July 8, 2019
Piece of advice, both for myself in the future and any other traveler: do not book flights early in the morning! Trying to be as frugal as possible, we had booked the cheapest flight available… which had ended up being 7:30 a.m. The horrifying reality of this situation was that we had to get to the airport by 6:30 a.m. meaning… our alarm was set for 4:30 a.m. It wasn’t… the most relaxing or restful night I’ve had on this trip, to say the least. Since it was an ungodly hour, the traffic on the subway system wasn’t too bad, and we got to the airport with time to spare.
When we boarded the plane, I found myself in an aisle seat where I waited to see when I would have to stand up to allow the middle and window seat individuals to sit down. Towards the end of the long line of passengers came two, very obviously American, young women. They took one look at me and decided to assume that I was Japanese, or at least, unable to speak a word of English. There was such fear in their eyes I almost felt bad for not speaking up in English, but I didn’t feel it was particularly necessary at the time. With hesitant hand motions and some words in English (?) they were mouthing, they asked me if I could move so they could sit. I complied, of course, but it was very telling of how typical it was for Americans to simply assume the language ability of Asians.
The flight was only an hour and a half, so it qualified as a halfway decent nap.
The public transportation to find our Airbnb was absolutely terrible. If I had thought the subways in Seoul were packed, Tokyo traffic really made me reevaluate those thoughts.
And the mishaps continued when we finally arrived at our station, and we had to go the rest of the way on foot. It wasn’t too far, and it wasn’t terribly hot, either. But when we got to where trusty Google Maps told us was our destination, we saw nothing that looked like a hostel, or an Airbnb. The road perpendicular to the street that supposedly housed our Airbnb was under construction, and those construction workers must have seen the two of us circle that road at like ten times. On the other side of the road from where Google had guided us, we finally found the emblem of the hostel – on the ground in front of an opening sealed with a garage (?) door. This hostel had strange hours that opened at 5 p.m… which explained the locked door. What it did not explain was why there had been an option to check in earlier, with an extra charge, if there was no one at the front desk… or why there was no response whatsoever when we tried to call and message our host.
As we stood there, in front of the locked door, very unsure of how to proceed because we still had our heavy luggage with us, one of the construction workers came up to us and started gesticulating and speaking in Japanese. We, of course, had absolutely no clue what he was trying to tell us. While we tried to decipher his hand motions, he came back with his phone and used google translate (how smart!) to tell us that the entrance was in the back of the building.
God, we were so lucky! We rushed to the back entrance… that was all but covered with a plastic wrap sort-of-thing (?) due to the construction of the building – which is why we had walked past it for a good half hour. But there was a code required to enter… a code that we were not given.
And thus, the waiting game began once more… Thankfully, though, there was a guest that exited the building not too long after. I absolutely sprinted for that closing door – I can’t remember the last time I moved so quickly.
So we got in… to find that there was definitely no one there. We decided to stay in the hostel – at least there was wifi and air conditioning, if the host charged us for checking in early, that was something we had already planned for. The room was extremely narrow, and the beds were basically rectangular cubicles, with the entrance covered by a retractable curtain. We waited until we heard the host come in and – finally – around 5:00 p.m., we officially checked in and received the blessed door code! I felt such triumph! It was food time!
Headed to Shibuya for Ichari Inari Ramen. Shibuya was enormous! Wow, the sheer crowds creating foot traffic was impressive ~ The lights and the building size screens were quite reminiscent of Times Square, with a flair and charm all its own. I found the ramen place with little trouble, but the line stretching out into the street did not make me the happiest person.
We got in line, anyway, but a young woman with a flier came up to us and told us that there was the exact same shop just a street away, with a shorter line. I jumped at the “shorter line” and we headed off to check ~ Well… the store is definitely the same, but the line seemed very similar in length… For the ramen, though, we stayed put. When we got to the front of the line, we watched carefully as the people in front of us ordered and paid via… a vending machine? The machine spat out our order sheet and receipt and the cashier instructed us to wait. When there were seats freed up, we were told to go inside and sit. The seats were quite literally cubicles. The kitchen was directly on the other side of our little cubicle, separated by a little curtain for privacy. The ramen arrived with remarkable speed and wow… while not all of my experiences in Japan had been the best, this one meal changed my opinion of my entire trip, for the better!
The ramen is definitely not overrated! It was absolutely phenomenal! The broth was fantastic, the meat was extraordinarily tender and just… the handcrafted care was clearly felt in every bite of the meal. And wow, Japanese people really like their privacy while eating!
Our last major stop in Tokyo, the next morning, was Harajuku! Takeshita felt like the literal definition of a tourist trap, but we were more than ready for the shopping. As our last day in Japan, today was a rush to buy souvenirs for friends and family ~
For our breakfast, following the consistent trend of enormously nutritious meals, we got crepes 🙂 My mother would have been horrified with my choice of caramel apple cheesecake crepe for breakfast, but it was so worth it! Store after store of souvenir goods, makeup, clothes, and more.
Of course, we did end up entering an anime store – we are in Japan, after all. Oddly enough, it was located on the second floor of a store selling lingerie… but who am I to judge that decision? It was quite overwhelming, but what threw me off the most was the sheer price of the merchandise. While I understand that these are very specific products for very specific animes, the prices were outrageous! A simple keychain ranged from 1500 to 4000 Japanese yen, which was approximately $15-40, depending on the popularity of the character featured.
And while we had been in Japan for a few days, at this point, the money system still threw me off! If 1,000 won in Korea could roughly (not considering inflation) equal $1, 100 Japanese yen was approximately $1. This meant that the numbering system they used to value money was… an entire number place off from Korea. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot about the difference, saw an item I liked, saw it was 5000 something, had my brain immediately jump to Korean currency, then have my heart fall as I realized – belatedly – that no, it was not $5, it’s $50…
But my favorite store that we discovered in Shinjuku was Tokyu Hands. It was in a massive department store-style building, stretched multiple floors. The prices are so much more reasonable than the other stores we’ve looked in! And, with our cash running low, we were careful on the first floor that we went to. Then, be it for the better or worse, my friend realized that one of her credit cards were accepted, with no foreign transaction fee. All semblance of frugality went out the window and we went nuts. I never really figured out how much I exactly spent at this one giant store, because we started off on the 7th floor, decided to look on the 8th floor before buying anything, bought things on the 8th floor, went back to the 7th floor to buy the things we had been eyeing, and went back to the 8th floor and bought more. I think I ended up with around 4 receipts from this one store alone. But it was worth it, and on our last night, it was not only fun but logical for us to buy souvenirs in such a store ~
For our last meal – udon! We walked to Shin Udon to find… yay! Another line… Waited for a good half hour, and by then, my feet were about to collapse under me and my stomach was making the strangest sounds to express its discomfort. But the food was so good. So good. I got pork hot udon noodles and two tempura shrimps ~ a classically Japanese meal to finish off this fascinating cultural journey we took in Japan!