Japan September 2024 - The 3 head East - 2nd September, first full day in Tokyo

[Gunna]

There’s going to be a fair few photos today. I’m not sure how many pictures we all took over our time in Japan so I’ll share a selection of them as I write up my report but there are 100’s of them so to save boring you I’ll not post them all!

So as we’d gone to bed early but not unreasonably so, to try to get us into the time zone, we were not awake or sleeping in at too unreasonable an hour. I popped out to the local convenience stores and grabbed food and coffee and brought this back to the hotel. We didn’t opt for any breakfast at any hotel we stayed at as we can make do with coffee and a pastry and wanted to make sure we could explore all the convenience store goods too.

It was our first time of tackling the Tokyo metro today and I’d read there are roughly 9 million passengers a day. A scary amount and looking at lines and maps on first sight it looks confusing. Google maps was a massive help here. Put in start point and destination and it gives you the metro line to take. Not only this the time, platform, station entrance and exit as well as next trains if you miss it. This helped us no end and having internet meant we had no issues. Suica in our Apple wallets loaded and ready to go and it was a breeze. Tap you phone in and out of the metro gates and your good to go. There were a lot of people on the metro but it’s organised. We found no rushing, pushing, hassle and people waited for others to get off and then calmly got on. Stations and announcements are in both Japanese and English and we found this so simple to use.

The weather was hot today so we made a stop at a chemist to grab some deodorant as we’d left ours in the room and felt we may need some over the day. Sam had been mentioning that he’d seen all over Instagram Teamlabs. I’d played it down that I couldn’t get tickets as they’d sold out but had actually booked them as they went live and this was our first stop. He was over the moon we got these and buzzing as we walked up. You wait outside until your time slot is called but we didn’t wait long.

Teamlabs have two main sites in Tokyo and we opted for Planets. If you’re seen anything on must do’s in Tokyo this pops up all the time. Loads of people sharing photos of some of the stuff inside and we opted for Planets for the water room and couple of others we’d seen. When you enter you have to take off your shoes and socks and as we had shorts on didn’t need to hire any of theirs - as water can come up to mid calf level. With Planets there is the larger indoor section and smaller outdoor garden section so we went indoors first.

I won’t share too much about all the rooms but one of our favourites were the room with all the lights in. Hundreds of lights fill the room and you walk through them. Mirrors add to the illusion providing lots of photo ops and an Insta influencers dream.

The next room we loved was the water room, the reason for no shoes and shorts. The water isn’t cold and it has swimming fish projected onto it which react in different ways as you come into contact with them. Won’t share it all but this was a huge favourite for us and we loved this room.

A fun and unusual experience, definitely a highlight. Another room we enjoyed was one filled with huge inflatable balloons, you walk around them, play and interact with them. The colours change and it’s great fun. We were wandering around like a load of big kids.

There are a few other equally fun and enjoyable rooms in the indoor section before you head into the outdoor one. There is one here filled with metallic orbs which you can push and nudge another with orchids you sit in and among ( lots of orchid pics online ) the one with the orchids the staff guide you in and out of and give you a set amount of time amongst them. Wouldn’t have minded a bit longer but they were a few people waiting for this one.

Although the two rooms here are good I felt the inside ones much better. The orbs are lit at night and I did think this would make this one much better. You can spend as long as you want in Teamlabs so we went around the indoor bit again before we got dried, dressed and headed off to our next stop. We all loved it and said it was a definite highlight of our Tokyo time.

We decided to head off for some lunch in Ginza and wanted to see the huge Uniglo store there. We hit the store first and bought some t-shirts and clothes and made use of their ship to hotel service to save carrying a big bag round. About £6 to do and we were happy with this. We were also happy with the prices of clothes here with the yen to gbp exchange rate. For lunch we decided on sushi and I’d seen a conveyor belt chain which seemed good online so we headed there.

Kura have a few places around and you check in at a tablet were they give you a table number which you then find and order everything on a desk tablet. It’s all delivered on the conveyor belt ( drinks included ) and you order as much as you want. Kirsty’s not a fan of raw fish and Kura do a range of non fish items too to try and their fried chicken was good. They also have some prepared plates which go on a second conveyor you can pick off and eat too.

Tried a few sushi items - eel, octopus, tuna, prawn, abalone all good although the abalone was a bit chewy for me. They also have a game were you post your empty plates into a slot on the table and for every 5 plates you can win a prize, which we did and won once. The cute kitty was like a blancmange and yes we ate most of it!

Once we paid we set off to see the Tokyo tower. It was a few stops on the metro and armed with our earlier confidence we set off. Now we had a slight issue. As we headed to the platform our train was in so we quick footed it to jump on. Sam did, we didn’t and the doors closed and off he went into the distance. As we had the wifi box he had no data and off on his own. He’s sensible but it was day one in a big city. Feeling like bad parents and slightly stressed I’d messaged him in case he got data to tell him where to get off and as we waited for the next train to come he text to say he’d jumped off at the next stop so we met him there. Contingency put in place in case it happened again, sigh of relief , we set off to see the Tokyo tower.

