This was my third time visiting Japan, and after the last two I’d already done most of the touristy things and major attractions. I was once there in the summer, going to all the summer festivals, or Matsuri as they are called in Japan. I’ve been to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Kagoshima, Yakushima, Sendai, Aomori, Matsumoto, Hakone, and more. So why, after having done all those things, did I want to return a third time?
Well, couple of reasons. For one, I love Japan (hence having already been there twice before) and there’s always something more to see, something more to do. For another, and this was the main reason for coming back to Tokyo as well, it was to visit new and old friends.
I split my stay in Tokyo in two, staying for a week at the start and then another week after I’d gone to Hokkaido (but that’s something for another blog post).
Ikebukuro
I stayed in Ikebukuro both times because it was convenient to meet up with friends. Specifically I stayed in north Ikebukuro, which has a sort of questionable reputation as a kind of red light district. Something I didn’t know (hey, the hotels were cheap), but could have had I done a bit more research. I didn’t notice so much with the first hotel as it wasn’t quite in that area, but the second one was. It was like being in Shinjuku again, with people coming up to me with a one word question: Sex?
I spend a lot of time in the ‘park’ (really just a fountain in a square) outside the west gate of Ikebukuro station. Before one of the great migrations in Pokémon Go it was a great place to catch some good ones. Yes, I am still playing this game, though it is beginning to lose its shine as the Pokémon I still need don’t spawn anywhere. I did catch the Asian limited Farfetch’d, so I can’t complain there.
Some other fun locations in Ikebukuro are the bit hard to find Otome Road, where the anime and manga shops cater mostly to women, and Sunshine City, a big shopping complex with a Pokémon store, among other things. There are also some fun bars in Ikebukuro and some good places to eat. I just love Japanese food.
Odaiba
This was my second time going to Odaiba, a manmade island in Tokyo Bay. Lots of shops here, which is what it’s known for, but when we went there it was with the goal of playing Pokémon Go. Like Central Park in New York, or Kijkduin in the Netherlands, Odaiba is a Pokémon hotspot. And we did catch quite a few good ones, such as an Omastar. The zombie horde of Pokémon Go players was also very present – it was madness trying to walk among them. It’s funny though, you really see young and old play this game so enthusiastically.
On our hunt we also passed by the life-size Gundam statue, so of course I had to have a picture in front of it, just like I did four years ago when I was last here.
Totoro no Mori
There’s a forest in Saitama, not far from Tokyo, that is the inspiration of the movie My Neighbor Totoro, by Studio Ghibli. The forest is quite nice and there are places that really match the movie – It’s been too long since I’ve last seen it, so I probably saw more than I thought I did. There’s a mysterious feel about it, especially with all the giant cobwebs around. If you’re a fan of the movie, this is a must see.
If you go though, bring bug repellent and lots of it. Though the cobwebs are huge and there are spiders everywhere, there are even more mosquitos. I got eaten alive out there, all the while thinking about the bug repellent in my bag in my hotel room.
Despite the bugs the forest is a magical place. I’ve seen a few places related to studio Ghibli so far, like the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, or the forests on Yakushima Island (if you’ve seen Princess Mononoke, the forests in the movie exist on Yakushima and they are amazing) and those locations never disappoint. After the forest we walked to the Kurosuke House, which houses the trust that tries to buy up the forest to preserve it. Can you believe they want to tear the forest down to turn it into a graveyard? In the house there’s also a giant Totoro statue that’s worth seeing. We got there just in time before they closed.
Akihabara
I can’t come to Tokyo and not go to Akihabara, the haven for technology, anime and manga. I always buy too much here and this time was no different. What I wanted to visit this time around was the recently opened Square Enix Café. Got some souvenirs here too, such as a Moogle plushy. It was just too cute to pass up.
Akasaka
Other than a really nice shrine, with a stairway path covered in gates (tori) leading to the top, and a palace (which you can’t get into), there isn’t anything here of interest. Well, save for one more thing, a ninja-themed restaurant. Great food and the ambience was very authentic. You go through a ‘ninja training’ as they take you through passageways and hidden doors to your table. Great fun. If you’re tall though, watch your head.
Kawagoe and the Matsuri
Another daytrip from Tokyo, though when we went we didn’t know there was a festival going on that day. The idea was to see the old part of the city, which has some pretty historic buildings. Well, we still did, but it took a lot longer to get there. The sheer amount of people that came to the festival was staggering, and easily put any Pokémon zombie horde to shame. And it was during the daytime too. Festivals really get busy after the workday is over, but we didn’t stick around for that.
It’s worth seeing a Japanese festival, or Matsuri, just once. This was far from my first, but it was nice going to one again. The parades with floats are great to see and it’s fun to eat stuff at the stalls. I tried some fish on a stick, banana covered in chocolate on a stick and some other not-so-healthy things. I also won a second banana by winning a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.
The old buildings in Kawagoe are worth seeing, but I think I’d have appreciated them more without a horde of people blocking most of them from view. Also, trying to move through that many people is not easy and can become a little irritating. Still, if that’s the price to pay to experience a festival again than it’s a price worth paying.
Enoshima
Enoshima was the one day trip away from Tokyo that I did on my own. Like basically anywhere in the greater Tokyo region it’s pretty easy to reach by public transport. From Tokyo Shinjuku station you take an express train for about an hour and then a local train for about five to ten minutes and there you are, outside the bridge that takes you to the island.
The island isn’t very big, you can walk all over and see everything in a couple hours. Enoshima is very picturesque. To me it felt like walking on an island from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. In part that was because of the Triforce iconography everywhere, but the whole atmosphere was just so Zelda (think Windfall island, that’s what it was like). Great place to visit, and a good place to do some exercise too – there are so many stairs to climb if you want to see everything. Now, there are some escalators too, but to me that feels like cheating.
And like a Zelda area, they had a dungeon – I mean cave, there too. The sunken Iwaya cave, where you get handed a small candle on a stick as you progress through the first cave. You need it too, there’s almost no light in there and the ceiling is very low. Reminded me of when I was in South Korea many years ago, when I went in an intercept tunnel at the border to North Korea.
