Some more bad plane planning meant that we had a bit of a ridiculous journey to Japan – it took us over 24 hours to get there from Kota Kinabalu and included lengthy stops in Singapore airport (which was great!) and Manila airport (not so great, in fact, pretty terrible). Still, we arrived in Japan eventually and were very excited to be reunited with our homies, Paul and Edith Speller there! They had arrived a little earlier and expertly scoped out a sensible meeting space in the labrinth that is Ikebukuro station (and shopping centre) and then had a short walk to our AirBnB from there. After dumping stuff and settling in a little we headed back out to a nice food market on the top of a nearby shopping centre that Paul and Edith had found earlier in the day where we got our first taste of proper, delicious, Japanese food (lots more of that later).
The next day we had a look around a swanky shopping district including the flagship stores of some that we are fans of at home (Uniqlo, Sony etc). We then had THE MOST AMAZING VEGGIE RAMEN from Tokyo station – it was so so good and is still up there with one of our favourite foods OF THE WHOLE TRIP.
After looking around Tokyo Station, which is huge and full of exciting shops, we headed to the Tokyo International Forum which was a really cool building.
After some refreshments in a nice cafe there we headed off back to Ikebukuro to visit J World – a sort of mini theme park that features themed areas and rides based on Shonen Jump Manga – where Lloyd could fulfill all his Dragonball Dreamz.
The next day we visited the Tokyo Metropolitan building – for the local government boffins in the group. We had a really good guided tour of parts of the huge complex (which included two tall towers and an assembly building) – it was impressive hearing about the various governance structures for a city the size of Tokyo. We also got some great views!
Afterwards we headed to Shinjuku Gyoen, a beautiful park and gardens.
Low on energy after a hot stroll around the gardens we did what any sensible group of adults would do…. sought out the all you can eat dessert extravaganza – Sweets Paradise. That’s right, for just over an hour you can stuff your face with as much cake, ice cream, pop corn, chocolate fountain and other disgusting goodness as you can manage. It was delicious, and included was a sugar high that had us all crying with laughter about Lloyd sneaking his leftovers to the bin in the bathroom so we didn’t have to pay more…. I think you had to be there.
Afterwards, while still riding the sugar high we returned to the Metropolitan Building to take in the evening’s views and then had a great time in one of the hundreds of late night games arcades in Tokyo.
The next day was Edith’s birthday! After opening presents in the morning we headed to the Senso-ji Temple which also had a lovely garden surrounding it.
We also enjoyed the market leading to the temple there and discovering the winner of ‘Best Bun of the Trip’ – melon pans.
As Edith was king for the day, it all got a bit feline afterwards as we headed to a cat themed café that made incredible 3D foam cattés. (Gifs to follow – tech problems)
Feeling refreshed we headed off to Akhehabra to visit a particular shop that stocked old/vintage games (Super Potato!) and have a look around the area. After that we headed off to Sega Joypolis where Edith got unlimited free rides as it was her birthday! It was a sort of indoor theme park with Sega game themed rides and other attractions – we particularly enjoyed the augmented reality mirror stations.
The next day we had a very special treat lined up – a visit to the Studio Ghibli Museum! We had had to book the tickets months in advance because it always sells out and this was a little tricky as you have to buy them through an agent if you’re not in Japan and so expectations were high, but it was SO WORTH IT. What a magical place – designed by Hayao Miyazaki, a trip there is like stepping into one of the films, it is beautifully decorated with lots of little details throughout, like soot sprites in the corners and even a giant catbus soft play area! Photographs are not allowed inside but we were able to take some of the outdoor areas:
Afterwards we spent a bit of time at a local festival in the park next door where we were treated to some excellent street food and a rather odd rendition of ‘Do you hear the people sing?’ from Les Mis…
We stopped in at the Nakano Broadway shopping centre on the way back which housed lots of interesting things including an ice cream bar where you could eat every flavour piled into one cone (photo to be added!) and lots of antique and retro Japanese toys. To finish the day off we headed to the famous Shibuya Crossing which was quite an experience which required us to keep a firm hold of our “crossing buddies”.
On our final day in Tokyo we travelled a little out of town to visit Zoorasia in Yokohama. One of Japan’s newest zoos, and known to be one of the best for animal welfare it is also home to Zuppi, a bus that tours the park which is shaped like an OKAPI – an exciting prospect for all of us but especially for Paul who is World #1 Okapi Fan.
After a very excitable ride with Zuppi we enjoyed looking around the rest of the zoo which housed lots of animals including some real Okapis. It was very hot, even some of the African animals were suffering (see sleepy cheetah below!).
After the zoo we managed to fit in a quick trip to the Pokemon shop before returning to our Air BnB to pack before heading off on the first of our rail pass adventures!
We really loved Tokyo, it’s a huge exciting city with a lot going on, we could have easily filled twice as much time there!
Harri and Lloyd livin' the Smuglife 