Tokyo

One of the best cities I had ever visited was Tokyo. Respectful people, rich culture, unique styles, efficient, and well mannered life style.

I honestly never thought that I would ever visit Tokyo, Japan in my life. Japan the land of an incredibly rich history, the land of the samurais and shoguns. I was able to walk around and inside imperial palaces, temples, and shrines. Visited the One Piece store (anime), visited the famous Tuna bidding market Tsukiji Market, and climbed mount Takao. I meet a good friend from the Netherlands, and I re-meet the Japanese friend that I meet back in a hostel in Singapore (I touched on this a little in the Singapore post).

I left Indonesia on JAL airlines (Japan Airline). When I landed at the airport, I took a train to reach the apartment where I was going to live for ten (10) days. This time I did not go to a hostel but I opted to try Airbnb and find a room. I read that hostels are pretty bad in Japan and expensive. Having your own room would be better, so I did just did that. I went during Spring time, the time of Cherry Blossoms where people come from all over the world to see them bloom in Japan. So finding a place to stay for 10 days was extremely expensive. But I had already thought of that, that is why I booked on Airbnb back in February before I even undertook the trip. The prices went up 50% after the month of March, so it was a smart plan, saved a lot of money. The host was a very nice guy. He was an entrepreneur and he had an apartment and a house listed on Airbnb, and was the first to write several guide books about Airbnb in Japan. During my 10 days stay, I only saw him three (3) times. I stayed on the second floor of a house that had its own key and entrance. I basically had the who apartment to myself. I really liked the Japanese styled houses with the screen doors and all. One of the most important etiquette is that you should never wear your shoes inside the house and the host provided me with brand new slippers to use inside the house so that was nice.

                 

As soon as I unpacked, I went out and explored the neighborhood. The neighborhoods are really quiet and cozy. The streets are small and the houses are very close to each other. Everything was organized well painted and extremely clean. People would always look at me in wonder, I guess they figured I was new to the neighborhood but as soon as I say "Konnichi wa" (good day [to you]) and I smile, they smile back right away in surprise and reply with the same greeting. I never felt happy saying good day to someone that I did not know. I was like "Did I just communicate with my new Japanese neighbor?"

The train/metro system looked very complex on the map but it was extremely easy to navigate around because there were signs written in English and everything was color coded, and there were people who would offer you help in a jiffy. I remember one time when I was looking for a specific place in Shibuya district and I could not figure the location using my phone, so I asked someone and they walked with me to the exact place, and we are talking about a 10 minute walk, not many people would go this far to help out.

A simple inner subway map that includes the airports:

I went all over Tokyo during my 10 days. I would leave in the morning or mid-day and come back at night. The people were class and respectful. My favorite district was Shibuya District which was only 30 minutes away from where I stayed. It is very popular for young people and has one of the best nightlife areas I had seen. See the pictures and video below.

The famous Shibuya crossing

Takeshita Street in Harajuku had so many people and sellers trying to sell their goods, it was awesome experience walking around on that street. See the video below.

Takeshita Street

Do you remember the Japanese friend I talked about in the Singapore post?
I got to meet him again in Tokyo. I also meet a friend from the Netherlands and the three of us had a really good time together. My new Japanese friend was a recent graduate student who just started working. He plays in a music band and was a nice respectful person. I initially meet him in a hostel in Singapore and we exchanged contact. He invited me to see his band play in the Shibuya area when I visited Tokyo. And I did just that. I meet with my Dutch and Japanese friend and we went together for a cup of Japanese green tea. We later re-meet and went to watch my Japanese friend and his band perform live in front of a good amount of people. It was an awesome Saturday night. We were both extremely happy to have meet again in Japan. Check out his band's Facebook page Umber Session Tribe

I visited couple of temples, shrines, and the imperial palace. Japanese culture is one of the distinct cultures known and visiting historical areas made me feel like I was walking through time. With every step I took I told myself, maybe a Japanese samurai or a ninja walked in the same path I was walking. One thing that caught my attention as I walked around these historical areas was the variety of trees, flowers, and plants.

I wanted to do something challenging and leave the city center, so I went and climbed mount Takao. Going up was the easiest since I took the forest path but coming down half way down, there was a vehicle path and it was really long and boring path, but nevertheless it was an awesome experience.

Went on trail 6 to reach the summit of Mount Takao

At the summit

Viewing Tokyo from the summit of Mount Takao

There were many temples with very interesting statues and colors. Many religious people would do these unique prayers and traditions. It was really fascinating. The statues and the masks I saw gave me goosebumps. The feeling I got was hard to describe, it felt like a mystical feeling. I wonder how many generations prayed in the same place with those statues looking down upon them. See the pictures of the statues and masks below.

Visiting Tokyo is never complete without going to the Tsukiji fish market. If you go early in the morning, and I mean 4-5am early morning they usually let in the first 100 people (or maybe it was less, I dont remember the exact figure) to witness bidding of tuna fish. The price can go up to $8,000 or even more. The most expensive tuna was 222 kg for $1.8 million in this market (Tsukiji fish market) some couple of years ago, crazy right?

Dry squid

I also visited the famous Tokyo mosque. It was a really nice mosque with Turkish architecture.

Japan is extremely famous for its anime. I actually love reading/watching the One Piece manga/anime, so it awesome to visit their store. Check out the video below. There were manga books for all kinds of ages. There were so many genres including the famous ones like Captain Tsubasa (soccer manga) and Detective Conan (crime manga) and the most famous Pokemon manga. See the video below of a live public performance of an anime show where anyone can go up and do karaoke about their favorite anime.

Japanese food is awesome. Two of the unique food I tried are shown below. One of my favorite food was Takoyaki. Takoyaki is basically a ball-shaped snack made from wheat flour and has diced octopus with spices inside. I new about it before I visited but it was my first time tasting it. It was delicious.

Takoyaki

The dish below is called Unagi Don. Basically eel with seaweed and rice. The eel tasted nice, first time I tried it and would love to try the dish again.

Unagi Don

I took JAL airlines to go back home, it really was one of the best planes I been on, better than British Airways, Air France, and Iberia (but this is just my opinion). Tokyo was one of my favorite places that I visited on this backpacking trip. I really hope to visit again soon. I really felt sad leaving Tokyo but I was looking forward to going back home and seen my family and friends.

JAL Airlines