June 8, 2023 • 39 mins
We're wrapping up our Japan series with an episode on Tokyo! While there are literally thousands of things to see and do in Tokyo, we narrowed down some of our favorite experiences to create a list of 10 awesome things to see and do there. In this episode, we talk about the Tokyo Skytree, the Tokyo Tower, some of our favorite neighborhoods and parks to explore, where to go see cherry blossoms, the Shibuya crossing, Tsukiji fish market, a few unique experiences that you don't want to miss in Tokyo, and much more! Enjoy! Enjoy! In this episode:
- The Tokyo Skytree, what to expect, and places of interest in the surrounding area
- The iconic Tokyo Tower and where to go see cherry blossoms
- The parks of Tokyo and the two that were our favorites
- Exploring around the neighborhoods of Tokyo and the best places to visit
- The Shibuya crossing and the Tsukiji fish market
- Other significant or interesting spots we visited while in Tokyo
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hello, and welcome to the WorldWanders podcast, a proud part of the
wander Barn podcast network. I'm Ryan, I'm Amanda, and we're your host.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomads, taking you on our adventures as
we explore locations, destinations, andcareers. Enjoy the show. What's up
everybody, and welcome back to anotherepisode of the World Wanders. As always,
(00:26):
thank you so much for taking theearspace to listen to us, and
we're excited to dive into our lastepisode that we're gonna do in this Japan
series, talking about Tokyo. Tokyo. Yeah, we are wrapping things up.
We've gone a little bit of stuffabout Tokyo and lots of talk about
Japan on the podcast, and sowe're gonna change the style and this time
(00:50):
we're gonna be talking about ten awesomethings to do in Tokyo that we have
done in our one of our twotrips there. Tokyo is one of these
cities where there's so much cool,awesome stuff it can be kind of like
overwhelming actually to figure out, likewhat should I do with my limited time
there? So we're gonna try,I tell you, based off a couple
of weeks we've spent in Tokyo,what our favorite things are. These would
(01:12):
be the things that be at thetop of our list for giving recommendations to
people. If you said, hey, I'm going to Tokyo for a bit,
so, yeah, I want tojust get started, or do you
have any other prethoughts? Yeah,I think I just want to preface it
with the fact that Tokyo is oneof the largest cities in the entire world,
and there are so many things thatyou can do in Tokyo. So
(01:34):
I think not just taking this listor any list just as is, make
sure you go do research based onyour likes, your dislikes, what you're
really interested in, because I thinkone of the amazing things about going to
a city that's so big is thatthere really is something for everyone. So
if you're into anime, there's youknow, the whole anime area of the
(01:55):
city. If you're into gardens,there's like a bazilion gardens you could go
to. If you're into Buddhist culture, you could certainly find that. If
you're into nightlife, there's nightlife inmany different ways in Tokyo. So I
think that just kind of doing yourresearch is what I preface, and I
would also just say that a reminderthat this isn't like every single thing you
(02:15):
can do in Tokyo, but rather, like like you said, Ryan,
it's us kind of looking at acompilation of what we've done in our time
that we've spent in Tokyo, whichis, yeah, a couple of weeks
now at this point, because webooke ended both of our trips with Tokyo,
like started and finished both of ourJapan trips with Tokyo, and just
wanted to kind of share sort ofour like top list of fun things to
(02:38):
do there. Yeah. I thinkone other kind of just travel philosophy thought
too is some of these like worldclass cities Tokyo, Paris, London,
you can get kind of wrapped upand like, I've got five days here
and so I've planned it out,I'm doing this, this, this,
this, this, and you havebe spending like huge chunks of your day
on the subway going between place toplace, and yeah, it's one of
(03:00):
those cities that just kind of likerandomly wandering around is one of the coolest
things you do. So definitely encourageif you're planning a trip there to make
sure you go see some of thecoolest stuff that we're going to talk about,
but also just give yourself some timeto just not have a destination mind
and just kind of wander around someof the beautiful areas of the city.
Yeah, or have a destination andwander kind of a little further away from
(03:22):
that. And I think another greatthing about Japan is because it's so safe,
is like you can literally turn downthese little back alleys and find these
really incredible restaurants and bars and shopsand stuff like that, and you don't
have to stress the way you doin many other places in the world that
like, oh I just got myselfin a really unsafe situation. Of course,
still make sure you're taking safety precautionsas with anywhere, but I do
(03:43):
feel like one of the beautiful thingsabout Japan and Tokyo in specific, is
that, like the alleys are someof the most magical places there for sure.
So let's dive in. We're notgoing to go in any specific order.
This isn't one to ten ranking,but the first thing that comes to
mind for us is the Tokyo Skytree. We stayed nearby it actually to the
(04:06):
first time in Tokyo on our firsttrip, and then the first time right
when we got to Tokyo, andthis last trip we then came back and
stayed in a different area, buttwo times you've stayed relatively close to the
Skytree. It's a little bit outof the center, but it gives you
some cool access to lots of stuff, great transportation up, and the Skytree
itself is a really cool, reallytall building. Yeah, a great description.
(04:31):
So yeah, it's big. Yeah, this is a really great area
because it is right by the SumidaRiver Walk, which is definitely something that
when you're in this Skytree area,I would say definitely check out. But
one of the reasons we like thisarea and especially for accommodation, is there's
many hotels around here because it's kindof a main area. And then the
Skytree itself is a really big building. But it's also got kind of like
(04:55):
a big shopping center there, sothere's a grocery store there, there's of
a subway station there. There's manymany restaurants that you can go there.
We've eaten a couple of them.There's a Kurta Sushi which we'll talk a
little bit more about later, buta really kind of I guess nice famous
automatic conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Iguess you could say, I'm not exactly
(05:17):
sure exactly what you would call that, but basically you go an order from
an iPad, which is an awesomeexperience, and then yeah, many other
restaurants. We also did a didn'tTai Fung while we were over there,
which is a famous Taiwanese food slashdumpling spot. Cherry blossoms all along the
river walk, which is really niceand just in that area, so there's
a lot of stuff kind of happeningthere, which is one of the reasons
(05:41):
that we really like that area.And then on this last trip, we
actually went up the skytree, andit's really reasonably priced to go up.
You can go up and you getan amazing view of the city, and
I think with a city like Tokyo, it's really cool to get an aerial
view because you really see just likehow big it is when you do that.
Yeah, going up was really cool. Just the scale of the city
(06:01):
is remarkable. The other cool thingwhen the skytree we went up during the
day. I think going up atnight would be really cool as well,
but also just being kind of inthat zone at night, they lighted up
with colors to the whole thing.We have some cool photos from like the
first time we went when it waslike a rainy evening and the skytree is
let up, so that was reallycool. So yeah, that's the first
(06:23):
one on the list. Gotta makesure you get like at least a year
or go up the skytree for sure. And then if you're nearby, like
I said, walking this you metariverwalk is really nice, and then you
can actually walk kind of across theriver to it looks like Asakusa, but
I think it's Asusa. And overthere they have the sen Joji Temple,
which is the oldest temple in allof Tokyo. So I feel like that's
(06:45):
definitely something to go check out also, and that area has a lot of
Iszekiah's and little restaurants, cute littlenight bars that you can go to and
stuff. So I feel like,while you you know, subway over to
the Skytree area, I do theskytree, go up it, walk along
this you meter river, walk crossthe river, and go into a Susa
and then you can kind of checkout some of that area too. So
(07:08):
I just wanted to give something that'skind of in that area that I feel
like isn't in our top ten list, but is like, we're in the
area, let's go do this becausethis is pretty awesome too. Yeah,
that's a really cool, like afternoonto evening thing to do, kind of
whichever way you take it. Andthen one thing we did that I found
(07:28):
kind of nifty near the Skytree,there's this place called Penny Lane, a
cafe like a Beatles steamed cafe withtons of good pastries. So if you're
in that neighborhood looking for something thatwas really cool as well. Yeah,
I feel like it's actually kind ofa sort of famous spot and we kind
of just stumbled upon it, andI think that if there's lots of people
who like go to that area forit. But yeah, great coffee,
(07:49):
great pastries. Would definitely recommend checkingthat out in that area. Yeah.
And also one last thing I guessI'll recommend here is there's a place called
Unlimited Coffee relatively close as well.That was like my fifth cafe we went
to and all of Japan. Yeah, lots of good stuff in the area,
which is I think if we wentback to Tokyo, I would consider
staying somewhere else, just because likeexploring more of Tokyo is really great.
But I think staying in the Skytreearea is definitely like kind of top of
(08:13):
my list for areas to stay.Yeah, and maybe we can move from
one big building to another big building. The Tokyo Tower is one of the
famous iconic things you see with Tokyo. I have said that it kind of
looks like the Eiffel Tower, justorange. I think it's red, isn't
it. No, it's like orange, Okay, Yeah, it does kind
of have an Eiffel Tower sort ofvibe. I think it's not as big
(08:35):
as the Eiffel Tower, and yeah, it's colorful. But this is definitely
a famous, kind of popular thingto visit in Tokyo. It's a great
area. There's lots of stuff aroundthere to explore also, and yeah,
I think just like an iconic thingto see, which is cool. Yeah,
and we went to Tokyo Tower onour first trip to Japan. A
member like seeing lots of cherry blossomsaround, getting some cool photos. I
(08:58):
think in the battle of the twotall buildings, I prefer going to Skytree
and checking that out. But TokyoTower is definitely worth exploring as well.
