###Pre-Trip
All bookings and the flight tickets were made and paid for at the start of September 2023. The yen being at its lowest + early booking prices made it possible for me to do this on a budget.
My main concern for the trip was my wonky right leg, I restarted my daily walks in December slowly building it up over time to where I can now walk 10 kms a day. Also I’m a pescatarian so printed out cards that said I can’t eat meat or chicken just in case.
Report will be broken down into two parts.
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###Day 1
**Singapore Airline:** Multicity round ticket. $790 + $40 for seat selection. My trip started off on the wrong foot for sure. For one thing the plan was to transfer in Singapore airport to my Tokyo flight (also Singapore Airline) with a transfer time of one hour. Sadly the plane was delayed exactly one hour at take off so… yeah, I’m not catching my transfer. They really handled it poorly though. A rep met us at disembarking. His plan was to catch the next flight to Haneda, in 7 hours!!! To make up for the inconvenience here’s a $15 voucher to (and I’m not joking here) Burger King in the next terminal.
I don’t know why the others agreed to this but I put up a fight. Seven hours meant I would be arriving at Haneda during the night time after public transport has closed. I’d rather not pay $200 for a cab ride home, thanks. The guy acted like I was being unreasonable and look look a voucher ohhhhhhh. Yeah, no. When it was clear I wasn’t ok with this he finally relented and said there was a flight to Narita in two hours I can be switched to. It means I’ll lose out on the voucher though, I think it was his last attempt but I was ready to stuff the paper into his mouth at this point!
Anyway two hours later I was on the flight to Narita and they were nice enough to upgrade my seat to extra leg space. At least, I thought it was nice until I looked to the left and locked eyes with the one toddler in the entire cabin. 7 hours, the flight was 7 hours. Holy $%&!!!
Tired and cranky I land in Narita airport. Decided to time it from customs & immigration till I got out.
Starting time was 5:00pm on the dot. Done by 5:12. Took maybe 10 minutes to get my bags and I was ready to leave the airport.
Hot tip, **DO THE VISIT JAPAN WEB QR CODE**. The lines are divided into three. One for people who haven’t done the immigration papers (VERY long). One for those that did (not long but the immigration office will stop and question them). Last is QR code, hardly 5 people in there and we never stopped anywhere. Just breezed through it all and once was shown my answers to the web questions to confirm them. Even the immigration officer didn’t stop me. Just looked up my web answers and applied the Tax QR code to my passport before letting me through.
I had some delay picking up the wifi since I had booked it for Haneda but eventually customer services sorted it out (Global wifi). Also the best currency exchange rate I got was at the airport. 158 yen per Euro with a 4 yen difference. Inside the city the best I ever saw was 149 yen with a 10-12 yen difference.
The one place where I was delayed was getting a ticket to the Keisei Skyliner. Line was 45 minutes long BUT aside from the tickets you can pick up the Pasmo IC card from the same counter. This turned out to be the best idea of the trip. An IC card is a must if you’re planning on jumping around a lot. It’s just so convenient and you can use it for small purchases in case you don’t have change… also get a coin purse. I was in Japan for five minutes and already had a small mountain of them.
One transfer later I was in Tamachi and checking into my hotel. I grabbed two onigiris and a sakura latte from Starbucks at the train station to be my first meal in Japan.
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###Day 2 (Saturday)
**Hotel Gracery in Tamachi:** $65 per night. I had my reservations with this one but it turned out to be rather nice. Room small but fine for one person. Clean with a rather large bathroom for a business hotel. My room also came with a view of the river which was just lovely. Best of all they really were a five minute walk from Tamachi station which I used almost daily.
For my first adventure I took a cab to **Setagaya Park (Hanegi)** to attend the plum festival. That 30 minute ride costed 7040 yen exactly so yeah, no more cabs after this lol!
The park itself was lovely, some plum trees still in bloom and quite a few food stalls and an activities section for the kids. Had my first taste of Takoyaki and the addiction begins!
