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Japan Day 1: Asakusa Temple, Kanda Myojin Shrine, Akihabara, Harajuku, Shibuya

We begin our adventure to Japan. We flew Singapore Airlines, and I really hyped them up to Moose because I knew they had amazing food and service. We had Japanese meals on the flight! Curry and soba noodles!



We landed in Narita Airport at around 7, activated our JR Passes and took the JR line to the nearest station to our hostel, Bakurochou Station. The train floors are so clean. We stayed at Planetyze Hostel. Very cool AirBnb. They have events going on on the main floor. One night was movie night and they were showing Howl's Moving Castle (in English!)






We woke up at 5:30am as we were very excited to see Japan. Out first stop was Senso-ji and Asakusa Shrine. We purified, and prayed. We got our omikuji. I got The Best Fortune while Moose got Bad Luck Fortune and I tied it up on the rack for him.

It was really nice seeing the area without people, and seeing the locals start their day. It was very quiet. I found myself whispering when I spoke. We experienced our first gachapon while walking around. Almost everything seems to be closed before 9:00am, so we wandered a bit. We watched school kids with their bulky backpacks walk to school. I received my first of many Goshuin at Asakusa Shrine. As we wandered, Nakamise-dori woke up shop by shop, and we bought furoshiki (and a handkerchief that I will eventually lose during this same trip).


We decided to walk to most places, to see more of what Tokyo is like. We noticed their gas stations have an interesting design.We noticed many business men in the same clothing -white long sleeved button-up, and dark slacks- hurriedly walking to the small shrines along the street, offering donations, and then going to work. We made a quick visit to Kanda Myojin shrine.



We then head over to Akihabara and was amazed at all the anime and game stuff. We ate Magikarp Taiyaki, and while we were very excited over all the things, we wanted to remain mindful of the consumerism, so we only purchased things we really, really wanted. I set my heart on only purchasing Detective Conan-themed items. We found a gachapon that sold "cat balls" and I thought, "Ah yes, Japan understands me. Cat balls are so cute." and a vending machine that sold... women? We also visited Akihabara Vending Machine Alley where some spooky vending machines were that sold some mystery boxes wrapped in paper with Japanese text written all over.




We then visited Harajuku and bought some tabi socks down Takeshita-dori. Everyone is dressed so wonderfully here. You can tell when you're approaching Harajuku because it suddenly looks like you're in the middle of a fashion show. I was particularly drawn to the ruffles and black tulle skirts. Boots were also very popular. It seems the general trend of fashion in Tokyo is wide-legged pants, flowy skirts, and loose sweaters (yes, even in 36C heat). We also visited a cat cafe (after inspecting if the conditions were appropriate).


We then head over to Shibuya to see Hachiko, and to see if it was true that if you crossed, you would only hear the shuffling of footsteps, and that the feeling would be absolutely surreal. It is not true. There are too many tourists talking, and vlogging, talking to cameras, taking photos, and generally being really disruptive by stopping in the middle of the moving crowd to face backwards, and having their photographers take a photo. Maybe it would have been much quieter in the morning.


So ended our first day. We we exhausted, but very happy to be in Japan. Vending machine coffee is my new favourite thing. Here are some photos (You can view the full catalogue here):









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