JAPAN
Japan 2023 Day 21-22 - Tokyo
The 15th was our last full day in Japan :( It’s a sucky feeling! But we were prepared to make the most of it.
We got coffee and pastries for breakfast at a place called Yamazaki Café and Bakery. I thought the pastries were quite good!
Then we took the train to Sunshine City! Sunshine City is a big mall with a bunch of cool stuff. I was most interested in the Pokemon Mega Tokyo but we saw some other cool stuff there too. Plus they have an aquarium?!
We happened to walk past a post office and the idea of mailing a postcard I had gotten a few days before in Kyoto struck. We didn’t know how hard it would be to mail something to America but it turned out to be super simple and only cost me about 70 cents! Later, our friends would ship some stuffed animals they bought as well and I heard it was not quite so straightforward but still doable with google translate.
On our way to the Pokemon store there’s the Pikachu Sweets Cafe and a bunch of Pokemon figures that are super cute. We stopped at the sweets cafe and Justin got a drink.
Then we went to the Pokemon store. It was a bit smaller than I was expecting. I’m glad I held out on buying Pokemon merch all trip though because I correctly thought the official Pokemon store would have higher quality plushies. Some Pokemon just do not translate nicely to plushie form unfortunately :( but I still got a super cute mudkip and swablu. Also kids these days and their newfangled Pokemon! Where are all my classic favorites!
Not yet overwhelmed by cuteness, we stopped by Kiddy Land where you can buy Snoopy merch and Rilakkuma plushies, and probably much much more than that. We were mainly interested in their mochi mochi plushies – we’ve already got a super fat and cute Shirokuma plush. They’re super soft and squishy and great to have on the couch.
For lunch we got mall food at Jasmine Thai. As you might be able to tell we were fine with diverging from Japanese food at this point in the trip. I got curry here and I thought it was fine but not anything special.
For once that is ginger ale, not umeshu soda haha.
We were ready to leave the mall at this point. We headed down the street to the bookstore Animate. It has six levels of anime/manga goods – the first couple of levels are all actual manga and the top three levels are all merch and other goods. Since we can’t read or really speak Japanese most of the bookstore sections were pointless to us but it was still fun to see the book covers and what sections they have.
I’m not hip with a lot of the new anime out these days but Justin is and found stuff he liked. I need to watch Demon Slayer and Spy x Family apparently!
We wanted to pick up snacks and candy to share with our friends and family back home so we went back to Don Quijote. This one is pretty cramped and it sucked going through the aisles with a backpack on so we made our business quickly. I got some nice goodies to share now that we’re back!
Feet hurting and feeling a bit burnt out from shopping we wanted to finish up our errands quickly. Our friend wanted a painting to give as a gift so we hunted around for a home goods store nearby and landed on a theater’s merch shop at Tokyo Metropolitan Theater.
Along the way we came across an art gallery called Orange Gallery which we browsed but didn’t see anything we liked. To buy a photo you need to write your name and bid down and they’ll email you if you get it, which didn’t work for us.
The theater shop was funny since it has merch from US museum gift shops but also had some nice things from Japan.
Our friends had a dinner to attend by Tokyo Station so we decided to go with them so that we could see the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately by the time we got over there it was past 4 PM and the palace would be closed for entry.
We needed another caffeine boost so we went to our favorite boba place Gong Cha to get a boba pick-me-up.
Then, to kill time the four of us hung out in a lounge called the Front Room. It’s a chill vibe place and the umeshu cocktail was quite tasty. We basically hung out here and had a few drinks and played Slay the Spire on our phones haha. Justin got some pasta but it was mediocre but fine to tide us over since we planned to have a late dinner.
Also we got nachos. They were nice and crispy but the bowl was insanely hot. You can see how hip the vibes are from the table we were sitting at.
When our friends left for dinner around 6 PM we headed to the palace to walk around what was still open. As you can see on Google Maps the footprint of the palace is kind of massive. It’s still used to this day as a government building hence why you can’t just go inside whenever.
In the dark there’s sadly not as much to see so it’s not great for a night stroll. The moat is very impressive at least.
For dinner we got more tonkatsu at Katsukichi in the Shin-Marunouchi Building. We didn’t get the sesame seeds to grind up here but the tonkatsu was still divine! The only thing I didn’t like here was the miso – it was strangely bitter.
We still wanted to hang out a bit after dinner but didn’t have the energy to deal with a bar so we actually rented a karaoke room. We took the train up to Karaoke Pasela Ueno-Okachimachi and just hung out there, had a few drinks and played Kpop music videos on the TVs instead of doing karaoke.
Finally we had to head back to the hotel to get some rest before our final morning in Japan.
The 16th was our flight home – but the flight wasn’t until 6 PM or so. So we had all morning to wrap things up. We ended up getting breakfast at Fuglen again to show our friends. I got the salmon and cream cheese waffle which I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was quite tasty!
Our friends hadn’t seen Sensi-ji Temple yet so we walked around there again.
Along the way I saw a Japanese wood block print shop called Mokuhanken. They ship to the US for you so we bought a couple of things. Originally I was trying to get rid of our leftover yen but we ended up with some pieces we loved too much and had to pay with card.
Also right by the temple is Sawawa Asakusa which sells all manner of matcha flavored sweets. We got some matcha mochi to eat then and there and I got some candy to take home with me.
Randomly we came across a little amusement park called Hanayashiki. We had time to kill before our flight so we decided eh, screw it, let’s go in. We paid the entry fee and bought some ride tickets and did their roller coaster, swan boat ride, and played the taiko drum arcade game Taiko no Tatsujin.
It was kind of weird, corny and perfect.
With that, it was time to head to the airport and get ready to return to the real world. The last thing I’ll note is that the tonkatsu curry I had at the airport for lunch was also really good – at a place called Fujiya.