Sam Byford

I’ve had a long love affair with Japan that stretches way back to when I first watched ‘The Last Samurai’ a film that, although fictional, completely sold me on the idea of visiting this mystical land of heroes. Seeing Ken Watanabe mentor Tom Cruise deep in the mountains of Himeji, I began dreaming of becoming a Katana-wielding warrior myself. Over time, and as I realised that I wasn’t quite cut out to be a 19th-century master swordsman, this dream shifted. Instead, I wanted to explore the country for its unique culture, history, landscapes, and most importantly A5 Wagu beef.

So with this in mind, we booked flights, and off we went…is what I wish I could say. In reality, our trip was cancelled, refunded, and reorganised more times than I care to admit. A mixture of tour companies going bankrupt and the little matter of a worldwide pandemic made it feel like we were cursed never to go. We opted for a mixture of independent and guided travel as we knew having someone with local knowledge would provide us with good insider tips and help us get smoothly from A-B. And the reality is it wasn’t their fault that the trip kept getting postponed. Japan was one of the last nations to fully re-open after COVID-19, taking a very cautious approach to welcoming the world back in. But finally, after 3 years of waiting, the gates opened in October 2022.

There we were, five months later, sitting on the plane bound for the land of the rising sun. The tarmac running out from beneath us. Finally. Lift off. 

24 hours later, 17 of which were flying, we arrived in Tokyo late at night on the 19th of April. I had managed about 0 hours of sleep and Lucy was only on a couple herself. We were in a state that could have easily gotten us a role as an extra on The Walking Dead. Yet, the pure adrenaline that was surging through us meant we dropped our bags at the hotel and immediately headed out into the urban jungle. Where did they go first I hear you ask? Was it a temple or a shrine? A local Izakaya? For some authentic sushi? No, it was McDonalds. We have a bit of a tradition that whenever we go somewhere new we try out the Golden Arches to see if they have anything interesting we can’t get in the UK. We ventured forth, passing through the luminous streets, small bars, and Konbini stores (more on these later) that this corner of the city had to offer.

Tokyo itself is one of the world’s largest cities and should be seen as a collection of smaller sub-cities smashed together. Some of the central areas are Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ueno, Ginza, Akihabara, and Harajuku. We could have easily spent an entire week exploring just Tokyo. Walking around one of the immediate things that struck me was how clean everything was and the fact there were no homeless people at all. Something that is almost a given in any large European city. We later learned this was due to there being so many safety nets to catch people that ending up on the streets was almost unheard of. 

Recharged with shaka-shaka fries (would not recommend) we crawled back to the hotel and passed out in our ‘double’ room that would have given Harry Potter’s Cupboard a run for its money – Space was a luxury in Tokyo that was rare to find. Not meeting the tour group until Saturday meant we had some time to explore the city in the following days…

On the first full day, we decided to check out our first of many, many, shrines and we were starting it off with a big one, Meiji Jinju. A Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirit of Emperor Meiji and one of Japan’s most visited sites.

Shintoism is a religion native to Japan that grew as the country’s main religion thanks in part to the isolationism that the islands experienced for such a large portion of their history. Buddhism was then carried over much later during the 6th century via monks from China and Korea. They are quite different in what they worship with Shintoism focusing on spirits and having no strict doctrine whereas Buddhism concentrates on the Buddha itself. However, both religions have coexisted happily together for a very long time; an extreme rarity for two separate faiths. This is in part due to the religions merging long ago with Shinto adopting many elements of Buddhism and some of the deities that came with it. However, we were told there is one rule – All Buddhist temples must have a Shinto shrine located next door. This becomes quite entertaining when you go to massive Buddhist temples and then see a considerably smaller shrine located behind the car park (as seen below).

Anyway back to today’s shrine – Surrounded by a large forested park, Meiji Jinju is also known to have some of the country’s largest Tori gates. These are large wooden structures that mark the entrances to sacred grounds and are said to purify those who walk underneath.  

