Visiting Tokyo in Cherry Blossom Season

The Japan Diaries -Part 1

We had said for a long period of time that to celebrate our 20 years together, visiting Japan would be perfect.  With an anniversary at the beginning of April this would be the ideal time to visit in cherry blossom season.  With some hiccups with our flights and some world politics affecting flight routes, our trip at times looked unlikely.  Here we were though landing in Tokyo on a sunny late March afternoon to begin our adventures.

We landed at Haneda airport, navigated the QR code system for immigration and baggage claim before finally leaving the airport, tired, and deciding on an Uber to take us to our accommodation for the next 3 nights.   After much research we decided to stay in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, near to the main train station for a good transport options around Tokyo.

Accommodation Choice:

We booked the Petit Bali Forest Shinjuku Sanchome, which is a small love hotel (unbeknownst to us initially).  Love hotels, it appears, are common through Japan for short rentals by the hour as well as longer stays, possibly for a secret rendezvous or some saucy shenanigans.  For us it was a base, it was clean, well situated and had a free bar, soft drinks and copious snacks and toiletries.  What else could we want!

Travel and Transport:

We had read many articles about Suica cards and PASMO cards and quite frankly it got a bit confusing.  As we don’t have Apple phones we couldn’t download the SUICA payment card, instead we just rocked up at our local station, Shinjuku Sanchōme, and bought a physical PASMO card which we topped up when needed at machines.  It worked a treat, no overthinking required!

Attractions we visited:

Ueno Park

Research prior to our visit led us to Ueno Park for our first evening in Japan.  The park is one of the prime spots for seeing sakura or cherry blossom, with its own avenue of trees.  Also for the couple of weeks of sakura the park holds a cherry blossom festival with nightly illuminations and food and drink stalls. We taste tested 3 different types of sake,  and luckily for them, we approved. It was a great start to our time in Tokyo.

The 3D Cat Outside Shinjuku Station

Just outside of the east exit of the station is the billboard featuring the 3D cat, something we had previously seen on the internet.  Apparently on a 14 minute advertisement loop, the calico cat makes an appearance in various forms, sometimes fleeting, sometimes for a few seconds.  We saw Mikeneko (that’s its name!) whilst checking out our next transit at the station.  Cute but not that spectacular, worth a watch though if you happen to be passing.

Shibuya Crossing

Probably the most famous crossing in the world,  thanks to its appearance in tv shows and films all around the globe.  The crossing is the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world, comprising of 5 crossings all of which move at the same time resulting in the ‘Shibuya scramble’. 

We walked across every crossing and then went to view the crossing from above from the bar in Magnet department store.  We paid 1800 yen (approx £8.45) which also included a drink and a window seat.   It was a nice place and we were fortunate that it was not busy as time limits for the window seats can be put into place.

The Statue of Hachiko

Just next to the crossing is the statue of Hachiko, a famous dog who showed unwaivering loyalty to his owner by waiting at Shibuya Station for him, even after his death.  Hachiko had a very close bond with his owner, a professor from the Tokyo Imperial University, and would walk him to their station in the morning and be waiting for him to return in the evening.  His owner died suddenly at work and despite being rehomed Hachiko continued to wait for his owner at the station for 10 years until he passed away.  His story was portrayed in a film starring Richard Gere and he was immortalised in statue form next to the station

Senso-Ji

Tokyo’s oldest and most significant Buddhist temple, founded in 628 AD is Senso-Ji.  Located in Asakusa, the site hosts a massive red Kaminarimon Gate, the bustling Nakamise-dori shopping street, and a five-story pagoda.   It is a free major tourist attraction.  We visited at night which was a lot quieter and the buildings looked stunning.  The main hall  is open from 6-6.30am (depending on the time of the year) and closes at 17:00.  The grounds are open 24/7.

Tokyo Skytree

It would have been wrong to miss a visit to one of the world’s tallest towers whilst in the area.  We did in fact visit twice, once at night but we arrived too late for entry, and again during the next day.

It is an impressive and imposing sight, and although it is the tallest tower, it is not the tallest structure in the world.  The tallest structure is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai which is a skyscraper.  Nevertheless, standing at 634m tall it is the 3rd tallest freestanding structure in world.  Entry to the tower was at two rates; one to go up to 350m (2400 yen) and one to 450m (3500 yen).   We went for the higher option.

A pretty miserable day weather wise meant we didn’t see much, apparently you can see Mt Fuji on a good day, but we missed it!  It was a fun visit and one to tick off whilst in the city.

Meiji Shrine

Within walking distance from our hotel was the Meiji Shrine, a shinto shrine in Shibuya.  The shrine is located in a forest consisting of 120,000 trees of 365 varieties.    It is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.  It is a place of tranquily with strict rules around making no noise, no eating and drinking and no recreational activities including jogging. 

We were very tired when we visited and misread the map so walked past the path to the main shrine, however did eventually find it after backtracking!  It’s a popular tourist spot and if you happen to be nearby it’s worth a visit.

Sumo Show

Unfortunately it was off season (who knew Sumo wrestling had a season?) for seeing any sumo matches or training but we did book a very touristy sumo show in Shinjuku which actually exceeded our expectations.  It was very funny and the wrestlers equally had a sense of humour.

We had an opportunity to ‘fight’ one of the wrestles which we declined but l did have our photo taken with them.  It was fun and we enjoyed it.  We learnt a lot about sumo and the moves.  If you have the budget and a couples of hours to spare go for it! The link to the experience is here.

Food and Drink

From our in-depth pre-trip research we knew that the best places to get snacks and sandwiches are the convenience stores.  We had read about the highly recommended egg sandwiches from the 7/11, the rather unusual strawberries and cream sandwich and famichiki, the fried chicken snack from Family Mart.  Of course we tried all these (the jury is still out on the strawberries and cream sandwich).

We did however have a very tasty Katsu curry at a local curryhouse which we enjoyed. 

The burger and fries in the Mag8 bar by Shibuya crossing were pretty good and a breakfast at Wendy’s certainly helped us but there were several options for food.

Final Thoughts

Tokyo was a great place to visit, one of the world’s biggest cities, bustling with life and lots to see and do. Amazingly you find very few rubbish bins there but also very little litter. The Japanese can be described as disciplined, proud and organised (though we wouldn’t want to stereotype them), and naturally not absolutely everybody fits that description. We will tell you more later about butsukari otoko, a strange phenomenon which in our personal experience is unique to Japan. I’m sure that if/when you get to know the city really well you learn how to find all the late night opening bars and restaurants. As tourists and first-time visitors to the city we were struck by how early bars and restaurants closed; generally we struggled to find anywhere to eat or drink past 9 pm.

We enjoyed our few days in Tokyo, fitting in quite a lot. One of our enduring memories will be of being in Shinjuku train station during rush hour, so many people, so many exits, quite an overwhelming experience in some ways. Tokyo was a great place to start our trip and to familiarise ourselves with the Japanese culture, now it was time to move on to our next location – Hakone!

Carol & Nigel x