We didn’t go up the tower as were pushed on time but it was impressive to see and one thing we would look to do next time we came. We did have a walk around the nearby temple of Zojo-ji.

Zojo-ji was the first temple we’d visited in Japan and it was a quiet oasis in the city. Beautiful buildings surrounded by modern skyscrapers and Tokyo. It was lovely to visit and we read about the small statues with the knitted bonnets. These were dedicated to children both alive and those who had lost their lives young or during childbirth and the head coverings were made by followers and temple visitors. A worthwhile place to see.

We had an evening meal booked and this was something I had booked in the UK ahead of travelling to Japan, Dawn Robot Cafe. I’d seen this on the Jane McDonald Japan programme and thought this looked great. It was another surprise booked for Sam too and he loved this. The robots in the cafe are operated by people who for various reasons have difficulty going outdoors. It gives other communities and people access to work and I really respected the concept and meaning of the cafe.

You are greated by a robot avatar and there are other staff on site too. At our table our avatar was operated by a lady called Toma-chan and she talked and interacted with us while we where there. We found out about her and how she had to give up work due to an illness and how she had been working for Dawn since July. A lovely lady and we really enjoyed talking with her. Other avatars brought drinks and there was a smaller one who kept bringing us sweets, he popped by about 3/4 times. We all said what a great and wonderful idea and we loved talking with all the robot operators as well as seeing the team there do the same too.

We had crammed a lot in today but had one more place we wanted to stop - Electric Town, Akihabara. It was only one metro stop and a short walk to the main streets. We ended up in GiGo first and to be fare never moved from the place. Must of been in there nearly two hours exploring all the floors and playing games.

We found the games not expensive and it was easy to loose track of time in there. Lots of games we’d never seen before and for about 100¥ a go but this often gave two or three games on some. Ended on some extreme dance mat and was surprised not to pull a muscle or do permanent damage. It was fascinating to see the locals playing on the devices. One game a guy was flinging himself around and sweating buckets, a full on workout and so brilliant to see. Our first experience of gaming Japanese style and we loved it.

As time was getting on we had a walk back through Akihabara to the JR rail line back to Tokyo station and our hotel bed. Akihabara was an amazing place to visit and one we’d need to get back to for a fuller experience. We saw a lot of other arcades, manga stores, gatchas, cafes and experiences but didn’t have time to see more of the place this night.

Only when we got back did we realise how much we’d packed into today. Our first full day in Tokyo made us fall in love with the place. Modern, fast paced, organised, eye opening, forward, traditional and (in places) calm. We needed no assistance in getting to sleep tonight, it had been a truly great day

[Eeyore-x]

Thanks for sharing, Japan is high up on my bucket list so I will be following along, looks amazing so far! Getting around is one of my worries but it doesn't sound too bad

[AntonyJ]

Originally Posted by Eeyore-x

Thanks for sharing, Japan is high up on my bucket list so I will be following along, looks amazing so far! Getting around is one of my worries but it doesn't sound too bad

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Getting around the city is easy on the trains / metro - Google maps will plan the trip and tell you the platform, even the carriage that is often quieter at that time of day, to go into.

They upgraded pretty much all signs etc to have English on them for the Olympics.

Also some parts of the city, are actually walkable if you are up to it.

Shibuya / Omesando / Harajuku / Meiji Jingu temple / Shinjuku - it is about an hour walks from Shibuya to Shinjuku with the other things above "on the way" so to speak.

Also about 15 mins on train / metro.

[Gunna]

Originally Posted by Eeyore-x

Thanks for sharing, Japan is high up on my bucket list so I will be following along, looks amazing so far! Getting around is one of my worries but it doesn't sound too bad

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Getting around in all the places we went to was a breeze. Don’t let it worry you it’s so easy to do and not a hassle at all.

[richard29]

Thanks for sharing.
We'll be in Tokyo next week, it's our first trip there .

[Gunna]

Originally Posted by richard29

Thanks for sharing.
We'll be in Tokyo next week, it's our first trip there .

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You’ll have the best time - enjoy it it is an amazing place.

[DisneyBerry]

This is making me so excited for our trip! Love the robot cafe was it easy to book?

[Gunna]

Originally Posted by DisneyBerry

This is making me so excited for our trip! Love the robot cafe was it easy to book?

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It was I did this online before we left. They do a meal and drink package which gives you time with your host too. Lovely place and great concept we really enjoyed it.

[Wordsworth]

I loved Team Lab Planets! Would love to do Borderless one day.

[Wizzyanne]

Loved Teamlabs too and Kura is a favourite of ours, glad you enjoyed it!