Anyway at around 11 a cultural show started with an opening comedy bit staring yours truly. I forgot the exact line but the announcer basically said “Welcome everyone, friends, neighbors, coworkers and that one Gaijin (aka foreigner)” which got a laugh from everyone. The show was fun though, different traditional dances showcased from the slow but elegant to the more festive. Overall I had loads of fun and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.
After that I visited FUGLEN which is a coffee shop just outside the park. Smoothest coffee I’ve ever had! There was a promising looking Pancake shop close by as well but I was so full of festival food at this point that I just couldn’t.
Attempting to walk it off I tried to locate Gotoku-ji Temple. Which is when my wifi died because I forgot to charge it. It’s fine, the directions said walk straight for 15 minutes then turn left. How hard can that be?
So 45 minutes later, one elderly women kicking me out of the post office because no Japanese, one nice shop keeper giving me directions & a map to the temple all of which were in Japanese, one cyclist that also failed to read that map later I decided to call it. I think it’s the fact that the cyclist held the map upright, then sideways, then upside deciding this had to be the right way was what made me throw in the towel.
I back tracked to the last train station and decided to just get off at the first familiar sounding station. Which is how I ended up in **Yoyogi Park** that was also holding a festival. This one was massive in comparison with a kids show going on every hour or so. Looking through the stalls I did end up buying some nice homemade jam which smelled amazing. The star of the festival however was the Hokkaido Seafood stall. The place is so massive that there were plenty of food stalls and no lines but that was the only one with not one but TWO lines. One to pay and another to collect your meal. So I paid, turned out to cost only 100 yen so a dollar and headed to the collection line not even knowing what I bought. Turned out to be grilled scallops served is a real seashell as a dish. Dude… that had no right to be as good as it was for 100 yen!!! After trying a few other stalls I went back and got two more deciding this was going to be my lunch and then off to **Meiji Temple**.
Just be warned, it’s quite a walk to get there and all uphill. Also you can’t get to it from inside the park. Anyway my first temple so celebrated by getting my first Omikuji. It turned out to be a poem that translated to *“Even the Mountain, with its peak in the sky, can be climbed so long as there is a path.”*
Ended the day with a quick stop in Ginza Uniqlo & Daiso for some add-ons. By the way when you first land in Japan best avoid the konbini. I found most items I got from there in my day one frenzy for 300 – 500 yen all in Daiso, same brands in most cases as well.
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###Day 3 (Sunday)
First stop of the day was **Shinjuko** as the Hanazono Shrine had a flea market scheduled. Five minutes in the station and already I was lost, seriously consider staying near a small station. The Major ones are confusing, over-crowded and a little insane! After finally finding my way out I came across another hurdle. Today was the Tokyo Marathon so the streets were closed, meaning that to cross I had to use the underground each and every time! Finally took a tumble on the second crossing and hurt my left knee. The wound was pretty bad and it took three days to properly scab over. Stopping by the first pharmacy along the way for first aid I limped to the shrine. It was so quiet I thought the whole thing was cancelled but no, the market was in full swing, everyone in Tokyo is just so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. After that I looked around Shinjuko for about an hour and tried some crane games.
From Shinjuko I headed to my main destination for the day, **Chofu**. I love GeGeGe no Kitaro so just had to visit the Chaya themed around the show there. Also it happened that today **Jindaiji Temple** was hosting a Daruma festival. This was more of a classic Japanese festival like you would see in anime with the catch the goldfish game and pull the rope from the knot to see what prize it’s attached to. A million and one food stalls all smelling amazing BUT the place was PACKED. The stalls were along a narrow walkway comfortable enough for one person yet there were four lanes going so it was near impossible to stop somewhere to look or buy anything. Anyway a few munches & one rather large Drauma later I found the Chaya! This was legit the first meal I had in Japan. Like, actually sat down for food instead of munching on street food as I went. Totally worth the trouble, [the food was great](https://i.imgur.com/0zu4YhW.jpg), the merch cute and the little Kitaro museum charming. I left very happy.