So naturally, Lucy and I missed the entrance to the shrine and obliviously walked in the wrong direction for 10 minutes.

When we eventually realised we turned around and found it via said massive, extremely hard-to-miss, Tori gates. We were blown away by the intricate detail of the Shrine facade and pleasantly surprised by just how quiet it was. So quiet in fact that we simply sat down and just people watched as locals went up to the altar to pray.

For lunch, we decided to try out a Sushi conveyor belt restaurant on a recommendation Lucy had found online. I can now say without a shadow of a doubt, that all restaurants should have conveyors. We were given two stalls next to each other on a long bench with an iPad each in front of us, allowing us to select our food in English. With its technological approach to everything Japan is exceptionally well catered for foreign visitors. Once you click what you want and the iPad shouts at you for not confirming your order, the food is then sent to you on a high-speed rail network that HS2 could only dream of. Unlike conveyors in the UK, the food is always made to order and stops only next to you. It travels from the kitchen to your seat at Mach 1, preventing any ‘Sushi Terrorism’ issues. Not only was it a great experience, it was amazing quality at half the price of what you would pay in the UK.

After eating an entire school of fish, it was Otter o’clock. Tokyo, and especially the Harajuku district, was rife with pet cafes. Harajuku has a reputation as the capital of Tokyo’s Kawaii culture where the love of cuteness is taken to the extreme. Walking down the famous Takeshita street, you could see so many different animals it would make even the largest zoos blush. Dogs, cats, otters, chinchillas, hedgehogs, and even pigs. If it looked cute, there was a café for it. Now, many of these cafes did seem quite exploitative to the animals, similar to a circus operation. However, the one we researched was known to provide good living conditions and while we were there we got to feed and shake hands with some of the main residents. Each otter had their own unique personality – In the main arena, a couple of them were engrossed by children’s toys while another was passed out behind them looking like he’d just returned belly-full from a Sunday roast conquest. We absolutely loved the whole cute, albeit extremely noisy, experience.

It was then time for more food (a common theme) specifically Yakitori – Grilled skewers of chicken served with either a sticky soy sauce or just a pinch of salt. In the UK this was by far my favourite Japanese dish, so simple yet so good. However…in the UK it was usually either chicken thigh or breast. Presented with the menu here we realised we were slightly out of our depth having the option to choose almost any part of the bird. From the gizzard to the feet and back to the heart, nothing was going to waste. Keeping it simple we ordered a few small skewers to start with, intending to add more later on. But, when we finished no one came over to us even after I ‘politely’ stared them down.

Eventually, someone did come and I asked to order more. She looked at me…smiled…and walked away. I really should’ve tried harder learning Japanese and not just crammed in 5 days’ worth of Duolingo and called it a day. The owl gave me false hope and I miserably failed. At this point, we decided to cut our losses and head home. I went up to the front, as is the custom, and quickly paid hoping to save any more embarrassment. It was only about 20 minutes down the road when Lucy asked the price did I notice something was wrong. Yakitori is fairly cheap and somehow we spent the equivalent of £30 on 3 small plates? It was then that reality hit us. We had somehow paid for the table next to us instead. Remembering back, they were a couple having a kingly feast, armed with a stack of skewers that could have been used to siege Constantinople. Whoever you are, wherever your life has led you since that night, you are welcome for the food.

The next morning we got breakfast from our local 7/11 and headed to a nearby park. Japan has a huge number of Kombinis (convenience stores) with the biggest being 7/11, FamilyMart, and Lawsons. These aren’t like your regular corner shops from back in the West though. The fresh food they offer is of exceptional quality, and don’t even get me started on the hot food counter. FamilyMart had its own fried chicken brand, FamiChicken, which could give The Colonel a run for his money. 7/11 had curry-filled buns and Lawsons had a great selection of sandwiches. You could easily eat at exclusively Kombini stores and feel like you hadn’t missed out on much. However, there were some…odd things that we found – The standout being the fried noodle sub.

