Our Japanese started with the plane ride at 11:30 from Estonia. It was tough to get all of the suitcases and bags to the airport. At first I thought it would be easy, the tram goes straight from my house to the airport, but when I was trying to carry everyting, it was awful and I regretted not getting a taxi. :D But well, that didn't mean I didn't go!
We had two luggages east + handheld luggage (we would almost have needed tons more when coming back). We dropped off our bags and proceeded to sequrity. We didn't need to wait for long in Estonia, but still a little. We were just looking around and waiting for our flight to Finland, Helsinki, as we needed to switch planes there. We could have gone via Turky as well, but the price difference was really small. Also we would have had to stay in Ankara for half a day. In Helsinki, the time was only 4 hours.
Flying to Helsinki was really weird, because as soon as we got up in the air, we had to come down again. :D As some time had passed, we found ourselves a sandwich and coffee and sat down with those. After that we found some comfy chairs near our gate and laid down there, watching some videos and talking and so on. Time passed surprisingly fast and soon we had to get on board of Tokyo flight.
I have never flown such a long distance and I was kind of excited for it. :D It turned out to be absolute torture. At least I was sitting next to the window...
Anyway, there was a problem with my food, no one knew I was supposed to have a vegetarian meal. So I got some fresh salad with sauce and could eat stuff without meat from the menu. A bit disappointing, but what can you do. At least the breakfast was suitable for me, being an omelette with some stuff, so I am not complaining too much. :D But yeah, I hoped to get something better. xD
We arrived in Japan at 11 am, so we had a full day ahead of us to do things!
First day in Japan
Firstly we went to a friend's place who we stayed with and who we were visiting in the first place. We left our stuff there, made ourselves ready for the day and headed out.
We went to university's campus and looked around there, went to a store and got some onigiri of course (I miss them so much! I tried different ones, but the tuna mayo one is stil lthe best!) and dropped by post office, as we wanted to send our grandmas some postcards. We didn't find any nice ones though and left it at that.
We also happened to come across 100 yen store, where we got some stuff. (I wish Estonia had 1 euro store. I should have mentioned that in the previous post, where I wrote about things Estonia needs!)
Next step was to go out and have some food. We went for udon, and it was absolutely amazing. We also understood how hospitable and polite Japanese people are.
After having food we walked around for a bit and then headed to a bar, as we needed to celebrate our arrival. And well, we did celebrate it... :D
So this was the end of our first day in Japan. When we got home at night, at least we didn't have any trouble falling asleep and I felt well rested the next morning. No jet lag what so ever, even though I didn't sleep in the plane at all (I did fall asleep for a second, but startled awake right away).
About Corona virus... if I could get an euro every time someone asks about it, I could make another trip to Japan right away... :D People, chill please!
Second day in Japan
On the second day we headed to Odaiba first, as we had gotten tickets to visit teamLab Boarderless Tokyo light installations.
First time taking the train to Tokyo... it went quite fast. I think we were really lucky being able to stay at a friend's place in Tsukuba and go to Tokyo every time we wanted. We saved money from booking accommodation and it was easier like this, as we didn't need to take our luggage anywhere.
The light installations were awesome. There were so many rooms with different attractions and things where you could participate in (for example you could draw a snake or butterfly or something, then it was scanned and the creature was later running around in the room).
For many rooms you had to queue, because there would have been too many people at once. For this reason we missed one thing (we would have had to wait for over 60 minutes), but we still spent good 3-4 hours at the place. I think it was really worth it and pictures tell a better story than I could.
After that we went to an Odaiba ferris wheel, as it was only 1000 yen and we imagined it would be cool to see Tokyo from high up. It was really similar to our ferris wheel in Tallinn, but it appeared that the Odaiba one is the highest in the world. :D Anyway it was cool to ride with it, but it would have been better if it was in the middle of the city.
Next we went near the rainbow bridge (which didn't light up while we were there) and looked at the huge Gundam statue. This was the first moment I had this "omg I am in Japan" feeling. :D
We also saw the huge olympic rings and blossoming plum trees, which were really pretty and attracted a lot of tourists like us. :D
At some point we continued moving forward and went to Akihabara to have some sushi. We were looking forward to having sushi in Japan and it was really good. I already wrote a long post about foods, which gives a better overview, than this post here. We also went to some stores and then headed back home.