Yeah, absolutely, and so thenext thing on the list I put kind
of like my favorite park that wevisited, but I actually want to change
this to explore a park in Tokyoif you only have a couple of days,
(09:20):
I would just choose one park that'skind of close to explore. But
one of the things that's really greatabout Tokyo is that they have a number
of parks. So a couple ofthe ones that we really liked our Yo
Yogi Park as well as Uweeno Park, and then Chiota City has like a
huge park with the Imperial Palace,so that could definitely be one to check
(09:43):
out. And then the Shenjuku GoyanNational Garden. It's in like a huge
park and that's like a super famousgarden to go check out. Yo Yogi
Park kind of stands out as myfavorite because this was like the first place
we ever explored in Tokyo, andwe took the like subway over to Harajuku
and walked into yo Yogi and thecherry blossoms were in bloom and everyone was
(10:05):
out doing Sakura season, which islike all the locals go out with their
picnic blankets and their picnics and theirgroup of friends and they go and they
have picnics under the cherry blossoms.And we went to Yo Yogi and we
got to experience that and it waskind of our first introduction to Tokyo and
Japan as a whole. And soI feel like I have really fond memories
there and I feel like it's justa really amazing park. So I feel
(10:28):
like that's kind of top of mylist. But yeah, I would say
like any of those other ones wouldalso be great, Like Wino Park is
really nice, and being able toexplore some of the gardens and stuff can
also be really great. Yeah,And I think this is one of those
things of just like picking a park, grabbing some snacks, going, and
just like spending an afternoon lying onthe grass is a really cool fun thing
(10:52):
to do, especially if you gotkids. That was like one of my
standout memories. There's a couple otherthings on this list that you can kind
of combine into, Like I know, we did Amotesando into Here's Yuku and
then to the park that is rightbeside yo Yogi, and that was a
really cool, fun, kind oflike half a day thing to do.
(11:13):
So all about definitely getting to apark just kind of chilling, and especially
if you're there during Cherry Bostom seasongoing because that's kind of like the big
event for Japanese people is like getyour friends together, get up to the
park duringing caf fun, have food, pack all your garbage out. Yeah,
and pack all your garbage, butlike it's like being at like a
music festival and some of the morepopular parks, Yeah, Yo Yogi would
definitely be one of those, andI feel like it's perfect to just kind
(11:37):
of the next thing that was onthe list was Omote Santo Hills and to
Harro Juku, or you could doit the other way around. So basically,
if you look on a map youcould take you could either take the
subway to Mote Santo or you coulddo it to harro Juku. But the
way that we have done it isgoing Amote Santo Hills. You walk along
(11:58):
the strip and basically like this roadis it's sort of like the champ Still
Lease of I'm probably saying that superwrong because I don't speak any French,
but it's like that of Tokyo,so kind of a more like they've got
like Louis Vatan and Gucci and allof these like luxury brands and stuff like
that. That's not our thing atall. But I think one of the
(12:18):
things that's really nice is just seeingthis kind of really like luxury area of
Tokyo. It's always packed, there'sa ton of people. It's very quiet.
I think in one of our earlyTokyo episodes that we did when we
went to Tokyo or to Japan lasttime, we actually did like a recording
of the street, and it's justincredible when you see how busy it is
(12:39):
to see how quiet it is.So this is just like a fun shopping
street. So you can walk fromone end to the other and then you
kind of get to like the otherend that's closer to the park and harro
jukus there, and harro Juku islike a totally different vibe from Amoti Cento
Hills, which I feel like iswhy I think it's fun to go from
one to the other. But harroJuku has a really famous street that's called
(13:01):
Takeshita, and it's known for it'slike food and like clothing. I think
vintage clothing is kind of popular there. Just a lot of shops there's like
a bazillion people. Just prepare yourselffor that. But you can basically go
from like, hey, I couldget like a Louis Vatan purse to hey,
I'm going to get like a potatoand the tattoo, a potato tornado
(13:24):
a tattoo, and some like vintageclothes, and then you kind of cross
the street and go behind the Hairjukustation and you're in yo Yogi Park,
which has the Meiji Shrine and alot of beautiful things are within that park
as well. So I think thatthat area is just like a really cool
area to spend a bit of timein for sure. And one other thing
that is in that area that wedid actually the first time we went to
(13:48):
Japan and the second time, there'sa restaurant called gooseman Igomez and it's very
Tripotle style. It's actually a chainin a few different cities in Asia.
But if you're a kind of texmex or a triple lover and you have
a hankering for that type of food, that's a good place to go for
lunch. And if you can meetthat. Yeah, like we come from
(14:09):
Mexico, go to Japan, gettired of Japanese food and eat eat Chipotle
Mexican while in Japan. To befair, we were there almost a month
and so that was like towards theend of the trip. Yes, yes,
that's true. And the first timewe were there, we had been
in Asia for what like seven monthsat that point six and a half months,
so we were like definitely looking forother types of food. And I
think one thing about Japan is theJapan does everything well. And so if
(14:33):
you're going to eat Mexican food inAsia, it should be in Japan.
I feel like, yeah, Andso next thing on the list we'll go
to should be you're crossing. Ifyou've seen, like anyone make a video
about Japan, you've probably seen thecrazy busy people pedestrians crossing in like six
different directions. That's should It isa really cool place. It can be
(14:56):
kind of hard, like you wantto go kind of mid day to see,
like when it's actually at its fullestwith people. There's a Starbucks.
It's kind of pretty well known becauseyou get a good view of the place.
And then this time I actually discoveredthe train station on the other side.
When you're walking between the Metro andone of the other lines. There's
a really nice like overtop view ofthe crossing that you can check stuff up
(15:18):
from as well. Yeah, Iwould say the only downside of that is
that they've got these like stupid crisscrosslines on the window stop birds from flying
in. Okay, sorry selfishly wanta good Instagram video and here they are
trying to keep birds alive. Mybad. But yeah, so anyways,
they've got those, so it kindof wrecks your video a little bit.
(15:39):
But it's good to your observing,but not the best photo location. Yeah,
I'm sure there's other places to,like, other stores and stuff you
can go into because the crossing isso big, But I feel like it's
really cool to see the crossing fromabove and you can do this like whichever
way works best for you. Somaybe you go to Shibuya station and you
go see you watch it, maybemake a little video, and then go
(16:00):
out and actually like cross it.I feel like it's really cool to be
a part of the crossing because whileit feels busy, it doesn't feel as
crazy when you're kind of just onehuman crossing it as it looks from above.
So I feel like it is reallycool to get both those experiences,
and then Shibuya is a really likecool area. There's lots to do there,
there's great restaurants, there's a lotof like ramen there, So I
(16:21):
definitely say, like, go thereand experience the area instead of just the
crossing too. Yeah, and thenext thing on the list is the Sukigi
Fish Market, which good chance timeit's pronounced. This is like the famous
sushi auction fish market, And it'skind of like two different experiences here when
you read about it. There's likethe ghosts super early in the morning,
get the reservation, watch the tunaauction, and there's also just kind of
(16:47):
going and explain the area because aroundthe fish market there's actually people selling sushi,
people selling all types of food,all types of products, and you
kind of go, we just havea cool morning experience without actually waking up
at four am to watch the auction. Yeah, for sure. And this
has changed a little bit from thefirst time that we went to the second
time that we went, and nowyou really do need a reservation. Before
(17:08):
it was just first come, firstserve. They've actually moved the tuna auction
to a different market. It's kindof like the an outer market and so
if you're planning to do that,I would maybe recommend booking a tour.
It seems like there's lots of touroptions and they can kind of facilitate getting
everything set up for you. ButI think this is an excellent thing to
(17:29):
do when you first arrive in Japan, especially if you're coming from North America
and you've got a lot of jetleg, you'll probably be up really early.
So this was actually one of thefirst things we did because we were
up at like a little before fiveI think it was like four fifty in
the morning. Lou opened her eyes, she was ready to go. We're
like, okay, what can youdo at five am in Tokyo. Perfect,
Let's go to the fish market.And then it was funny because I
(17:52):
was waiting in line for some ofthe fresh tuna at the market so that
we could have like a tuna nagiriebreakfast, and I started chatting with these
Americans and they were like, oh, we arrived yesterday, like woke up
early early. Thought this was likethe perfect thing to do with our jet
leg. And I was like,oh, yes too. So I think
that there's a lot of people whokind of are like sweet I'm not adjusted
to the time. You know,going early is better. You get a
(18:14):
lot of the more fresh fish productsand stuff like that. So even if
you're not wanting to wake up superearly, like Ryan said, for the
experience of the auction, I thinkit's still like a really amazing thing to
do. Go get some tuna,get some tuna belly. We've had barbecued
evil there, which was really good. We got some of the like egg
sushi. What else did we get? Tea coffee I think we had.
