Trip Report – February/March 2020 – Tokyo, Eight Days

I’m currently a bit bored stuck at home, so I decided that it was time to put together this Trip Report (and also allows me to reminisce about my trip, as I am missing Tokyo so very much…)

 

This was a trip that was in the works for almost an entire year, and that time spent makes for a bit of a saga as well so I’m going to include it in the hopes that it gives people some insight about what to do and what not to do in the lead-up to their visits.

 

Also, given that it was just before the time when the US and Canada were talking about possibly ramping up their travel advisories (and Air Canada had not yet extended their goodwill rescheduling policy to Japan), there was a slight damper on things for sure, but we made an informed choice, we stayed safe both during and after our trip, and it was a great experience!

 

Note that the purpose of our trip was to do lots of shopping for retro Anime toys and novelties, and lots of street food…

 

**May 2019**: Bought economy-class tickets through **ANA** with one connection, flying from **YYZ >> IAD >> NRT**, and then **NRT >> ORD >> YYZ** on our way back. My primary aim was to fly ANA because I had heard great things about their Economy product, and the tickets that I found were very cheap. However, I guess I didn’t really think things through because, after a time, I started worrying about having to collect baggage, clear customs, and recheck baggage at O’Hare, and the process bugged me a bit. Flying into IAD wouldn’t have been as big of an issue since YYZ offers US Pre-Clearance. I even went so far as to purchase Premium Access for the flights into IAD and out of ORD since those flights were provided by United, just to make sure the connection was smoother. Anyways, more on this later in the year. I also, around this time, made a reservation for a hotel in **Ikebukuro**.

 

**June 2019 – February 2020**: This was probably the nuttiest time period for me. This was when I started planning out an itinerary for our trip. For a period of time, there was not one day that went by that I didn’t refer to, or tweak, or otherwise work on my Google Spreadsheet. Pros: When we finally arrived, I was so well-prepared having so studied up on Tokyo that everything was smooth, from getting around on the rail lines, to using a Suica card, to navigating streets, etc. Cons: I drove myself nuts, looking at pictures on Google Maps, plotting out optimum dates and times to make online reservations for cafes, etc. In the end, we decided to make reservations and pre-purchase tickets for **Pokemon Cafe**, **Kirby Cafe**, **Eorzea Cafe**, **Tokyo Disneyland**, **Ghibli Museum**, **Sunshine City Sky Circus**, **Tokyo Skytree**, and a kaiseki dinner reservation at **Nadaman Shinjuku**.

 

**October 2019**: Disaster! Or an opportunity! Our flight from **YYZ >> IAD** was cancelled. It was an early morning flight, and the only other flight that would have allowed us to still take the ANA jet on time would be from the previous night. So, I took the opportunity to get a full refund on this flight since it was considered a major change to my itinerary. Dropped the idea of flying ANA (for now), and decided to purchase Economy-class tickets through **Air Canada** instead, flying from **YYZ >> HND**. No need to transit through the US if I didn’t need to. The tickets were slightly more expensive, but not terribly so.

 

**February/March 2020**: As part of my planning, I also kept a close eye on the available seats on my flight into **HND**… and noticed that although it was a busy flight, it wasn’t anywhere near full… so I decided to seize the opportunity, and put in a low-ball bid for an upgrade to **Air Canada Signature Class**… and got in! Definitely an unexpected expense, but this trip was meant to be our long-overdue honeymoon and, realistically, I don’t fly enough to be able to ever upgrade flights in the future using points, and I don’t work a cushy corporate job that would ever allow me to expense business-class flights (**Air Canada** has three classes, Economy, Premium Economy, and Signature). Besides, upgrading my Economy tickets cost way less than buying Signature class tickets outright. So I consider it a victory.

 

**February/March 2020 Cancellations**: Unfortunately, Tokyo had begun to close certain attractions, so we were not able to go to **Ghibli Museum**, **Tokyo Disneyland**, **Sky Circus**, or **Skytree**. However, **JTB Canada** (who sold us the Ghibli Museum tickets) actually processed the refund for us immediately without being asked (I think they processed it minutes after sending me an email about the closure), and **Klook** refunded my Sky Circus and Skytree passes without a little bit of poking and prodding. Tokyo Disneyland was a bit more complicated (it took them awhile to release the web form for refunds, and the form itself I felt was unnecessarily convoluted), but I’ve submitted my refund request and am now waiting for results.

