Trip report: 5 1/2 days in Tokyo (April 7-12)

Hi everyone!

I found these trip reports extremely helpful in my planning, so wanted to share my own now that I’m grieving/celebrating my just-completed Tokyo trip. I hope this is helpful to someone, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

Before we begin, some notes:

* I had never traveled outside of North America before this. Since I live in New York City, I still felt “safe” making my first-ever big trip to Tokyo alongside my partner, who’s traveled more than me but still hadn’t been to Asia. Many told me I was crazy for this. I think they (maybe?) probably would have been right had I not been so used to navigating crowds and complicated transit systems. I found the train stations were far easier to navigate than those in NYC!
* I had an itinerary mostly based around food, neighborhoods, and coffee shops. I had a lot of worries/guilt about not doing the “big” stuff — teamLab, Ghibli museum, Disney, Golden Gai, Pokemon/Nintendo anything — but since I like doing chill stuff at home, I knew I was unlikely to become suddenly extroverted on vacation and didn’t want to push myself to do stuff I likely wouldn’t enjoy anywhere. Perhaps this is totally dumb, but I just wanted to share it in case anyone else is overwhelmed and feeling like they “have” to do something. I had a lot of fun just walking around, going to coffee shops, and making a bunch of notes in my head about urban planning/zoning.
* Speaking of coffee shops, I made an extensive list of Google pins to reference throughout the trip. I didn’t get to many of them, but it was super helpful to be able to look at a neighborhood and know I had a couple of food options, knew where the restrooms were, and knew what I could do if it started raining. This may be super obvious to some, but I didn’t know this was a feature of Google Maps until planning for this trip and loved it. I didn’t make any reservations.
* My partner had service on his phone by temporarily extending his AT&T service, while I went without. This was fine, and I appreciated skipping the hassle of renting WiFi.
* I do not speak Japanese, but tried to make an effort to learn on and off in the months leading up to this trip. I actually found I really only needed a few phrases, since folks in tourist-y areas often spoke English and folks in not-tourist-y areas were patient with trying to find other ways to communicate. Never had to use translate. Most-used phrases were “kore wo onegaishimasu to…kore wo onegaishimasu” (hopefully this translates to “I’ll have this please and…this.” I think I was supposed to say “kore to kore kudasai” and may have sounded a bit dumb, but the point was seemingly understood.) I also used aisukōhī for iced coffee, said “miruku?” when I couldn’t find milk, hai/iie, handed out arigatōgozaimasu’s like it was my job, and used standard greetings. When I didn’t understand something, I’d say “sumimasen” while looking befuddled, and then we’d work from there.
* I really, really wanted to be polite, even though I probably wasn’t always. I wore a mask in all businesses and on the train, paid attention to walking on the correct side of the road, tried to use exact change where possible, did not talk on transit, did not eat or drink while walking, and kept my voice down in restaurants. I’m not saying this to sound holier-than-thou — I have social anxiety and didn’t want to be seen as annoying, lol. But it was interesting to me how often other travelers did \*not\* do these things. I don’t know what’s right or wrong, but at the very least talking loudly/eating on the trains in big groups seemed highly frowned upon (based solely on dirty looks), yet some tourists either didn’t notice or didn’t care. To each their own!

OK, to the itinerary!

**Day 0:**

* Travel on United out of LGA got delayed due to weather in Chicago. Tried not to freak out about this (I did, my partner was far more chill) but it ended up working out in our favor. Called United and got bumped to a later ANA flight out of Chicago to Haneda in freakin’ *premium economy.* If you have the money for ANA or an upgrade on ANA — I do not, the airline gods just smiled upon me — I’d highly recommend this. We got two decent meals and a snack, a lot of legroom, top-notch service, and genuinely wonderful seat-mates.
* Arrived at Haneda around 10ish and didn’t get through customs until 11. Used all the wonderful tips recommended by Reddit about getting QR codes and filling stuff out in advance. I didn’t have any cash, though, and got confused when trying to pay for a Suica card. By the time I went to a 7-11 ATM to get cash, it was 11:30 and we wound up taking a cab to the hotel. This was our most expensive luxury on the entire trip. It cost 113,000 yen. I beg of you, avoid this.
* Checked into Sequence Miyashita Park, which sometimes has good deals. Loved the location and thought our room was great but wouldn’t recommend this hotel for families or big groups. It was filled with young, beautiful people 24/7 and seemed to be more of a “vibe-y” type place. On the flip side, if you have teens, they may love this place. It’s attached to a big mall.
* Ate at 7-11 and crashed.

​

**Day 1:**

* Jet lag had us up at 6am, but that’s OK! We got moving, finally got our Suica cards on our Apple Wallets, and headed over to Ueno.
* Went to Kayaba Coffee in Taito City for breakfast right when they opened at 8 on a Friday. Within 30 minutes they were turning folks away, but it seemed like they also took reservations. Had an amazing coffee/egg sandwich set.
* Walked over to Yanaka Ginza. A lot of stuff was closed, but it was still cool to see. It started pouring so I ducked into 7/11 to buy a rain poncho for 1,300 yen. Extremely worth it — I used this throughout the trip and found it more useful than an umbrella, since the winds were so strong. Onward to Tokyo National Museum, which was huge. We pretty casually strolled through — I wish I would have taken my time more — but we were getting tired. My partner started experiencing hip pain and needed to sit so we took a decent break and just hung out here.
* Walked to the Akihabara area for a super late lunch at Goths Akihabaraten. Panicked and ordered a butter miso ramen that came with half a stick of cold butter on top. This was the only flop of the trip, but an amusing flop nonetheless. About 1,000 yen, so not a ton of money lost.
* Walked through Animate in a daze, went on to Shinjuku to similarly walk through Beams and Taito Station in a daze. So many men in suits playing arcade games!
* Hit our limit and went to Chicken Street in Shibuya for wonderful Korean fried chicken. The servers didn’t speak English but there were English menus and families with kids, if you’re on the hunt for that kind of place!