(18:38):
We said yeah, like you said, unagi, I got a good coffee.
We eat something else for sure.That's escape in my mind. But
you can basically find it all,Like I think there's even some noodle restaurants
that are tons of different sushi spots. You can find all the Japanese food
in that area, a lot ofit really good. There's a lot of
(18:59):
products you yeah, and you cankind of tell to you like some places
as you walk in it it's likeseven am, and places already have lines,
so you can tell kind of justby the vibe of like what's really
good or not. It's some reallygood green tea and then yeah, people
selling knives, so cool spot andthere's also other things other than knives,
Like there's knives, we got chopsticks, you can get like we got some
(19:21):
nice bowls, nun checks. Ididn't see any nun checks, but maybe
wouldn't put it past the market.And then the first time we are there,
I think, I remember that's likewhere I found good macha. Like
I think it's just one of thosemarkets. It's kind of got a little
bit of everything. You can evenget like fancy cantelopes there that cost like
a bazillion dollars. Some of thenice strawberries they do, these like pale
strawberries, which seem to be likea delicacy in Japan. You can get
(19:45):
some of those. So I feellike it's kind of fun because while you're
going for the fish and that's like, you know, the thing that's famous,
you can also just try a bunchof other things. You can buy
a bunch of other things. Soa great place to just go and get
some of maybe the like souvenir stuffthat you want for your friends and family
or for yourself. Yeah, andit's kind of been a bit of an
awkward area in terms of like accessingit via the train from like the more
(20:07):
popular areas to stay, and sowe ended up kind of going into like
the Ginza neighborhood, which gins uskind of famous for being like high end
fashion, kind of like a Montescentoin that regard. We haven't I feel
like, we haven't like done Ginza, but we've walked through, so that
could be something you could combine together, because there's lots of cool stuff over
there, Yeah, for sure,And I think that that would be something
(20:30):
you would do kind of after becauseespecially if you're going to the fish market
early. I think that's why Ginzadidn't seem like that exciting for us,
because you know, we did thefish market for a bit. Lou was
getting tired. We needed to gether home for a nap, so I
think, you know, it's likeeight am and we're leaving and things are
still not open, right because it'sjust not not what what time things open
in that district. But yeah,really cool area to explore. And then
(20:53):
the next thing on the list isgoing to a baseball game at the Tokyo
Dome. We the first time wewent to Japan, we went to a
baseball game in Hiroshima and that wasamazing, And this time we went and
saw the Tokyo Giants play. They'reone of the most famous and popular teams
in all of Japan at the TokyoDome, which is an incredible, incredible
(21:14):
facility, really really cool space,and I think because baseball is so popular
in Japan, it's a really reallyfun thing to do while you're there.
Yeah. Yeah, And this willprobably extend out if you're doing a bigger
Japan trip. I think like fromour experience to taking to people Hiroshima,
the Hanshion Tigers who are based outof Osaka, and then the Giants,
(21:37):
who are based out of Tokyo arelike probably like the three top places too
check out a baseball game, butthere's other teams in Tokyo, there's other
teams and lots of cities, butsomething really cool and fun to do,
and it's Tokyo. Tokyo Domes kindof like Yankee Stadium for Japan. So
another cool place to go and see. Hmm, yeah. Absolutely. And
then another thing that's on the listis oh, I'm going to turn not
(22:00):
to butcher this, but the ChidooriYafuchi moat will write it out on the
show note so that you guys cansee it, but this is really famous
for cherry blossoms. It's kind offunny. If you do any research on
Tokyo, this will often be likea photo that's displayed. So it's like
this big moat, it's got thetrees on both sides. It's absolutely stunning
in cherry blossom season. So Idefinitely add that to your list. But
(22:22):
this area is really nice. Evenif the cherry blossoms aren't blooming, obviously
those are the trees are still there, they just have green leaves, but
just like a stunning a stunning areaof the city to go check out.
And it's on the north side ofChiota City, and so this is a
great place to also explore. Likethat park, the Imperial Palace. There's
(22:45):
lots of stuff that's going on there. So you can go from Tokyo Station,
go through Chiota City Imperial Palace allof the different like parks and gardens
that are there, or go rightover to Chidori Gafuchi just like see the
moat on that side. So lotsof different things that you can do within
that area. There's also a coupleof gardens National Gardens in there. But
(23:08):
yeah, Chidori Gafucci, Yeah,I remember distinctly we're there right in the
heart of cherry blossoms the very firsttime we went, and this was the
place that felt like the most moshpity. There is just a ton of
people that are trying to get thegood views of the blossoms of the mode.
Yeah, I think because it's likeso iconic, Like it's kind of
(23:30):
like when people go to BAM,what they think of with BAM is like
marine, Like it's like they've allseen that exact same photo. And I
feel like one of the photos youalways see is of this mote, and
so I feel like people are like, oh my god, like this is
the photo. This is the photo, and then everyone's like standing on like
the bridge trying to take the photo. But it is really beautiful. I
think that's why it's on the list, and especially during cherry blossom season.
(23:52):
And yeah, like I said,there's lots of different things that you can
do around that area too. Yeah. One of the things that is on
this list that is I feel likeyou maybe you do it once and probably
don't go back, but it's likea very strange, interesting Japanese experience is
going to a maid cafe, specificallyin Akihabra, which is kind of like
the more like techy, lots oflike cool anime stuff area made cafes we
(24:18):
talked about on like our previous episodeback in the day about Japan. But
it's a strange, interesting place.Yeah, I think it's a yeah,
once in a lifetime type of experience. I think it's an interesting experience to
have and shows you kind of adifferent part of Japanese culture. But I
think Akihabra in general is really interesting. We're not look super into anime or
(24:41):
that side of Japanese culture, butI think still going to this area is
pretty neat because like you go thereand you walk into the train station,
it's like the buildings are more colorful. It's like things are painted differently,
Like it's just a totally different world. It's a different vibe within the city
of Tokyo. And then yeah,the made cafes are everywhere. And just
to give you guys a quick recapin case you didn't listen to that episode
(25:03):
from you know, six years agoor it's been a while, is like
basically you go there and these likeyoung Japanese girls are dressed up like maids
and they want to play like fungames with you. So you like order
a machilatte, for example, andthey're like, oh, what do you
want on your machilat Like, oh, you want kitty? Okay, we
make kitty, and so they likedraw a kitty on it. And then
you like you play a little gameto like get your latte or whatever,
(25:26):
and so they'll be like, whatdo you want to play? Okay,
you don't know, Let's like playthis game, let's sing this song.
It was kind of an uncomfortable experiencefor us, which is like interesting that
it made the list, but Ifeel like it's kind of also iconic and
like I said, once in alifetime, So something definitely to consider and
check out. Yeah, for sure. The last thing we kind of put
(25:49):
in like the big top ten,which will full a couple of things into
is exploring neighborhoods in Tokyo. Tokyois you know, almost the size of
a tree probably is bigger than Singaporeand in terms of both people in geographic
space, and so there's so muchcool, interesting stuff to do, and
there's lots of really cool, distinctinteresting neighborhoods. A couple of the ones
(26:11):
that like stand out for us areShima Kitazawa, which is gulets of bars,
nightlife, good food, and thenlots of vintage shopping. And then
another one that we didn't go tothe first time I went to this time
is Naka Maguo, which specifically hasthis really beautiful river which would be incredible
in cherry blossom season. Lots ofcool shops. Seems kind of like a
(26:33):
place that is like a little bithigher end, but lots of cool shops,
restaurants, fashion type of stuff.And there is where the Starbucks reserve
rostery is. Which Starbucks reserve Rostery. I think there's like one in Shanghai,
one in Milan, one in Chicago. There's a couple around the world.
There are these like next level crazycafes with bars and merch and fancy
(27:00):
bakeries and all this stuff. Imean, let's just like talk people through
this reserve rosty for a second.If you go, like if you go
like during the day, first ofall, you're gonna wait, like they
have a whole like you get aticket, you wait. You could wait
like upwards of a couple hours toget in. Because we have a baby
that wakes up early early. Wegot up and did like a morning adventure
(27:21):
there because we happen to be stayingpretty close and we were able to get
in right away. But you walkin, they've got a whole merch section.
They've got this like incredible, likerosty facility right there. They've got
like the kind of coffee bar withsome of the food, so you can
order your coffees there. You know, you can get any type of coffee
you want. They've got other differentareas with different foods you can go more
(27:45):
to, like, hey, here'sthe pastries with your coffee. Here's like
the cooked food over here. Thenthe second level where we went up and
eight was actually like a tea bar, so if you want to tea,
you could go actually get your teaup there. And then the next level
was a rooftop with another coffee barand a whole outside patio area. So
(28:06):
yeah, I think three or fourlevels of this place, just super nice
facility. Like coffee was insanely good, and it was actually really cool because
the coffee I got came from ahacienda that's out of San Jose, Costa
Rica, which we actually stopped atwhen we were in Costa Rica a couple
of years ago. So I waslike, oh, this kind of like
(28:26):
comes for a full circle in away that I'm like getting coffee from another
kind of big roastar Starbucks Rostary thatwe've been to. Yeah, and I
think this would fit really well inthe like go early on in your trip
while your half jet leg and arewaking up super early. I think we
got there like eight am, sonot even like terribly early. Yeah,
I think it opens at like sevenor seven or thirteen, And there was
(28:48):
no way when we got there.The first time we walked by, it
was in the afternoon and there lookedlike they were no longer giving out tickets
for the day, which is crazybecause we were there at like three.