 

**Saturday**: Arrived at **YYZ**, checked in. Airports are definitely quieter than usual (but nowhere near as quiet as it eventually got, before everything was shut down). Having upgraded our tickets, we were able to access the **Maple Leaf Lounge**, which was nice but nothing special (and I know how privileged that sounds, don’t come for me). It allowed us a few hours of quiet isolation, though. When we finally boarded the plane, I made a commitment to enjoy every last minute of the experience, because again, it’ll probably never happen again for me! (Although, mentally, I have made a small commitment to myself to at least consider trying to upgrade at least once per decade…)

 

**Sunday**: Arrived at **HND Terminal 1** at 4:55 PM. Going through customs and immigration was super easy, and the customs agents were very friendly. When we arrived in the Arrivals lobby, although I had seen pictures, maps, and videos that gave me a sense of where different locations were, it was still very overwhelming so needed to ask the Information Desk staff a few times, but eventually got my bearings. Went to the Departures Level in order to pick up my pocket wifi from **Japan Wireless**, and purchased two **Welcome Suica cards** at the **JR East Travel Service Centre**, and loaded them each with ¥10000. Went back out to the bus platforms in order to catch the **Airport Limousine** to **Ikebukuro**. Although we exited Customs and Immigration much earlier than expected, Airport Limousine staff were super accommodating in allowing us to board an earlier bus. The ride took about an hour and a half, and dropped us off at **Ikebukuro Station, West Exit**, where we slowly pushed our suitcases and found our way to our hotel. We were absolutely exhausted… but didn’t want to waste our first evening in Tokyo! So after checking in at the hotel, we went back out to do some essentials shopping at **Donki**, had a quick meal via a 7-11 run, then spent a few hours at **Game St. Tropez**, a game centre east of Ikebukuro Station. We must have spent a fortune on **UFO catchers** and **gem pushers**, but we wiped out their supply of Kirby prizes LOL – oh, and a giant Moomin plushie! Oh, how I love Japanese conbini! Many taps of a Suica card were made at **7-11**, **Lawson**, and **Family Mart**. Love that they are all over the place, love that the food is of so high quality (for convenience store food), and love that they are so convenient and open 24/7.

 

**Monday**: This was our **Nakano** day. **Nakano Broadway** is an absolute Mecca for anyone interested in retro toys, so it had to be first on our itinerary. We chose to arrive a little bit earlier in order to go to **Namco Nakano** first, which is another game centre (yes, they are everywhere in Tokyo). While waiting for Nakano Broadway to open, we also perused and spent coins on gachapon machines. Anyways, we had a list of major items that we wanted to purchase, so we decided to go find those items first, buy them, process the Tax-Free claims (always look for **Tax-Free counters**; it’s super simple, doesn’t cost you very much time at all, and the hassle when leaving Japan was non-existent), and then went back to our hotel to drop off our purchases before spending the rest of the day enjoying ourselves. Speaking of travel, the rail lines in Tokyo are super convenient and extremely intuitive. It did not take me very long at all to navigate the lines like a pro (aided by Google Maps which I found to be invaluable). To this day, when I close my eyes, I will sometimes hear the friendly Yamanote Line station announcer repeating “**Mejiro**… **Takadanobaba**… **Shin-Okubo!**…”) Anyways, while exploring **Nakano Broadway** and **Nakano Sunmall**, we also took the chance to try the Koala’s March pastries at **Lotteria**, dimsum at **Daily Handmade Dimsum**, and a bit of an odd choice but I wanted to try **McDonald’s** while we were here LOL. Towards the end of the day, we went back to Ikebukuro and had dinner at **Sushi Zanmai**. I have to say, although the sushi was delicious, and I do love sushi, I found the sushi a bit underwhelming… maybe because I’m quite particular with my sushi and we do have some good sushi restaurants in Canada (don’t laugh, they are pretty good!).

 

**Tuesday**: This was our **Pokemon Cafe** day. We started off by travelling to **Kichijoji** in order to pick up **Eorzea Cafe** tickets that were purchased for us through **Voyagin**. Before going to the Voyagin office, we took a short walk through the **East Gardens of the Imperial Palace**. It was quiet, peaceful, beautiful gardens. A highlight was walking across the koi pond. From there, we walked through **Ginza** towards the Pokemon Cafe, which was attached to **Nihombashi Takashimaya**, a huge department store, and… well, all I’ll say is I’ve never been in a department store where an entire corridor of elevators were each individually operated by an elevator attendant, what a ritzy five minutes! Anyways, the **Pokemon Cafe** is a must for anyone who is remotely interested in Pokemon. The decor was super cute and attentive, and the dishes were so on point – everything looked exactly like in the menu. Staff were super into the experience for their customers as well! And although there are Pokemon Centres in many key locations in Tokyo, I felt that the **Pokemon Centre DX**, next door to the cafe, was the superior Pokemon Centre. Best stocked, largest, with lots of exclusive merchandise. Don’t miss it for the shopping and the photo opportunities! By now, though, the jet lag was starting to catch up with us, so we decided in the moment to take the rest of the day off (we were originally going to stop in Shibuya). **Pro tip**: Do NOT be afraid to schedule in rest, or decide to take a break on the spot, during your stay. It is better to voluntarily take the time to rest, than to be forced to stop because your knees are locking or your feet just can’t take another step anymore. Tokyo will still be there in the morning! We did head back out later that night to another game centre though, LOL. Oh, and we also had dinner at **Ichiran Ikebukuro**. It was… missable. But the chashu was **delicious**.

