Jess and Friends: Tokyo, Japan (Part 1 of 3) šÆšµ
In the chaos of Viber groups and exchanges, we were booked for Tokyo - October 29 to November 2, 2016. We were a big group of 14 and most of us had already flown in earlier on the 27th. I was part of the batch that flew in a little later which I think was okay due to the slew of work I had to wrap up and turnover before my long leave at work. So much took place weeks leading up to the trip that I found it hard to get excited for it. But this trip was actually quite life-changing - I can't really get into the details but I am truly grateful for the experience. My last trip was Singapore which Iāve always considered a second homeĀ so Tokyo was unchartered territory for me.
I left my office late at 11:30pm on Thursday and worked on my birthday just to make sure I did at least 70% of what I had to do before disappearing for 2 weeks. On the Friday before my trip, I squeezed in some last minute errands including a trip to the salon. I wouldn't really call it bad timing but that same weekend was a 4-day holiday in honor of All Saints and All Souls days so the news was saying traffic leading to the airport was terrible. My flight was at 6:45am, Saturday so technically, Ā I couldāveĀ shown up at 3 or 4am. But just in case traffic was bad, I left the house at midnight and showed up at the airport less than an hour later š
Ā no check-in counter was open and barely anyone at the airport. Fast forward to 6am when we boarded the PAL plane and took off as scheduled.
We arrived at Narita International Airport at 12:45pm (Japan time which is only an hour ahead) and I was able to sneak in a few ZZZ's during the 5-hour trip. Our trip organizer, Jess instructed us to secure a pocket Wifi device at the airport which was relatively easy - they'll charge use on your credit card which is around Ā„1,300 per day. Ā We also booked airport limousine bus tickets which would take us from the airport to Shinjuku and back to the airport on the day of our departure. Apparently the airport limousine bus is cheaper and less of a hassle vs riding the train plus, they had a package where you can get 72-hour unlimited subway passes. We boarded the bus at 1:15pm (and they leave promptly as scheduled) Ā and we were off to Shinjuku!
The airport is about an hour away from the city and despite the lack of sleep, I opted to keep my eyes open to observe and take in the view. We were welcomed with a lot of greens - beautiful trees that only grew in cool weather. Their highways, clean with structures well thought of, and tall buildings with a look only unique to Japan.
Once we entered the city proper, the streets were bustling with people walking on the pedestrians and riding their bikes. Several shops lined the streets and after making the rounds at the designated drop off points, we alighted at the Hilton Shinjuku which was a few blocks away from our AirBnb. Some of our friends were already sight-seeing at this point so we had to wait for them to get the keys to drop off our luggage. It was only around 2pm but the weather was chilly and my leather jacket was not enough to keep me warm. After people-watching for almost an hour, we decided to head to a nearby Starbucks to grab something to drink.
The AirBnb we stayed at was owned by the brother of a friend of ours who has been living in Tokyo for 20 years already and we got the chance to meet him during our visit to the 5th station of Mt. Fuji - more on that later :) His building was conveniently located near several restos including a McDonald's, a 711 downstairs and a Family Mart and Lawson a few steps away. It was also close to the Shinjuku-gochome station on the Oedo subway line. Access to the building required use of a central key that seemed to open doors to the lobby, elevator and the respective unit.
The place was minimalist and housed 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 toilet (yes shower/bath tub toilet were separate), kitchen and living room. Once settled in, I threw on a thicker coat and we were off to the Ueno Night Market.
I found the warmth of the subways and shops comforting and was amazed at how locals were accustomed to the chilly 16-degree weather as they would walk around in shorts or skirts. Ueno welcomed me with bright lights and busy streets like photos of Japan that I would see in magazines. We met up with the others at the Ueno park after their busy day of shopping and decided to head up to take a photo with Hachiko and Professor Ueno. Apparently, there are 3 Hachiko statues in Tokyo: the original solo statue is in Shibuya and there are 2 statues of the famous dog and his owner - one I got to see at Ueno Park and the other of them reuniting at Tokyo University.
We crossed over to the night market which was a mix of food and merchandise. The streets were full and I finally had my first official authentic Japanese meal - ramen, gyoza and chicken karage. To input your orders, you had to drop your money into a vendo machine, punch in our orders and hand the order slip to the staff. Everything tasted authentic and good -Ā especially the chicken karage.
After dinner, we decided to take the train to Shibuya - since it was the Saturday before October 31st, there were rumors that there was going to be a big Halloween party there. We technically didn't have to go down to the famous crossing to see people in their costumes. After all, Japan is known to be the home of cosplay so locals and foreigners were already wearing their costumes even aboard their subway. Halloween is such a big deal in Tokyo and I loved it! Had I flown in the day before, I would've loved to dress up too.Ā
We decided to make one last stop before calling it a night so we hit Don Quijote, Shinjuku for a bit of late night shopping. Don Quijote is open 24/7 and was full that Saturday night because people were buying their Halloween costumes. There was a lot if interesting stuff at Don Quijote such as makeup, gadgets, watches and food. I sadly, was unable to buy anything because the place was packed, lines were long and I was running low on energy after being awake for almost 24 hours straight. Trains were closed so we had no choice but to take a cab home and that cost us about Ā„820 or around P400 for such a short distance.Ā
Aaaaand that wraps up day 1 of our Tokyo trip! Will probably work on a shorter more condensed version for days 2-4 since I think was just overly descriptive with this one āš½ļøWill be working on blog post #2 soon ššÆšµ
