My family actually planned to go in August last year, but due to me and my brother's activity, we decided to go this year. In October 2016, we went to a travel fair at the nearest mall and we were so lucky to get cheap tickets from ANA. It was a great deal getting a multiple city ticket, coming to Tokyo and going back from Osaka. I was very excited to become my own family travel organiser: making itineraries, booking accommodations, etc.
So, in the mid of January 2017, we made our flight to Tokyo. My heart beat so fast since I entered the plane. When the stewardess greet us, I already felt like in Japan. Reviewing a bit about the airline, it is above my expectation. ANA Economy seats are very spacious, I could move my legs freely. The food is great, too. Overall, I was very satisfied with the service and had a really pleasant flight.
At around 7 am on Thursday morning, we landed in Haneda airport. I really needed to go to the toilet and I got to experience the popular Japanese toilets which have many buttons on the seats. After passing the immigration and taking our luggages, we went outside. We still couldn't go anywhere because we had to take our Universal Studios tickets at an travel agency office which open at 8.30 am. While waiting and killing the time, we prepared ourselves wearing winter outfit. I came to the Tourist Information Center to grab maps and ask everything I needed. I also bought Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto there. Then me and my brother bought Suica card from the machine. We were figuring out by ourselves how to buy it and turns out it is very easy! No need to worry about.
After the office opened and we took the tickets, we directly went to the city by train. We followed the route as directed by a staff from the Tourist Information Center while keep checking the map. As we were approaching the city center, the train was getting more crowded since it was early morning and people were going to work. Nearly all of the passengers were wearing black. Since we were also wearing black, we felt like we successfully blend with the locals, haha.
We got off at Shinjuku-sanchome station. Many people said Japanese people are very friendly and helpful. We found out that is true. While were looking at wall map to find nearest exit to our accommodation, a young lady approached us and asked to help. This is the third helping experience we got from a local. Before this, when we had to change train line, we stopped and were looking around to find direction. Looking us confused, a woman asked if she could help. After getting directions from her, we said thank you and were going to leave, but she still wanted to help because she saw us bringing luggages and she only knew the way if we pass the stairs. She was trying to find us an elevator. We said no problem and she made sure we were really okay.
We made our way to the accommodation. I actually booked an apartment through airbnb in Hanzomon area. However, 5 days prior to our departure, the host cancelled my booking due to a problem on the listing! I was panicked. I quickly searched for another apartment and luckily found a decent one in Shinjuku-sanchome area. We all were very satisfied with it. You can see how the apartment looks like and read my review here:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13855453
After putting our luggages, we were ready to start our adventure! First stop is Asakusa where we could visit Kaminarimon Gate, Nakamise Shopping Street, and Sensoji Temple. Before we explored the area, since we were starving, we ate first at Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku which is located further behind the temple. It is quite popular when I browsed for places to eat, but I think the taste is not that special. It was okay and the rice was soft, though. We didn't eat much because earlier we saw many tempting food back on Nakamise.
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| Grab a drink from the vending machine |
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| Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku |
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| Asakusa has that old-town vibe. Wish I could explore more. |
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| Kaminarimon Gate |
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| Nakamise Shopping Street |
We were walking around Nakamise and very tempted by the food sold. They all looked so good and attracted us to buy them. Due to our stomach capacity, we only tried these.
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| Red Bean Taiyaki |
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| Mixed (Green Tea and Original Soft Ice Cream) and Sweet Potato from Funawa Patisserie Marche, just look at the long queue |
From Asakusa, we moved to Ueno. Our main purpose here is to buy Hard Rock T-shirts at the station. I actually didn't know where else to visit here so we just walked around. But sometimes randomness gives you unexpected things. We passed some interesting places. We came into a toy store, bookstore, and even checked out a game arcade.
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| Loving Ueno Station's vibe |
I passed a street which turned out to be Ameyoko Shopping Street. This is on my list but I didn't realize it was here. I saw mostly food sold here, especially seafood.
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| Ichigo!! (=strawberry) |
Our last stop is Akihabara, the centre of electronic shops. What I was looking forward is to see colourful buildings with big Japanese letters. I personally think this kind of view really gives that Tokyo city vibe. Besides, Japanese cartoony songs played from the stores makes it more lively.
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| Found a decent ramen and soba restaurant for dinner |
Our first day in Japan went well. Since we still have many more days to go and we didn't have enough sleep the night before on the plane, we decided to go back to the apartment and rest. Because the next day, we're going to Tokyo Disneysea!