A while later we headed to Shibuya Sky to get an aerial view of the city. Tokyo has a plethora of observation decks such as the famous Tokyo Tower (which is bigger than its French cousin) and the Tokyo Sky Tree (Japan’s tallest building). But we decided on the less internationally renowned, Shibuya Sky. The reason for this was the area that surrounded it; Shibuya wasn’t known for towering skyscrapers and as such the platform provided an unobstructed, open-air, panoramic view of almost the entire city. On clear days you could even see Mt Fuji towering in the distance. The view was extremely impressive and it was the first time the absolute scale of this mega-city became apparent. We took thousands of photos, watched the world go by, and even had a cocktail at the bar.

In the evening we headed to Tokyo’s electric city, Akihabara. A neighbourhood filled with arcades, maid cafes, anime dungeons(???), and electrical stores selling every item you will ever need. If you require something that involves a current and can’t find it in Akihabara, it isn’t worth having. Filled with neon lights, narrow alleyways, and a constant buzz from arcades, it was a full frontal assault on the senses. Whilst there we sampled our first Ramen of the trip at one of the many small restaurants, delighting in the rich, fresh, pork broth and unlimited sushi ginger.

The best bit of the area though was the Gacha Pod store. These pods are small capsules that contain an item ranging from a plastic cat to a ramen packet key chain. It’s a huge craze in Japan with gumball-esc machines asking for between 300-500 yen per capsule. Each machine has a certain theme with a set of items, displaying what you can win.

The entertainment comes from not knowing exactly what you are going to get and aiming to collect them all. It felt weirdly like gambling; “Just one more spin and I could have the miniature deck chair to finally complete my BBQ beach set,” says the grown man who has spent 2000 Yen and 1 hour attempting to get an item he will forget about after 10 minutes. The odds were in our favor that night and of the roughly 5 we attempted, we got exactly what we wanted. We left with most of our pride intact…although it was very hard to resist just one more spin…

The Following evening after checking out of our hotel and exploring the Kamedido Tenjin Shrine with its beautiful wisteria and arched bridges, it was time to meet up with the tour group. We had opted for an 18-30s tour run by G Adventures called Speed Trains and Street Food. It included all the key places we wanted to visit and would mean traveling with people our age. We met at the Grids hostel near Shinjuku station where, due to their communal nature, Lucy and I would be sleeping in separate gender-split dorms. When I got into my dorm there were six beds but no-one there. It was clear that I was either the first one to check in or had hit the jackpot. I unpacked and then met Lucy downstairs for the welcome meeting with the rest of the group.

Our guide, Yas, was a 60-something-year-old ex-car salesman who had the energy and passion of a 21-year-old Ibizia club rep. We loved Yas. Weirdly, he had just done this same tour a few weeks ago with someone I knew from school which was a very surreal small-world moment. The group itself was split roughly in half in terms of gender with ages ranging from 19-33 and a whole host of nationalities. There was one other fellow Brit, Sarah, a South African guy called T who was on his 30th(!!!) G adventures tour, a handful of Aussies, a couple of Americans, and a partridge in a pear tree. They were all great and we knew straight away that the tour was going to be a lot of fun.

Post-meeting we headed out for an Orientation walk and dinner around Shinjuku. Wandering through the neon-neighborhood Yas took us to an arcade where we played some of the millions of claw machines in an attempt to win giant stuffed animals, models, and even food. The arcade also housed a large number of reaction/speed-based games and it was truly jaw-dropping to watch Tokyoites play them at mind-blowing speeds getting near-perfect results every time. Many even came with gloves to prevent blistering, it was insane the dedication they had and showed how serious gaming culture was here.

