Trip report: Tokyo, Kamakura, Chichibu – 28M

This was my first time in Japan!

Saturday 4/22: leave Little Rock at 8am > leave Dallas at 12:30pm.

Sunday 4/23: land at Haneda around 4pm. I didn’t sleep much on the flight but it was only around 2am Central so I wasn’t feeling too bad. Customs and immigration didn’t take too long. I was off the plane around 4:30 and had cash from an ATM at 5:21. I asked an attendant where to get a Suica and she said “you can’t get a Suica here but you can get a JR East Suica” and I thought “uhhhh okay maybe that’s right” and it was! I got the card and left for my hotel in Ueno. I was pretty tired by then and the hotel had a 7/11 at the bottom, so I got some quick food from there then relaxed in my room. Around 7pm I gave in and figured I would sleepy long enough.

Monday 4/24: wake up at 1am. My body is sweaty. I feel terrible haha I go down to the 7/11 and get more food as I’m starving. I fall back asleep around 2am and wake up at 5am. I have the hotel breakfast then head to walk around Ueno a bit. My first time seeing Tokyo in the daytime and it’s so cool seeing everything so quiet in those off jet lag hours. It’s so peaceful. I walked to Ueno park and noticed a temple, and got a fortune. It didn’t have an English version but I asked an elder Japanese woman if she could tell me if it’s good or not and she said “one of the best you can get!” She had lived in the US and was able to tell me in English. A nice start to the trip! I walked around Ueno more and had some street food, starting with Takoyaki. I kept pretty close to the hotel so I went back and showered and fell asleep early again.

Tuesday 4/25: I wake up around 4:30am feeling better today. It’s too early for the hotel breakfast but I’m hungry and notice there’s an Ichiran open until 6 at Ueno station so I guess there and have that. I walk to Nezu shrine and am there around 6:30am. There is a group of elders doing a morning exercise and otherwise it’s empty. Another perk of jet lag, but I didn’t get to see what all the vendor booths were. I stroll through nearby Yanaka and really enjoy the streets there. At that point I’m starting to think “okay I’ve seen enough temples today”. I head back to the hotel to relax around 9:30am. I have a reservation at an edomae sushi restaurant at 12:30 so I relaxed until then. I did street food for dinner that night and explored Ameyoko more. I really enjoyed this area.

Wednesday 4/26: I check out of my hotel as I am staying in Kamakura this night. I head to Jimbocho and leave my bags in a coin locker. It’s a drizzly day but again, it’s kinda of peaceful. I head to a coffee shop, Glitch, and have a really incredible cup and have a nice chat with the staff. I met a couple from Europe and talked coffee with them for an hour. For lunch I went to Bondy Curry, a recommendation from the barista, and it was very good! I walked around and admired the bookstores afterwards, popping in and out of a few. I then went and got my bags and started the transit to Kamakura. I had extra time at Tokyo Station and enjoyed just walking around there and seeing all the people.

I arrived in Kamakura(Hase) and the wind was bad and blowing my umbrella inside out. I ended up having a great evening here at a local bar and my first major interaction with Japanese people.

Thursday 4/27: I was feeling not too energized after the beers the night before but decided to still book it to enoshima island hoping to get a good view of Fuji. The view of Fuji was great! It was just way too much just for the view for me. I probably could have found a better alternative. It was getting warm in the sun so I went back to the guest house and had a chill evening.

Friday 4/28: I woke up and went to nearby Hase shrine, and it was nice. I then walked around and saw a little coffee shop out of the back of the car and stopped in for a coffee. I ended up chatting with the patrons there for around an hour. At this point I’m having way more local interactions in Kamakura than I did in Tokyo! We discussed my travels there, local recommendations for food, and they enjoyed seeing my film camera (an old Nikomat from Japan). I ended up going to Kamakura proper in the afternoon for the big temple, and the underwhelm was starting to set in. I really enjoyed the human connection and think I was doing too much sight-seeing. Or maybe too many temples! All good, just glad I recognized it so I could change course. I stopped by a coffee shop in Kamakura (Ignis) and had a great cup and again stayed for about 30 minutes chatting about specialty coffee. That night I head back to the cafe in Hase and had a few drinks with the local group again. A couple invited me back to their nearby home for a drink.

Saturday 4/29: again, slightly too much drink in Kamakura haha but I got some breakfast (I returned to this Swedish-style cafe each day in Hase) and made out for Tokyo again. I wanted to Kamakura during the week instead of the weekend so that’s why I was going back to Tokyo instead of all at once.
My hotel was in Asakusa. I enjoyed walking around the old streets of Asakusa and eating ramen there. I was tired this day and had time before I could check in so I got a coffee at Fuglen and watched most of Asakusa Rockza. It was near the time for checkin so I didn’t see the last performance. I recharged in the room for a bit and went walking through the streets of Asakusa. I really liked the look of these streets, and there are a lot of ramen spots in the area.

Sunday 4/30 I went out and visited Senso-ji in the morning, and it was pretty. I didn’t have much planned and it was kind of dreary so I ended up going to a coffee shop in Koto. I went back over to Asakusa and wandered around. I went into a Donki for the first time and some sort of Japanese dance street performance that was cool! I started to get the feeling that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend 2 more nights in this area. I looked around and decided to book a place in Shibuya the next night, since it was in a part of town I hadn’t been yet and not expensive.