That's open late. But yeah,I think the thing I would do go
early in the morning, get acoffee, sit on the patio, especially
if you're they're doing trade blossom season, and it would be like next level
beautiful. But just sitting on thepatio overlooking that area is amazing. Also
(29:11):
in that area is the original Sayabooks. Yeah, like the Flakeship stores.
So one of the things we hadon list was like, go to
a great bookstore. One of myfavorite things about Japan is like just the
pens and the stationary and so TayaBooks is like kind of one of the
more famous change maybe like they're Barnesand Noble, but like significantly nicer.
(29:33):
And so the Flakeship store is inthat Nakamaguo area. It's called like the
t site. They've got a numberof nice locations all over Tokyo, but
there specifically is like three big buildings. There's clothes, there's pens, there's
kids toys, there's like artistic books, there's record players. Like it's a
really cool spot. But just ingeneral, while you're in Tokyo, if
you like are a reader, ifyou love books, there's some really cool
(29:56):
both used and new bookstores. Andthen definitely checking out some like Japanese station
area is a top thing to do, yeah for sure. And then I
mean Shinjuku is like a pretty bigarea, but I would say Shinjuku is
definitely worth checking out. And thenI mentioned Wyno Park before, but Window
is also like a cool area,and I feel like I just want to
(30:18):
give an example of like, youknow, we have this like big list
and you could also look up amillion lists online and make your like these
are the must see do things inTokyo. But we went to Wyno Park
with some friends and we just startedwalking around. We looked up like what
was in the area, and wefound this like really cool area that has
these like old kind of pre warhouses that have been preserved and now one
(30:42):
of them's a bar, one ofthem is a coffee shop, one of
them's like a little store, oneof them is a bakery. And you
go and you can see these likeolder houses and it's just kind of like
you are walking through this residential areaand then you like turn a corner and
then there's was like this kind ofcool little like preserve touristic site that has
been like turned into something kind ofmodern and interesting. And you know,
(31:06):
that's not on a lot of thelike top ten, twenty thirty, even
maybe fifty things to do in Tokyo, but it's it's an example of how
you go to these like smaller areasand you just start walking around or googling,
like what's near me that's interesting,and you can find like really amazing
interesting things to do in the cityamazing, and so that kind of covers
(31:26):
the like top ten list that weput together. A couple of general things
that we would definitely recommend that youdo in Tokyo that we've done in Tokyo
as well as in other cities.So if you're not going to Tokyo or
you don't have enough time, youcould certainly do these other places. But
I think they're like must us forJapan. Doing like I said before,
some sort of like conveyor belt orsort of automatic sushi is really cool.
(31:52):
Kura is a really popular brand that'sin all major cities. So we went
to a Kuda in Tokyo. There'sone right by the Skytree, and then
we also went in Osaka and there'sa number of them kind of like in
the downtown area of Osaka as well. But basically it's like you go in
and there are people who work there, but you go in, you select
how many people you wanted a table. It gives you like a little ticket
(32:14):
number. The ticket numbers come upon the board to call you and tell
you what table you go to.When it's ready, you go to your
table. You use an iPad todo your ordering, and basically every like
table or station is connected to thislike conveyor belt, so sushi will come
around that you can pull off liketraditional conveyor belt like we know of North
(32:35):
America. But then it's like youcan also order stuff and it like zooms
out to your stations. You canorder beer zooms out stops. You take
it and then like the plate zoomsaway and basically you just put your plates
as you finish into this like littledish tray that's right by your table or
your station, and it just countsthem on the iPad and when you're finished,
you hit like check out and itlikes your number for your table that
(33:00):
you get right from the beginning,and you go and you like pay itt
a machine. So it's just likea really cool experience to have. There
are other brands that do it,but I think Kudos kind of like one
of the most famous. Yeah,I think there's like two or three national
chains, and then there's some likesmaller one offs that do it, but
like Coors really cool and just likeit's not the best sushi in Japan,
(33:21):
but it's really really solid. It'sprobably like as kid, it's the best
sushi in most Mexican cities are better, probably better, really affordable if you
go at the right time. Youdon't you usually have to wait too long.
If you go at peak hours,sometimes you have to wait, but
just a really cool experience to havethat kind of thing. You like press
like I want a beer and mybeer comes zooming out, like I want
(33:42):
a fatty two, and yeah,it comes to your table. It'll tell
you to like average weight time foryour stuff. It'll be like four minutes,
and so you know, like,okay, I have to wear like
four minutes from my sushi to comeout. Yeah, it's amazing. I
would definitely recommend that. Yeah.And another thing, um, there's so
many cool arcades and let's do inJapanese cities and Osaka is like really big
for this, but lots of coolarcades in Tokyo as well. I going
(34:06):
to Japanese kaide. I think it'sjust it's maybe something that existed in like
Canada and the States, like inlike the eighties or the seventies or something,
but like big and multi floors,different games, music things, drumming,
photo boots, claw games is like, that's like something you've got to
do in Japan. And so ifyou're only in Tokyo, definitely finding a
cool arcide to go to and explore, yeah, for sure. And then
(34:29):
there's a couple other popular things todo in Tokyo that sound really awesome that
we haven't done, so we justkind of wanted to add those as a
little caveat. So going to seeSuma wrestling is definitely one. I think
there's like arenas you can go towhere you can buy tickets and see the
Suma wrestlers like actually kind of wrestleand perform. But then there's something else
you can do where you can gosee them practice. You can go early
(34:51):
mornings and you just observe. Wetried really hard to do this the first
time we're in Tokyo, but justthe days didn't line up. You have
to call like the day before seeif they're practicing, and if they're practicing,
if they're inviting like people to comewatch, and every time it was
just like no, no, no. And then this time it just didn't
really work out with having the babyand the other things we were doing and
(35:12):
stuff. But would definitely recommend checkingout some Sumer wrestling if you can.
Another popular thing is Mario Kart tours. So basically you sign up for these
tours and you get to like dressup as your favorite Mario Kart character and
then you do a tour through areas. These are really popular in Tokyo.
In Akihabarra. I think that's wherea lot of them start. The reason
(35:36):
we weren't able to do this wellone having an infant. But the other
thing is you do need an internationaldriver's license. Yeah. I looked in
Osaka to see if we could maybedo it, and yeah, we didn't
have the right type of driver's license. You have to have the driver's license
that you need to rent a carat least through the tour companies. I
looked, but double check this,but it looks really cool. I remember
(35:59):
the first time we were in Ithink Akihabra with our friend Becky on our
first trip, and I was like, what is this Because they're literally just
driving on the road with the cars. It's like super cool. Yeah,
and then I think the last thingwe haven't engaged with so much is the
nightlife. Obviously, big city likeTokyo has some incredible cool nightlife stuff going
(36:19):
on. There's altso famous like rooftopbars. The New York Bar, which
is kind of famous from Lost inTranslation, is an actual place you can
go. You can visit, andthere's a no Another couple of their like
sky bars, and then some coolkind of neighborhoods for nightlife. We mentioned
Shimakitazawa has like all these like coolone off little bars. It's like Zakaya's,
(36:43):
but so much cool interesting nightlife aswell. Yeah, for sure.
And yeah, I don't really knowwhy we didn't engage a lot with the
nightlife the first time we were inTokyo. I feel like like a finance
concern and just not having nice clotheswith us being more like backpacker style,
I think. And then I thinkone thing is is like you kind of
(37:04):
got a budget your energy a littlebit, and we were just like going
hard from like eight am and bylike ten pm we're like we got to
go home. Yeah. Yeah,I think that was partially partialic case.
And then this time, traveling withan infant, we did a lot of
like early dinners, eating dinner beforeeveryone else and then going to bed early
because that's just the chapter of lifewe're in now. But yeah, we
definitely recommend checking out some of thenightlife. One of the friends that we
(37:28):
were in Tokyo with at the sametime this year, she was doing a
lot of the nightlife and it justsounded really awesome, really amazing, cool
experience. And again, one ofthe great things about being in Japan is
that it's safe, so you cango out with some of some less concerns
that you might have another big citiesaround the world, for sure. So
yeah, that is our like topthings to do in Tokyo list. Really
(37:52):
cool city, one of our favoriteplaces. Definitely a place you want to
go back to again, and justone of those places where I just like,
you get there and you can gowalking in any direction, stop at
a seven eleven, find a coolcafe, like so much cool stuff to
do, so definitely goes way waybeyond this list, but yeah, really
awesome sitting, Yeah, for sure. And if you guys have any questions,
(38:13):
comments, anything you think we shouldadd to the list, make sure
you reach out. Will's love hearingfrom you guys, And yeah, thanks
for following along with this Japan series. We'll be back to other content soon.