Sadly I couldn’t visit the onsen in the area, Yumorinosato, because of my literal bleeding wound. Since I still had time before sunset I made a little detour. From Chofu I headed to Yomiuriland station. Instead of going to the park directly however I made a pit stop at the adjacent **Hana Biyori**.
This turned out to be the highlight of the trip (second only to my day at the Ghibli Museum). The gardens were gorgeous, early sakura trees were blooming at the top so it was just an explosion of pink atop a [lively koi pond](https://i.imgur.com/YE7d9Kw.mp4). Also because of how few visited the place was just so serene. I HIGHLY recommend a visit.
When I entered the Starbucks onsite discovered they had a colab with Vocaloids for the 25th anniversary! [Life size figures](https://i.imgur.com/uVqBJQJ.jpg) on display for two characters. The others each got a lifesized cutout with a decorative arch of real flowers all in their theme color. [Luka](https://i.imgur.com/jHBIuhN.jpg), [Maiko](https://i.imgur.com/AApsvzJ.jpg), [The Twins](https://i.imgur.com/eNnwTSC.jpg), [Kaito](https://i.imgur.com/sId2NlC.jpg), and finally [Miku herself](https://i.imgur.com/l8086KU.jpg). It was just so beautiful! I’d like to note that they had a very fancy bathhouse as well, brand new and very elegant…. But again literal bleeding wound!
Once the sun went down I headed to **Yomiuriland**. Because it was a weekend the theme park was rather busy but that was fine because I was there for the [Jewellumination](https://i.imgur.com/ViICAPp.jpg). Because of the colab they suddenly blasted the Hatsune Miku song (Senbonzakura) with the lights blinking In sync to the music. It was a bit magical I won’t lie, haven’t heard that song in years! Before the park closed I made my way down using the skyline for an aerial view of the jewellumination to end the day on.
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###Day 4
I had tickets for the **Warner Brothers Making of Harry Potter tour** today. I started the tour at 10:00 am and left around 1:30 pm. In honesty it’s because there are many, and I do mean MANY photo ops in there that include special effects, green screen or props designed to make it seem as if you’re in one of the movies. Each with a queue about a mile long so skipped them all. You can see the whole thing in 3-4 hours but with the photo ops it’ll easily stretch to 5-6 hours.
The tour was a lot of fun but I think a real fan of the movies would have appreciated the million little references and details more. In the middle I took a breather in the dining hall for lunch. While they do have set meals themed around the four houses I was pleasantly surprised to see they have a vegetarian menu as well. Got myself a surprisingly sweet [veggie burger and a Hedwig cake](https://i.imgur.com/QCcKNO5.jpg). Also [Butter Beer](https://i.imgur.com/8eSXz4E.jpg) served next door and you get to keep the cup, it tasted like melted down caramel.
Heavy with souvenirs I headed to the train station for the one hour journey home. A surprisingly eventful one at that. First a crazy lady boarded the train, like actually insane, and scared everyone away to where she ended up sitting in a seat row all on her own. She got off after 20 minutes to be replaced by a nice family with a daughter I judged to be around 13. Unfortunately the kid was manspreading while wearing a short skirt so I gestured to the mother saying “close her legs”. The mom got it immediately but Oh dear god was the kid down right offended! Even through the language barrier I can understand her pointing and complaining every time I opened my legs to reposition the shopping bags. Gave me the stink eye right up till she left the train… it was hilarious! It took everything I had not to burst laughing at how indigent she was. This was finally replaced by our last character of the ride. Older business man. Dude seemed normal right up until we were about to leave the train. Just before he stepped out he sucker punched a teen boy in the back, HARD! And left the train while everyone around just looked puzzled and the kid’s voice chasing us with a “nanda?!” I don’t know either, just kept my distance.