Monday 5/1 I head to Nihombashi for a coffee shop, Single O, and it is great. I’m not far from Akihabara so I decide to go there. I walk around a bit, seeing the electronics and maid cafes, and think “ehh this isn’t for me”. I’m walking to leave and see an analog camera stall. Nice! I pop in and talk with the owner about cameras and enjoyed that. Very tempted to buy! I go back to Asakusa and gather my things so I can head to Shibuya. At this point I’m feeling pretty exhausted from the traveling I think and my anxiety is feeling a bit high. Starting to have the “what if I came all this way and don’t enjoy it or didn’t choose the write things and it’s not good 100% of the time”. That’s a sign I need to rest! It’s not wrong to need to take a break, or multiple breaks. My sleep has been pretty off and I definitely struggled getting used to the pillows. I didn’t know at first you could request different pillows at hotels usually. I get to my new hotel (which is like the same price but better than the one in Asakusa) and do a brief walk around the area and get some yakitori before heading back to the hotel for bed.

Tuesday May 2nd: I wake up and I’m right by another coffee shop I had scoped out, Nozy, so that was my first stop! I believe it’s in “cat street” but honestly I saw no cats. I then went over to Meiji Jingu and it’s a beautiful day and it truly feels “lush”. Seeing the greenery blowing in the wind…damn that was nice. When I made it to the shrine I waited around about 15 minutes as a performance was about to start. Then I watched 15 minutes of it and thought “man I do not speak Japanese” and left. Kinda cool, though! I next head over to a coffee shop called Koffee Mameya and I waited 30 minutes in line. It’s the longest I had waited in line for anything so far. Wow, it was exceptional. A really great experience for those interested in specialty/third-wave coffee. After resting a bit more I decided to head up to Shinjuku around 8pm to wander around Golden Gai and take some photos. I kinda expected it to be super touristy but I can’t lie, it was cool as hell. Didn’t even have to go in anywhere, just wandering through those narrow streets, catching glimpses of salarymen, locals, tourists, and who knows who else drinking and smoking cigs and laughing was awesome. I wanted to stop into one before I went home and I wandered until I saw a group leave, which made me think it would be empty now. I was fighting the awkward feeling of walking into an almost full place alone. I sat down in Bar Lonely, funny enough just me and with the bartender who spoke almost no English. I sat in silence drinking my Asahi. A few minutes later, a group of 3 young Japanese guys walk in and one of them speaks English and is buzzed enough to say hello. After they have their drinks, he invites me to join them in bar-hopping. They say it is “一期一会” which translates to “once in a lifetime chance”. How can I say no? It ends up being super fun, and it’s so funny how even though the 3 of them speak varying degrees of English, we still manage to laugh, get to know each other, hopping into these smalls bars on different floors in a zig-zagged maze. The 23 year old who spoke the least amount of English even insisted on getting a taxi and accompanying me back to my hotel. We sat in the back drunkenly laughing through google translate. I didn’t go to bed just yet when I got home…it was 12:30am and there’s an Ichiran nearby that’s open…that hit the spot so hard.

Wednesday May 3rd: I woke up not feeling too bad actually, likely due to the big bowl of ramen I had before bed. I had a long day ahead of me because I was following up my night of drinking with…staying in a Buddhist temple. I went to Ikebukuro station and missed the limited express train to Chichibu, so I had to wait around for a bit. I caught the one the next hour but sadly missed the bus that picks you up for the temple at Seibu-Chichibu station. That limited express train is super nice, though. I leaned back and napped a bit and enjoyed the view as the mountains came into view. After the train and an expensive taxi, I made it to the temple about 45 minutes outside Chichibu. Tucked away in the mountains away from cell service in Taiyoji Temple. For Golden Week the monk brought someone in to do a yoga session so I joined in late on that. After yoga and an outdoor shower, those of us staying at the temple practiced copying sutras. It was pretty challenging for me, and I have pretty bad handwriting in general, but I enjoyed the purpose of the exercise for mindfulness. Afterwards we ate a Buddhist all vegetarian meal, prepared for by the monk. It was a communal dinner and I got to make friends with more Japanese, specifically the teenager who ended up translating a lot for me. There’s always a teenager who’s taken English classes to help you out haha there was a western couple there though so I wasn’t the only one, so I didn’t feel out of place at all. After that, we did zazen around 10:15 and then were in bed around 11pm. I didn’t sleep too bad on the tatami mat, I’m just a bit tall so my feet hung off.

Thursday May 4th: we woke up around 6:45 and did a silent walk along the road near the temple. The mountains in the morning light were very beautiful. We then joined the monk for morning prayers, before going on to morning meditation practice. He speaks English good enough to also tell the few of us the basics in English so we can follow along. I struggle physically with the meditation, but I also have almost 0 experience and bad posture so that’s to be expected. The meditation hall is perched on the side of a mountain and after a short break the windows were opened so you can meditate looking out into the valley and hear the sounds of nature. It was very peaceful. After another Buddhist meal, I chatted with new friends and this time caught the bus the temple runs to the station and got back on the train to Tokyo. I spent that time relaxing and processing the past week and a half. My hotel is near the airport so I can have easy access in the morning. I flew home Friday, May 5th Tokyo > Dallas > Little Rock.

I will need time to process and let this trip settle but mainly I just feel so lucky to be able to travel. I love going and meeting new people from a place different from me and seeing that we’re all so much alike even though our worlds are different. It was also special for me to go out alone because in 2021 I developed panic disorder and agoraphobia and struggled to go anywhere outside my home and job. This trip was super scary for me be I think I’m so glad I did it and pushed out of my comfort zone. If you’re struggling with an anxiety disorder, you can get better!