Me picking out sushi. A good picture to see my hair colour. :D
Third day in Japan
On the third day we headed to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, as you could get a good view over the city from there. We didn't visit Skytree or Tokyo Tower and waste money, as this one was good enough, Also I suppose it had less tourists there.
When we finally got on the 93rd floor, I realised how BIG Tokyo actually is. I am used to my little Tallinn... :D
We also finally bought postcards, which I sent to my gandma. I have this habbit of always sending her one from my trips and then she always calls me and lets me know when it has arrived. :)
Next I think we walked to Shinjuku and then to Korea Town. We wanted to try some Korean food and just look around. It was quite different, full of small make up and k-pop stores. :D It was really nice to walk around there.
For lunch, we did visit a restaurant and enjoyed some Korean food.
After that we went to Harajuku, where our first stop was Starbucks, as we were quite tired and needed some boost of energy. For this, sakura milk latte was perfect.
Then we wnt to Shibuya, to see more of the busy areas of the city. We stopped at the Hachiko statue and then crossed the Shibuya crossing (where I yet again had this "help, I am in Japan feeling. :D). I took some pictures, but most of the peopel focus on people wearing masks and ask about it. No, I didn't wear one. No, I was not afraid of Corona virus.
Fourth day in Japan
Writing this now I have already forgotten some things and all of the days have kind of mashed together in my head. :D
Anyway, on the next day we went to Asakusa and walked around in some stores, buying tons of stuff. For me, I got a lot of KitKats...
From there, we went to visit Sensō-ji temple, which was full of tourists. Again a place that I have seen on pictures so many times, thinking I want to be there too... :D It was really cool. I got my mum and sister some lucky charms as well, so it was good call. :D There were so many people and a lot of booths to buy stuff from.
On this day we went to have okonomiyaki, which I had been looking forward to for a long time. And this was not a disappointment, it was probably one of my favourite things. :D
After the food we walked around in some parks and watched plum blossoms. People were again crowding them, because well, you need to capture the beauty. We had done it in Odaiba already.
On the evening we went to karaoke, which we had postponed for a few days. :D Luckily we were not too tired and singing Barbie Girl initiated a proper party. :D If you go to Japan, I really recommend checking karaoke out. Enjoying it with your friends is awesome. And besides, in Tsukuba there was free drinks bar and unlimited soft serve ice cream!
Fifth day in Japan
For this, we set a further goal than Tokyo and went to Kamakura.
Firstly we dropped by Hokokuji temple, which was surrounded by bamboo and which looked really cool. Probably one of my favourite places we visited. It was quiet and calm. I really liked that people were not allowed to just walk around everyhwere, you had to follow a path.
Kōtoku-in was our next destination, where there is this huge buddha statue. I know I am repeating myself, but I again had this moment of "I am in Japan and I have seen this place on pictures". :D
We were super lucky with the wather, all days (except for the one before the last) were sunny and warm, I think around 15 degrees Celcius. At the same time it was weird that it went dark so fast on the evenings. And as soon as it got dark, it got cold. In Estonia, it goes dark gradually. In Japan, you went to a store for a second and when you came out, it was pitch black outside. :D
Kamakura was really beautiful, but it had really narrow streets. One thing I noticed and thought interesting.
After visiting Kamakura we decided to go to Enoshima, as it was quite close and seemed like a cool place to visit. Done and done. It was really nice to just walk and laugh over warnings about hawks. Also we saw Fuji mountain from the distance!
On Enoshima I noticed that across the streets there are so many cables. Pundles of cables were really normal thing to see, but it was weird for me. Ah, we laso met several cats on Enoshima. What made it special, was that there were signs on the streets, saying that these cats live there and they are well taken care of.
After this short trip we headed back home. We had eaten soba on this day and enjoyed yakisoba in the evening. :D The evening was so nice!
Sixth day in Japan
Today was finally a day we spent fully in Tsukuba, well, except for one of us who went to see a concert in Tokyo in the evening.
We got up a bit later in the morning at set out for a bus to go and see Tsukuba mountain. I think it would have been cool to hike up and arrive at 877 meters, but we didn't have enough time (it probably would have taken all day) thus we picked the railway up.
