My First Sunday Funday in Tokyo

In this post: Tokyo Skytree, Asakusa, and a little bit of Ueno.

Sunday, June 1st was my birthday! 

And what better gift than going on more adventures in an entirely new place?

We took the subway to Tokyo Skytree. And, conveniently enough, one subway entrance/exit leads directly to the basement of Skytree's Tokyo Solamachi. After taking the escalator up to the 1st floor, one can take the elevator to the 31st floor. That is the highest a person can go for free! The first 5 floor are dedicated to shopping, souvenirs, and restaurants. I'm pretty sure those middle floors are offices. And the 30th and 31st floor have some more exclusive restaurants as well as a damn nice view.

Check it out.

Oh wait, first check out the view of Skytree that we have from the home. This is what i get to see every day when I leave the house:

















Sweet, right?

Anyway, now you can check out the view from the 31st floor:

Seriously, wow.

Some smart (and green!) marketing

Enhance...

Oooh pretty! And are those solar panels on the right?

After going up, we then went back down to check out some of the shops in Solamachi. Oh yeah, why is it called "solamachi?" ソラマチ, can be broken up into ソラ (sola/sora) = sky. マチ (machi) = town. So, Sky Town! Clever!

There's something for everyone here, from the different clothes, toys, and souvenirs, to the meals, snacks, and desserts. 

But I'll have more to say on Solamachi another day.

Here's some more views of the tower. 

Inside, at the base of the tower, you can buy tickets to go up the tower. It's ¥2,500 (approx. $25). I haven't gone up yet. I might one day, but I haven't decided yet. I probably should though, because it's the tallest tower in the world. The tower itself is 634 meters high, and the highest point that tourists can go is 451 meters. Um, still pretty high up. There is even a restaurant, cafe, and shop up there. Hm, maybe I should go. 

After walking around the Skytree area for a while, we were off to Sensō-ji temple in Asakusa. About a 20-minute walk away, I was able to see some more beautiful sights and interesting things.

Getting farther away, but that tower is still huge.

Um........what?

So there are rickshaws in Asakusa. Real rickshaws that you can get pulled around in. I didn't know that was still a thing.

Neat.

I also got to see the Asahi Beer headquarters. The tall building is the Asahi Beer Tower, and it has an interesting shape on purpose. The change in angle of windows at the top of the tower is supposed to resemble the foam at the top of a glass of beer. Cool! Next to it is the Asahi Beer "Super Dry Hall", with a large golden flame-shaped object on top. The sculpture is lovingly known by locals as "the golden turd," with the hall itself referred to as "the poo building." Gaw.
I've heard there's a bar/restaurant on the 22nd floor, so maybe I'll check that out sometime.




There's also the Asahi Beer Annex building close by, which has 4 floors of yummy beer fun. The 1st floor is a more casual beer cafe. The 2nd floor has a beer hall. The 3rd floor has a beer restaurant. And the 4th floor has a more formal beer/cocktail bar. And the 2nd and 3rd floors are where some beer is actually brewed, so you can get super fresh beer there. Hm, maybe I'll have to go there too, yummmm.


After a nice walk, we came to our next destination: Sensō-ji Temple. This is a large temple, and upon getting closer, I noticed quite a different atmosphere leading to the temple itself. Where Meiji Shrine had a quiet, contemplative forest to walk through, Sensō-ji Temple had a long stretch of food and shopping stalls. Walking through this was a lot of fun. I saw a little bit of everything coming through here. Traditional fans and yukata, windchimes, purses, hats, dining sets, toys, and tons of snacks, desserts, and other food. 
And as a birthday gift, I even received a set of chopsticks with my name engraved on them from one of the stalls. Super sweet of my host family to get those for me. I love them!

Anyway, so here's what you see when you first approach the temple:

This is the first gate you walk through. Awesome!

See that huge red lantern thing? Did you wonder what's on the under-side of it? I did. And I wasn't disappointed when I looked:

Bad ass dragon carving.

Here's the entrance to all the shops.

And there's the looooong stretch of shops.

Upon reaching the temple area itself, I was invited to cleanse my hands and mouth at a really cool looking temizuya.

And here's the temple itself

After going up to the temple and bowing and praying, we started to make our way out.

We came upon this gorgeous garden off to the side of the temple. I snapped the picture and moved along too quickly though, so I'm sorry that the next picture is a bit blurry.

Doesn't matter still pretty.

And after our visit to Sensō-ji, we took the subway and moved on to our last destination: Ueno.

In Ueno, there is a large, pretty park that people can walk through, and surrounding the park are all different neat things to see. There is a little baseball field where a kids' team was playing a game. There is the Tokyo National Museum, housing all kinds of national historical artifacts. There is also the Tokyo Museum of Western Art, and the Science Museum. There is also a zoo, which has pandas!!

We ended up heading towards the art museum and then realized how exhausted we were. We decided to just get some light refreshments then head back home. 

Lots of gorgeous tall trees here

A main pathway. I was told that this area is crazy busy in the spring because all these trees are a beautiful pink color throughout sakura blossom season. People come from all over to see the beautiful flowers, have picnics, and get a little tipsy. Man, I'm bummed I missed it!

Here's one of the sculptures outside of the art museum.

And since I didn't see the pandas at the zoo, here's a building with a panda on it.

After coming home, we all got to rest and I helped make gyoza for my birthday dinner, and we all got to have a dessert from the local bakery after our meal.

It was a very good birthday. 

Talk to you all soon!

Very First Adventures in Japan

Hooray, I am finally ready to really start writing my travel blog for you.

