark and then we enjoyed the night light views of Tokyo. It was absolutely STUNNING. Highly recommend booking the 6.45-7 PM slot for Shibuya Sky. We booked it via KLOOK about one month in advance.
We got down from Shibuya Sky by 8.30 PM and although we had a reservation at a vegan restaurant at Shinjuku for 9 PM, I personally couldn’t last any longer. I was extremely tired by that time so we took a subway back to our hotel. We rested in the hotel and had Seven Eleven ice cream and onigiri for dinner in our room and rested till about 11 PM.
At around 11 PM my FOMO kicked in and my partner and I took a cab to Omoide Yakucho drinking lane. It took us 8 mins by cab and 1000 yen. We had a local beer at the Albatross bar there and we loved the atmosphere and experience. We explored some more places in that lane but Albatross Bar was the best vibe. We then walked to Hotel Gracery to see the Godzilla head and Shinjuku neon billboards and lights. We found the area super greasy but it had a vibe of its own. We walked a bit further and found a nice beer brewery and bar and had a few beers there and it was amazing. We left that place by 12.30 AM and took a taxi back to the hotel. It costed us 900 yen. All in all it was the MOST FUN and ICONIC first day of a Tokyo trip. We had clocked 22,000 steps on Day 1.
Day 2:
We woke up by 8 AM and left the hotel by 10 AM. We first reached the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and had breakfast at the traditional Japanese tea house at the national garden. We relaxed in the garden and explored till about 12.30 pm and we left for TeamLabs Planet. We reached there and booked ourself the lunch experience at Uzu Restaurant at Tokyolabs Planet. It was hands down the ABSOLUTE BEST lunch experience with the yummiest bowl of Vegan Ramen. We enjoyed the immersive experience and were ready for experiencing the main exhibit by 3.30 PM. We spent two hours in the exhibit and it was absolutely the highlight of our trip. We both lovedddddd TeamLabs Planet experience and can’t wait to be back.
At around 6 pm we left for Asakusa area from Teamlabs and reached the Senso Ji temple at around 6.45 pm. We explored the shopping streets around the temple and watched the sun go down behind the temple. It was just so so so so beautiful. We had dinner at a roadside restaurant there and they were plenty. My SO loved the area so much that he made me promise that we will stay in this area instead of Shibuya or Shinjuku on our next visit to Tokyo. The man has taste.
We were back to our hotel by 10 PM and had drinks at our hotel bar and slept off by 12 AM.
We had successfully used the subway system without getting lost but we had also successfully AVOIDED starting or ending our subway journeys from the terrifying Shinjuku Station for first two days and we highly recommend everyone to do the same.
Because on Day 3 we got lost at Shinjuku station and it was NOT FUN. On day 3 we checked out of our hotel by 10 am and took the subway to Don Qui store Shinjuku (our hotel stored our luggage for us post check out). We spent 2.5 hours in Donki and other Shinjuku shopping places and while returning with our shopping bags we got lost in Shinjuku station for about an hour and I personally felt super disoriented but my SO took over the navigation and somehow we reached our hotel by 2 pm.
We then took our bags and made our way to Tokyo International Cruise Terminal via subway and metro. A sweet local Japanese girl guided us to the metro stop which was two floors above from where we were and she very kindly travelled with us on the escalators two whole floors up. I had never experienced such kindness from a stranger and was truly grateful and overwhelmed by her kindness.
We then embarked on our cruise ship at 3.30 PM and I will write the cruise report in the next post.
But, I must say that these 2-2.5 days in Tokyo were genuinely I had dreamed of and more. Although it was tiring t walk 20k steps a day but it was more than worth it. I can’t wait to be back.
by KoreanBunz