Today we planned to bum around Nara and hang out with their deer, and then end up at Gyokuzoin Temple, a temple you can stay at for the night. We left Kyoto early, at 8am. We went to the Toyota rent a center and got a white Toyota Vitz! It was quite cute and narrower than an American car. Masa started to go to my side, and then I went to the driver’s side. Oops! We forgot that the sides…
They say Osaka is Japan’s kitchen. Today, we woke up early and took the train to Osaka. We planned to see the castle and everything, but then we were like, why do that if we’re going to see Himeji castle anyway. So we decided to skip that. We took the express train to Osaka. Even though we were passing through the countryside, it didn’t look very country to me. It looked even more populous than my hometown! We passed by…
Today, we mostly traveled. We packed up, cleaned up the apartment a bit, and we had some extra time before the train ticket office opened, so we just chilled for a while before we called our taxi. I even washed the dishes. Then we took the taxi to the train station, and went to the ticket office. Again, the lady helped us and we were able to get our tickets for the journey. We got onto the train and I…
Dec. 26, 2019. We reserved the whole day for TeamLab Borderless because we weren’t sure what to expect and how long we should budget for this. NOTE: stop reading if you don’t want spoilers for Borderless. You probably have seen the pictures all over the internet/Instagram of what it’s been like, but part of the magic of Borderless is discovering it for yourself. We got 2 little rice balls from 7-11, and we went straight to teamLab borderless as soon…
For Christmas morning, Dec. 25, we just wanted to take it slow. We ate cake in the morning, and then we went to Shinjuku to wait for Robot Restaurant. Somehow, even though it seemed like every single restaurant in Tokyo was booked for Christmas Eve, we were able to get reservations to Robot Restaurant for Christmas Day. It started at 12:30 PM so we went to a sushi place first to eat. We had sushi bowls and it was quite…
Today, Dec. 24th, our plan was to go to Ueno and check out the parks and museums there. Then, at night, we would visit some of the Christmas markets and light shows in the city. Japan is crazy about light installations. I get it though, driving through suburban neighborhoods to see Christmas lights isn’t a thing here like in the USA. The day started off so nicely. We first went to Ueno park, by train. We went up a great…
The original plan was to spend a day in Asakusa earlier, and then spend a day in Akihabara by itself. But they were relatively close and we didn’t have too many planned activities so we just combined it into one day. We also planned to do Asakusa first, and then Akihabara last, since it seemed more lit in Akihabara, the electric or otaku town. But we switched it since it seemed to make sense that way. We got to Akihabara,…
Today, our plan was to check out the Shinjuku national garden, and then check out the main attractions of Shinjuku. We started the day off early so we could get a head start on our day before the rain. We decided to walk to Shinjuku, since it would only be about 40-50 minutes. We got some food from Lawson or Family Mart after a while of walking, and then we tried to go into the Akasaka imperial property. It was…
After we got back to Shinjuku, we had lunch at a Japanese westernized place in MyLord tower and went back to our Airbnb after. After dropping off our stuff, we took the subway to Odaiba, and we walked across the rainbow bridge. However, it was not lit up at the time because it was daytime. And even if it had been lit up, you can’t see the lights from the inside. We were going to Odaiba because they have a…
Today, our plan was to leave Tokyo and take the train to Hakone, a mountain hot springs town near Mt. Fuji that is known for its hot springs. There’s a spa theme park that has a lot of fun pools, and we also booked a night at a high-end ryokan to treat ourselves. In the morning, we got to the Shinjuku station after a bit of mixup on my part about Shibuya vs. Shinjuku, and then we picked up some…