FAR EAST ASIAN TRIP THE FINAL PART: TOKYO

One of the best moments of my trip to Tokyo occurred on the last full day inside the city. In Akihabara, the consumer stores are beyond belief in size and scope. Yodobashi Camera is a nine-story store with each floor being about the size of a Home Depot. There are hundreds if not thousands of people wandering around inside. On our first night in Tokyo, my partner left her glasses in this store. One of the things you may not know about Japan is that theft is incredibly rare. If something is misplaced, the store will likely still have it. I dropped my passport in Osaka, and an older woman chased me down and gave it back to me. The Japanese will find the item and return it to the store management out of courtesy if they can’t find the owner. On this day, we went back to this store to find my partner’s glasses which she left on a table on the 2nd floor. Like a moment out of the movie LOST IN TRANSLATION which will make you appreciate the brilliance of that film more, the girl we approached at customer service did not speak English. For foreigners, most Japanese people do not speak English unlike Europe where about 40% do. My partner immediately took out Google Translate to converse with this girl. In response, the customer service girl took out Google Translate to respond to the questions. After twenty minutes of sitting back and witnessing this, the girl went into lost and found and retrieved my partner’s glasses. Despite the shocking aspect of getting back our glasses inside a store that sees tens of thousands of people wandering through it every day, the memory that this created will remain one of the highlights of this Japanese adventure.
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Upon landing in Tokyo, it is impossible to perceive the incredible size of this city. Tokyo is the largest city in the world by population with over 37 million people living inside its city limits. The city is broken into 23 wards with each one having as many as a dozen subdistricts inside them. During our almost four complete days, we were only able to see six of these wards (Taito, Sumida, Chiyoda, Chuo, Koto and Shibuya) and about a dozen subdistricts (Including Akihabara which is part of Chiyoda where we stayed for three nights). Each ward feels like a massive city. Imagine taking the downtowns of the United States 23 largest cities with their own unique features and cultural experiences and combining them into one massive megacity and this gives you an idea of the enormity of Tokyo. During our four days there, we moved around the city from morning to night and experienced as much as we could in the time allotted. In most cities, we would have likely done at least half of the best experiences during a similar timeframe. In Tokyo, we just scratched the surface of all the city’s activities. Here is a breakdown by day:

Day 1: Docked inside the Koto Ward at the international ship terminal. Took an Uber to DiverCity Plaza (Our first massive mall) which is part of an entertainment complex in the area that includes Tokyo Joypolis and the Toyota Basketball Arena and walked to the Tokyo Teleport Station in Aomi to take the subway to Shibuya ward. Spent half the day in Shibuya at the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing made famous by every movie shot in Japan and often included inside every tourist brochure. Ate at a ramen place and decided to do some shopping. Tokyo allows select stores due to the weakness of the Japanese yen to sell tax free consumer goods if you spend a minimum of 5000 yen (About 33 dollars) at the store. Passports and ID must be shown to remove the taxes. Prices in Japan are anywhere from 20-50% cheaper than the United States. We loaded up on shoes, tech products, and cheap snacks. Later in Harajuku, which is north and in the Shibuya ward, my partner went crazy over the incredibly cheap makeup selection. Since I love history, we incorporated a stop to a famous Shinto Temple nearby called the Meiji Jingu Higashijimon and walked the Gyeon (Garden) nearby. This was the Meiji Royal family’s favorite location in Tokyo, and the queen often was present in this garden and served tea in a hut inside the grounds to any invited guests. Shibuya also had a Tower Records store that my family had to grab and drag me out kicking and screaming after spending an hour there reminiscing about this amazing musical store from my childhood. Took the subway back to our ship and crashed into our bed for one final night.

Day 2: Got up and took the subway to Asakusabashi which is a residential neighborhood next to Akihabara Electric Town. On day three, we also found ourselves in the residential area of Oshiage near the Tokyo Skytree in the Sumida ward. Despite the massive population of Tokyo, these residential areas are incredibly quiet. Most people travel via subway or bicycle, so street traffic is light, and everyone keeps to themselves in their humble abodes. I have never been to a city this large with such quiet residential communities that resemble ghost towns in the evening. After checking in, my partner and I were disappointed to find out that the Sumo arena and museum nearby were sold out due to an ongoing tournament, so we went into Marunouchi, part of the Chiyoda ward, and watched a troupe practicing a performance they were putting on for the city later that evening. We moved into the Imperial Palace gardens and walked miles enjoying the old guard stations, the ruins and ancient walls of the palace grounds, and the beautiful garden that used to be the center of the city of Edo (Which became Tokyo in 1868). Part of the Imperial Grounds is roped off as the current Japanese royal family lives there. After this, we took the local bus through the upscale Ginza neighborhood down to the Tsukiji market in the Chuo ward and enjoyed some very rare and surprisingly cheap sushi while also getting ripped off buying a beef dish for our son. We walked into Ginza and enjoyed the rich upscale aspect of this area. During the evening, we met back in our hotel and went into Akihabara for the first time (Where my partner would lose her glasses) and experienced the crazy anime and tech stores and the multi-story retro arcades.

