The excitement for this one was absolutely unreal. There’s no country in the world I’ve wanted to visit more than Japan. Ever since I was a kid I dreamed of exploring Japanese gardens and temples, admiring samurai swords and being dazzled by the neon draped cityscapes.
As you may know, Japan is not the cheapest travel destination by any means. Flights are expensive and long, affordable accommodation can be found but is very basic and small, railway passes seem expensive at first glance but are almost essential for getting around the country and will definitely save you money in the end. But once you’re there daily general costs like food, attractions and of course beer are actually no worse than any other big cities worldwide. The food, attractions and of course the beer is not only on another level here but in a totally different league. We’ll come back to this later but for now, let me tell you what it was like arriving in Tokyo for the first and certainly not the last time.
After travelling for over 30 hours in total we arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport. That familiar and addictive feeling of landing in a brand new country was amplified here and took over the fatigue of a whole day travelling. We found our baggage relatively easy then went to search for the post office to pick up our JR rail passes, Suica cards and we also decided to pick up a pocket WiFi device – a game changer and worth every penny. After this, we were all set for our Japanese adventure. The rail pass granted us access to the bullet trains and some metro lines around Tokyo, the Suica cards act as a top-up card and can be used on public transport, vending machines and other applications.
Like most major airports Tokyo’s international airport was about an hour away from Tokyo. We opted for the bus which was the cheapest and easiest transfer option, as we left the airport we set up our pocket WiFi and in a matter of seconds, we were online. The WiFi worked really well for the most part and came with a portable charger which was handy. I would strongly recommend investing in one. Although free public WiFi is available in some places it still wasn’t easy to find or set up. It really helped us get around and was there for us if we needed maps, translation, train timetables, social media and around £60 for two weeks wasn’t too overpriced for the convenience.
As we left the airport area the landscape changed frequently and my eyes were popping out of my head. We went quickly through the countryside to a big industrial area, glimpses of ports and harbours behind machines and structures I’d never seen before, everything was massive. As we edged closer to this sprawling megacity we could start to see the skyscrapers looming ahead and all around us. I didn’t notice the road taking any incline whatsoever but I happened to look down from the bus window and was stunned to see we were on a flyover around 300 feet above ground level weaving our way through the top of these huge buildings. It was surreal and started to give an impression of the immense scale of this city. Eventually we started to almost unnoticeably descend to ground level and our bus stopped at the main train station in Central Tokyo. As we exited the bus a downpour, the heaviest rain ever, completely drenched us and our bags from head to toe and made finding the entrance to the train station very difficult. We eventually found it though and stepped down into a whole new, drier world.
The train stations in Tokyo are vast… I mean vast. They sprawl for miles and are practically a city upon themselves all linked together by underground shopping centres, restaurants, bars and coffee shops. You can literally travel for miles on foot in this subterranean world and at first it was a little overwhelming. Thankfully we got used to how it all worked pretty quickly and found getting around to be fairly easy in the end. If we ever had any questions we’d go to the JR pass booth and just ask. The Japanese people go above and beyond to help out tourists and make you feel welcome and the majority of people in public-facing positions spoke very good English.
Our JR pass covered the inner city loop line which conveniently takes you around most of the major tourist districts like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ueno and Akihabara. Our hotel was tucked away somewhere in Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district and even though I had done a ton of research our pocket WiFi was already earning its keep. We even managed to jump off at the right station which was a result!
We were then greeted with our first views of the neon-clad buildings you see in every photo collection of Tokyo and I’m struggling to find the words to describe how impressive it was. I had to take a moment to appreciate where we were and soak it all in, forcing back a tear as my childhood fantasy started to become a reality.
As we headed deeper into Shinjuku we found the gates to the red light district and I knew we were heading in the right direction. ‘Red light district’ always sounds dodgy but it’s not like Amsterdam at all. Even though there were all kinds of activities going on behind closed doors in the maid cafés, escorts bars and seedy clubs, it wasn’t as apparent and to a westerner it kind of just blended in with the chaos. This place truly is the culture shock it promises and even with the almost overwhelming first few hours we never once felt unsafe or in any kind of danger. Tokyo has been declared one of the safest cities in the world to travel to and it definitely feels like it.
We found our hotel tucked down a side street and around a corner away from all the hustle. We’d already seen about a thousand vending machines on our way in and I was happy to see about 4 outside our hotel entrance. Handy for a late-night snack or drink I thought – not that it mattered, this part of the city doesn’t sleep! (We had a sit-down meal in a restaurant at about 2 am on one boozy night). As we stood there dripping wet in our hotel reception from the heavy rains the receptionist mumbled something in Japanese and quickly produced a couple of towels for us before checking us in. We entered our room and dumped our bags, it was small, very basic but comfortable enough and we weren’t planning to be there much anyway as our itinerary was jam-packed.
After a few minutes to rest, shower and get changed but even after 36+ hours on the go, we were not done today! We always push through jet lag and try to sleep at a normal hour, local time. So we decided to get out and head back to the train station to go and explore the neighbouring district of Shibuya to check out the famous Shibuya crossing and Hachiko statue before finding our first Japanese meal.
As I said our itinerary was tight for this trip so we felt this may be our only time to visit Shibuya and I’m glad we squeezed it in. As we exited the busiest train station in the world we immediately found the infamous Shibuya crossing and the Hachiko statue. The statue is of a dog who used to come and meet his master after work at the station every day without fail because he was such a good boy. Sadly, after his owner died he was still there every day to meet him from work, the statue is there as a symbol of loyalty and is now a tourist hot-spot. The Shibuya station is the busiest station in the world with 3 million people passing through each day. The Shibuya crossing is the famous crossroads where, at peak spells, around a thousand people cross at one time. It has become quite a spectacle over the years so we went up to the 2nd floor of the nearby Starbucks to get a good view. The best time to see it is rush hour between 6-8 pm which I think we had just missed but it was amazing to watch still. Back at ground level, this is one of those places where you just look around with your jaw hanging open in awe. Every now and again you just stop and think.. “holy shit I’m in Japan!”
We explored the small back streets and it was clear that there’s a lot more money in this area. High-end stores and classy restaurants replaced the seedy clubs of Shinjuku. We happened to find a bar that had a craft beer sign outside so we took the stairs down into a cool, quiet little whiskey club and had our first beer of the trip. They love their beer here as much as we do in England and although craft beer can be expensive in some bars we found the convenience stores had a good selection of cans and bottles – which you can legally drink out and about in the streets.
After a beer or two, we found a very authentic little ramen bar and enjoyed the hell out of our first Japanese meal. We took the stairs down into this tiny little restaurant and sat down at a seat with a screen in front of each of us. From there we stumbled through the menus on the screen to customize our bowls with various options and extras. The order pinged through to the tiny kitchen where the one chef quickly prepared the food. I had a stir-fried noodle dish with pork and spring onions and Pip had ramen. It was authentic, cheap and absolutely delicious. The food had definitely made us sleepy now and approaching the later hours of the night we decided to head back to our hotel in Shinjuku to get some precious sleep before our adventure really began.