 

**Wednesday**: We decided to change our schedule to visit **Shibuya** and **Akihabara** today. Shibuya was mainly a shopping and walking excursion. Highlights included **PARCO**, in which we spent way more than we should have in the **Nintendo Store**. Personally, I’m very selective when it comes to personal souvenirs, but there were some Zelda-themed ties that I couldn’t resist. I also bought a gorgeous set of Pokemon tins, which held seaweed snacks, but have now been repurposed as tea tins! **Tokyu Hands** was also great for purchasing household goods, such as an onigiri press and some nori punches. **Loft** was great for Tokyo souvenirs on the top floor, but… honestly, buy your magnets and keychains at **Donki** instead for half the price. For lunch, we went to **Genki Sushi** for the experience of ordering sushi that arrived on little monorails… again, the sushi was a bit underwhelming, but the experience was great fun! After dropping purchases off at our hotel in Ikebukuro, we headed out for **Akihabara** in the late afternoon/early evening, which was a bit, well, eye-opening (had to run the gauntlet of maid cafe touts…) as we made our way to **Super Potato**, a store selling retro video games, equipment, and merchandise. The main purpose of our Akihabara visit, though, was to go to **Eorzea Cafe**, a Final Fantasy XIV-themed restaurant. A very small restaurant located in the Pasela Resorts complex, it was fully immersive, and again, the attention to detail in the dishes was amazing! We spent an absolute fortune on food and drinks, but I figured that next time I’m in Tokyo, it’s not like I’ll want to come back anyways, so might as well splurge now.

 

**Thursday**: We decided to sleep in a little bit today… but then headed to **Tokyo Station**, where we spent some time shopping on **Character Street**. Loads of fun, lots of iconic little stores and pop-ups (Ghibli, Hello Kitty, Moomin, Precure, Pokemon, etc.), but honestly was starting to feel shopped out (don’t forget to claim the Tax-Free status!). We also had lunch at a tempura restaurant in **Kitchen Street**, which was absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we wanted to go back to Shibuya to go to **Village Vanguard** (think Hot Topic), and **GraffArt** in **Magnet by Shibuya 109**, and were able to visit the Observation Deck where we took great photos of **Shibuya Crossing** from above. Went back to Ikebukuro (by the way, it should be noted that throughout our stay, we bought hot food, snacks, and drinks REGULARLY at 7-11, Lawson, and Famima, so it was a non-stop food fest). We decided that this was a good night for curry and gaming, so we had dinner at **CoCo Ichibanya**… **OH. MY. GOD.** Such a simple and humble plate of fast casual food, but it was easily the best thing I put in my mouth. Well, that, and **kare pan**.

 

**Friday**: We spent all day Friday in **Ikebukuro**. Started off in **Sunshine City**, checking out the **Pokemon Centre** and **Pikachu Sweets** cafe (again, a bit underwhelming compared to Pokemon Centre DX), and **ALPA**, where we basically cleared out their Fire Emblem: Three Houses merchandise. We had lunch at a tendon restaurant in Sunshine City (a fast casual restaurant, **Tendon Tenya**) which was delicious and, in my opinion, much better than our Tokyo Station pick, before leaving for **GraffArt** and **Mandarake LaLaLa** (for more retro anime purchases). We then went to **Animate**, which is a multi-floor store selling manga, anime merchandise, video game merchandise – the store blew my mind. There was something that caught my eye on virtually every floor. But it was soooooo busy and popular. Overall, though, this was a bit of a quieter day, so we didn’t do a whole lot, called it a day, ate re-heated conbini food (gyudon, tempura on soba, buns and pastries), and chilled in our hotel.

