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Hello from Japan! We've just left Tokyo and have already fallen in love with the country.
Getting to Japan, however, was an experience in itself! We left our home Friday after work and didn't arrive in Tokyo until Sunday evening. Along the way we stayed over at a hotel near Gatwick, where we met up with two of our friends travelling with us (Elly and Fallon), before catching a Saturday morning flight.
After a nearly 11hr flight, we landed in Shanghai for our 8hr layover. Unlike Elly and Fallon who just wanted a nap, Will and I were ready to stretch our legs after being sat down so long and decided to leave the airport for a bit and head into Shanghai city. We took the Maglev, which is a super cool train powered by magnets and travels up to 300km/hr! When we arrived in the city, some slight confusion ensued as we didn't have any phone data so couldn't use our phones for maps or translation help. In the end we managed to get to the Oriental Pearl, an iconic Shanghai tower. We then wandered through the skyscrapers until we found one that had an observation deck and promptly bought tickets. The views from the top of the building weren't quite as far reaching as we had hoped due to the smog, but we still enjoyed watching the empty barges making their way along the river. Then, it was back on the Maglev and through the airport security to reunite with Elly and Fallon, who still looked as sleep-deprived as when we left them.
A short 3hr flight later, and we were making our way through customs, collecting our luggage and navigating the Tokyo public transport system to our accommodation. We checked in to our hostel, only to discover the final two people in our travelling party (Sam and Ruby) were already there, having taken a direct flight from the UK and looking decidedly less travel-worn than the rest of us. A early night all round was required, ready to kick off our stay in Tokyo properly the next day.
Monday was our first full day in Tokyo and we started it with a breakfast from 7-11 (a popular Japanese convenience store). Our morning activity was a Traditional Tea ceremony, where we got to try on kimonos and have a tea host teach us about the history and significance of the ceremony, before we had a go at making matcha for ourselves. Will enjoyed the matcha and finished all of his but it was a bit too bitter for me!
After lunch at a curry house (a great find by Ruby) we headed to an immersive art exhibition. The TeamLabs Borderless exhibit was something very different from what Will and I would usually visit as we often give art museums a miss, but we actually found it really engaging and we spent a couple of hours there just wandering around. One of the benefits we're enjoying from being here with our new travel party is that we are encouraged to try new experiences!
Next it was off to Tokyo tower, just in time to catch the sun set over the city from the viewing deck 150m up! We had some great views from that high and Will had no issues standing on the glass floor panels to get a look at the street below too. We headed back towards our hostel for dinner, where another delicious recommendation from Ruby resulted in us trying a variety of classic Japanese dishes at a small restaurant. With a waffle-style fish for dessert, we finished a fantastic first day!
Our Tuesday plans began with a stamp-book making class. We each got to choose fabrics for the front and back covers and add pages to the books that we can take to the temples and shrines for the monks to stamp and write calligraphy for us. Our teacher was very patient with us as we argued over who got the best animal fabrics (Will) and helped us when we accidently glued our fingers to the paper (Charis)! We then got to visit a nearby temple as part of the class and were taught the proper etiquette for praying and collected our very first stamps.
We spent the rest of the day shopping and eating, ending the day at a video game themed cafe, the Square Enix Cafe, where Sam and Fallon indulged their nerdy sides!
A Temple Walking tour was our morning activity for Wednesday. We were all keen to get some more stamps in our temple books and learn about the history of Sensō-ji temple so we joined a guided tour of the temple and the surrounding area. Our tour ended by the Sumida River so we decided to cross the bridge and visit the Tokyo Skytree. We topped our record from Monday and viewed the city from 450m high! Will even managed to convince me to stand on the glass floor this time (although it was only for a few seconds!).
Afterwards, we mooched around the mall attached to the Skytree (my favourite store was the Studio Ghibli one, and Will's was the Pingu pop-up shop), then grabbed some lunch before heading back to our accommodation. On the way back we took the train (Elly had her first scare about losing her travel card, and hopefully the last!) and went via the shopping streets surrounding the temple as our group had seen various souvenirs and shops on our walking tour that we bookmarked for later.
Dinner was a fancy affair at a small 10-seater restaurant so we stopped by the hostel for everyone to change into their most posh travel clothing! The tempura served at the restaurant was delicious and watching it being cooked right in front of us was amazing. An all-round fantastic experience that we ended with a decidedly less classy chocolate fish from the nearby dessert stall!
On Thursday we headed out of the city and went on a day trip to Mount Takao and the monkey park. The day began with some minor train confusion and involved us getting on and off several trains before we made it to the stop for Mount Takao. Options for getting up the first leg of the mountain were either by cable car or by chairlift so the group decided to split up, with the slightly more adventurous of us choosing to dangle our arms and legs over the trees on the way up the chairlift.
When we arrived at the start of the hiking path we all enjoyed a freshly cooked snack from the local vendors. Pork bao buns and dango with miso paste were on the menu and were generally received with much enthusiasm! Then it was off to the monkey park where we got to see a troupe of Snow Monkeys and we spent quite a lot of time watching the babies (so cute!).
We also spent some time at the temple and shrines further up the mountain and learnt about mountain worship. Ruby had downloaded an audio guide so spent most of the time relaying facts from it for the rest of us!
The hike ended at the top of the mountain, with views across to Fuji in one direction and Tokyo in the other. What an amazing reward for reaching the summit! We couldn't resist taking photo after photo and must have captured every possible angle by the end!
Once we had our fill of views, we retraced our steps and made our way back down the mountain and managed a much smoother journey on the trains back to Tokyo.
Dinner back in Tokyo was at a hotpot restaurant. Having not had traditional Japanese hotpot before, we had a lot of fun trying to figure out the system and catch vegetable pieces with our chopsticks before we realised there was a sieve provided! We will be more prepared next time and use the sieve from the start – but it's all part of the experience!
It's now the next morning, we have boarded the bullet train and we are speeding towards Osaka. We're all keen to arrive and start exploring!
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