Unfortunately, our flight to Tokyo was a little more eventful than we would have liked. Despite initial accommodations of Alex’s nut allergy during dinner, the flight attendants didn’t realize that the small chocolates served with coffee contained hazelnut. Alex spent the remaining 12 hour flight alternating between bouts of vomiting, sleep and delirium while I tried anything to make him slightly more comfortable. While ultimately no emergency actions were required, we both felt very scared to be at 36,000 feet during this incident and were more than a little relieved upon touching down at Narita.
We met Alex’s mom, Janet, at baggage claim and once she got over the shock of Alex’s swollen face we headed into downtown Tokyo. The Narita Express train actually takes an hour and a half to get into central Tokyo so it was already evening by the time we arrived. We stopped off at Shibuya and grabbed a coffee at the infamous Starbucks so Janet could experience the “Shibuya Scramble.” After making the journey to our hotel, we had a light dinner and headed to bed, hoping to sleep off our jetlag for as long as possible.
View from our hotel rooftop; we could see the Tokyo Tower off in the distance.
We woke up early on Tuesday morning, but given the jetlag I was happy we actually slept until 6am! I went for a run to regain some energy before the city heat took over and met up with Alex and Janet at the hotel for a day of Tokyo sightseeing. Our first stop was Yoyogi Park to explore the Meiji Shrine and nearby Omotesando area.
Outside one of the four gates leading to the Meiji Shrine.
Sake barrel offerings at the Meiji Shrine.
Clouds and crowds at the Meiji Shrine.
The weather was overcast and muggy – real feel of nearly 100 degrees! – so we realized we really needed to take it easy while walking around all over the city. In need of a break, we headed to a sushi restaurant Alex and I discovered last year and treated Janet to the novelty of conveyor belt sushi!
Lunch at Namazuko, our favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant (proudly displaying a TripAdvisor award!)
After lunch, we headed to Harajuku to show Janet the neighborhood famous for it's "cutesy" fashion and restaurants before returning our hotel to meet a former colleague and friend of Janet's, Michiru.
Harajuku.
After catching up with Michiru over iced tea, Alex and I retreated to our hotel room to rest while Janet joined Michiru for an afternoon of architectural sightseeing (their shared career / interest). After a brief nap, Alex and I decided it had cooled off – slightly – enough to venture out into a new neighborhood nearby, Ebisu. I had read that the area was somewhat trendy with locals, so we stopped into an outdoor bar for a drink and some people watching while the sun went down. For dinner, we headed to Udonyamacho and cooled off in the AC before ordering our first of many udon noodle soups. We called it an early night as we were set to wake up at 2:30am (!) to try and watch Tokyo’s famous tuna auction.
Waking up early turned out to be easier than we expected and we arrived to the Tsukiji Market in time to join the first group allowed into the auction (only two groups of 60 people are allowed access each morning beginning at 5:30am so hopeful tourists – like us – begin gathering before 3am to try and get in). Watching the choreographed live auction was incredible – we’ve never seen anything like it – and we felt like we were witnessing an authentic Japanese tradition.
Sleepy tourists waiting for a glimpse of the tuna auction.
Buyers inspecting the enormous tuna.
We couldn't believe how huge the tuna were!
Alex even got a video of one auction!
After the auction was over, we walked through the bustling fish market and made our way toward the sushi restaurants located within the area. Bypassing the crawling lines for the famous Sushi Dai, we were actually able to recognize the amazing hole-in-the-wall spot we had found last year and enjoyed an incredible sushi breakfast alone at 6am!
Early morning at Tsukiji Market.
The best sushi in the world according to us: 6am sushi breakfast.
After breakfast, we walked to the nearby Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple and then tried to perk up with some coffee before heading north to the Senso-Ji, which we hoped would be a little less crowded at 8am! Luckily, the area was practically deserted and we enjoyed re-exploring the shrine without the masses of tourists we encountered last year.
The Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple is very uniquely designed when compared to all of the other Japanese shrines we have seen.
A very quiet moment at the entrance to Senso-ji.
The few visitors we saw all tried to grab the hanging lantern for good luck so I gave it a try too.
Alex standing in front of the main shrine.
We ventured to Ueno Park where we met up with Janet and Michiru at 9am, feeling like we had already had a pretty full day! We spent the morning with Michiru as she guided us throughout the park and nearby architecture sights before parting ways for lunch and some sleep.
Looking up at Kiyomizu Kannon Temple.
Lanterns lined the entryway to Ueno Toshogu Shrine
Facing the shrine.
After a restorative nap (and wondering if we are carrying over the European “siesta” habit we picked up from Spain and Italy), we rejoined Janet and Michiru at Ginza Lion for pre-dinner drinks. We checked out a few other nearby buildings with Michiru and then Alex and I made our way to one of our favorite Japanese spots for dinner: Ichiran Ramen, which was as delicious as we remembered. Rumors suggest the Tonkotsu ramen chain is opening a NYC branch this year so fingers crossed!
Beautiful interior of the Ginza Lion beer hall.
Pretty alleyway near Tokyo Station.
We woke up to rain so we had a lazy morning of shopping and stopping for tea and coffee today before having lunch at another Tokyo spot we favor: Harajuku Gyozara. Luckily, Janet liked the five-item menu as much as we did! We are now en route on the train to Nagano, which is a new stop for me and Alex!