NOTE: Another thing about Japan. You never have to worry about being thirsty. Every street corner inside all the cities during our Japanese tour has vending machines with an incredibly large selection of drinks from basic water bottles to coffees, to the most unique, sweet Japanese refreshments. The drinks can usually be bought for about 1 to 2 dollars American (125 to 400 yen). Often, these vending machines would be the only place where you could find a trash can in the city.

Day 3: This was our most active day. Went into Asakusa in the Taito ward to see one last historical place, the famous Buddhist temple of Senso-Ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo. The temple grounds have Nakamise Shopping Street that occupies the walk from the outside gate to its entrance. The best Udon noodle restaurant of this trip was in this market, Udon Asakuza Kanoya. The ubiquitous mile-long mall was located to the west. Asakusa had a nicer vibe as the buildings were not stacked, and it had a smaller town feel but with its own unique cultural vibe. After spending half a day here, we moved over to the famous Tokyo Skytree which sits on top of another massive mall. This was the most frustrating part of the trip. For the first time, the Skytree felt like all 37 million Tokyo residents were enjoying it with us. The amount of people walking around this area was insane. The wait to get to the top of the Skytree was over five hours. After learning about the history of the Skytree in the lobby, my partner and I decided to forego this attraction and walk the beautiful Oyokagawa Shinsui Park along a canal where cherry blossoms bloom in season (Not during September though) which ended up in the residential community of Oshiage that housed the Tobacco and Salt Museum located in the Sumida ward. Due to how quiet the museum was, we bought tickets and spent a good 90 minutes here learning more things about the history of tobacco and salt than anyone on this planet should know. Afterwards, we walked into the humble and poorer subdistrict of Azumabashi and again headed back to Akihabara where we wandered around Electric Town playing video games and eating.

AMAZING EXPERIENCE PART 5: TOKYO EFFICIENCY

In a city like New Delhi or New York or Los Angeles, observing the city from the sky would seem like a nightmare of headlights and red stoplights for miles upon miles of endless roads. This will not be an experience you will have in Tokyo. While we planned our day, Google was very accurate on its time predictions about how long it takes to get to each location in Tokyo. The subway or elevated train was the quickest form of travel over 90% of the time. The only exceptions to this were the local bus we took from the Imperial Palace to Tsukiji and the Uber we took from our cruise ship to the Plaza in Aomi inside the Koto ward. No location took us longer than an hour to travel to. The trains run about every five minutes. They are often packed and always on time. Using Google as a resource is incredibly important as many of the signs are in Japanese. Google will also explain very accurately the subway route you need to take to your location. With these subways, they can often change the name of the line you are on while moving into the next district. Be patient with this. Google will often tell you to stay on the train as the name of the line changes. In the two occasions this happened to me, Google Maps was correct, and it will eventually soothe that voice in your mind that questions the directions being shown. The most helpful aspect is that the subway stations are often numbered, and this helps in finding the proper track and location. Upon arriving, buying the Suica card is essential to enjoying Tokyo. The card is only available to buy at major subway terminals. The first purchase can be made with a credit card (2000 yen or about 14 dollars). After the initial purchase, money can only be added to the card in most locations with cash. Bringing cash into Tokyo is necessary as without it, your experience will be limited. Experiencing the efficiency of the subway system and the generosity and calmness of the people as everyone matriculates like insects through the winding underground caverns of the long walkways and staircases is an experience everyone visiting Tokyo needs to have. Not many people drive in Tokyo. Once you take the subway and bullet trains a couple of times, it will make perfect sense as to why.

Day 4: Every vacation must end. Since we booked this vacation through a travel agency, the flight back was out of Tokyo-Narita, the furthest of Tokyo’s two international airports. This airport is located a good hour outside of Tokyo to the east. The airport in the city is called Haneda and is located south in Ota City near Kawasaki. Narita requires a good 90-minute train ride from the airport to get into the city. Since we needed to be there by 1 pm, we enjoyed our last breakfast at a coffee shop in Akihabara and went on our way. The train ride took us through the suburban Katsushika City and the outskirts town of Kamagaya. After we cleared the massive Tokyo urban area, Japan turned into a rural wonderland with farmland and beautiful green pastures for miles on end until you dump into the international airport. If you have extra money on your Suica cards (Which we did), you can use it at this airport to buy tax free goods and food to drain the remaining balance.

I hope you enjoyed this reflection on my recent trip to Tokyo. The last couple of years being a world traveler and moving my countries visited up from the low single digits into the teens has been the most incredible learning experience. Please leave any questions and feedback in the comments.