Thanks for listening to this episode ifyou want more, and make sure
to check out The World Wanders Insideravailable on Patreon at patreon dot com,
slash the World Wanders. For shownotes, head over to the World Wanders
(38:36):
dot com. Find us on socialmedia at the World Wanders podcast and join
the private Facebook community at World Wanders, a community for travelers. You can
always get in touch with us atinfo at the world wanders dot com.
And if you enjoyed the show,don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
It really helps us find new listeners. See you next time.
Hello, and welcome to the WorldWanders podcast, a proud part of the
wander Barn podcast network. I'm Ryan, I'm Amanda, and we're your host.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomads, taking you on our adventures as
we explore locations, destinations, andcareers. Enjoy the show. What's up
everybody, and welcome back to anotherepisode of the World Wanders. As always,
(00:26):
thank you so much for taking theearspace to listen to us, and
we're excited to dive into our lastepisode that we're gonna do in this Japan
series, talking about Tokyo. Tokyo. Yeah, we are wrapping things up.
We've gone a little bit of stuffabout Tokyo and lots of talk about
Japan on the podcast, and sowe're gonna change the style and this time
(00:50):
we're gonna be talking about ten awesomethings to do in Tokyo that we have
done in our one of our twotrips there. Tokyo is one of these
cities where there's so much cool,awesome stuff it can be kind of like
overwhelming actually to figure out, likewhat should I do with my limited time
there? So we're gonna try,I tell you, based off a couple
of weeks we've spent in Tokyo,what our favorite things are. These would
(01:12):
be the things that be at thetop of our list for giving recommendations to
people. If you said, hey, I'm going to Tokyo for a bit,
so, yeah, I want tojust get started, or do you
have any other prethoughts? Yeah,I think I just want to preface it
with the fact that Tokyo is oneof the largest cities in the entire world,
and there are so many things thatyou can do in Tokyo. So
(01:34):
I think not just taking this listor any list just as is, make
sure you go do research based onyour likes, your dislikes, what you're
really interested in, because I thinkone of the amazing things about going to
a city that's so big is thatthere really is something for everyone. So
if you're into anime, there's youknow, the whole anime area of the
(01:55):
city. If you're into gardens,there's like a bazilion gardens you could go
to. If you're into Buddhist culture, you could certainly find that. If
you're into nightlife, there's nightlife inmany different ways in Tokyo. So I
think that just kind of doing yourresearch is what I preface, and I
would also just say that a reminderthat this isn't like every single thing you
(02:15):
can do in Tokyo, but rather, like like you said, Ryan,
it's us kind of looking at acompilation of what we've done in our time
that we've spent in Tokyo, whichis, yeah, a couple of weeks
now at this point, because webooke ended both of our trips with Tokyo,
like started and finished both of ourJapan trips with Tokyo, and just
wanted to kind of share sort ofour like top list of fun things to
(02:38):
do there. Yeah. I thinkone other kind of just travel philosophy thought
too is some of these like worldclass cities Tokyo, Paris, London,
you can get kind of wrapped upand like, I've got five days here
and so I've planned it out,I'm doing this, this, this,
this, this, and you havebe spending like huge chunks of your day
on the subway going between place toplace, and yeah, it's one of
(03:00):
those cities that just kind of likerandomly wandering around is one of the coolest
things you do. So definitely encourageif you're planning a trip there to make
sure you go see some of thecoolest stuff that we're going to talk about,
but also just give yourself some timeto just not have a destination mind
and just kind of wander around someof the beautiful areas of the city.
Yeah, or have a destination andwander kind of a little further away from
(03:22):
that. And I think another greatthing about Japan is because it's so safe,
is like you can literally turn downthese little back alleys and find these
really incredible restaurants and bars and shopsand stuff like that, and you don't
have to stress the way you doin many other places in the world that
like, oh I just got myselfin a really unsafe situation. Of course,
still make sure you're taking safety precautionsas with anywhere, but I do
(03:43):
feel like one of the beautiful thingsabout Japan and Tokyo in specific, is
that, like the alleys are someof the most magical places there for sure.
So let's dive in. We're notgoing to go in any specific order.
This isn't one to ten ranking,but the first thing that comes to
mind for us is the Tokyo Skytree. We stayed nearby it actually to the
(04:06):
first time in Tokyo on our firsttrip, and then the first time right
when we got to Tokyo, andthis last trip we then came back and
stayed in a different area, buttwo times you've stayed relatively close to the
Skytree. It's a little bit outof the center, but it gives you
some cool access to lots of stuff, great transportation up, and the Skytree
itself is a really cool, reallytall building. Yeah, a great description.
(04:31):
So yeah, it's big. Yeah, this is a really great area
because it is right by the SumidaRiver Walk, which is definitely something that
when you're in this Skytree area,I would say definitely check out. But
one of the reasons we like thisarea and especially for accommodation, is there's
many hotels around here because it's kindof a main area. And then the
Skytree itself is a really big building. But it's also got kind of like
(04:55):
a big shopping center there, sothere's a grocery store there, there's of
a subway station there. There's manymany restaurants that you can go there.
We've eaten a couple of them.There's a Kurta Sushi which we'll talk a
little bit more about later, buta really kind of I guess nice famous
automatic conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Iguess you could say, I'm not exactly
(05:17):
sure exactly what you would call that, but basically you go an order from
an iPad, which is an awesomeexperience, and then yeah, many other
restaurants. We also did a didn'tTai Fung while we were over there,
which is a famous Taiwanese food slashdumpling spot. Cherry blossoms all along the
river walk, which is really niceand just in that area, so there's
a lot of stuff kind of happeningthere, which is one of the reasons
(05:41):
that we really like that area.And then on this last trip, we
actually went up the skytree, andit's really reasonably priced to go up.
You can go up and you getan amazing view of the city, and
I think with a city like Tokyo, it's really cool to get an aerial
view because you really see just likehow big it is when you do that.
Yeah, going up was really cool. Just the scale of the city
(06:01):
is remarkable. The other cool thingwhen the skytree we went up during the
day. I think going up atnight would be really cool as well,
but also just being kind of inthat zone at night, they lighted up
with colors to the whole thing.We have some cool photos from like the
first time we went when it waslike a rainy evening and the skytree is
let up, so that was reallycool. So yeah, that's the first
(06:23):
one on the list. Gotta makesure you get like at least a year
or go up the skytree for sure. And then if you're nearby, like
I said, walking this you metariverwalk is really nice, and then you
can actually walk kind of across theriver to it looks like Asakusa, but
I think it's Asusa. And overthere they have the sen Joji Temple,
which is the oldest temple in allof Tokyo. So I feel like that's
(06:45):
definitely something to go check out also, and that area has a lot of
Iszekiah's and little restaurants, cute littlenight bars that you can go to and
stuff. So I feel like,while you you know, subway over to
the Skytree area, I do theskytree, go up it, walk along
this you meter river, walk crossthe river, and go into a Susa
and then you can kind of checkout some of that area too. So
(07:08):
I just wanted to give something that'skind of in that area that I feel
like isn't in our top ten list, but is like, we're in the
area, let's go do this becausethis is pretty awesome too. Yeah,
that's a really cool, like afternoonto evening thing to do, kind of
whichever way you take it. Andthen one thing we did that I found
(07:28):
kind of nifty near the Skytree,there's this place called Penny Lane, a
cafe like a Beatles steamed cafe withtons of good pastries. So if you're
in that neighborhood looking for something thatwas really cool as well. Yeah,
I feel like it's actually kind ofa sort of famous spot and we kind
of just stumbled upon it, andI think that if there's lots of people
who like go to that area forit. But yeah, great coffee,
(07:49):
great pastries. Would definitely recommend checkingthat out in that area. Yeah.
And also one last thing I guessI'll recommend here is there's a place called
Unlimited Coffee relatively close as well.That was like my fifth cafe we went
to and all of Japan. Yeah, lots of good stuff in the area,
which is I think if we wentback to Tokyo, I would consider
staying somewhere else, just because likeexploring more of Tokyo is really great.
But I think staying in the Skytreearea is definitely like kind of top of
(08:13):
my list for areas to stay.Yeah, and maybe we can move from
one big building to another big building. The Tokyo Tower is one of the
famous iconic things you see with Tokyo. I have said that it kind of
looks like the Eiffel Tower, justorange. I think it's red, isn't
it. No, it's like orange, Okay, Yeah, it does kind
of have an Eiffel Tower sort ofvibe. I think it's not as big
(08:35):
as the Eiffel Tower, and yeah, it's colorful. But this is definitely
a famous, kind of popular thingto visit in Tokyo. It's a great
area. There's lots of stuff aroundthere to explore also, and yeah,
I think just like an iconic thingto see, which is cool. Yeah,
and we went to Tokyo Tower onour first trip to Japan. A
member like seeing lots of cherry blossomsaround, getting some cool photos. I
(08:58):
think in the battle of the twotall buildings, I prefer going to Skytree
and checking that out. But TokyoTower is definitely worth exploring as well.
