October 2023 Tokyo Trip Report

My parents were going to be in Osaka for 6 weeks, they like to go there and do some touristy things but mostly stay in a local neighborhood and explore it thoroughly. I decided to join them for 10 days, and went solo to Tokyo before meeting up with them.

Things I did beforehand which really helped me out:
– Installed Suica on my phone and got it loaded up with ¥2000.
– Installed a Ubigi esim. This challenged me technologically but I took it slow and methodically and was successful. (It worked seamlessly. I can give more detailed instructions if anyone wants).
– Researched the subway enough that I could get from the airport to my hotel even if my esim failed me.

Tues 10/10
Flew from SAC-LAX-HND
Took the monorail to the Hamamatsuchō station, then transferred to the Yamanote line to the Ueno station. Ueno Touganeya Hotel had provided pictures to get from the station to the hotel. Nothing looked like the pictures so I had a moment of panic but I calmed down and eventually figured out one of the directions and got to the hotel. Very basic hotel, small room but very clean, super close walk to Ueno Station and perfect for my needs, especially at about $60/night.

It was about 6pm and I knew I didn’t want to go to sleep so I decided to take a long walk. Unfortunately I went in an opposite direction of where there were people/nightlife so I had a very lonely, dark, wet rainy street walk and had a “I’ve made a terrible mistake” stomach ache.

Wed 10/11
The next morning I was up early for an Airbnb Experience Walking Tour (and feeling better after a good night’s rest). Was so happy that I’d booked this for my first full day as it gave me the opportunity to not use my brain, to just follow someone else’s lead especially navigating the subway. She also helped me with my Suica as it was all in Japanese and I wasn’t sure how to add money.

These are the spots we hit:
Meiji Shrine,
Shibuya Scramble,
Takeshita Street,
Tsukiji Honganji Temple,
Tsukiji Fish Market,
The Imperial Palace,
Marunouchi Business District,
Tokyo Station,
Akihabara,
Ueno Park,
Asakusa,
Sensoji Temple,

Our lovely tour guide Yasuko finished the tour with a beer at an Izakaya. Another couple from the tour and I got ramen at Ichiran Ramen and I wandered around a bit more, clocking in at 25k steps before turning in.

Thurs 10/12
My hotel was right near Ueno Park so I wandered over there early, stumbled across a Dahlia garden which was at the tail end of blooming, but still pretty.

I had a 12pm reservation at Washoku Asakusa. I had seen this restaurant on Instagram and they have beautiful pictures, you have to make reservations in advance as well as indicate what you want to eat and I thought I was ordering a pretty plate of sushi, but instead I had ordered an amazing set lunch that was a selection of 12 tasty bites. They have a station set up with different flavor miso balls, rice, nori squares to make your own hand rolls. It was just so unexpectedly amazing and such a fun experience. I sat overlooking the river, had a beer and this may have been my favorite meal of the whole trip.

Afterwards I went to Tokyo Dome, an amusement park of sorts with a roller coaster, ferris wheel, various other rides and a bunch of shops. Spa Laqua was my reason for visiting there, and it was quite an experience! It was a pretty fancy bath house with a bunch of indoor/outdoor pools as well as a huge floor called the Healing Baden which had sauna, salt, clay, cold, napping rooms. Other rooms too which I didn’t even go into because they were at the end of hallways with just a wooden sign in Japanese and I wasn’t quite confident enough to open the door. Confidence is needed in general, if you’ve been to a Japanese bath house…well you know what I mean.

After a super relaxing time at the spa, I went on the ferris wheel and I decided of all the lonely things to do, a ferris wheel ride tops the list.
I had a chicken curry dinner at a little place around the corner from my hotel, hit 17k steps and turned in.

Friday 10/13
I had read about an amazing 18 piece set breakfast at Tsukiji Honganji Cafe Tsumugi and since I had a 10:30 reservation at Teamlab and would be in the area, thought I better check it out.

It opens at 8am and I heard that they only serve 100 of the set breakfasts. There was a line of about 30 people when I got there at 7:45, at 8 a guy came out and said something in Japanese and about half the people in line got out of line and scooted over to another side. I gathered that these were people with reservations. They all got seated and then they started seating the rest of us. By the time it got to me, I was given a ticket and told to come back at 9am.

I went around the corner to Turret Coffee and had an amazing salted caramel latte and sat outside and read until 9am. The breakfast was so fun and full of interesting new things to taste, labeled so I knew what I was eating. It also comes with hot green tea and rice porridge.

Then I was off to take the bus to Teamlab. What do I say about this? Cons: It has an amusement park feel as you line up to get inside, it’s crowded, you have to take off your shoes which I just tried to not think about too much and one of the exhibits gave me motion sickness and I felt sick for a few hours, also hard to take pics solo.
Pros: most of the exhibits are pretty and fun.
It wasn’t expensive, it’s kind of out of the way, but if you’re going to combine it with Tsukiji market, then why not.

Tsukiji outer market afterwards was not enjoyable at all as I felt sick. I got an ice cream cone, found a place to sit and waited out the worst of the nausea.

Then I was off to the Art Aquarium Museum in Ginza. I personally thought this was way overpriced for what it was and a waste of time. But it was in a fancy department store that was fun to walk through and the basement food court area was AMAZING! I got some lunch, went outside to the relaxation terrace area and sat, ate and read for awhile.

I had a reservation at Shibuya Sky at 4:30 as I wanted to be there for sunset. I didn’t enjoy Shibuya Sky at all. I’m not sure what I didn’t like about it, but I didn’t feel like any of the seating areas were comfortable. The sunset was beautiful though, I can’t deny that, and I saw Mt. Fuji in the distance so that’s a win, also it was nice to have a place to sit and have a breather if you need it; I likely will chalk this up to just being another thing that’s just too lonely to do solo.

This was my last night in Tokyo so I wanted to go see the neon lights so I went to Shinjuku and wandered around Nonbei Yokocho, Neon Alley, and watched the cat billboard for way too long. I stumbled across a casual restaurant with a vending machine out front that gives you tickets when you order, had a big beer (didn’t know I was ordering the BIG size), and a plate of gyoza. Japan is so great for eating solo, it never felt weird. 21k steps and I was ready for bed.

I left the next morning for Osaka, so this ends my Tokyo portion of the trip!