Japan 2026 - Day 3 / Tokyo

Steps today: 20 469 / 13.5 km

Rain in the forecast for this afternoon and in my research I learned that just about EVERYONE has these cheapy clear vinyl umbrellas from 7-11. I love it because it's clear and you can still see up instead of being cooped up underneath! Perfect for sightseeing so I had to have one -  I picked one up for about 6.75CDN on our before-breakfast neighbourhood scroll . If you ever plan a trip to Japan, don't bother packing an umbrella. I wish I could have brought it home!

We started the day with a visit to the Senso-Ji Temple. 

In all honesty, it was lovely but did nothing for us - we preferred the gardens.

The long shopping street leading up to it was interesting to browse.

Next, a walk over the Sumida River

Passed what is locally referred to as The Golden Poo. Its supposed to be a flame.. HA! fail.

And finally arrived at the Tokyo Sky Tree. Despite recommendations, we didn't buy our tickets in advance and just showed up when it opened. We practically walked right in. There were already a ton of people there who obviously had pre-purchased tickets, but the wait times for the elevators was still quick. 

I loved it! In spite of the drizzle that was starting, the views over Tokyo were jaw-dropping! It's ENDLESS! It went on forever in all directions. Amazing.

We had lunch downstairs in one of the many touristy restaurants, nothing special - not worth pictures. I think I had chicken, I don't even remember.

What to do next in the drizzle? We went to Ueno Park

...and then the zoo. I'm really not a fan of zoos in general, I just feel sorry for all the cooped up animals and the habitats here seemed small and outdated.

We didn't get to see the Gorillas, and the Pandas are gone - returned to China in January.

We made it back to the hotel around 4PM to finally have our Welcome Drink. It was just a little bar in the breakfast room so it wasn't very loungy, but it was free red wine so I didn't complain! It was Japanese Beer for Frank.

Then after a rest, we set out to find supper.  The rain was getting harder and we were cold and tired. We came across a little place near the hotel with big English signs that served pizza - perfect! 

The rain was getting stronger and the humidity was getting into my bones, we were tired and despite the early hour we just wanted to get warm and go to sleep so it was an early night for us.

I like this picture I took on the way back because you can see see how popular those vinyl umbrellas are.

Japan 2026 - Day 2 / Tokyo

Steps today: 22 410 / 14.78km

Because of the jet lag (+13 hours from home) we were awake very early, yet the fact that the sun rises at 5AM made it a little easier on us. Breakfast only opened at 7AM, so we decided to go for a walk in our neighbourhood around 6AM.

Kabukicho is Party Central and the only place we saw that was full of litter. By night it's fun and frenetic - but by day it's like cleaning up after a huge rave with litter and beer cans and dead umbrellas and garbage everywhere. We saw garbage trucks doing huge clean-ups every morning. The rest of Japan was spotless, but of course this was our first daytime glimpse and it didn't leave the best impression. It's also the redlight district and while we always felt perfectly safe, it was very clear that this part of town was for adults only! The entertainment on offer defiantly straddled legal boundaries... suffice it to say that "The Younger The Better" is the theme and it's all very androgenous.

I also noticed a large portion of the young women were into Lolita Fashion which really grated on my nerves. To each his own, who am I to judge, but it's NOT for me.  This was mainly in Tokyo, the rest of the cities we visited were full or normally clad adults.

One of the things I learned in my hours of pre vacation research is that one must go to Don Quijote (aka Donki) and try out the wide variety of unusual flavours of Kit Kats. Donki is a huge discount chain which I can only compare to our Dollorama. To me it seemed like a huge Hello Kitty junk store....  but, I can't deny that it was interesting!...  and the KitKat flavours certainly were original!  I bought Peach this time and a few days later went back for Banana.

We also took the opportunity to scope out a few restaurants for future meals but nothing appealed to us. I think part of the problem was our neighbourhood. A lot of them seemed so hole-in the-wall dingy that we were just turned off from the start. The 'nicer' looking places didn't have menus like we know them outside, but rather posters that looked like grocery store flyers. Very easy to read thanks to Google lens, but half the time I was not really sure if it was a resto or not! Frank was turned all the way off - none of it was even mildly tempting to him.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Shibuya Crossing. It was interesting, but more so because of it's total normal nothingness.  Nothing to see here by day! I would say don't bother and just like our neighbourhood of Kabukicho, come at night - that's worth the detour.  I read that good views of the crossing were available at Starbucks, so that's what we did.

Next I was going to suggest just wandering around in Shibuya but I changed my mind when I considered the weather. This is something we could do with equal satisfaction on a bad weather day, but since it was so nice out, I suggested visiting the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

Turns out we could not visit the actual palace, but we had a very nice walk through the gardens

It was a little before noon by then, and normally this would be time for a drink before lunch...  but where?! As we were walking along we spotted the Tokyo Palace Hotel and I said to Frank that I bet there would be a full bar in there! He was game and sure enough we were led into a beautiful lounge where we didn't only have a drink, but stayed for a snack-lunch and a second round of drinks too. It was lovely - and bonus: somewhere to find American wine that has been banned back home for over a year now.