Yeah, absolutely, and so thenext thing on the list I put kind
of like my favorite park that wevisited, but I actually want to change
this to explore a park in Tokyoif you only have a couple of days,
(09:20):
I would just choose one park that'skind of close to explore. But
one of the things that's really greatabout Tokyo is that they have a number
of parks. So a couple ofthe ones that we really liked our Yo
Yogi Park as well as Uweeno Park, and then Chiota City has like a
huge park with the Imperial Palace,so that could definitely be one to check
(09:43):
out. And then the Shenjuku GoyanNational Garden. It's in like a huge
park and that's like a super famousgarden to go check out. Yo Yogi
Park kind of stands out as myfavorite because this was like the first place
we ever explored in Tokyo, andwe took the like subway over to Harajuku
and walked into yo Yogi and thecherry blossoms were in bloom and everyone was
(10:05):
out doing Sakura season, which islike all the locals go out with their
picnic blankets and their picnics and theirgroup of friends and they go and they
have picnics under the cherry blossoms.And we went to Yo Yogi and we
got to experience that and it waskind of our first introduction to Tokyo and
Japan as a whole. And soI feel like I have really fond memories
there and I feel like it's justa really amazing park. So I feel
(10:28):
like that's kind of top of mylist. But yeah, I would say
like any of those other ones wouldalso be great, Like Wino Park is
really nice, and being able toexplore some of the gardens and stuff can
also be really great. Yeah,And I think this is one of those
things of just like picking a park, grabbing some snacks, going, and
just like spending an afternoon lying onthe grass is a really cool fun thing
(10:52):
to do, especially if you gotkids. That was like one of my
standout memories. There's a couple otherthings on this list that you can kind
of combine into, Like I know, we did Amotesando into Here's Yuku and
then to the park that is rightbeside yo Yogi, and that was a
really cool, fun, kind oflike half a day thing to do.
(11:13):
So all about definitely getting to apark just kind of chilling, and especially
if you're there during Cherry Bostom seasongoing because that's kind of like the big
event for Japanese people is like getyour friends together, get up to the
park duringing caf fun, have food, pack all your garbage out. Yeah,
and pack all your garbage, butlike it's like being at like a
music festival and some of the morepopular parks, Yeah, Yo Yogi would
definitely be one of those, andI feel like it's perfect to just kind
(11:37):
of the next thing that was onthe list was Omote Santo Hills and to
Harro Juku, or you could doit the other way around. So basically,
if you look on a map youcould take you could either take the
subway to Mote Santo or you coulddo it to harro Juku. But the
way that we have done it isgoing Amote Santo Hills. You walk along
(11:58):
the strip and basically like this roadis it's sort of like the champ Still
Lease of I'm probably saying that superwrong because I don't speak any French,
but it's like that of Tokyo,so kind of a more like they've got
like Louis Vatan and Gucci and allof these like luxury brands and stuff like
that. That's not our thing atall. But I think one of the
(12:18):
things that's really nice is just seeingthis kind of really like luxury area of
Tokyo. It's always packed, there'sa ton of people. It's very quiet.
I think in one of our earlyTokyo episodes that we did when we
went to Tokyo or to Japan lasttime, we actually did like a recording
of the street, and it's justincredible when you see how busy it is
(12:39):
to see how quiet it is.So this is just like a fun shopping
street. So you can walk fromone end to the other and then you
kind of get to like the otherend that's closer to the park and harro
jukus there, and harro Juku islike a totally different vibe from Amoti Cento
Hills, which I feel like iswhy I think it's fun to go from
one to the other. But harroJuku has a really famous street that's called
(13:01):
Takeshita, and it's known for it'slike food and like clothing. I think
vintage clothing is kind of popular there. Just a lot of shops there's like
a bazillion people. Just prepare yourselffor that. But you can basically go
from like, hey, I couldget like a Louis Vatan purse to hey,
I'm going to get like a potatoand the tattoo, a potato tornado
(13:24):
a tattoo, and some like vintageclothes, and then you kind of cross
the street and go behind the Hairjukustation and you're in yo Yogi Park,
which has the Meiji Shrine and alot of beautiful things are within that park
as well. So I think thatthat area is just like a really cool
area to spend a bit of timein for sure. And one other thing
that is in that area that wedid actually the first time we went to
(13:48):
Japan and the second time, there'sa restaurant called gooseman Igomez and it's very
Tripotle style. It's actually a chainin a few different cities in Asia.
But if you're a kind of texmex or a triple lover and you have
a hankering for that type of food, that's a good place to go for
lunch. And if you can meetthat. Yeah, like we come from
(14:09):
Mexico, go to Japan, gettired of Japanese food and eat eat Chipotle
Mexican while in Japan. To befair, we were there almost a month
and so that was like towards theend of the trip. Yes, yes,
that's true. And the first timewe were there, we had been
in Asia for what like seven monthsat that point six and a half months,
so we were like definitely looking forother types of food. And I
think one thing about Japan is theJapan does everything well. And so if
(14:33):
you're going to eat Mexican food inAsia, it should be in Japan.
I feel like, yeah, Andso next thing on the list we'll go
to should be you're crossing. Ifyou've seen, like anyone make a video
about Japan, you've probably seen thecrazy busy people pedestrians crossing in like six
different directions. That's should It isa really cool place. It can be
(14:56):
kind of hard, like you wantto go kind of mid day to see,
like when it's actually at its fullestwith people. There's a Starbucks.
It's kind of pretty well known becauseyou get a good view of the place.
And then this time I actually discoveredthe train station on the other side.
When you're walking between the Metro andone of the other lines. There's
a really nice like overtop view ofthe crossing that you can check stuff up
(15:18):
from as well. Yeah, Iwould say the only downside of that is
that they've got these like stupid crisscrosslines on the window stop birds from flying
in. Okay, sorry selfishly wanta good Instagram video and here they are
trying to keep birds alive. Mybad. But yeah, so anyways,
they've got those, so it kindof wrecks your video a little bit.
(15:39):
But it's good to your observing,but not the best photo location. Yeah,
I'm sure there's other places to,like, other stores and stuff you
can go into because the crossing isso big, But I feel like it's
really cool to see the crossing fromabove and you can do this like whichever
way works best for you. Somaybe you go to Shibuya station and you
go see you watch it, maybemake a little video, and then go
(16:00):
out and actually like cross it.I feel like it's really cool to be
a part of the crossing because whileit feels busy, it doesn't feel as
crazy when you're kind of just onehuman crossing it as it looks from above.
So I feel like it is reallycool to get both those experiences,
and then Shibuya is a really likecool area. There's lots to do there,
there's great restaurants, there's a lotof like ramen there, So I
(16:21):
definitely say, like, go thereand experience the area instead of just the
crossing too. Yeah, and thenext thing on the list is the Sukigi
Fish Market, which good chance timeit's pronounced. This is like the famous
sushi auction fish market, And it'skind of like two different experiences here when
you read about it. There's likethe ghosts super early in the morning,
get the reservation, watch the tunaauction, and there's also just kind of
(16:47):
going and explain the area because aroundthe fish market there's actually people selling sushi,
people selling all types of food,all types of products, and you
kind of go, we just havea cool morning experience without actually waking up
at four am to watch the auction. Yeah, for sure. And this
has changed a little bit from thefirst time that we went to the second
time that we went, and nowyou really do need a reservation. Before
(17:08):
it was just first come, firstserve. They've actually moved the tuna auction
to a different market. It's kindof like the an outer market and so
if you're planning to do that,I would maybe recommend booking a tour.
It seems like there's lots of touroptions and they can kind of facilitate getting
everything set up for you. ButI think this is an excellent thing to
(17:29):
do when you first arrive in Japan, especially if you're coming from North America
and you've got a lot of jetleg, you'll probably be up really early.
So this was actually one of thefirst things we did because we were
up at like a little before fiveI think it was like four fifty in
the morning. Lou opened her eyes, she was ready to go. We're
like, okay, what can youdo at five am in Tokyo. Perfect,
Let's go to the fish market.And then it was funny because I
(17:52):
was waiting in line for some ofthe fresh tuna at the market so that
we could have like a tuna nagiriebreakfast, and I started chatting with these
Americans and they were like, oh, we arrived yesterday, like woke up
early early. Thought this was likethe perfect thing to do with our jet
leg. And I was like,oh, yes too. So I think
that there's a lot of people whokind of are like sweet I'm not adjusted
to the time. You know,going early is better. You get a
(18:14):
lot of the more fresh fish productsand stuff like that. So even if
you're not wanting to wake up superearly, like Ryan said, for the
experience of the auction, I thinkit's still like a really amazing thing to
do. Go get some tuna,get some tuna belly. We've had barbecued
evil there, which was really good. We got some of the like egg
sushi. What else did we get? Tea coffee I think we had.
(18:38):
We said yeah, like you said, unagi, I got a good coffee.
