Tokyo, Japan

For the longest time, I have been telling myself (and everyone) that I have been to the other side of the planet but I have never ever been to Japan despite hearing how awesome and hospitable the Japs are. I have ever made plans to head there once though, however the plans got abandoned but that’s another story altogether. For my 30th birthday, I decided to unlock this achievement.

I brought my party of 4 to Tokyo and we found somewhere in Shibuya to spend the next few nights. I did not even realize that I crossed the famous Shibuya Crossing because it wasn’t that spectacular in real life. It was only much later when I noticed other tourists taking photos and videos of the street that I found out that this wasn’t an ordinary traffic junction.

Spent the entire first day at Odaiba, which was actually recommended by one of my colleagues. They had a mini Statue of Liberty and a gigantic ferris wheel. There were a couple of interesting museums in the area as well and my favorite was the Toyota Megaweb.

Headed back to Shibuya in the evening and dinner was at Standing Sushi Bar. We queued for about 20 minutes before we got a space in the restaurant. There are no seats so everyone stands around the bar counter and waits for their food.

We spent the next day at Harajuku and Omotesando area. There are plenty of good cafes and restaurants here, but we spent the entire afternoon at Takeshita Street. It was crowded as hell, especially on a weekend (01 October 2017 Sunday), but we did a lot of shopping here and got plenty of stuff.

About 400 metres down the main road, you will find Luke’s Lobster and I ordered their most popular lobster roll. I would have enjoyed it more if the roll was slightly more creamy or buttery, nonetheless the generous serving of lobster made the walk quite worthwhile. There was no queue when we went, in fact, I think I hardly queued for food during this trip. I didn’t have to queue for Ichiran Ramen and when I went to try Afuri Ramen, the queue was only about 15-20 minutes.

Took a gamble and went to Disney Sea on a Monday. Expected a high turnout but still turned out reasonably fine. Managed to walk 2 entire rounds of the park and it rained in the evening so we left at about 7pm. I got my tickets from Klook and they are open tickets which allow us to go on any date. They are also slightly cheaper than if you were to purchase them on the official Disney website.

The next day we got up early and took a 2-hour ride to see Mount Fuji. We left disappointed. Heard from my friend that Mount Fuji is usually shy and doesn’t like to meet new people. Had the afternoon spent around Hakone and towards the evening, the fog cleared and we could see the silhouette of Mount Fuji though the summit was still covered.

Was still in Tokyo exploring the various attractions; Asakusa (the tempura resturants here are really good), Sensoji Temple, Ueno Park, MEGA Don Quijote (I got an new huge ass luggage here for only 9000 yen), Tsukiji fish market (the tuna here is awesome), the 12-storey Uniqlo at Ginza etc, before eventually cutting short my trip because I forgot that I had a wedding to attend on Saturday.

I love this couple and I wouldn’t miss their wedding for anything in the world.