It was so cool to be so high up and discover that Japan actually has quite a lot of mountains. You could not understand it in Tokyo at all, but in Tsukuba and on the next day when we went to visit an onsen, we saw a lot more nature.
Despite getting up to the mountain easily, we still needed to hike for a bit. But the view was so worth it.
On the second peak we didn't make it to, because we were pressed with time (the bus we took to the mountain was an hour late due to really heavy traffic). Then we went back down and looked around a little more and took the bus back to city center.
After that I had some time to walk around in the stores alone and buy one of two things. It wasn't a major shopping trip, but I still got a few bits and pieces.
I then met up with a friend again and we headed to a small cafe that had really good coffee. In general, coffee in Japan is pretty good, or we just visited nice places. For example in Kamakura also we stopped at some cafe and it was just fantastic.
It had gotten dark outside thus we skipped the idea of walking around in the park and went to a mall instead, having a goal in mind of buying tea and just look around.
We went to this one tea store that we had already heard about and excited for (as my friend brought us some tea to try from there). I got blueberry tea (and when we went there again on the last day, I also got cookie flavoured one. And well, it for real tastes like cookies. I don't understand how this is possible) and some green tea for my dad.
It was really nice to just walk around and see different things in a mall. :D
We met up with a friend who went to see a concert around 9-10 pm and then had some dinner, after what we walked home. Again it was such a nice evening. It was a bit chilly, but not too bad. Also even when the weather was windy, the wind was sort of warm, a lot different from what I am used to.
Seventh day in Japan
This was like a holiday during a holiday. We could get up much later as we were heading off at 11 - we went to an onsen, also known as hot spring.
I really wanted to try this but I couldn't even imagine how it would be. When we got to the onsen, we got some towels and went to change, after that you need to wash up and then enter the bath.
Onsen makes your skin sooooo soft and nice and it was so amazing to get some warmth into my old bones (I sound like 70 year old :D). We were there for around an hour and it was enough.
The day we went to an onsen was the only one that it rained. Not much though. After onsen, we went to see a waterfall, which was pretty darn amazing. Others said that it was actually good that it was raining - the waterfall is more powerful when there is well, more water. We tried to take some pictures, and managed to capture something, even though it was quite dark already. :D
Anyway we finally moved on to have some ramen, which I was really looking forward to. It was a really nice vacation day all in all.
Seventh day in Japan
This day we had set aside for shopping and began quite early by going to a Japanese second hand store. It was huge and there were soo many things, which I would have liked to have! All of the products were really nice and set out pretty. It honestly didn't feel like a second hand store at all.
Surprisingly I bought quite a bit of clothes (which almost didn't fit into my suitcase :D), others also got bags and all kinds of stuff.
Then we headed a bit further from Tsukuba center to visit another mall, before what we went and had lunch at this Hawaiian pancake place.
At the mall we did some more shopping, went to the game center and did some purikura, just looked around. Time passed super fast and we walked so much, I think it was more than 15k steps. And it was one of the most active days according to my activity watch. :D But it wasn't as tiring as some other days.
On the evening we went to the bar again, ready to stay awake until the morning. :D We still got home around three and managed to get some sleep, before we had to take all the stuff and head back home to Estonia.
There was a cat in the bar!
Last morning in Japan
Was so sad. I wish we stayed longer, though at the same time it felt as if we had been there for ages. At least we got to experience a little and we now know what else we want to do and see when we go back. Which we will!
On the way to the airport we grabbed some onigiris, me of course picking tuna mayo one, and it was time to say goodbye.
It was honestly sad. Being used to being around friends 24/7 and I guess we had enough to still talk about for weeks. Also the plane ride back was sooooo long.
At the airport we did some last moment shopping, for example I got my sister some wasabi flavoured KitKat (which is totally one of the best) and Starbucks thermos for a friend.
Then it was time to board the plane and watch some movies. Flying to Japan, I hadn't gotten around it, but on the way home I watched three. I tried to sleep for a bit, but it was impossible.
We arrived back to Estonia at 5 pm, which meant that it was around midnight in Japan. I was so tired, but despite this I gave my sister an overview of the trip and what I saw and did. And even now I keep remembering some details that I haven't yet written down. For example...
Japanese cars are so weird and rectangular.
It was weird getting used to the opposite side traffic.
So many people ride bicycles.
