Tokyo Day 3: Shibuya/Shinjuku, okonomiyaki, Meiji Shrine & purikura photo booths

It’s fun to have friends in other countries. On our third day in Tokyo, Will’s friend Scott took the train up from Osaka to spend the day with us. Valentine’s Day, actually. 🙂 Aww.

First order of business? Find some okonomiyaki for lunch. We got off at Shibuya Station, and actually, first first, I had to pay tribute to Hachiko. You know, Hachiko, the Akita dog that would greet his owner daily at Shibuya Station when he returned from work, and continued to loyally wait there every day for nine years after his owner had died? (Sigh, so sad. Don’t watch the movie or you’ll cry your eyes out.) They have a statue of him there as soon as you exit the station via… the Hachiko exit. Then, we crossed the street — that is, the famous Shibuya crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world! Many of you have seen it in movies, but here was our view of it:

View of Shibuya Crossing from Shibuya Station.

Paw prints when exiting via the Hachiko exit at Shibuya Station.

Hachiko. Someone left him a rice ball or something.

Sniff sniff.

Hachiko memorial of some kind.

Intersection madness.

Another view of the river of people.

Sooo many people. And yet, no one pushed or shoved me as would’ve happened in Seoul.

Will and Scott, looking for lunch.

I don’t know, something round and cute.

Disney store.

Hachiko bus!

View of Shibuya Station from across the street.

Tokyo Day 1: Imperial Palace, Ginza, Capsule Hotel

You always hear about how amazing Japan is. They have robots, Anime, smart toilets, cherry blossoms, Mount Fuji, and on and on. I’ve been hearing some of this for years from Will who, as some of you know, lived in Japan years ago. So, it was only a matter of time that I’d end up visiting someday. And, conveniently enough, it’s only a couple hours (plane ride) from South Korea.

We traveled to Tokyo for just five days, but, surprisingly enough, we were able to see most of the top attractions and do most of what we wanted, including eating delicious food. That said, I’ll try my best to share with you some of the highlights of our trip in the next few posts.

Day 1

The flight over on Japan Airlines was short and sweet, and we were fed a meal (yay for free meals). Once we landed in Haneda Airport, Will used the Tokyo Subway mobile app to get us to our hotel, which seemed fairly easy. Already my first impression was, “wow, everything is so clean!” Seriously, everything. The floors, the public bathrooms, the trains. We checked into our hotel, dropped off our bags and headed back out since it was still early in the day.

We had some tasty ramen at the Marunouchi Building (in what felt like a business district, right by Tokyo Station), and walked over to the Imperial Palace.