After another Ramen, Yas left us to it and we went to our first bar as a group. The area we were in was tourist trap central so it was hard to know where to go for a decent drink. This was until one of the group, Morgan, took a calculated risk and went down into one of the many “basement bars”. Part of me expected never to see her again but to our surprise, she came back and ushered us to follow her. Down the thin narrow staircase we went, leaving behind the sensory annihilation of central Shinjuku and entering into a small, quiet cocktail bar. It was here that my love affair with Japanese whiskey, specifically Yamazaki, accidentally began. I ordered a highball cocktail but something was obviously lost in translation and instead, I ended up with a glass of neat Yamazaki 10 year. I should have known when the price listed for the glass was more than my entire daily budget. 

Getting back to the hostel later on part of me naively expected to have an entire dorm to myself, so you can imagine my surprise when I see Yas giving another welcome talk to four new people. They introduce themselves – Four Norwegian guys straight out of the army, all about 7 feet tall, and all of their names beginning with an H. And as it turned out…they were in my dorm.

The next day starts bright and early with Yas asking us where we would like to go. Quite a few of us had been in Tokyo for a couple of days or even weeks, so it was a challenge finding somewhere no one had been. However, the Asakusa area with the Senso-Ji temple seemed to be the common denominator. Senso-Ji was Tokyo’s oldest temple which may have also explained why it seemed to be its busiest. There was a long straight road leading from the temple gates to the main building that was lined with tourist shops and street food vendors. This created a uniquely commercial feel to the site that we didn’t experience with any other religious area. Waddling through the crowd we managed to grab some red bean paste buns (Anpan) which were an interesting taste experience, to say the least. If you like eating mashed and slightly sweet kidney beans, these are the snacks for you. 

We explored the area for a bit longer but then headed to Akihabara. The temple was impressive but not one I’d recommend going to unless you get there at the crack of dawn to beat the swarm. In Akihabara, Yas showed us a food court that was hidden up one of the many tower blocks. Japan was great for hiding things just about everywhere. It seemed around every corner there was always an innocuous lift off to the side of a building that would lead you to a restaurant or arcade you never knew existed. The food court was big, too big. It took longer than I care to admit to pick a place but eventually, a small group of us settled for a fried food restaurant. The food was fantastic with all of us ordering a set meal that came with a fried item, cabbage, miso soup, and many other things that we didn’t recognize. We did however get told off for being too loud with the waiter coming over and doing his best Ross impression. Japan has a very reserved culture so when we looked around and saw other tables smiling and staring at us we realised we were clearly breaching the peace.

Deciding that we had embarrassed ourselves enough, we hastily left and headed to the Imperial Palace. A few subway stops later we reached Tokyo station, a Victorian-style building that looked extremely out of place in the downtown area. Walking to the palace I made the grave moral error of crossing the road before the pedestrian light had turned green. This isn’t illegal but oh boy did it feel like it was. No one crosses the road in Tokyo before it’s green, even if the coast is clear. I felt a thousand eyes piercing through me as I committed the dreadful act. After my short era of crime, we strolled up to the Palace only to find out you couldn’t see the main building at this time of year. Great work from us. Luckily the grounds were massive and there was still a vast complex of gardens to walk around. We also happened to be visiting during golden hour, with the entire area lit by the fading glow of the sun. This produced some of the best photos of the tour including what is probably the best photo I will ever take.

The day was finally capped off with a trip to Shibuya to meet Hachiko and cross a road. Shibuya is known for having one of the busiest crossings in the world but at the end of the day, it’s just a big zebra crossing, it’s nothing to write home (or a blog) about. Most of us headed back to the hostel at this point but T and Bodie had another idea. They went to the nearest GIGO arcade and ended up winning an almost lifesize stuffed Kirby toy on the first attempt. Kirby-San (Mr. Kirby) ended up joining for the rest of the tour as an extra group member. It was funny for us, but hellish for Bodie who had to carry this giant thing around with him through most of central Japan. 

Speaking of central Japan, tomorrow was the day we would say farewell to Tokyo and begin our journey south, into the mountains. Onwards, to Takayama…