Adventures In Asia | Our First Week In Japan...

As promised, here is a post about mine and Justin's adventures in Asia... But only the first seven days as of right now because we did a lot while we were away and it would be crazy for me to put everything in one post. So here is what I could remember (Because all of the days are starting to blur together and it hasn't even been a month since we went) of our trip....

Thursday August 25th, 2016
Justin and I flew fourteen hours non-stop from John F Kennedy International Airport in New York to the Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan -- Which was the longest flight either of us has taken thus far.

When we arrived in Toyko (At about 9:00PM on Friday, August 26th) we grabbed our carry ons and headed towards the train to travel to our Airbnb in Shibuya.

After what seemed like forever we made it to our Airbnb and just went to sleep.

Saturday August, 27th 2016 -- Tokyo
We started off our first full day in Tokyo by hitting up 7 Eleven for breakfast and money from the ATM (Which is where you should get money from if you are traveling in Japan) then heading to Akihabara (A shopping district for video games, anime, manga, and computer goods) to check out the arcades and old video game shops before going to the Akiba Fukurou Owl Cafe to chill with some owls. After our time with the owls we decided to have our first proper meal in Japan at this bomb little place that Justin found on TripAdvisor.

When we were done totally stuffing our faces we decided to try and get tickets to see DMM.PLANETS Art by teamLab, which was a bunch of interactive artwork that looked super cool. Unfortunately we could not get tickets, so we headed back to the Airbnb to shower and change because it was crazy hot out.

After our mini rest we were hungry again, so we headed over to Ichiran Ramen to have our first taste of authentic ramen. Which was fucking fantastic.

Despite being full we decided that we needed to wander around Shibuya and hit up a late night game center, where I played Tsum Tsum games, caught Pokemon and people watched until we got tired.

Sunday August 28th, 2016 -- Tokyo
We woke up relatively early and traveled by train to Mitaka to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum. Which was so utterly awesome if you are a Hayao Miyazaki fan.

After we were done at the museum we headed into Tokyo to have conveyor belt sushi at Numazuko Sushi, which was fantastic.

Once we were filled up with sushi we decided to visit the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and then our first shrine, Meiji Jingu (Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the divine souls of Emperor Meiji and his consort Empress Shoken and was established on November 1, 1920).

When we finished at the shrine we walked around the forest around the shrine where we found some sort of festival/dance thing going on, which was pretty neat. Then we went back to the Airbnb to chill.

Monday August 29th, 2016 -- Tokyo
We woke up to some pretty crappy weather but we still decided to go grabbed breakfast from 7 Eleven and headed off to Tokyo Disneyland. The only Disney park I have ever been to where NO ONE speaks English.

Despite no one speaking English, as well as on and off rain and crazy heat, we had a good time.

After we had our fill of Disneyland (Which was around almost 5:00PM) we headed back to the Airbnb to shower and change, then head next door to Shibuya Mark City and waited to have sushi at Umegaoka Sushino Midori for dinner before calling it a day.

Tuesday August 30th, 2016 -- Tokyo
There was a typhoon passing through the area in the morning, so we stayed in the Airbnb until about 12PM when it had finally run its course. And then we headed back to Ichiran Ramen for another bowl of that bomb ramen.

After lunch we stopped by the statue of Hachikō outside of Shibuya Station.

For those of you that don't know about Hachikō, here is a snippet from his Wikipedia article...

In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took Hachikō, a golden brown Akita, as a pet. Professor Ueno would commute daily to work, and Hachikō would leave their house to greet him at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where Hachikō was waiting. Each day for the next nine years, nine months and fifteen days, Hachikō awaited Ueno's return, appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

After snapping a picture we headed to the Imperial Palace to walk around the grounds. 

Eventually it started to rain, so we decided to catch a train to Shinjuku; where we spent the rest of the day played video games, visited the Samurai Museum and going to the Robot Restaurant to see the show.

Wednesday August 31st, 2016 -- Tokyo
Justin and I woke up crazy early and took an Uber down to the Tsukiji Fish Market in hopes of getting two of the 120 spots to see the tuna auctions. Which we did! But not before we got to catch a ride on the back of a Turret truck from a very nice worker who realized we were lost in the market and needed to get to the tuna auction area.

After waiting hours to watch the auction, which was pretty neat, we headed back to our Airbnb to grab our bags and head to the train station to catch the bullet train to Kyoto.

Once in Kyoto we got lunch then headed to our Airbnb, showered, changed and went for a walk to see the building Nintendo had started in back when it was a playing card company. After seeing the old Nintendo headquarters we of course had to see the new Nintendo headquarters, so we hopped on a train and stood in front of that building for awhile as Justin took pictures.

When we were done there we went back to the Airbnb to relax and research restaurants in the area for dinner.

Eventually after some arguing and weird Google Translate translations we ended up at a place called Tiger Hall that had awesome dumplings but some shitty soup for a late dinner. Then called it a night.

Thursday September 1st, 2016 -- Kyoto
We planned on starting off our day by heading to Jigokudani to see the snow monkeys but not even a quarter of the way up the stairs defeated me, so we turned back around (Which really sucked because I really wanted to see the snow monkeys) and just headed to Tenryu Shiseizen-ji to see the temple. Then wandered around the garden until we found the exit to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.

After getting our bamboo on we headed to Fushimi Inari Taisha to see the torii (Traditional Japanese gates most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrines) that lead up to the inner shrine.

Once we were done shrine seeing, we headed back to the Airbnb to shower and change (Seeing a pattern?) and then we headed down to Gion to see if we could spot any Geisha. Which we did!

After spotting the Geisha we just spent the rest of the evening wandering around and while we were we found a cat cafe that we stopped into, a bunch of shops, etc.

So, that was mine and Justin's first week in Japan. Hopefully I will have the second part up sometime next week!