​

**Day 2**

* Woke up at 5. Interesting! Walked around. Went to a place in Shibuya called Buy Me Stand for breakfast right when it opened at 8 for affordable egg-in-a-hole toast and coffee. Cost about $10 USD for two people!
* We got very lucky and accidentally scheduled our trip during the wan wan carnival at Yoyogi Park. This was the best thing that ever happened to me. Went over to their events square at 10am after stopping by Little Nap for coffee and saw a bunch of dogs in little outfits being pushed in strollers. Cried happy tears.
* Walked to a place called Note for lunch before realizing it was more than we wanted to spend. Stumbled into a place called てらうち for Tonkatsu. Loved it. Bunch of guys in here smoking cigarettes and having a midday beer.
* Decided I should wait in a line, because I hand’t done that yet. Went to Haritts Donuts & Coffee. Enjoyed the line, got a donut, walked over to Commune Press in Nishihara to look at art and buy some zines. I loved this neighborhood.
* At this point my partner was having some pain issues and we didn’t want to push it so we went to Shibuya Parco to get conveyor belt sushi and called it a night.

**Day 3**

* Our day trip day! Woke up at 5, didn’t mind it this time, and got ready before heading on to World Breakfast All Day in Harajuku because it opened at 7:30. This wound up somehow being our most expensive meal of the trip. Would recommend it if you’re dining with only one other person and have money to spend/need food early, but would avoid otherwise.
* Got on the wrong train and I swear to god I saw Mount Fuji? I thought I was hallucinating.
* Got on the right train and headed to a wonderful cafe called The Door into Summer in Ome. Had a coffee and a cheese sandwich, looked out the window and thought happy thoughts. It was a bit chilly so we went to a nearby clothing store and I got a workwear jacket on sale for 980 yen. The store owner laughed at me so I take it this purchase was a bit weird. My boyfriend got a bit anxious because we were in a super residential area and folks were staring at us, so we hopped back on the train to Okutama, which was beautiful. We had a beer, accidentally ordered a second cheese sandwich on a hot dog bun (beware of the salad hot dog), and walked on some trails.
* Got high and mighty and thought we could hike to Atago Shrine because we saw older folks doing it (with gear.) Got most of the way there before I realized it was beyond my capabilities. We turned around, took a relaxing train ride home, and went to Bassa Nova for ramen in Harajuku.

**Day 4**

* This day had the least amount of planning behind it and the most chaos. Because it was a Monday and most stuff was closed I figured we’d wander. We went to Bean Garage for coffee/breakfast (very good), walked to the Meguro River and looped to Daikanyama to shop for books and magazines and hit up a very fancy coffee shop called Lurf Museum.
* On to Shimokitazawa for soup curry! Which was amazing! Stopped at a place called “Yup!” for coffee and beer and did a tiny bit of thrifting before realizing a lot of the stock was kind of expensive. American brands were very popular and while the clothes were cool, you could have similar luck in Pittsburgh or wherever else.
* Went to Koenji, where everything was closed. We didn’t quite know why.
* Panicked at went to Senso-ji. It was very crowded. We had a bad hot-dog. My poor boyfriend was so confused.
* Resolved to no longer panic and went to Menchirashi for udon in Harajuku.

**Day 5**

* Back to planning!
* I have somehow already forgotten what we got for breakfast this day, but I had an amazing matcha latte at the hotel before we went off to Koganei.
* Stopped at a place called 八方知人 全方位依存型シェアスペース. Please go here. The owner(?) practically ran out to explain it was a multi-floor community-centered establishment that changed owners every week. She ran to get her partner/husband, who handed us menus. I’m not sure this place was even open yet. It was too early for us to order food but we got some coffee and hung out. A local guy who played the cajón came in, at which point it was explained that he played the cajón. I said this was “super cool,” which made him laugh. The owner(?) gave us a tour of the building and let us up on the roof.
* Went to the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, which is wonderful. Walked through the park and went on to Rage Renegades for ramen before heading to Ebisu to drop off film at Osawa Camera. This was pricey but they were FAST — two hours to process five rolls. The owner spoke English, too, and sent the files through WeTransfer.
* Went to a cafe called Mr. Friendly and Beams again before I could pick up my negatives. We were exhausted and went to Coco Curry for dinner.

**Day 6**

* Cried because our trip was nearly over. Decided I wanted to head back to Yoyogi because that neighborhood was great. Went to Pescario near the park for fish sandwiches at 8am, which was actually great, and then went to a place called “THE LATTE TOKYO” for a banana-flavored latte, because why not.
* Walked to the Yoyogi dog park to look at more dogs in outfits. Went to Fuglen for more coffee. Went to Parco for a quick bowl of ramen before heading back to the hotel to pack and prepare for the long journey home.

Overall, I wish I had more time. Of course I do. It was an amazing trip. And please let me know if you have any questions. Happy travels!