We eat something else for sure.That's escape in my mind. But
you can basically find it all,Like I think there's even some noodle restaurants
that are tons of different sushi spots. You can find all the Japanese food
in that area, a lot ofit really good. There's a lot of
(18:59):
products you yeah, and you cankind of tell to you like some places
as you walk in it it's likeseven am, and places already have lines,
so you can tell kind of justby the vibe of like what's really
good or not. It's some reallygood green tea and then yeah, people
selling knives, so cool spot andthere's also other things other than knives,
Like there's knives, we got chopsticks, you can get like we got some
(19:21):
nice bowls, nun checks. Ididn't see any nun checks, but maybe
wouldn't put it past the market.And then the first time we are there,
I think, I remember that's likewhere I found good macha. Like
I think it's just one of thosemarkets. It's kind of got a little
bit of everything. You can evenget like fancy cantelopes there that cost like
a bazillion dollars. Some of thenice strawberries they do, these like pale
strawberries, which seem to be likea delicacy in Japan. You can get
(19:45):
some of those. So I feellike it's kind of fun because while you're
going for the fish and that's like, you know, the thing that's famous,
you can also just try a bunchof other things. You can buy
a bunch of other things. Soa great place to just go and get
some of maybe the like souvenir stuffthat you want for your friends and family
or for yourself. Yeah, andit's kind of been a bit of an
awkward area in terms of like accessingit via the train from like the more
(20:07):
popular areas to stay, and sowe ended up kind of going into like
the Ginza neighborhood, which gins uskind of famous for being like high end
fashion, kind of like a Montescentoin that regard. We haven't I feel
like, we haven't like done Ginza, but we've walked through, so that
could be something you could combine together, because there's lots of cool stuff over
there, Yeah, for sure,And I think that that would be something
(20:30):
you would do kind of after becauseespecially if you're going to the fish market
early. I think that's why Ginzadidn't seem like that exciting for us,
because you know, we did thefish market for a bit. Lou was
getting tired. We needed to gether home for a nap, so I
think, you know, it's likeeight am and we're leaving and things are
still not open, right because it'sjust not not what what time things open
in that district. But yeah,really cool area to explore. And then
(20:53):
the next thing on the list isgoing to a baseball game at the Tokyo
Dome. We the first time wewent to Japan, we went to a
baseball game in Hiroshima and that wasamazing, And this time we went and
saw the Tokyo Giants play. They'reone of the most famous and popular teams
in all of Japan at the TokyoDome, which is an incredible, incredible
(21:14):
facility, really really cool space,and I think because baseball is so popular
in Japan, it's a really reallyfun thing to do while you're there.
Yeah. Yeah, And this willprobably extend out if you're doing a bigger
Japan trip. I think like fromour experience to taking to people Hiroshima,
the Hanshion Tigers who are based outof Osaka, and then the Giants,
(21:37):
who are based out of Tokyo arelike probably like the three top places too
check out a baseball game, butthere's other teams in Tokyo, there's other
teams and lots of cities, butsomething really cool and fun to do,
and it's Tokyo. Tokyo Domes kindof like Yankee Stadium for Japan. So
another cool place to go and see. Hmm, yeah. Absolutely. And
then another thing that's on the listis oh, I'm going to turn not
(22:00):
to butcher this, but the ChidooriYafuchi moat will write it out on the
show note so that you guys cansee it, but this is really famous
for cherry blossoms. It's kind offunny. If you do any research on
Tokyo, this will often be likea photo that's displayed. So it's like
this big moat, it's got thetrees on both sides. It's absolutely stunning
in cherry blossom season. So Idefinitely add that to your list. But
(22:22):
this area is really nice. Evenif the cherry blossoms aren't blooming, obviously
those are the trees are still there, they just have green leaves, but
just like a stunning a stunning areaof the city to go check out.
And it's on the north side ofChiota City, and so this is a
great place to also explore. Likethat park, the Imperial Palace. There's
(22:45):
lots of stuff that's going on there. So you can go from Tokyo Station,
go through Chiota City Imperial Palace allof the different like parks and gardens
that are there, or go rightover to Chidori Gafuchi just like see the
moat on that side. So lotsof different things that you can do within
that area. There's also a coupleof gardens National Gardens in there. But
(23:08):
yeah, Chidori Gafucci, Yeah,I remember distinctly we're there right in the
heart of cherry blossoms the very firsttime we went, and this was the
place that felt like the most moshpity. There is just a ton of
people that are trying to get thegood views of the blossoms of the mode.
Yeah, I think because it's likeso iconic, Like it's kind of
(23:30):
like when people go to BAM,what they think of with BAM is like
marine, Like it's like they've allseen that exact same photo. And I
feel like one of the photos youalways see is of this mote, and
so I feel like people are like, oh my god, like this is
the photo. This is the photo, and then everyone's like standing on like
the bridge trying to take the photo. But it is really beautiful. I
think that's why it's on the list, and especially during cherry blossom season.
(23:52):
And yeah, like I said,there's lots of different things that you can
do around that area too. Yeah. One of the things that is on
this list that is I feel likeyou maybe you do it once and probably
don't go back, but it's likea very strange, interesting Japanese experience is
going to a maid cafe, specificallyin Akihabra, which is kind of like
the more like techy, lots oflike cool anime stuff area made cafes we
(24:18):
talked about on like our previous episodeback in the day about Japan. But
it's a strange, interesting place.Yeah, I think it's a yeah,
once in a lifetime type of experience. I think it's an interesting experience to
have and shows you kind of adifferent part of Japanese culture. But I
think Akihabra in general is really interesting. We're not look super into anime or
(24:41):
that side of Japanese culture, butI think still going to this area is
pretty neat because like you go thereand you walk into the train station,
it's like the buildings are more colorful. It's like things are painted differently,
Like it's just a totally different world. It's a different vibe within the city
of Tokyo. And then yeah,the made cafes are everywhere. And just
to give you guys a quick recapin case you didn't listen to that episode
(25:03):
from you know, six years agoor it's been a while, is like
basically you go there and these likeyoung Japanese girls are dressed up like maids
and they want to play like fungames with you. So you like order
a machilatte, for example, andthey're like, oh, what do you
want on your machilat Like, oh, you want kitty? Okay, we
make kitty, and so they likedraw a kitty on it. And then
you like you play a little gameto like get your latte or whatever,
(25:26):
and so they'll be like, whatdo you want to play? Okay,
you don't know, Let's like playthis game, let's sing this song.
It was kind of an uncomfortable experiencefor us, which is like interesting that
it made the list, but Ifeel like it's kind of also iconic and
like I said, once in alifetime, So something definitely to consider and
check out. Yeah, for sure. The last thing we kind of put
(25:49):
in like the big top ten,which will full a couple of things into
is exploring neighborhoods in Tokyo. Tokyois you know, almost the size of
a tree probably is bigger than Singaporeand in terms of both people in geographic
space, and so there's so muchcool, interesting stuff to do, and
there's lots of really cool, distinctinteresting neighborhoods. A couple of the ones
(26:11):
that like stand out for us areShima Kitazawa, which is gulets of bars,
nightlife, good food, and thenlots of vintage shopping. And then
another one that we didn't go tothe first time I went to this time
is Naka Maguo, which specifically hasthis really beautiful river which would be incredible
in cherry blossom season. Lots ofcool shops. Seems kind of like a
(26:33):
place that is like a little bithigher end, but lots of cool shops,
restaurants, fashion type of stuff.And there is where the Starbucks reserve
rostery is. Which Starbucks reserve Rostery. I think there's like one in Shanghai,
one in Milan, one in Chicago. There's a couple around the world.
There are these like next level crazycafes with bars and merch and fancy
(27:00):
bakeries and all this stuff. Imean, let's just like talk people through
this reserve rosty for a second.If you go, like if you go
like during the day, first ofall, you're gonna wait, like they
have a whole like you get aticket, you wait. You could wait
like upwards of a couple hours toget in. Because we have a baby
that wakes up early early. Wegot up and did like a morning adventure
(27:21):
there because we happen to be stayingpretty close and we were able to get
in right away. But you walkin, they've got a whole merch section.
They've got this like incredible, likerosty facility right there. They've got
like the kind of coffee bar withsome of the food, so you can
order your coffees there. You know, you can get any type of coffee
you want. They've got other differentareas with different foods you can go more
(27:45):
to, like, hey, here'sthe pastries with your coffee. Here's like
the cooked food over here. Thenthe second level where we went up and
eight was actually like a tea bar, so if you want to tea,
you could go actually get your teaup there. And then the next level
was a rooftop with another coffee barand a whole outside patio area. So
(28:06):
yeah, I think three or fourlevels of this place, just super nice
facility. Like coffee was insanely good, and it was actually really cool because
the coffee I got came from ahacienda that's out of San Jose, Costa
Rica, which we actually stopped atwhen we were in Costa Rica a couple
of years ago. So I waslike, oh, this kind of like
(28:26):
comes for a full circle in away that I'm like getting coffee from another
kind of big roastar Starbucks Rostary thatwe've been to. Yeah, and I
think this would fit really well inthe like go early on in your trip
while your half jet leg and arewaking up super early. I think we
got there like eight am, sonot even like terribly early. Yeah,
I think it opens at like sevenor seven or thirteen, And there was
(28:48):
no way when we got there.The first time we walked by, it
was in the afternoon and there lookedlike they were no longer giving out tickets
for the day, which is crazybecause we were there at like three.