Japan's nature is really beautiful.
In busses and trains there are a lot of announcements and they could last the whole trip.
Japanese people are really kind and polite.
I want to go back sooner.
We had two luggages east + handheld luggage (we would almost have needed tons more when coming back). We dropped off our bags and proceeded to sequrity. We didn't need to wait for long in Estonia, but still a little. We were just looking around and waiting for our flight to Finland, Helsinki, as we needed to switch planes there. We could have gone via Turky as well, but the price difference was really small. Also we would have had to stay in Ankara for half a day. In Helsinki, the time was only 4 hours.
Flying to Helsinki was really weird, because as soon as we got up in the air, we had to come down again. :D As some time had passed, we found ourselves a sandwich and coffee and sat down with those. After that we found some comfy chairs near our gate and laid down there, watching some videos and talking and so on. Time passed surprisingly fast and soon we had to get on board of Tokyo flight.
I have never flown such a long distance and I was kind of excited for it. :D It turned out to be absolute torture. At least I was sitting next to the window...
Anyway, there was a problem with my food, no one knew I was supposed to have a vegetarian meal. So I got some fresh salad with sauce and could eat stuff without meat from the menu. A bit disappointing, but what can you do. At least the breakfast was suitable for me, being an omelette with some stuff, so I am not complaining too much. :D But yeah, I hoped to get something better. xD
We arrived in Japan at 11 am, so we had a full day ahead of us to do things!
First day in Japan
Firstly we went to a friend's place who we stayed with and who we were visiting in the first place. We left our stuff there, made ourselves ready for the day and headed out.
We went to university's campus and looked around there, went to a store and got some onigiri of course (I miss them so much! I tried different ones, but the tuna mayo one is stil lthe best!) and dropped by post office, as we wanted to send our grandmas some postcards. We didn't find any nice ones though and left it at that.
We also happened to come across 100 yen store, where we got some stuff. (I wish Estonia had 1 euro store. I should have mentioned that in the previous post, where I wrote about things Estonia needs!)
Next step was to go out and have some food. We went for udon, and it was absolutely amazing. We also understood how hospitable and polite Japanese people are.
After having food we walked around for a bit and then headed to a bar, as we needed to celebrate our arrival. And well, we did celebrate it... :D
So this was the end of our first day in Japan. When we got home at night, at least we didn't have any trouble falling asleep and I felt well rested the next morning. No jet lag what so ever, even though I didn't sleep in the plane at all (I did fall asleep for a second, but startled awake right away).
About Corona virus... if I could get an euro every time someone asks about it, I could make another trip to Japan right away... :D People, chill please!
Second day in Japan
On the second day we headed to Odaiba first, as we had gotten tickets to visit teamLab Boarderless Tokyo light installations.
First time taking the train to Tokyo... it went quite fast. I think we were really lucky being able to stay at a friend's place in Tsukuba and go to Tokyo every time we wanted. We saved money from booking accommodation and it was easier like this, as we didn't need to take our luggage anywhere.
The light installations were awesome. There were so many rooms with different attractions and things where you could participate in (for example you could draw a snake or butterfly or something, then it was scanned and the creature was later running around in the room).
For many rooms you had to queue, because there would have been too many people at once. For this reason we missed one thing (we would have had to wait for over 60 minutes), but we still spent good 3-4 hours at the place. I think it was really worth it and pictures tell a better story than I could.
After that we went to an Odaiba ferris wheel, as it was only 1000 yen and we imagined it would be cool to see Tokyo from high up. It was really similar to our ferris wheel in Tallinn, but it appeared that the Odaiba one is the highest in the world. :D Anyway it was cool to ride with it, but it would have been better if it was in the middle of the city.
Next we went near the rainbow bridge (which didn't light up while we were there) and looked at the huge Gundam statue. This was the first moment I had this "omg I am in Japan" feeling. :D
We also saw the huge olympic rings and blossoming plum trees, which were really pretty and attracted a lot of tourists like us. :D
At some point we continued moving forward and went to Akihabara to have some sushi. We were looking forward to having sushi in Japan and it was really good. I already wrote a long post about foods, which gives a better overview, than this post here. We also went to some stores and then headed back home.
