Tokyo, Japan - Week 1-2 (Shinjuku, Shibuya and Kyoto)-Week 1
- Mar 30
- 6 min read
Hello Family and Friends,
We have arrived in Japan!
The first three days we stayed in Shinjuku, Brett was super sick and I don't think he left the hotel room. So Atlas and I explored Shinjuku. We were staying next to Shinjuku Central Park and it had an excellent playground.
The next day it rained and Atlas and I tried to find an indoor play place. We ultimately failed, got completely lost and soaking wet. However, I learned to appreciate Starbucks. My normal response to seeing American brands abroad is complete and total disgust. American food brands that have been in every country include McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks and Subway. Whenever I see them, I avoid that area because clearly it has been USAified (my term, not a real word) and I don't visit other countries to find the most US thing about them. However, when you're in Japan, your data plan isn't working, and your lost without your spouse; free Starbucks WiFi is useful. They are everywhere in Japan. I would stand outside, get on the WiFi and check my navigation. I have not reached the point where I will spend money at Starbucks, but I no longer growl when I see them. Eventually, we did find the indoor play-place, but they were completely booked for the day and Atlas was sound asleep in the stroller. When we returned to the hotel, I told Brett that I needed a different data plan. I can't keep relying on Starbucks free WiFi to navigate and I need to have access to my Google translate when navigating the streets of Tokyo.
Shinjuku, definitely had more of a business feel. Shibuya, our next location, has more of a vibe. Everything, where we were staying in Shibuya, was raised off of the street. There were shopping centers, grocery stores and public performances without going down to the street level.
One very Japanese thing about the grocery store is that the cash register "meows" instead of "beep" when you pass your items over the scanner.
The best part of Shibuya is that my mom and little sister joined me!
We only stayed in Shibuya for one night before taking the bullet train to Kyoto.
The Japanese train systems aren't intuitive at all. Brett says the Japanese are smart because they have to solve a puzzle every day just to navigate the train system. There are multiple train companies running on different tracks, out of different stations with differing systems. However, they aren't connected so you have to buy multiple tickets. For example, when Brett went to pick up my mom and sister from the airport he bought one ticket just to access the train system and then another ticket to ride the express train to the airport. There was a similar process to ride the bullet train to Kyoto. We learned about the multiple ticket system after we learned that you can't buy train tickets with foreign credit cards, but only Japanese credit cards. One of the only places to buy a train card is at the airport. Also, you can't use the train app unless you have an iphone or your android was bought in Japan. You have to use Japanese yen to buy each train ticket and you can only buy three tickets at a time which is inconvenient when you're traveling with four people. In general, Japan is not friendly to large groups of people. Many of the restaurants have limited group seating or bar type seating where you're not facing each other. Most restaurants you need reservations and those that don't need reservations have lines. It is nothing to see a line going down the street as people wait for food. I would think that Japan makes eating as a solo traveler feel very easy.
Kyoto is the old capital of Japan before it transitioned to Tokyo. It has a more traditional Japanese style. While in Kyoto we went to Nara and interacted with wild deer.
These deer were absolutely everywhere and very accustomed to people. I would have deer come up to me and bow expecting a cracker. We visited the Great Buddha temple located in Nara.
There are many shrines and temples in Japan. The difference is that shrines serve the Shinto religious traditions and temples serve the Buddhist religious traditions. Shinto and Buddhism are the two most popular Japanese religions. Some other very Japanese things that we noted in Nara park were the man hole covers and the bathrooms.
We also took a walk along the philosophers path in Kyoto looking for cherry blossoms.
We also did a Ninja experience where we threw Ninja stars and shot blow darts.
We learned that ninja were farmers by day and assassins by night. They used modified farm instruments as their weapons. They were tasked with spying which would have been seen as an dishonorable task for a Samurai. After our ninja experience we went to the Samurai & Ninja Museum where we learned more about the history of ninjas and samurai.
We ended our time in Kyoto with a visit to the Imperial Palace.
After leaving Kyoto we went back to Tokyo as my mom had to catch a plane back to the states. However, before she left we visited Shibuya Crossing. It is nicknamed the "scramble" because people cross in all directions. It is the busiest crosswalk in the world as up to 3000 people cross every 2-3 minutes totalling a half million people each day.
We also took mom to ride go-carts through the streets of Tokyo.
We have toured Tokyo staying in the Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza neighborhoods. Ginza is where you do your expensive shopping. I'm talking Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga. You know, brands I have to look up how to spell and others I don't even know how to pronounce. We also visited Tokyo Bay, the home of Disneyland and Disneysea, but it stormed the entire time. Next stop, Karuizawa, to visit an onsen, a public bath house.
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