My Journey to Japan 3: Tokyo

Well, My final week of the holiday was Tokyo. Namely Shibuya.

When I arrived I was very very surprised to have no trouble finding my hotel. In fact it was less than a minute's walk from the station!

My hotel was the Sakura Hotel Hatagaya, kind of a hostel/budget hotel. I really enjoyed the place, it didn't even try to be a posh hotel, it just did what it did (serve customers from all over the world) as best as it could. Plus - it has a 24 hour cafe!

When I travel to Tokyo, I will definitely stay there again!

I wasn't impressed at first, I was happy to be in Tokyo, but I really loved Osaka, it's one of those situations where you are unsure how you feel until you leave a place. Within a day however I began to truly love Tokyo.

So, the first order of business was to meet some friends I met online and get a tour of Shinjuku and Asakusa.

Titan Head in Shinjuku



I have no idea where this is, but I must have thought it looked cool!



Kaminari Gate in Asakusa and a kawaii girl posing.



Maneki-Neko, my friends were amazed when it told them I already had one.


There were a few other places we visited including a cat cafe, and an Izakaya, both in Shinjuku - Can't find the pics though!!

Meiji Shrine

A few days later I took the time to visit Meiji-Jingu, this is something I intended to do after watching a talk by one of the priests on youtube.

This place blew my mind, It was so peaceful!

The pathways, meant to quieten the mind in nature.



The Torii gate, a spiritual entrance, gateway to the kami (gods/spirits)



Part of the main facility, the paper is meant to purify the area and protect it from evil spirits



The rain really helped, everything smelled beautiful.

Harajuku

After leaving the shrine you end up in Harajuku! So from a nice peaceful place to the exact opposite.

I have to admit, as quickly as I entered, I explored, and left. There was nothing really here for me, just shops, and the rain made it a bother to really explore.

Akihabara

This is somewhere I went a few times. As I told my friend, this feels like the tourist version of Japan, it had shops filled with idol goods, anime, as disappointed in myself as I am, I guess I am more Otaku than "Japan-Lover" although I do love all aspects of Japan.

I even visited the AKB48 cafe ;)


I had a caramel latte and the kind lady made a little bow in the cream :)

Akihabara is one of those places that if you are thinking "I don't like it here", this will give you what you are missing. If you come from the west, you've watched anime and listened to JPop, but most places you won't see anything related to it. You may see kawaii anime girls advertising drinks or something. But you wont' see Keyakizaka46 everywhere, or AKB48. Until you hit Akihabara, then you will see shops filled with:

Merchandise!!

English Pub

At some point you have to emulate a bit of home, and I found a little English pub

The rather beautiful barmaid brought my beer over, and gave me a free drink! Lipovitan D. Funny, the place closed at around 6pm, which I found strange. If a real English pub closed at that time there would be a riot.

All in all, my Japan visit makes me want to stay longer, I truly hope that Steemit, and Crypto, and saving will allow that to become reality. I just have to pray and hope. I believe that until you are there and actually have some investment and life in Japan, you will never truly get it...if that makes sense.

Japan is not anime, its actually quite a serious country. It's a place where you will be treated well, and made to feel welcome. You will not see guys with swords walking down the street, or kids with pokeballs collecting pokemon, and its likely only in akihabara where you will see sheksi maids. This was no shock to me, but now I want more!! Motto, motto nippon kudasai!

Next blog is where I will get into the different airlines I flew on, good and eugh..bad

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