Me picking out sushi. A good picture to see my hair colour. :D
Third day in Japan
On the third day we headed to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, as you could get a good view over the city from there. We didn't visit Skytree or Tokyo Tower and waste money, as this one was good enough, Also I suppose it had less tourists there.
When we finally got on the 93rd floor, I realised how BIG Tokyo actually is. I am used to my little Tallinn... :D
We also finally bought postcards, which I sent to my gandma. I have this habbit of always sending her one from my trips and then she always calls me and lets me know when it has arrived. :)
Next I think we walked to Shinjuku and then to Korea Town. We wanted to try some Korean food and just look around. It was quite different, full of small make up and k-pop stores. :D It was really nice to walk around there.
For lunch, we did visit a restaurant and enjoyed some Korean food.
After that we went to Harajuku, where our first stop was Starbucks, as we were quite tired and needed some boost of energy. For this, sakura milk latte was perfect.
Then we wnt to Shibuya, to see more of the busy areas of the city. We stopped at the Hachiko statue and then crossed the Shibuya crossing (where I yet again had this "help, I am in Japan feeling. :D). I took some pictures, but most of the peopel focus on people wearing masks and ask about it. No, I didn't wear one. No, I was not afraid of Corona virus.
Fourth day in Japan
Writing this now I have already forgotten some things and all of the days have kind of mashed together in my head. :D
Anyway, on the next day we went to Asakusa and walked around in some stores, buying tons of stuff. For me, I got a lot of KitKats...
From there, we went to visit Sensō-ji temple, which was full of tourists. Again a place that I have seen on pictures so many times, thinking I want to be there too... :D It was really cool. I got my mum and sister some lucky charms as well, so it was good call. :D There were so many people and a lot of booths to buy stuff from.
On this day we went to have okonomiyaki, which I had been looking forward to for a long time. And this was not a disappointment, it was probably one of my favourite things. :D
After the food we walked around in some parks and watched plum blossoms. People were again crowding them, because well, you need to capture the beauty. We had done it in Odaiba already.
On the evening we went to karaoke, which we had postponed for a few days. :D Luckily we were not too tired and singing Barbie Girl initiated a proper party. :D If you go to Japan, I really recommend checking karaoke out. Enjoying it with your friends is awesome. And besides, in Tsukuba there was free drinks bar and unlimited soft serve ice cream!
Fifth day in Japan
For this, we set a further goal than Tokyo and went to Kamakura.
Firstly we dropped by Hokokuji temple, which was surrounded by bamboo and which looked really cool. Probably one of my favourite places we visited. It was quiet and calm. I really liked that people were not allowed to just walk around everyhwere, you had to follow a path.
Kōtoku-in was our next destination, where there is this huge buddha statue. I know I am repeating myself, but I again had this moment of "I am in Japan and I have seen this place on pictures". :D
We were super lucky with the wather, all days (except for the one before the last) were sunny and warm, I think around 15 degrees Celcius. At the same time it was weird that it went dark so fast on the evenings. And as soon as it got dark, it got cold. In Estonia, it goes dark gradually. In Japan, you went to a store for a second and when you came out, it was pitch black outside. :D
Kamakura was really beautiful, but it had really narrow streets. One thing I noticed and thought interesting.
After visiting Kamakura we decided to go to Enoshima, as it was quite close and seemed like a cool place to visit. Done and done. It was really nice to just walk and laugh over warnings about hawks. Also we saw Fuji mountain from the distance!
On Enoshima I noticed that across the streets there are so many cables. Pundles of cables were really normal thing to see, but it was weird for me. Ah, we laso met several cats on Enoshima. What made it special, was that there were signs on the streets, saying that these cats live there and they are well taken care of.
After this short trip we headed back home. We had eaten soba on this day and enjoyed yakisoba in the evening. :D The evening was so nice!
Sixth day in Japan
Today was finally a day we spent fully in Tsukuba, well, except for one of us who went to see a concert in Tokyo in the evening.
We got up a bit later in the morning at set out for a bus to go and see Tsukuba mountain. I think it would have been cool to hike up and arrive at 877 meters, but we didn't have enough time (it probably would have taken all day) thus we picked the railway up.
It was so cool to be so high up and discover that Japan actually has quite a lot of mountains. You could not understand it in Tokyo at all, but in Tsukuba and on the next day when we went to visit an onsen, we saw a lot more nature.
