Day 0
This was a trip I’ve been wanting to do for years. I’ve never had a huge “Japan bucket list” however. The biggest thing on my to do list was just to set foot in Japan. Everything after that was icing on the cake. Doing anything in Japan would be new and exciting, it didn’t really matter what I did. So even though I’d been wanting to do this trip for years, I had very little planned out. I booked the flight literally two weeks out. I reserved hotels/hostels just before that. I was a little afraid that hotel prices would be super expensive this close to travel, so I wanted to make sure that wasn’t too crazy before I booked the flight. And I booked a couple of experiences. And that was it. No other plans.
Now, you might think, what in the world did I plan to do on this trip? Like I said, just getting there was my main goal. I’m very happy to just wander in a new place, no plans, no agenda. Just let my feet take me places. So that was the idea. I had rough plans to see some of the big attractions, and like I said, I did book a few experiences. But all these things were just to get me to a place so that I could then wander.
I landed in Japan at 5 in the evening. I was a bit nauseous from the long flight, so after getting checked into the hostel, I went looking for food that would be easy on my stomach. My hostel was in Asakusa, so I wandered a bit in that neighborhood. There is so much good food there, but my stomach just couldn’t handle it, so I wandered into a 7Eleven and got a fruit sandwich and a pastry. I ate it back at my hotel and then tried to go to sleep at around 9pm.
Day 1
I woke up Tuesday morning, somewhat refreshed. I noticed that Japan doesn’t have very many breakfast places that open as early as I was waking up through the trip, but I found a little place that did Norwegian waffles, so that was my first breakfast.
My first experience was in the afternoon, a goshuincho making class. This is totally not a sponsored post, but I found this and the bike tour on the Experiences section on AirBnB. It’s a great place to browse for things to do in an area. With a still somewhat tender stomach, I wandered around the area until the class, picking up a rice ball for lunch before the class.
The class was great! The instructor spoke very good English, provided a huge variety of materials to customize our goshuincho, and gave very clear instructions. After the class, we walked over to the closest shrine which happened to be close to my hostel. There, she showed us the cleansing and prayer rituals that should be performed before getting your book stamped, and then took us to the counter to get the stamp! Lastly, she took photos for us in front of the shrine gates.
After that, it was more wandering! I had an acquaintance living in Tokyo, so I had made plans to have a drink with them that evening. A lot of my wandering is taking the long way to the train station to go anywhere. I got yakitori from a little hole in the wall place (this was the only place where I didn’t take a photo or log it in google maps, and now I can’t find it!) before going for drinks. The original place we were going to go (Ben Fidich) was crowded and had a wait, even though we got there almost right at opening. So we made our way through some of the red light district and ramen alleyways to get to Jeremiah, a cute and cozy little bar with very inventive cocktails.
Day 2
Day 2 was breakfast at Royal Coffee Shop where it was a bit more of a western style breakfast. After breakfast, I took the train over to Harajuku where I had an early reservation at a pig cafe! I did a lot of research into animal cafes in Japan. Some of them seem better than others, and this was one that I thought looked good. It’s a timed entry and they only let in so many people at once. You have to sit on the floor, they put a blanket on your lap, and you aren’t allowed to pick up the pigs. The pigs are super sweet and want to sit in your lap. At first the pigs weren’t coming over to me, but towards the end I had 4 pigs in my lap! The last one was just kind of leaning onto my lap 😂.
