Day 6 - Flying to Tokyo#
A few weeks back I’ve already planned to meet with my colleague. He had been working at the University of Tokyo for half a year as part of an scholarship. His stay was about to end, but I still wanted to meet him while he was there. A year prior I had been to Japan for the first time and I’ve really loved the Japanese food. Thus I wrote a list of things I want to eat when I would meet my colleague. A friend of his was so kind planned the whole weekend for us and suggested restaurants where we could eat these dishes.
On friday afternoon I headed to Gimpo airport. Just about two hours prior to my departure. Everything went quite smoothly and I’ve arrived around 10 PM at Haneda airport. I had to take the metro to Higashi Ginza station, but I was a bit lost when checking out the connections and how much I had to pay. Luckily a Japanese guy with a guitar on his back and tattoos on his leg and arm approached me and asked me if he could help me. I told him where I wanted to go and he helped me buying a ticket and he accompanied me to the right station. I thanked him before he left. The ride was long but uneventful. I finally arrived at the Higashi Ginza station. My friend arrived shortly after and we both went to eat Ramen - the first Japanese dish for this weekend. We then walked back to our hotel. I insisted that we would stay in a hotel with an Onsen since I really wanted to have the Onsen experience if I was to go to Japan. A few weeks prior we spent probably around 7 hours to find a hotel that had an Onsen, was close to the city center, not too expensive, and had two single beds. I turned out that this was not as easy as we had thought, mostly since Japanese hotels tended to had one double bed. Only the more expensive hotel rooms had two single beds. In the end we chose the SQUARE Hotel in Ginza. The Onsen was great as expected. After the Onsen we got an Asahi beer from a vending machine at the entrance to the Onsen area. We drank the beer and then get ready to bed.
Day 7 - Exploring Shibuya and Akihabara#
We got up early the next day since we had a tight schedule. We took the metro to Shinjuku as our target was the Pokémon Center. The queue leading up the Nintendo store wasn’t that long. A few minutes later we were allowed to enter the building. However we had to get a ticket with a time slot when to enter the Pokémon Center. Our tickets said that we had to wait for around 45 minutes. Thus we fist went for breakfast. We went to a breakfast restaurant that sells cheap but very set dishes including soup, rice, salmon and some cabbage. I had visit that specific restaurant already the year before with my brother and had a positive impression of this restaurant. We finished the breakfast quickly and then still had some time to explore the Nintendo store before we were allowed to enter the Pokémon Center. When we were allowed to enter the Center we went straight to the counter to each get two packs of Prismatic Evolutions which was a popular edition. We then had some time to look around. Most of the dolls or stickers were fairly expensive so I just got a small batch of stickers. We then went to the counter, this time we were served by a different cashier, and were asked again if we want to get booster packs from Prismatic Evolutions. Knowing that these booster packs were limited to two packs per person I hestitated for a second but then still said yes as the cashier asked me, otherwise I wouldn’t have had asked.
From there we left the Pokémon Center and Nintendo store to walk around Shinjuku. We passed by a MEGAドンキ (Don Quijote) and spontaneously decided to take a stroll through what felt like 13 floors. We mainly looked around but in the end I also bought some sweets that I planned to give to my class mates. Of course I also bought some sweets just for me.
Our next stop was Akihabara. We checked out all floors of Radio Kaikan which is a 8 floor high building hosting shops selling cards, figurines and various merchandise products. We inspected all floors and I also ended up buying several used Pokémon cards for a few bucks. Apart from Radio Kaikan, we also checked out smaller shops in Akihabara as well as Book Off where we didn’t buy anything.
We eventually felt hungry from all the walking so we went to a good Omuraisu (Japanese omelette with egg) restaurant that my colleague suggested. The restaurant was at the end of a small alley. The restaurant itself was fairly small and was full when we went inside. We were told that the restaurant is full and we should come another time. What was funny is that it wasn’t allowed to wait in front of the restaurant. There were big signs that threatened to call the police if someone was waiting in the alley. Thus we waited on the main road at the beginning of the alley. We chit-chatted and then we saw a group of Japanese people enter the restaurant when another group of people were leaving the restaurant. This happened again another time. It seemed we were to nice to just wait outside. Eventually we went to Golden Host, which was another restaurant serving Omuraisu. The restaurant was close by but it was a little hidden in the second floor of a building that was reachable by outdoor stairs leading up to the restaurant. It was definitely worth it nevertheless. I ordered Omuraisu with a special sauce. From all the dishes I ate during this weekend, I liked this one the most. Probebly because I haven’t eaten Omuraisu the year before and I licked the way they made the egg, especially in combination with the sauce. To top up the lunch we both had some icecream with crème brûlée and banana.
We intentionally didn’t eat too much since we would meet up with two friends of my colleague for dinner. We took a stroll to digest the lunch and then sat down when we finally found a bench which is a rare occasion in Japan. When it was time we entered the building and took the elevator to the floor with restaurants. My colleague went to a the bathroom while his friends were not there yet. I was standing in the middle of a path between multiple restaurants. At some time a woman accidently walked into me. I heared them speaking Chinese. When she appologized in English I replied with no worries in Chinese and I could still hear that she was surprised and she told her husband that this foreigner could speak Chinese. Finally the friends of my colleague arrived. We walked together to a Shabu-Shabu restaurant.
My colleague got to know them from his research stay at the University of Tokyo. One guy was a PhD candidate from China that was already living in Japan for several years, and thus his Japanese was pretty good. The other guy used to be a graduate student but recently started working at GameFreak (a.k.a. the company that made the Pokémon video games). They often went out to eat together and became good friends with my colleague. At some point in our discussion we realized that we had to finish the Shabu-Shabu as we could only eat there for around 1.5 hours. Unfortunately we had ordered way too much, so we struggled to eat all of the meat and toppings we had ordered.
