As I'm holed up in my apartment escaping the cold (thank god for heating, I don't know how I survived last year in Granada), here's another travel throwback post.
While traveling around Spain and Europe with friends last year was fun, that and looking through some old travel pictures made me realize how much I enjoy traveling with my sisters. I managed to spend some time with my sister Angela over the Christmas break, so I decided that I wanted to travel with my other sister Isabel when I went back home for the summer. We wanted a place that was relatively near and cheap, and settled on Japan. We had both never been and were quite excited.
August rolled around, and we caught our bright and early 5:25am Cebu Pacific flight and landed in Narita without any problems. (Random side story - we were waiting and waiting for
Cebu Pacific to go on sale, but could never quite catch the seat sales for our preferred dates. We finally caught a promo fare, but it was only for our return flight (Narita-Manila), so we booked that one first. So for the longest time we had a flight home, but none to Tokyo). Anyway. From Narita we took the bus to Tokyo, and then caught the train to Osaki where our
Couchsurfing host met us. I had met up with several people from Couchsurfing before, but it was my first time to actually stay at a home. Our host Masako was lovely, and she gave us some tips and advice before we set out to explore.
We hadn't eaten lunch so we walked down
Togoshi Ginza and stopped at a nearby
ramen place that Masako recommended. Both Bel and I aren't huge
ramen fans, but this one was delicious. It makes so much of a difference eating the 'real deal.' We ordered
ramen and
gyoza and shared.
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| Ramen and gyoza for our first meal in Tokyo |
With our stomachs happy, we spent the afternoon exploring
Shinjuku and
Kabukicho. As evening approached, the area was full of bright neon lights. The Kabukicho district is known as "the city that never sleeps."
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| Kabukicho |
For dinner we headed to the nearby
Omoide Yokocho, literally translated as "Memory Lane" but more commonly known by its nickname "Piss Alley." The street earned its nickname in the 1940s when customers were forced to relieve themselves by the nearby train tracks due to the lack of toilets. Nevertheless, the street is famous for hole-in-the-wall eateries offering cheap food, especially
yakitori.
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| Trying some yakitori |
The next morning (Saturday) we got up bright and early for our first stop: the
Tsukiji Market. We didn't bother trying to watch the famous tuna auction. We walked around the market instead as it was about to close, then lined up to try some sushi at one of the bars. We had to wait quite a bit, but it was worth it. We took a picture of the sushi set we wanted from the poster outside, showed it to the chef as we were seated, and crossed our fingers that he had understood us. The meal did not disappoint and it was worth the wait; I had the freshest sushi of my life.
Bel and I were still dreaming of the sushi hours after. We even ended up discussing which was our favorite, and in which order we'd eat it if we went back again.
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| SO. GOOD. |
From Tsukiji we walked to
Ginza and explored the area. We passed by the
Kabuki Theatre and
Hibiya Park, then headed to
Tokyo Station to catch a free walking tour. The tour told us about the history and culture of Tokyo, while taking us around the
East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. Our tour guides were extremely polite; they would keep thanking us for listening, and after we walked up the hill to the Edo Castle remains, they even thanked us for walking up.
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| Our tour guides |
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| With the Edo Castle remains |
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| Gardens of the Imperial Palace |
We had a late
donburi lunch at Yoshinoya, then visited the
National Film Center, and checked out the exhibits.Our next stop was
Jimbocho, a heaven for book lovers as its filled with used-books tores and publishing houses, and from there we walked to
Akihabara. We marvelled at the all the eccentricities we saw, before taking the train back to Osaki. We ended our second night with some
yakiniku. Ordering food in Japan was quite the adventure. The servers really spoke little to no English, so we would point to things we want, and hope everything turns out okay (which worked quite well throughout the trpi!).
On Sunday we took the train to H
arajuku and visited the
Meiji Shrine. The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji, the first emperor of modern Japan, and his consort, Empress Shoken. It was a nice and quiet morning taking in our surroundings, and trying to participate in the customs.
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| Torii gates |
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| Meiji Shrine |
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| Cleansing rituals |
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| The Wish tree |
From Meiji Shrine we headed to
Yoyogi Park, rented some bikes, then biked around the park for an hour. Yoyogi Park is one the city's largest city parks and was previously the site of the Olympic Village for the 1964 Olympics.
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| Sunday morning bike ride |
Our next stop was the nearby
Takeshita Dori, a popular shopping street that was jam-packed with people. We had a quick snack, manoeuvred our way out of the crowd, and walked to
Shibuya. In Shibuya we watched the famous crossing, saw the statue of
Hachiko, and tried to find Karaoke Kan from Lost in Translation. (Tried because we think we found it, but we couldn't go to the karaoke rooms, and the woman at the reception had no idea what we were saying). We had lunch at a hole in the wall place (more pointing at pictures and hoping we get good food), before walking to Roppongi. (We did A LOT of walking in Tokyo).
In
Roppongi we visited the
National Art Center and saw this really cool exhibit on manga, anime, and video games. We heard mass at a Catholic church nearby, then headed to Roppongi Hills to watch a
Bon Odori dance. Bon Odori is a traditional Japanese dance, honoring ancestors' spirits. The dancers move around in a circle on the wooden stage, and on the top platform is a drummer. The crowd also joins in, and moves in a circle as well around the stage.
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| Bon Odori |
Actually, we checked out the dance festival before heading to mass. We caught a few songs/dances, but they kept repeating this one number over and over again. After mass, we headed back, and they were still doing that same number!! They did end up doing more dance numbers though, and we enjoyed watching while having some beer and noodles. Towards the end, some people of the crowd joined in, and we did so too before heading home.
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| The crowd joining in on the fun. |
On our last day we headed to
Ueno Park, a large public park with plenty museums. We decided to check out the
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and happened upon
many calligraphy exhibits. Seriously, maybe 4 out of the 6 free exhibits were dedicated to calligraphy. It was quite beautiful to look at even if we couldn't understand anything.
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| Calligraphy |
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| Spot the not |
After walking around the park grounds, we ventured to
Asakusa, the old part of Tokyo. It was about lunch time so we first stopped at a
tempura place to eat.
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| Tempura at Sansada |
Japanese cuisine is my favorite, and it was really fun getting to try all the food. We actually only had
sushi once because we tried different kids of dishes like
ramen, yakitori, donburi, yakiniku, noodles, tempura, shabu-shabu (wow, writing all that made me salivate).
After lunch we visited the
Sensoji Temple. The architecture around this area was very nice, as you see traces of Tokyo's history, but it was too crowded in my opinion. We explored the area and did some last minute shopping in
Nakamise Dori, then headed back to our homestay.
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| Sensoji Temple |
For our last night, Masako invited us to dinner with a couple of her friends. When we arrived, her boyfriend and another friend were there too. We learned that they had met in India as solo travelers, but looked for fellow Japanese travelers, and explored India together. As more friends arrived, we would ask them how they knew each other, and we quickly realized that the whole group of friends had met in India. What was nice was that their India trip was 5 years ago, but they still keep in touch and see each other every now and then. Quite a nice story to hear.
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| Masako and her friend preparing our food |
It was a really nice night with cheap food and drinks; it really helps when you go out with a local! We were really happy with our stay with
Masako; she definitely helped make our trip to Tokyo enjoyable. We left early the next morning for the airport, and were still dreaming of the sushi on the plane ride home. It was a great first experience in Japan. We lucked out on a five year visa, so we hope to be able to visit other parts of Japan soon. :)
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