After offloading my stuff and taking a little breather it was off to **Yokohama to visit the Gundum Factory**. Managed to catch the docking as well as the [AI awakening shows](https://i.imgur.com/KZ8sphF.jpg) . It’s just so epic that even someone like me that knows nothing about gundums can appreciate it. Sadly the shop has been sold out of everything for a few months since the Factory is closing by the end of March but I still got myself a [little something](https://i.imgur.com/Hal2DXs.jpg) to remember the experience.
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###Day 5
Visited the **Tokyo Daijingu Shrine** in the morning. Discovered that it was VERY popular. Like seriously there was a long queue to buy the charms when I left. Apparently they specialize in love protection spells. As in, my husband is cheating on me so give me something to drive that hussy away charm. Also the man I love is ignoring me so give me something to make his wife fat charm. Anyway they also had a very unique omikuji which is according to your blood type. Super cute and comes with an engraved metal charm if you pull good luck. Mine was a gravel to hammer out justice! It had an early blooming sakura tree in the middle of the yard too which was nice to see.
After that it was off to **Akihabara**. Note, there is a somewhat famous stall on platform 5 & 6 called Lucky Milk. It sells milk, that is said to give you luck. Anyway it comes in cute old fashioned glass milk containers which I thought was cool and the milk really fresh.
Roaming Akihabara I spent a bit too much but it was loads of fun. I recommend amiami where I saw the best prices for new item. Do take care to look around before committing though as I saw a HxH figure for 6000 yen used and without the box in one shop just to find it for 2500 yen new and unopened in another.
It was starting to rain at this point so I took shelter in a random café called (22 curry) mostly because I saw their board outside advertising a colab with the show *“the vampire dies in no time”* which I love. Place was small and the menu rather limited but [surprisingly good](https://i.imgur.com/P2cQCAb.jpg).
After that I headed to **SkyTree**. Took a look around for about an hour and fell in love with a fancy bag from a brand called “Samantha Thevega” but since it was a luxury brand decided to wait before committing. Keep this in mind for later.
If you only have one day to shop then do it in Skytree. The have everything from a large Pokemon center & Ghibli shop to the fancy knives you get in Asakusa. I even found a branch of the realistic fake food store there and Q-pot the fancy accessory store. It was so hard to resist the temptation to get some food though as there was a strawberry festival going on and everything looked so good! However I had dinner reservations in the **Kirby Café**.
Speaking of, the café is totally worth the hassle of getting a reservation. The décor is beautiful, the food actually good and the staff were really careful checking all the ingredients when I told them I don’t eat meat or chicken. Some items had to be removed from my dish but that meant I could actually eat it all without worry. 12/10! Everything was just great. Had the [curry](https://i.imgur.com/0lI6NQV.jpg) + [the afternoon tea set](https://i.imgur.com/edoiu0q.jpg) which came with two drinks. Total bill, 5500 yen.
It was pouring at this point so after a look around at some more shops in sky tree I called it a night.
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###Day 6
Since I was up early decided to visit a few shrines today. Most notable was **Akagi Shrine** because it was the first time I saw a shrine house its own café! Also they sold gegege no kitaro charms & omikuji that came inside a cute clay white bunny. On my way back to the station though I noted the restaurant opposite smelled heavenly but there was a queue and it was raining at this point so I gave it a pass. By the next station though I just couldn’t handle the hunger and decided to get a meal there.
First place out the gates was a MC Donald with a queue that just went on forever… well, that’s out. I did note a board just next it explaining the floors and there was a local café on the top level. Ok, coffee and a pastry it was then!
No, no it wasn’t. It turned out to be a proper restaurant call “local café”. A very trendy one too because it was starting to fill up. Had an amazing [vegetarian set](https://i.imgur.com/oo1KrSY.jpg) for only 1300 yen and was on my way to visit **Tonogayato Garden**.
Thankfully the rain stopped and the air smelled nice and fresh. I was the only one in the park and it was just so serene. It had its own [bamboo grove](https://i.imgur.com/ljJQNTK.jpg) & natural spring turned miniature waterfall. Overall just a lovely afternoon in the park.