Since I only had one weekend to eat most delicacies that Tokyo had to offer, we went to a sushi restaurant directly after. Even though we were quite full, we still ate some Sushi. I also ordered some delicious cake that was prominently advertised on the big screen at our table. The concept of this restaurant was quite amusing. For each ordered dish a bar would fill up on the screen. Once it was full we could play a game which was basically horse ride betting. If we had guessed right, we would receive a small figurine as gift. We ended up loosing the first game but won the second game. Since I was the guest they gave the figurine to me.
With full bellies we ended our night together by doing Karaoke. It was super fun even though I barely could read the Hiragana and Katakana. Luckily I had listened to most of the songs prior with my colleague while hanging out prior to his research stay in Japan.
Finally it was time for the two to catch the last subway line home. We said our goodbye and we started walking home as Ginza was not too far from Akihabara. We passed by a convenience store that was still open at almost midnight. We grabbed some beer-to-go (German: Weg-Bier) and continued our trip back to the hotel. It was very peaceful as there was barely anyone on the main road we walked along. The big roads with the even bigger buildings had something serene. It must have been around an hour until we eventually arrived at the hotel.
I was a bit tired but I still wanted to go to the Onsen. This time I went alone as my colleague was too tired. I was quite lucky because I was alone in the Onsen. I enjoyed the fairly warm water but could’nt stay inside too long because I couldn’t bear the warmth while also not beeing able to properly breath. When I started to get dressed three guys from India showed up. They walked around the entrance and looked into the room with the Onsen. They seemed confused but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. So I asked them if they need help. One of them asked me if they provide towels or if they have to bring the ones that were provided in the rooms. I replied that its the latter. They thanked me and left again. I also followed them but got off a different floor.
We still talked a while and my colleague showed me some Italian brain rot memes which started to get popular around that time. We then decided to sleep.
Day 8 - Walking around Ginza#
On my last day in Tokyo we got up early as well. We checked out of The Square and then walked to another cheaper APA hotel that my colleague would stay in for a few days. We then walked around Ginza in search for a restaurant. We walked on a bridge over four lanes. Seeing that view put me back to the trip with my brother. A year prior our first hotel was also situated in Ginza. Every time we went out, we also had to cross a four lane road.
From afar I saw two people dressed like ninja. They approaches us and gave me a flyer for some kind of show that would take place at the same day. Unfortunately I had no time to go there. Since we had no plan for today we were thinking where to go. We decided on eating Tontaksu for breakfast. My colleague knew of a fairly new Tonkatsu restaurant called Yabaton. The restaurant must have been very popular since they were selling merchandise. The food itself was super delicious. While chatting with my colleague I thought I heard someone speaking Korean at the table to the left of us. However when paying close attention they seemed to speak Japanese. I was a bit confused but continued talking with my colleague. A few minutes later I realized that it was a group of Japanese and Koreans that mixed both languages.
With full bellies we wanted to walk a little. I told my colleague that I’m into Japanese stationaries. He replied that I was in luck, because there was a Itoya, one of the biggest stationary stores just a few blocks from here. Itoya was quite fancy with many expensive pens and art supplies. I found some pretty looking gift cards and decided to buy one since I was invited to a wedding just a few days after returning to Germany. We continued to the top floor where we were greeted by a green house that grew plants. This was kind of odd, considering that the rest of the building only sold stationary products.
Next we walked through the fancy part of Ginza having stores of all expensive brands you could think of. From there we walked along the imperial palace and ended up some alley with many Izakaya and restaurants. One restaurant stood out as it was a German branded restaurant called Baden-Baden. We walked further down the road and arrived at a small park with a big Godzilla statue. Nearby was a Lawson where we bought some Onigiri and Baumkuchen. We ate the snacks and then continued walking towards the close by Hibiya Park. The park was very pretty, many people walked through the park. In the distance we could hear some band making music. We walked towards the music and found some bench where we could sit down and enjoy the music (again we got lucky).
By now it was already late afternoon, I only had a few hours left so we walked towards Tokyo station and took a stroll through the station which hosted a lot of shops. One last dish that I wanted to try was Tokyo banana. The year prior I didn’t have a chance to get one because I got aware of Tokyo banana when we were about to fly back to Germany. We found a stall selling different variations of Tokyo banana. I bought the Pokémon branded version. I bought 2 packs, one that I ate with my colleague now and one that I brought for my class mates and teacher.
It was finally time to go back to the airport. My colleague brought me to the next subway station and we said goodbye for now. It took me over half an hour to arrive at the airport. I was still a bit early so I sat down near the gate. I had quite a lot of coins in my pocket. I decided to spend most of them at a vending machine that was in the waiting area. Surprisingly there were only a few people supposedly taking the same plane as me. However when the departure time drew nearer more and more people showed up. The flight set off in time. And I arrived around 8pm at Gimpo airport. From there I had to figure out how to get back to Hongik Univ. Station. I must have appeared a bit confused because two Korean guys asked me if they could help me. They told me they can escort me to the right track. I asked them what there occupation was. The guy that spoke slightly more English replied that he owned a company and the other younger looking guy was working for him. Once we arrived at the track they said goodbye and want on their way. I was already fairly exhausted from all the walking and the flight. I was very when I finally got of at Hongik Univ. Station.
I arrived at my mini studio, took a shower and prepared for bed. I unpacked by bag pack and then watched some video before I passed out.