Despite getting up to the mountain easily, we still needed to hike for a bit. But the view was so worth it.
On the second peak we didn't make it to, because we were pressed with time (the bus we took to the mountain was an hour late due to really heavy traffic). Then we went back down and looked around a little more and took the bus back to city center.
After that I had some time to walk around in the stores alone and buy one of two things. It wasn't a major shopping trip, but I still got a few bits and pieces.
I then met up with a friend again and we headed to a small cafe that had really good coffee. In general, coffee in Japan is pretty good, or we just visited nice places. For example in Kamakura also we stopped at some cafe and it was just fantastic.
It had gotten dark outside thus we skipped the idea of walking around in the park and went to a mall instead, having a goal in mind of buying tea and just look around.
We went to this one tea store that we had already heard about and excited for (as my friend brought us some tea to try from there). I got blueberry tea (and when we went there again on the last day, I also got cookie flavoured one. And well, it for real tastes like cookies. I don't understand how this is possible) and some green tea for my dad.
It was really nice to just walk around and see different things in a mall. :D
We met up with a friend who went to see a concert around 9-10 pm and then had some dinner, after what we walked home. Again it was such a nice evening. It was a bit chilly, but not too bad. Also even when the weather was windy, the wind was sort of warm, a lot different from what I am used to.
Seventh day in Japan
This was like a holiday during a holiday. We could get up much later as we were heading off at 11 - we went to an onsen, also known as hot spring.
I really wanted to try this but I couldn't even imagine how it would be. When we got to the onsen, we got some towels and went to change, after that you need to wash up and then enter the bath.
Onsen makes your skin sooooo soft and nice and it was so amazing to get some warmth into my old bones (I sound like 70 year old :D). We were there for around an hour and it was enough.
The day we went to an onsen was the only one that it rained. Not much though. After onsen, we went to see a waterfall, which was pretty darn amazing. Others said that it was actually good that it was raining - the waterfall is more powerful when there is well, more water. We tried to take some pictures, and managed to capture something, even though it was quite dark already. :D
Anyway we finally moved on to have some ramen, which I was really looking forward to. It was a really nice vacation day all in all.
Seventh day in Japan
This day we had set aside for shopping and began quite early by going to a Japanese second hand store. It was huge and there were soo many things, which I would have liked to have! All of the products were really nice and set out pretty. It honestly didn't feel like a second hand store at all.
Surprisingly I bought quite a bit of clothes (which almost didn't fit into my suitcase :D), others also got bags and all kinds of stuff.
Then we headed a bit further from Tsukuba center to visit another mall, before what we went and had lunch at this Hawaiian pancake place.
At the mall we did some more shopping, went to the game center and did some purikura, just looked around. Time passed super fast and we walked so much, I think it was more than 15k steps. And it was one of the most active days according to my activity watch. :D But it wasn't as tiring as some other days.
On the evening we went to the bar again, ready to stay awake until the morning. :D We still got home around three and managed to get some sleep, before we had to take all the stuff and head back home to Estonia.
There was a cat in the bar!
Last morning in Japan
Was so sad. I wish we stayed longer, though at the same time it felt as if we had been there for ages. At least we got to experience a little and we now know what else we want to do and see when we go back. Which we will!
On the way to the airport we grabbed some onigiris, me of course picking tuna mayo one, and it was time to say goodbye.
It was honestly sad. Being used to being around friends 24/7 and I guess we had enough to still talk about for weeks. Also the plane ride back was sooooo long.
At the airport we did some last moment shopping, for example I got my sister some wasabi flavoured KitKat (which is totally one of the best) and Starbucks thermos for a friend.
Then it was time to board the plane and watch some movies. Flying to Japan, I hadn't gotten around it, but on the way home I watched three. I tried to sleep for a bit, but it was impossible.
We arrived back to Estonia at 5 pm, which meant that it was around midnight in Japan. I was so tired, but despite this I gave my sister an overview of the trip and what I saw and did. And even now I keep remembering some details that I haven't yet written down. For example...
Japanese cars are so weird and rectangular.
It was weird getting used to the opposite side traffic.
So many people ride bicycles.
Japan's nature is really beautiful.
In busses and trains there are a lot of announcements and they could last the whole trip.
Japanese people are really kind and polite.
I want to go back sooner.
