Tokyo

Fernweh


September 2023, morning with JAL to Tokyo, arriving at Narita International Airport in the afternoon not much time left on the first day in Tokyo.

After checked in at the Kinshichou area, we headed to Yodobashi Akiba, special thanks to Hitoshi Arakawa san and Keiko Arakawa san who took the long journey to come to us at Yodobashi Akiba just to make sure we arrived safely. The Muscat grapes are also very sweet! Thank You. ♥

The second day we started our adventure to Harajuku, an area that must be visited by tourists, Omotesando with shops and interesting areas, and Shibuya of course to see the Hachiko statue. If I had to choose a favorite place I would choose Omotesando!







The third day we visited one of the places that is said to be a must visit; Tsukiji Outer Market, in our opinion, is too busy and the taste of the food is so so maybe just visiting this place once is enough. Next we visited Ginza Six, one of the iconic malls in Ginza, the decoration was quite unique also. Because it was a car free day, we could take photos on the street and there were lots of people sitting on chairs and under parasol. We also visited Uniqlo and Muji. Uniqlo is quite complete even though it is not large per floor but has several floors. For Muji, because the flagship is quite large and complete, there is even Muji restaurant on the ground floor.



On the fourth day, there were not just two of us but four of us accompanied by Keiko san and Arakawa san. The meeting point is Ueno Park, walking around this park feels very pleasant plus the weather is very good. Next we queued to enter the Tokyo National Museum. Apart from seeing the museum collection, it turns out there is an exhibition of traditional Japanese items, which is unique, we can directly see how artists do their artwork. Visiting museums and galleries has always been a fun activity for me. Due to time constraints, we continued our journey to Ameyoko Market and Sensoji Temple. Sensoji in Asakusa seems to be one of the places that must be visited by tourists, so it's not surprising that this place is very busy and crowded. Because there was still time, we headed to Odaiba by boat to DiverCity Mall, yes, the giant Gundam is one of the attractions and icon of this mall. Next we closed the day with fine dining at Qon, from this restaurant we could see Tokyo Tower and Tokyo SkyTree on two different sides. The view was really beautiful.



Our fifth day visiting DisneySea!

We were supposed to visit on the second day, but before buying tickets and checking it turned out that on that day DisneySea would close early so we decided to change the day. We went by bus where the stop was very close to our hotel. In total we played 8 rides a day. My favorite ride is Soaring Fantastic Flight and his favorite ride is Toy Story.

The sixth and seventh days we visited Osaka and the eighth day we visited Kyoto.

The ninth day we returned to Tokyo and met again with Hitoshi Arakawa san and Keiko Arakawa san in the Shinjuku area. We visited the famous Isetan department store, Takashimaya, Hands, and also the stand alone store Beams but unfortunately the Suicoke sandals we were looking for were not there. That evening we met Arakawa san's first son for the first time; Taichi Arakawa san after he finished work. We had dinner together and tried Ochazuke for the first time. A very pleasant experience, hopefully we can meet again on another occasion. ♥

The tenth day felt less busy than the previous days, we spent a lot of time more relaxed. Revisiting the Harajuku, Shibuya and Omotesando areas. Harajuku and Shibuya are very busy on Saturdays, Omotesando is still my favorite area. Then we continued to Solamachi inside the Tokyo Skytree. The location is very close to our hotel so we could walk leisurely in this place until the evening.


On the eleventh day early in the morning we checked out and headed to the airport in Narita. Because there was still a little time, we shopped for some souvenirs at the airport. There's even a Muji store too. Muji corn tea is highly recommended to try. Hopefully we have another chance to visit Japan in a different season.

The cities of Osaka and Kyoto will be revealed in the next posts, don't miss it!

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