Traversing Tokyo

Konnichiwa! Simply put, Japan is a cracking place to visit - to the point that we were so busy exploring that we didn’t leave ourselves time to do the blog while there! We ate amazing food, saw amazing sights, and would recommend visiting to anyone who asks! Our first port of call in Japan was Tokyo, where we spent a week before exploring the rest of the country. Read on to see what we got up to!

Wednesday 21st May: Tokyo

We landed in Tokyo feeling pretty whacked from our stunt of travel, especially as the person next to Mike was coughing her guts up for a lot of the flight, very grateful she wore a mask so hoping we don’t catch it. (Note from the editor – this did age well…). we collected our rail pass and then headed to our hotel with the help of the ticket office instructions. We only caught the train in the wrong direction once! A real bed in the hotel and a decent night sleep is exactly what we needed.

Thursday 22nd: Ryogoku

We had a lie in this morning to make up for the long journey before heading out to start our Japan adventure at the SUMO!! We took the train, this time in the correct direction, to the Ryogoku Station where we were greeted with a heap of colourful flags representing the Sumo competition. We explored the streets around the station and found a very cute little Japanese Restaurant for some lunch and ordered one Chicken and one duck Chankonabe. If you’re watching the sumo, you have to eat like a sumo right? It was a hot pot style meal which you cook yourself at the table and boy oh boy was it delicious. It came with some white rice, green pickle thing and some sweet potato chunks in a sweet sticky sauce. A delicious start to the day.

We went into the Sumo Stadium and explored the museum which explained some of the history and showed lots of the previous Yokozuma from the past 50-70 years. We then found the ‘merch’ stand and of course got our magnet and each chose bag for who to support. We obviously chose off colour as we had no idea what was going on. Chloe chose a pink bag which was for Kotozakura and Mike chose a green bag which turned out to be Onosato. We watched the sumo and loved every second of such a crazy crazy sport and really enjoyed waving our bag and cheering for our new favourite sumo wrestlers. Both of them won their matches but Onosato was the real winner as at the end of the tournament he got promoted to Yokozuma as he had won every single match (17-0!!). The actual matches generally lasted only a few seconds but the long they went on the louder and louder the crowd got. They did a ritual before the start of each match and the bum muscles on these guys was phenomenal, obviously 20000 calories a day is the way to go for the booty gains! The excitement of the sumo had made us hungry again so at the end of the day of competition we headed to find dinner around the area, we went to a different restaurant, but the chankonabe was so yummy we ordered it again and ended the day on a high. So far Japan is Epic!

Friday 23rd: Asakusa

Starting to feel less jetlagged and after another great deep sleep, we headed out vaguely early to go for a famous 7/11 brekkie!! We got pancakes with maple syrup and a matcha white chocolate waffle. Both were delicious and at a total cost of 450 Yen we have no idea how they made any money!

Our first stop for the day was the Senso-Ji Temple, it was only 9.30am but my gosh compared to the quiet Australian tourist spots it was heaving!! The temple itself was beautiful, and we each got a fortune sheet which were thankfully for good fortune, and we continued around. We also started collecting our Goshuin Stamps to have as memento for our journey around Japan. Tanya had joined us now and so we continued to explore the Asakusa area of Tokyo. We found a free caricature artwork display next to the river with some very good and some very funny caricatures of famous people. We then headed to the Asahi headquarters to have a beer with a view in their tap room before another yummy lunch and Tanya’s first introduction to Asian food. This time we had a bento style meal with rice, salmon, chicken piece, miso soup and a lovely coleslaw like salad.

Filled up for the rest of the afternoon, we headed to the Skytree observation deck and found some cute little themed cafes, you have to pre-book them all, so we couldn’t get in but we did take a picture of all the statues from Kirby and Pikachu Museum. We headed back to the hotel to check in for Tanya and in the evening we headed to Tokyo station to explore the restaurants underneath. We had a delicious yakotori feast with chicken thigh, chicken heart, chicken butt, asparagus, leek and some quails eggs. An early night was in order for all of us so we headed back to the hotel to chill out for an adventure around Shinjuku and Shibuya tomorrow.

Saturday 24th: Shinjuku and Shibuya

Today’s plan was to explore the west side of Tokyo city: Shinjuku and Shibuya. We hopped on the train to Shinjuku and our first stop was the infamous big 3D cat advertisement board just outside the station. We took a wander through the nearby Omoide Yokocho, a series of tiny restaurant alleys (sadly not open on a morning), before grabbing a 7/11 breakfast of Onigiris and eating at a nearby park.

Nearby was the Naruko Tenjin Shrine, complete with its own rock pile to replicate a small Mt Fuji, where we picked up another Goshuin. Next stop - the famous Godzilla head towering over the Golden-Gai street. To round off the morning we visited the Gyoen National Park, helped ourselves to an ice cream snack, and explored the cool treats and gardens in the park.

We needed lunch as we walked towards the Meiji Jingu shrine and Shibuya, and we couldn’t resist trying out a Japanese pizza restaurant when we saw one! Very tasty. The Meiji Jingu was a huuuge shrine and even had the largest wooden Tori gates in Japan! We made sure to explore it well, pick up another Goshuin, and try a soy-sauce mochi stick snack.

We are serious sightseeing travellers, and so we made sure to visit the very busy Takeshita Street. We even found our new favourite store: Wiggle Wiggle Zip! Continuing to explore the high street, we called into a shopping centre with a rooftop garden, celebrated Pacman’s 40th Anniversary, and even took a spin around the Disney Store.

