Ciao!
Thanks for making time to read this long travel post about Japan my dears! I promise you’ll enjoy every bit of it! So, shall we start? 🙂
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Boarding time – 05;15am
*Passport case from @LuluSwing
Arrival time – 11:30am*First thankyou note is to @TravelConnectPhfor giving me unlimited wifi data for my whole trip! made our trip so much easier!)
Firstly, what does this beautiful city offer?
It’s an island nation in the Pacific Ocean with dense cities, Imperial Palaces, Mountanous national parks, thousands of shrines and temples in almost every stations.
Now, before I tell you my adventure, here’s a few tips and tricks to help ya’ll in the future if you’re ever crossing paths with Japan.
1. Book with confidence – booking something is actually quite hard if you’re indecisive person like me! it’s best to stick to what you want and roll with the punches! I kept on procrastinating booking the experiences in Airbnb that the no. 1 thing I wanted to do was already booked until December. And that is to sail across Tokyo in a beautiful classic boat.
2. Check the reviews – I cannot fathom this enough, always check, check, check!
3. Check the gallery photos- and every bit of it!
4. A pocket wifi is a MUST ( thank you @travelconnectph AGAIN for sponsoring our whole data trip) it really does the trick!
5. Bring Fashionable clothes and statement bags for your photos! ( most of my inner outfits in Japan came from @Guess, @girlshaven and @huna.official )
6. Check the weather forecast ( that’s aways a must! )
7. Bring your A-game with you and comfy shoes! Cause you’ll be walking around most of the time. (@MatthewsPh and @nike was my choice weapon)
8. Always bring a big luggage with just a few things inside so you won’t exceed your baggage limit if you’re on the way home.
9. Learn how to pack well!
10. Get an E-pass for the train rides so you don’t keep on buying your tickets. You just have to tap and go on your way.
11. Learn some Japanese words that can help you out whenever you’re a bit lost. Language barrier is pretty hard to deal with when traveling. *Google translator might come in handy!
12. Google maps! *saved us a lot of time!! NEED!
13. Last but not the least. relax, explore and let loose! no one knows you there! haha! I’m sure you’ll enjoy every bit of your time in Japan. 🙂
First stop was Shibuya.
We stayed at 3 chrome-28-6-yushima, bungkyo-ku Shibuya and I loved every minute of it! It’s just a 5-10 minutes train ride from the must see places in Tokyo and you know what I like about it most? In the most touristy city in the world, there wasn’t any tourists in our little abide. There were a lot of food chains, sushi and ramen houses near us so that made it even better! We’d walk everyday and see little Japanese kids crossing the streets on the way to their school with their cute little uniforms and in the other side, we’d see old couples and cute little cafes just waiting for us.(Michelin star Unagi and Tamago eggs )
First thing on the list is the one nearest to our place, which is the Meiji Shrine. This tranquil shrine is worldly famous for it’s steeped history and beautiful ancient wishing trees. Located at the hustle and bustle heart of Tokyo you can find yourself surrounded by hundreds of tall tress and once you’re inside, modern Tokyo is not seen anymore. You will only hear the wind gliding peacefully at the tress and crows flying or maybe they’re just saying their prayers loudly? We’ll never know. 🙂
Next in line was the Tsukiji Market well knows for it’s mouth watering, fresh of the boat seafood.
If you’re an avid fan of sushi and wants to know how tuna is aunctioned then you will have to get there by 4-5am. On the bright side? fresh sushi for breakfast!
We stayed 3 days In Tokyo and within that three days, we went to Harajuku, well-known for it’s street cosplay players. Ginza, and my beloved shimokita-zawa. At night and during day time because why not? I love this place!
Now, a little background about shimo.
I went here maybe about 4 years ago and I couldn’t get it out of my head ever since, the place stuck to me. Aside from the hippiest little shops you could find, there were a lot of thrift and novelty shops plus cool cafes! The locals there were amazing too. So full of life, wonder, creativity and that my friends is why shimo will always be close to my heart. And why I will always keep coming back whenever I’m in the city. Vintage is an understatement here. And yes, I’ve paraded myself in all of the cute shops and took photos in every corner. :p
As night came, we met up with some friend in Ropongi Which is Tokyo’s nightlife capital. And they weren’t kidding! Few hours later and we already made new friends! you kinda get the picture, with a few daiquiri drinks we ended up at 1 oak, and it all went hazy from there. Ha!
On our 4th day, while we were still hungover and dead inside we made our way to Mt. Fuji. And I’m telling you, it was one of the hardest walks and train ride in my life! i’ll make sure that next time I’m on a trip I won’t get too hammered the night before if im traveling the next day. lol.
My luggage was soooo heavy and above all that, IT WAS RAINING.. But hey, that’s how you make memories right? <3
So! We arrived in Mt. Fuji and guess what? My dream to see the beautiful mountain view went to an end when whenwe didn’t see a thing. Everything was covered in clouds and fog but alas we still tried to enjoy every bit of the beautiful little town and walked around to made ourselves tired. We stopped at a bookshop so I can buy my book suvinier.
We were quite hungry so we stoped at a Yakiniku restaurant and ate exceptional beef!
After our hearty meal we walked back to our hotel which was my stays just a few minutes walk from the train station and to end our night, we tried Onsen Traditional hot bath which features hot communal baths with open air bath and gives you access to an incredible views of Mount Fuji ( but then again it was too foggy so that didn’t happen for us) the Onsen was extremely bright and clean which only meant that it was greatly taken care of. * photos and videos weren’t allowed inside the onsen
On our 5th day, we went to Lake Kawaguchi. Hunger always strikes in Japan so we immediately looked for a place to eat and one of our good friends told us to eat at the don buri restaurant near the lake, and so we did! It was a pretty big plate that’s good for sharing and that surely did the trick. After walking around the area we made our way back to the hotel, got our bags and went back to Tokyo but this time, we stayed in Ueno-taito.
AHH Ueno. So much memories in this place! I’ve stayed here for almost 3 months 4 years ago and it’s still the same. With a wide varieties of food and shopping in every corner, who’s not going to love this place?! For the bargain hunters this is the place to be.
It’s an amazing area for local food and delicacies and what’s even better is you can do a lot of thins here! We didn’t have enough time to visit everything on my list but we made sure to enjoy our last day in Tokyo. I wanted to go to Tokyo National Museum, Museum of Nature and science, Tokyo Metropolitan art Museum and Ueno zoo but we had to change our plan since we arrived late already, we decided to just walk around and look for hole in the walls. But hey! There’s always a next time to visit the museums, right? 🙂
For our last dinner in Tokyo, we had to try Kisoji traditional shabu-shabu of course! It was quite pricey we spent maybe around 10,000 php for that dinner but oh man! It was amazing! The meat literally melts on your mouth and they had a lot of trinkets that they made us use which is actually a very nice experience.
Our trip was coming to an end and what better way to spend our last few hours in Don Quijote? Which is the biggest discount store in Japan that’s open 24/7! PS: if you’re in Japan, everything is almost tax free if you show them your passport. Always have it in your bag!
Our last stop was lawson, if you know me I’m the kind of girl who always love to snack on something. So, lawson was our last stop. I got everything I needed all snacks included and we went home to our lovely hotel to have a good night sleep and travel back to the Philippines at the break of dawn.
Backpack from @AnelloPhilippines
You?
what’s your Japan story?