We liked Tokyo despite being sick, fighting the crowds everywhere and having less than perfect weather. There is something about this city, which pulls you in and leaves the warm feeling inside. The food is amazing, and this is a big part of it. There is also so much to do for all moods and tastes. The location of our hotel, Courtyard Marriot Tokyo Station made exploring the city (as well as the day trips) very easy.
When we were coming back to Tokyo at the end of our time in Japan to catch the flight back to the US, we were actually looking forward to spending a few more hours there. This doesn’t usually happen to us when we stay in big cities.
About this Itinerary
We visited Japan in November 2019. This was a 2-week trip (see our trip report here), of which we had spent only one full day in Tokyo. We actually stayed in Tokyo longer, but took day trips to Kamakura and Nikko instead of exploring the city. While we definitely didn’t see everything there is to see in Tokyo, we covered the top sights before escaping the hustle and bustle of this huge metropolis for other, equally interesting destinations.
We almost never do organized tours (exception is “free walking tours” in Europe, which we love). Also, we never hire guides (okay, we did hire a guide in Rio for safety reasons). I would recommend hiring a guide in Tokyo. If we did, we would have seen and learned a lot more not about the city but also about Japanese culture. While it was fun discovering things on our own, sometimes it was frustrating, too.
Tokyo Autumn Highlights
On our first morning in Japan, we woke up very early. We read that people often go to Tsukiji Market on their first day to take a tour of the market and see the tuna auction, which starts at an insane time. This is definitely a good idea – what else is there to do when you are awake at 2 am? We didn’t include Tsukiji Market into our itinerary because we read that after moving to a new location, it lost its local charm and became just a big industrial place, which sells fish. Besides, we had other markets to visit in Kyoto and Kanazawa.
We waited until the hotel restaurant opened at 6:30 am, filled our bellies with the excellent breakfast (free for Elite members) and then took some time to get ready. We knew that leaving during rush hour would be a mistake since we were planning on taking public transportation.
By the way, we used Google Maps in Japan everywhere for directions on the subway, trains, and buses. It worked great! The app would give us directions and departure times, which you can trust completely in Japan. Since we didn’t have a data plan, we downloaded the offline maps for the places where we stayed. I did have my MiFi device in case we needed to get online.
Shibuya Crossing
Another great thing about the hotel is that the subway station is about 3 min away. We took a Ginza line train to Shibuya Station (9 stops, 20 min) to see the famous Shibuya Crossing. The subway car in Tokyo is super modern with electronic signs in Japanese and English, which give you all sorts of useful information: the next station, transfers, exits, etc. We also liked that in addition to the name, each station has the number to make it very easy to remember when you have to get off.
We had a bit of trouble finding the right exit to lead us to the crossing. You’d think that there would be signs? We took a few elevators up and somehow ended up in the overpass above. This is actually a great place to take pictures. Unfortunately, the sight wasn’t impressive at all at this time of the day (about 10 am). It looked like a typical pedestrian crossing in any other big city. We decided to come back at night, but it didn’t pan out.
Meiji Jingu Shrine
After being underwhelmed by the crossing, we got back on the train (JR Line) to Harajuku station to visit the Meiji Jingu Shrine. This is probably the most famous shrine in Tokyo and a good place to get introduced to the shrines. We saw so many shrines during our time in Japan that in the end we stopped being amazed. But you always remember your first one.
As we exited the station, we saw Takeshita Street right across the road. This is a pedestrian street with shops selling ice cream and snacks. We would come back to it later, but for now we turned left and hurried to the shrine.
There is a long green alley leading to the shrine. We passed the famous empty sake barrels, people in kimonos taking pictures and even a small outdoor banzai exibition.
As you walk into the shrine complex, we experience a sense of holiness despite tons of tourists around you who are focused more on finding the right photo opportunity. As we approached the shrine, we saw some people actually doing the traditional ritual of clapping and bowing. We also notice that people lower their voices as they get closer. We wished that we had somebody to tell us more about the place.
If you go away from the crowds and step out of the exit on the left, you can even find a quiet place. You can almost imagin somebody meditating here. Of course, then a tour group shows up.
Contemporary Architecture Walk
From the shrine, we backtracked through the park and headed over to Omotesando, which is a neighborhood with a bunch of really cool buildings by the greatest modern architects. I read about this walk in the Lonely Planet guide, and Tanya was really excited about it because she is a big fan of contemporary architecture.
We started at Tokyu Plaza and walked down Omotesando avenue reading about the buildings in the book. My favorite was the Prada Building, which looks like a vertically standing sheet of bubble wrap paper.
The avenue was lined up with the colorful trees – it was probably our first real introduction to Japan foliage.
At this point, Tanya was getting tired (still not feeling well) so we started to look for a ramen place to get her some hot soup. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything that we liked. I don’t remember how we came up with the name of the dumpling place, Harajuku Gyoza Lou. I think Tanya read about it somewhere. It was not far from us and exactly what we needed: tasty, unpretentious and light on the wallet food. They even had soup, too. Highly recommend!
We had some juice left in us after lunch, and there was one more place I wanted to check out: Jingo Gaien Ginkgo avenue. I read that this is the best place to see foliage in Tokyo. My Google Maps showed only 20 min walk, so we could manage. On the way, we stopped by a pharmacy to get Tanya medicated. It was strange that the young girls working there didn’t speak any English (or were to shy to try). Of course, in our times the language barrier is pretty low as long as you have your mobile phone with a good translator app (Microsoft Translator).
Jingo Gaien Ginkgo Avenue is famous for its 146 beautiful ginkgo trees which turn yellow during the autumn season. It is only 300m long, so people usually walk up and down on different sides to get the full experience. There are traffic police everywhere watching for stopping cars, I guess to avoid people getting killed while taking pictures.
We were disappointed because the colors haven’t arrived yet. When we came back 10 days later, the avenue was completely different: bright yellow and full of transient light.
Akihabara
The next part is hard for me to write about. I feel so guilty.
Tanya was running out of steam, so we went back to the hotel (quick subway ride) to rest. When her head hit the pillow, she was completely out. It was about 4 pm, so I figured that after a few hours of sleep, she would get some of her strength back. I wasn’t done for the day.
I busied myself with reading the guide book and searching online for a place to visit in the evening, which was nearby, ideally just a few stops on the subway. This is how I came up with Akihabara, a district about 15 min away on the Ginza line. I wanted to see the bright electronic shops devoted to anime and manga. The word in the blogs was that this is a unique place to see after dark.
I woke Tanya up around 6 pm and bribed her with a free cocktail at the downstairs bar (another perk of being Elite member). I could tell that she didn’t want to go anywhere, but I think she also didn’t want to hold me back – my wife is something else!
Akihabara was just like I imagined it: bright, weird and very… Japanese. I wished that I was into video games or looking to buy a cheap camera. Since we were in neither, we didn’t spend much time there. I led Tanya away from the main avenue to the side streets because I wanted to see the much talked about “maid cafes”. We didn’t see the cafes (all the establishments looked the same), but we did get hit on by the trashy greeters in maid uniforms.
Tanya didn’t say a word, but her eyes told me everything I needed to know. We walked back to the subway and took the train to Tokyo Station for some evening ramen and piece of mind.
Overall, this was a good first full day in Japan and a solid introduction to Tokyo. We had another half day to finish sightseeing at the end of our trip, which made us feel less stressed about missing a few items on our original list.