Next was a visit to Aoyama Cemetery, the final resting place of many notable people including the last Shogun of Japan - but since we know nothing about Japanese History, we were in it to see the grave of Hachiko the famous dog who was so devoted to his master that he went to Shibuya Station every day for almost 10 years to wait for him after  he died suddenly in the 1920s. He was buried with his master.

The rest of the cemetery was an interesting visit too.

By about 2:30 we were exhausted and couldn't keep going so we decided to go back to the room for a rest. The plan was to let Frank have a power nap and then try again to find a place to eat supper.  I tried to wake him up around 5, but he was a zombie. Impossible. I therefore took advantage of the opportunity to try some "musts" from 7-11 that I learned about in my research: Egg Salad Sandwich and Onigiri...  probably not meant to be eaten together, but whatever, I did.

I don't know what all the fuss was about. They were good, yes, but as-expected.

All in all, it was a satisfying day.

Japan 2026 - Day 1 / Flight, Arrival, Tokyo

Japan! Finally.

We were supposed to go in 2009, but our tour got cancelled and we never got around to planning a new trip until now.  In hindsight, I am happy about it because looking back on all my trips, I always have better and clearer memories where we've done it all on our own instead of just blindly following along on a bus tour.

Having said that, the planning for this trip was not as enjoyable as usual. It felt like homework instead of fun research - so much to learn and I didn't have the heart nor the time. It got to a point where I started to feel overprepared and overwhelmed... I wasn't having fun.

And the flight?? UGH I was dreading it!!!  Although lucky for us that it was direct, it's still 13 hours in a cramped tin can.  In all honesty, if Frank had told me along the way: Let's go to France or Italy instead, I would have jumped on the opportunity.

Things started to turn around a LOT when my Fairy God Mother intervened and got us a free upgrade on the flight to business class.  How did I get so lucky? Now the part I was dreading the most was the part I was looking forward to the most, and this little boost put me in a better headspace about it all and I started to get more excited about the trip. 

The fun started at the airport with the Maple Leaf Lounge access. I have never experienced an airport lounge before and I was looking forward to it! Because of the flight time, we arrived for breakfast which is not my favourite meal, but it was all good AND they had sparkling wine so I could feel a little celebratory.

Hard to take pictures against the window, but you get the idea - it was very comfy and we had a perfect perch to see our plane coming in. I have never seen a plane from this angle before!

And so how was the flight? Great! I am spoiled for life now, and it was so comfortable that time seemed to pass quickly and overall it felt like a short journey.

I did lie flat to sleep for a few naps, but mostly I stayed in super-reclined armchair position. It was so cozy and relaxed that I think I slept more deeply in that position.

I didn't quite succeed at taking a shot of my entire pod, I would have had to hang from the ceiling, but you can clearly see how I was not short on leg room!...  or drink options!

The food was good - bottom line it's still airplane food, but presentation helps! How nice to have a table cloth, plates, and a proper napkin. 

And cheese for dessert! Hello!

We left Montreal after lunch on Monday and landed in Tokyo around 3:30PM on Tuesday

Another perk of our flight upgrade was a Fast Pass through customs, I was not expecting that  - bonus!

We were staying in the Shinjuku City part of Tokyo which was about 90 minutes from the airport to Shinjuku Station - the busiest in the world but we navigated it quite fine. Our hotel was in the Kabukicho District, with all the typical neon-lights and frenetic-vibes I imagined Japan would offer. My head was a on swivel and I wanted to stop and take pictures but we were dragging our bags and getting swept along in the sea of people so it was impossible. I did manage to take this video while walking that  captured our first glimpses, it was around 6:30PM by then.

Our hotel was nice, I am cheating here with a picture of it from the next morning

I booked this hotel sometime in January / February... and I DID NOT remember that the mattress bed was on the floor. I just remember being sold on "King Size". Thankfully it was quite comfy, but it became tedious over the week to crawl around at 2AM for a pee break! I slept on the right side by the window and had to crawl over Frank to get up since that little round table took up all the space at the foot of the bed.

The bathroom was ENORNOUS, but the sink was in the entrance of the room instead of in the actual bathroom. Hard to tell from this picture, but beside the toilet was a shower room with a bathtub in it, you don't stand in the tub to shower but in the room.

All very clean and thankfully quiet despite the neighbourhood and the blackout curtains were excellent! Good thing too because the sun comes up nice and early at 5AM! Here's the view from our window at 5:48AM. Full on day time feeling.

 

We unpacked our bags and set off to get a quick bite to eat before calling it a day. We immediately were challenged by the food options. We were tired, a little crabby and just wanted to relax with a bite. We had no energy for translating or making new discoveries at this point so we ended up in small shitty bar and had an edible hotdog and a drink.  Just something to plug the hole before crashing after a very VERY VERRRRY long day.