That's open late. But yeah,I think the thing I would do go
early in the morning, get acoffee, sit on the patio, especially
if you're they're doing trade blossom season, and it would be like next level
beautiful. But just sitting on thepatio overlooking that area is amazing. Also
(29:11):
in that area is the original Sayabooks. Yeah, like the Flakeship stores.
So one of the things we hadon list was like, go to
a great bookstore. One of myfavorite things about Japan is like just the
pens and the stationary and so TayaBooks is like kind of one of the
more famous change maybe like they're Barnesand Noble, but like significantly nicer.
(29:33):
And so the Flakeship store is inthat Nakamaguo area. It's called like the
t site. They've got a numberof nice locations all over Tokyo, but
there specifically is like three big buildings. There's clothes, there's pens, there's
kids toys, there's like artistic books, there's record players. Like it's a
really cool spot. But just ingeneral, while you're in Tokyo, if
you like are a reader, ifyou love books, there's some really cool
(29:56):
both used and new bookstores. Andthen definitely checking out some like Japanese station
area is a top thing to do, yeah for sure. And then I
mean Shinjuku is like a pretty bigarea, but I would say Shinjuku is
definitely worth checking out. And thenI mentioned Wyno Park before, but Window
is also like a cool area,and I feel like I just want to
(30:18):
give an example of like, youknow, we have this like big list
and you could also look up amillion lists online and make your like these
are the must see do things inTokyo. But we went to Wyno Park
with some friends and we just startedwalking around. We looked up like what
was in the area, and wefound this like really cool area that has
these like old kind of pre warhouses that have been preserved and now one
(30:42):
of them's a bar, one ofthem is a coffee shop, one of
them's like a little store, oneof them is a bakery. And you
go and you can see these likeolder houses and it's just kind of like
you are walking through this residential areaand then you like turn a corner and
then there's was like this kind ofcool little like preserve touristic site that has
been like turned into something kind ofmodern and interesting. And you know,
(31:06):
that's not on a lot of thelike top ten, twenty thirty, even
maybe fifty things to do in Tokyo, but it's it's an example of how
you go to these like smaller areasand you just start walking around or googling,
like what's near me that's interesting,and you can find like really amazing
interesting things to do in the cityamazing, and so that kind of covers
(31:26):
the like top ten list that weput together. A couple of general things
that we would definitely recommend that youdo in Tokyo that we've done in Tokyo
as well as in other cities.So if you're not going to Tokyo or
you don't have enough time, youcould certainly do these other places. But
I think they're like must us forJapan. Doing like I said before,
some sort of like conveyor belt orsort of automatic sushi is really cool.
(31:52):
Kura is a really popular brand that'sin all major cities. So we went
to a Kuda in Tokyo. There'sone right by the Skytree, and then
we also went in Osaka and there'sa number of them kind of like in
the downtown area of Osaka as well. But basically it's like you go in
and there are people who work there, but you go in, you select
how many people you wanted a table. It gives you like a little ticket
(32:14):
number. The ticket numbers come upon the board to call you and tell
you what table you go to.When it's ready, you go to your
table. You use an iPad todo your ordering, and basically every like
table or station is connected to thislike conveyor belt, so sushi will come
around that you can pull off liketraditional conveyor belt like we know of North
(32:35):
America. But then it's like youcan also order stuff and it like zooms
out to your stations. You canorder beer zooms out stops. You take
it and then like the plate zoomsaway and basically you just put your plates
as you finish into this like littledish tray that's right by your table or
your station, and it just countsthem on the iPad and when you're finished,
you hit like check out and itlikes your number for your table that
(33:00):
you get right from the beginning,and you go and you like pay itt
a machine. So it's just likea really cool experience to have. There
are other brands that do it,but I think Kudos kind of like one
of the most famous. Yeah,I think there's like two or three national
chains, and then there's some likesmaller one offs that do it, but
like Coors really cool and just likeit's not the best sushi in Japan,
(33:21):
but it's really really solid. It'sprobably like as kid, it's the best
sushi in most Mexican cities are better, probably better, really affordable if you
go at the right time. Youdon't you usually have to wait too long.
If you go at peak hours,sometimes you have to wait, but
just a really cool experience to havethat kind of thing. You like press
like I want a beer and mybeer comes zooming out, like I want
(33:42):
a fatty two, and yeah,it comes to your table. It'll tell
you to like average weight time foryour stuff. It'll be like four minutes,
and so you know, like,okay, I have to wear like
four minutes from my sushi to comeout. Yeah, it's amazing. I
would definitely recommend that. Yeah.And another thing, um, there's so
many cool arcades and let's do inJapanese cities and Osaka is like really big
for this, but lots of coolarcades in Tokyo as well. I going
(34:06):
to Japanese kaide. I think it'sjust it's maybe something that existed in like
Canada and the States, like inlike the eighties or the seventies or something,
but like big and multi floors,different games, music things, drumming,
photo boots, claw games is like, that's like something you've got to
do in Japan. And so ifyou're only in Tokyo, definitely finding a
cool arcide to go to and explore, yeah, for sure. And then
(34:29):
there's a couple other popular things todo in Tokyo that sound really awesome that
we haven't done, so we justkind of wanted to add those as a
little caveat. So going to seeSuma wrestling is definitely one. I think
there's like arenas you can go towhere you can buy tickets and see the
Suma wrestlers like actually kind of wrestleand perform. But then there's something else
you can do where you can gosee them practice. You can go early
(34:51):
mornings and you just observe. Wetried really hard to do this the first
time we're in Tokyo, but justthe days didn't line up. You have
to call like the day before seeif they're practicing, and if they're practicing,
if they're inviting like people to comewatch, and every time it was
just like no, no, no. And then this time it just didn't
really work out with having the babyand the other things we were doing and
(35:12):
stuff. But would definitely recommend checkingout some Sumer wrestling if you can.
Another popular thing is Mario Kart tours. So basically you sign up for these
tours and you get to like dressup as your favorite Mario Kart character and
then you do a tour through areas. These are really popular in Tokyo.
In Akihabarra. I think that's wherea lot of them start. The reason
(35:36):
we weren't able to do this wellone having an infant. But the other
thing is you do need an internationaldriver's license. Yeah. I looked in
Osaka to see if we could maybedo it, and yeah, we didn't
have the right type of driver's license. You have to have the driver's license
that you need to rent a carat least through the tour companies. I
looked, but double check this,but it looks really cool. I remember
(35:59):
the first time we were in Ithink Akihabra with our friend Becky on our
first trip, and I was like, what is this Because they're literally just
driving on the road with the cars. It's like super cool. Yeah,
and then I think the last thingwe haven't engaged with so much is the
nightlife. Obviously, big city likeTokyo has some incredible cool nightlife stuff going
(36:19):
on. There's altso famous like rooftopbars. The New York Bar, which
is kind of famous from Lost inTranslation, is an actual place you can
go. You can visit, andthere's a no Another couple of their like
sky bars, and then some coolkind of neighborhoods for nightlife. We mentioned
Shimakitazawa has like all these like coolone off little bars. It's like Zakaya's,
(36:43):
but so much cool interesting nightlife aswell. Yeah, for sure.
And yeah, I don't really knowwhy we didn't engage a lot with the
nightlife the first time we were inTokyo. I feel like like a finance
concern and just not having nice clotheswith us being more like backpacker style,
I think. And then I thinkone thing is is like you kind of
(37:04):
got a budget your energy a littlebit, and we were just like going
hard from like eight am and bylike ten pm we're like we got to
go home. Yeah. Yeah,I think that was partially partialic case.
And then this time, traveling withan infant, we did a lot of
like early dinners, eating dinner beforeeveryone else and then going to bed early
because that's just the chapter of lifewe're in now. But yeah, we
definitely recommend checking out some of thenightlife. One of the friends that we
(37:28):
were in Tokyo with at the sametime this year, she was doing a
lot of the nightlife and it justsounded really awesome, really amazing, cool
experience. And again, one ofthe great things about being in Japan is
that it's safe, so you cango out with some of some less concerns
that you might have another big citiesaround the world, for sure. So
yeah, that is our like topthings to do in Tokyo list. Really
(37:52):
cool city, one of our favoriteplaces. Definitely a place you want to
go back to again, and justone of those places where I just like,
you get there and you can gowalking in any direction, stop at
a seven eleven, find a coolcafe, like so much cool stuff to
do, so definitely goes way waybeyond this list, but yeah, really
awesome sitting, Yeah, for sure. And if you guys have any questions,
(38:13):
comments, anything you think we shouldadd to the list, make sure
you reach out. Will's love hearingfrom you guys, And yeah, thanks
for following along with this Japan series. We'll be back to other content soon.
Thanks for listening to this episode ifyou want more, and make sure
to check out The World Wanders Insideravailable on Patreon at patreon dot com,
slash the World Wanders. For shownotes, head over to the World Wanders
(38:36):
dot com. Find us on socialmedia at the World Wanders podcast and join
the private Facebook community at World Wanders, a community for travelers. You can
always get in touch with us atinfo at the world wanders dot com.
And if you enjoyed the show,don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
It really helps us find new listeners. See you next time.
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