Saturday, May 31, was my first full day here, and it was a full day of exploring and getting to know my temporary home.

We first took the subway to Tokyo station, and I had a moment to take in how gorgeous the architecture is. Inside the station, near the entrance, there are beautiful domed ceilings that you can admire. 

And outside, you can take in an equally pretty view of the expansive station itself.

The whole station doesn't even fit into this picture, and we're all the way across the street!

From the station, I was able to walk around and explore the variety of malls and shops, while also taking in the amazing aroma from countless restaurants and cafés.

After walking for a bit, we hopped back on the subway and headed to Meiji shrine.

Wow, there's just something amazing about a peaceful forest and shrine, completely surrounded by the bustling city. There were overarching feelings of respect, patience, and awe here. 

If you can't tell, that torii gate is crazy big

We walked past the initial huge torii gate to be greeted by several more throughout our twisting trek through the forest. The walk towards the shrine is peppered with many things to see other than trees, be sure of that! Though even if there were only trees, I would have still been captivated. There is a short walk with murals that illustrate the life of Emperor Meiji. There are barrels and barrels of sake and wine that have been donated throughout the years. There are other paths that you can take as well, leading you to places like the shrine's inner garden, but I'll get to that later... 

One of many informative murals

Lots and lots of sake

Lots and lots of wine. This has all been donated from Burgundy, France

Before visiting the shrine itself, I headed over to the temizuya, or purification font. At this area, a person is symbolically purified by cleansing their hands and mouth. 

Must. Focus. On. Water. Dipper.

The shrine between some suspiciously round trees. TOO round, if you ask me

After that, I visited the shrine and followed the practice of bowing and clapping and making a wish/prayer. I also got to see the wall where people are able to leave their prayers written on pieces of wood. 

There was a wedding taking place during my visit as well. I got to see one of the traditional dresses the bride wears, and this outfit includes a hat. My guide jokingly informed me that the hat was there to symbolically cover the woman's demon-like horns, ha! Maybe I'll have to remember that for my wedding.....

The hat must work because I see no horns.

After my visit to the shrine, I enjoyed the inner garden, which is off the main path. A winding trail took us to the emperor's fishing pond, with lively koi and turtles swimming near the pier, and a famous well dug by a military commander some 400 years ago.

Is two pictures of a well too many? I think so too, sorry.

In the later summer, one can enjoy the far-reaching iris garden, too. The irises had not bloomed yet when I visited, but I can only imagine how beautiful this will be. Go ahead and Google "Meiji Iris Garden," I'll wait here 'til you get back.

..........................................

Awesome, right?

Okay, back to it. 

Not as pretty as Google's pictures. But way in the back you can see gardeners preparing for the irises!

After my peaceful trip through the shrine, it was time to get back to the rush of the city. I got to enjoy the especially young and trendy area of Shibuya -- Harajuku.

We passed designer store after designer store, with specialty boutiques, restaurants, and karaoke bars in between. I'm looking forward to going back so I can window shop more, and only window shop, because there are few clothing items I would be willing to spend that much money on, ha. 

But then we found a place I will happily spend money at.

Kiddy Land!

A 4-floor store dedicated to kawaii culture, yay! This place has everything! Star Wars, Pokémon, Hello Kitty, Totoro, Rilakkuma, and lots and lots and lots of others. I may just face my fears of getting lost on the subway and in the city in order to go back here. Who cares if I don't know how to get back to the house, I'll just live in Kiddy Land instead, snuggled up in a Hello Kitty blanket while watching Ghibli movies with Pikachu.

4 floors of awesome.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The Plane Ride...

The long, long plane ride.

Wow.

I have never traveled for so many hours straight as I did on my trip to Japan. 

My morning "started" at around 4:00am. I use quotation marks because my morning actually started long before that. In fact, I never went to bed the night before my trip, because I'd hoped that the exhaustion would help me to sleep on the plane. 

I've only been on a plane about 3 times in my life, and I only remember not liking it very much. 

Anyway, after getting to the airport at around 4:30, and saying good-bye to my family and fiancé at 5:30, it was time to say さようなら (sayounara) to my regular schedule and comforts for the next 3 months. 

My plane ride took me from Michigan to Chicago (about an hour flight), where I waited at my next gate for an hour. This was followed by the trip from Chicago to LAX (about 4 and a half more hours), with a 2+ hour wait at my next gate after that. Then, finally, I had the long long ride from LA to Narita -- an almost 12 hour flight.......where I was in the middle of 5 seats, surrounded by people on their way to China, who only spoke Chinese. Talk about a long and lonely trip. Not to mention the fact that my headset for my in-flight entertainment was not in the best of shape. So I got to enjoy The Wolf of Wall Street from a mostly muted and occasionally crackly perspective. Ha. But really, it wasn't so bad. The worst of my flight, by far, was the lack of room to stretch my legs, and how uncomfortable the seats felt after 4 or 5 hours. I tried to sleep several different times, but was unable to keep asleep for more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

Cool clouds.

*Something something airplane food joke*

When I arrived in Japan it was 4:30pm the next day. I was exhausted but knew I needed to try to stay up until at least 10:00pm in order to sleep on time and get used to my new schedule. If you weren't aware, it is a 13-hour time difference from Michigan to Japan.

Thankfully, my host family was nothing but accommodating this whole time. From picking me up from the airport, to helping me arrange my futon, and feeding me delicious food.

I am a very lucky girl.

And I nothing but good expectations for my stay here.

See you later, USA. I'll be back soon, so don't you forget about me