I had tickets to the **Ghibli museum** at 4pm so got there about an hour early since it was a 20 minute walk. Turns out that was unnecessary because there was a Ghibli themed bus that transports people from Mitaka station to the museum every ten minutes. I used the saved time to wander the Inokashira Park area. In one location a bit deeper into the park [sakura trees](https://i.imgur.com/AwNiJ1t.jpg) were in full bloom and retirees were picnicking under them. The song birds gathered to drink the nectar and the whole thing was just unreal. It was always a bucket list item of mine to have a picnic under a blooming sakura but the other places were public areas so I couldn’t do that. I got some tea from the vending machine, the pudding I bought randomly along the way and before I was done I had quite a few sakura petals in my hair. Checking that off the list!
At four exactly we were allowed into the museum as a group. We each got a piece of film that contained three panels of a Ghibli movie as our ticket to watch the short film. Mine was of howl’s moving castle. The short film was (A Sumo Wrestler’s Tail) which was beyond adorable. The museum, though small, is jam packed with detail. And easy two hours if you include a stop at the straw hat café for refreshments. I made the mistake of going to the store floor first thing but then it turned out to be lucky because the line at checkout was so long around closing time (6 pm) that I’m not sure everyone there was going to get the chance to buy their stuff.
Anyway after a rather heavy dinner at the straw hat café I decided to walk it off and Kichijōji station was only 15 minutes away.
Anyway 45 minutes of being literally lost in the woods at night later, I found Kichijoji! Not the station, that was still lost somewhere but I found civilization! I kindda wish I came here a bit earlier though because it was full of cute and unique little shops which were all closed or closing at this hour.
One policeman later the station was found! Turns out I was circling it for the past 20 minutes because unlike the rest this one was INSIDE a mall… ok, how was I supposed to know that?! It was full of cute shops though.
The rest of the night was spent doing laundry and packing in preparation for tomorrow… God did I overpack AND overshop. It was like playing Tetris!
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###Day 7
Last day in Tokyo. Checked out of my hotel and sent my bag ahead to Kyoto for the 9th. They charge by size, mine was a 24 inch hard-shell that was marked as a size 140cm & Costed 2310 yen.
Spent my last day in **Odaiba**, I think the center is called **“Decks”** that’s just so fun. There’s a candy alley full of the old timey candies like those candy cigarettes and Sakuma drops. There are also some retro arcades, festival game booths as well as a trick museum and haunted house. In the lower flour is an indoor amusement park called “Joypolis” that has the unfortunate luck to be pronounced in Japanese “Joy-police”! For lunch I stopped by the Takoyaki museum which turned out to be a bunch of takoyaki food stalls each serving a different type.
After that I went to **diver city** across the street to see the [Unicorn Gundum](https://i.imgur.com/gOezRCa.jpg) & the unko museum where they gave me pink poop on a stick as a souvenir. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend you visit the gundum store at the top level even if you know nothing what so ever about gundum. That place is just so impressive!
Since it was too cold for the beach I just got on the monorail and crossed the rainbow bridge then off to Haneda to catch my plane.
**Soleseed from Haneda to Naha** ($80). A rather pleasant three hour flight with wide comfortable chairs and loads of leg space.
We did arrive a bit late at 10:00pm and it was about a half hour later by the time I found the hotel. It’s fine though, I informed them months back that I was a late check-in. Even sent in the late check-in request three times via booking and got an email response from management that it was fine.
The hotel was all locked up with a sign on the front desk saying *“our business hours are from 15:00 – 22:00. Thank you for understanding”*
After panic knocking on every door on the ground floor I took a deep breath and looked up the closet hotel with a 24 hour front desk. Checked in to the closet one and decided to take it up with management in the morning.
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Will post the next part that is Okinawa + Kansai in the morning.
by Kidlike101