 

**Saturday**: This was our last full day, and we did tons. We started by traveling to **Asakusa**, where we took photos in front of **Bandai** (they have statues of their most iconic characters, set up on the sidewalk outside and around their headquarters). From there, we went to **Skytree/Solamachi** (we could have walked across the bridge, but we were exhausted, so we took the metro for a few stops). I wanted to visit Skytree because of their Final Fantasy VII Remake exhibit on the top floor, but they were shut down, so that was a bummer. But Solamachi was a great shopping experience, and the highlight of the morning was going to the **Kirby Cafe**. Another themed cafe, fully immersive, I actually enjoyed Kirby Cafe more than Pokemon Cafe, but I’m more into Pokemon such that I’d probably revisit that one in the future. Afterwards, we travelled to **Shinjuku**, where we visited **Artnia**, which is a store and cafe run by **Square Enix**, and walked through the streets of Shinjuku towards the **Hotel Gracery** for a photo of the giant Godzilla head, and towards Shinjuku station towards **Nadaman Shinjuku**, which is located on the top floor of the **Odakyu** department store. I had made reservations for a special kaiseki at Nadaman months ago, and it didn’t disappoint! Thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and it was a great way to end our trip with an excellent view of Shinjuku.

 

**Sunday**: Departure day! We checked out of our hotel, and caught the Airport Limousine back to **HND** quite early, so that we could check out the shops there. The **HND International Terminal** has a shopping area that resembles (loosely) an Edo period town, as well as more shopping on the upper level and an observation deck that allows one to watch planes take off quite closely, so we put our luggage in storage for a few hours before having to check in (and yes, I was able to upgrade for this flight as well, so let’s just say the entire trip from beginning to end was extremely expensive but highly memorable). Checking in, going through security, and immigrations, was super smooth. I had concerns about dealing with the tax-free business, because we made a LOT of purchases and everything was packed away in our checked luggage. However, we walked up to the Tax-Free counter, and handed over our passports (where all of our receipts were stapled or taped by store staff). The customs agent took a look, whipped out a handy staple remover, and proceeded to carefully remove our receipts and every single staple, thanked us, and returned our passports. Super easy, super smooth! In HND, we got to enjoy the **ANA Lounge** – much nicer than the Maple Leaf Lounge at YYZ. Definitely seemed overstaffed, but the staff were super attentive without being overbearing. Anyways, left Tokyo at 6:50, and arrived in Toronto at 5:50 (same day).

 

**Lessons For Others, And For My Future Self**:

1. Take the time to rest! It is far better to take a break to enjoy the next day more, than to be forced to be bedridden because you cannot walk anymore.

2. Get a Suica card immediately. We both managed to use up the last of our Suica cards with a final small purchase at a conbini in HND. Didn’t have to recharge our cards at all, and we started off with ¥10000 each.

3. Plan, but don’t overplan. I personally found it useful to work out every last detail, because I got to know Tokyo extremely well before I even arrived, but it drove me a little crazy. That being said, the familiarity allowed me to be very flexibility with our itinerary on the spot. I am already planning a return visit (a much more economical visit), and although I have worked out a shell of an itinerary, I am more committed to a more casual, flexible schedule, based more around neighbourhoods than specific stores, cafes, restaurants, etc. (“Oh, let’s just chill in Ueno today…”)

4. Don’t worry so much about the rail lines. With the help of Google Maps, and a firm sense of the Yamanote line, and a general understanding of how wards in Tokyo are organized, I found the rail lines soooooo easy to navigate. By the third or fourth day I didn’t even need Google Maps, and was navigating by platform names and rail line names alone.

5. I know everyone says that Japan is still very much a cash-based society… but this was not so in Tokyo. I would imagine that it is more important in more rural areas… but if your trip was based around Tokyo, I can’t think of one place that I visited that didn’t accept foreign credit cards. I’d suggest to just make sure you have a chip card, and having tap helps.

6. I made a reservation for Nadaman… but I now realize that unless you are looking for very specific dining experiences, it is far easier and much more fun to pick restaurants on a whim. Don’t get me wrong, Nadaman was very nice, but…

7. Location is important, but not critical. Making sure your hotel is near a train station is ideal, especially if it’s on the Yamanote line… Ikebukuro was absolutely perfect for us.

8. Prior to my trip, I watched a lot of videos about food… and thought that all the noise about egg sandwiches at 7-11, Family Mart, and Lawson was just hype. Anyways. I decided to try all three… do yourself a favour. Unless you have an egg allergy, you need to try these sandwiches. And the strawberry cream sandwiches. And the chicken katsu sandwiches. And the shrimp croquette sandwiches. Basically any sandwich in a conbini. Oh, and the chicken snacks are amazing. You must also try the hot potato croquettes. Okay, anything in a conbini is fair game.

 

**Final Thought**: Although my entire life is in Canada, I fell in love with Tokyo. The culture, the cleanliness, the friendliness, the food, the shopping. I could never see myself picking everything up and leaving Canada for Tokyo… but I will certainly try my darndest to return to Tokyo as much as possible! Now that I’ve gotten one BIG trip out of the way, I am ready to enjoy Japan in quieter, calmer, more economical ways. So I’m already planning my next trip back! Let’s just wait until the current struggle begins to calm down…