Finally, we reached the famous Shibuya crossing in time for commuter rush hour, and we have to say it didn’t disappoint. I even managed a photo before narrowly avoiding walking into someone! We made sure to stop by the Hachiko statue for some quick photos, before heading over to the Yoyogi night market to try some tasty street food. We wrapped up the night with a spicy curry dinner before falling into bed after a long day.

Sunday 25th: Ueno

Today we ticked off some more museums and shrines in Tokyo. The first was the Shitaya Shrine, this was virtually opposite our hotel and really hidden away so very peaceful. We then headed to the Sword Museum which actually was so much more interesting than we expected! They had heaps and heaps of swords ranging from 20cm to 97cm and we learnt a surprising amount about what the patterns meant. We ended up spending almost 2 hours in the museum looking at all the handles, covers and blades super fun and so different.

We then walked through a lovely stroll through a park to the Kanto Earthquake museum. Crazy to see the damage from one earthquake and the fires that followed. Most of Tokyo was destroyed in the aftermath and they had some great comparison photos. Not a huge amount of English but the pictures spoke for themselves. Then ramen for lunch - one of many to come.

We then headed back to Ueno to walk through the beautiful park and visit a few more shrines and temples. One of which was next to a lake which was full of cranes and Lillies and surrounded by colourful flags!

Our next stop was the hotel to pick up our bags before heading to Disney! Mike was in the depths of sickness here, so Tanya and I went for a walk to see the area outside the hotels and visit a huge huge huge Disney store before picking up a Lawson’s dinner to have back at the hotel.

Monday 26th: Disney World

We made it to the most magical place in the world - Disney!! Mike was pretty unwell so stayed home for the morning to rest. Tanya and I went nice and early for gate opening. Of course.

We hit a lot of rides throughout the day but boy oh boy were there some crazy queues. The first ride was Pooh’s Honey hunt, the decoration was so cute but as we couldn’t understand the story some of it was a little lost even if the animations helped. Second stop was the teacups we span ourselves as fast as we could and we are pretty sure we hit top speed because we couldn’t turn the middle anymore! We went on the Carousel and the Haunted mansion before meeting up with Mike for a mid-morning snack.

We went to the bakery for this snack to try the renowned Mike Wazowski Melon bread, it definitely lived up to its name with the melon flavoured filling, not our fave but it looked cute, the strawberry Mickey pastry however was delicious.

The afternoon took us to some more rides, Monsters Inc shooting game, Mike was adamant he would win and was pretty disappointed when he realised there were no scores on it! A boat ride round the pirates of the Caribbean and then to splash mountain to cool off before a calm ride around it’s a small world which had Groot and the marvel characters hidden around the lands. All the walking had made us hungry, so we found the Hungry Bear Katsu curry for dinner, pretty yummy and the Mickey shaped egg which was on Mike’s was pretty cute, although we did have a funny mishap when ordering the “chips”!

We managed to snag a fast pass to star tours simulator so went on that one before the mighty long queue for Beauty and the Beast. It may have been a 110-minute queue but it was so so worth it and we are so glad we joined it. The animatronics were unbelievable, and hearing belle say konnichiwa was very funny.

We finished the day with some salted caramel popcorn to watch the fireworks and Reach for the Stars projection on the main castle. Both were beautiful and a magic way to end the day.

Tuesday 27th: Disney Sea

Day 2 at Disney meant a visit to Disney Sea. We got there again for gate opening and we’re so glad for the smaller queues. We raced around to Journey to the Centre of the Earth, an awesome rollercoaster thrill ride with some jump scares and drops. Bonus part was the 40-minute advertised queue only took about 25 minutes! Ride two was 2000 leagues under the sea, where you explore the deep dark ocean in a submarine, not quite as jump-scares as the first ride but still enough to get the adrenaline pumping!

Time for some RnR now with a stroll through mermaid lagoon and then a meeting with Mikes favourite character- Donald Duck!! They are obsessed with him over here and the park was full of flowers and sculptures with Donald on.

Our last stop before lunch was the Indiana Jones ride, it was fantastic, safe to say if you look at this picture I was not prepared for the boulder which is apparently in the films! For lunch we each got a Sausage gyoza roll from Nautilus the cafe, it was like a giant bao bun bread with gyoza filling and was truly delicious. Wish it had been in a Disney shape, but the taste made up for it! We headed to the iconic tower of terror next (a hard pass for Mike) and true to form it lived up to all the expectations. Fortunately, Mike was waiting for us with a yummy crème brûlée churro to share - it’s not Disney if you don’t get fresh churros!

A few more rides: Toy Story Mania where Mike finally showed his shooting game prowess followed by Raging Spirits rollercoaster, the Peter Pan ride and Sinbad’s Boat Journey before exploring Leonardo’s Challenge treasure hunt around the Mediterranean port.

Another fast pass ride next was Nemos SeaRider a fun little 4D like show where you’re shrunk to the size of a fish and you explore the ocean and various scenes from the movies. We had again worked up an appetite and went to the Cape Cod Cook Off for delicious burger and chips (not particularly Japanese but yummy all the same!) and let it rest while watching Believe! Sea of Dreams show. A firework and light show mostly of the princesses. Beautiful piece of artwork again by Disney. We ended the night Soaring through the skies around the world and seeing the slight differences between the Florida and Tokyo versions. Disney is incredible and so sad to be our last day in Tokyo!

That’s all for Japan. Next stop: the south of Japan to explore Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Shikoku.